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Mia and I found this Barn Owl hanging from barbed wire on 9\/9\/15 in Montana’s Centennial Valley. The bird was so entangled in the barbs\u00a0of the\u00a0wire that I had to cut a piece of the wire out and remove the bird with that wire piece\u00a0still attached. As the owl was laying on my pickup tailgate (partially wrapped in a towel)\u00a0and we were trying to gently extract it from the wire segment, Bill West, manager of Red Rock Lakes NWR, drove up behind me and largely\u00a0due to his efforts we were able to remove the wire. Then Bill, who was on his way to a meeting in Dillon, delivered the owl to the Humane Society in Dillon\u00a0where arrangements were made to have the bird taken to the Montana Raptor Conservation Center (MRCC)\u00a0in Bozeman, a distance of approximately 190 road miles from where we found it in the fence.<\/p>\n
The owl was in pretty rough shape when it was delivered to MRCC. It had soft tissue damage to its wings from struggling to free itself from the wire and it wouldn’t eat on its own for some time so its prognosis was guarded. The good news was that there were no broken bones and eventually it\u00a0began to eat and\u00a0heal up. Two days ago MRCC informed me that they would release the bird back into the Centennial Valley and yesterday they did just that. They generously provided me several images of the release to use on my blog.<\/p>\n
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Copyright MRCC, Image used by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Here the owl flies free once again after 21 days of\u00a0stressful captivity. I thought it appropriate that Bill’s wife, Karen, is releasing the\u00a0owl so others could take photos. The spot where it was released looks to be on the\u00a0western edge of Red Rock Lakes NWR as I can see part of\u00a0Lower Red Rock Lake in front of the pickup. This part of the refuge is our second home when we’re in the valley because\u00a0it’s very close to where we always camp. I usually associate that area with Short-eared Owls because it’s where I’ve always photographed them in previous years so the thought of a Barn Owl in the area makes me smile…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copyright MRCC, Image used by permission<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I can only imagine what was going through the owls mind as it tasted freedom for the first time in 21 days and headed in the direction of the Gravelly and Madison\u00a0mountain ranges\u00a0to the north. When I saw the condition of its left wing on the morning we found it I thought it likely that the owl would never fly again so this image actually gives me goose bumps. And none of it would be possible without the efforts of Bill West and the MRCC. Thank you all!<\/p>\n Barn Owls are almost unheard of in Montana and I find no record of them in Red Rock Lakes NWR or\u00a0the Centennial Valley so this one was an unusual find. I hope the presence of this bird indicates that there are at least a few\u00a0other Barn Owls in the area and if so that this one is able to find more of its own kind.<\/p>\n It would be awesome (a word I almost never use) if I were able to see Barn Owls on a future trip to the valley but next time I’d much prefer the bird to be flying free.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday was the long-awaited day.<\/p>\n![\"barn](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/barn-owl-release-2b-MRCC.jpg\")
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