{"id":40223,"date":"2016-06-20T06:34:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T12:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=40223"},"modified":"2016-06-20T16:39:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T22:39:33","slug":"another-nasty-encounter-between-an-owl-and-a-barbed-wire-fence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/20\/another-nasty-encounter-between-an-owl-and-a-barbed-wire-fence\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Nasty Encounter Between An Owl And A Barbed Wire Fence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many readers will remember the Barn Owl I had to cut out of barbed wire<\/a> last summer in Montana. At the time I only had a small, cheap and dull pair of wire cutters with me and the effort required to cut the thick double-stranded\u00a0wire strained tendons in my arm that took several weeks to heal. So I invested in\u00a0a pair of new, heavy-duty cutters\u00a0to carry in my pickup\u00a0in case I ever came across a similar situation again. It’s a\u00a0darn good thing I did.<\/p>\n

Caution: some of these images may be disturbing to some viewers.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Yesterday morning Mia and I were cruising the back roads of\u00a0northern Utah\u00a0looking for birds to photograph when we passed this adult Short-eared Owl on our left. It was perched on the wrong side of the road for good light but Mia looked back again and noticed something very disturbing so I backed up to investigate.<\/p>\n

The adult was there for a reason.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps 10′ in front of the adult was one of its recent fledglings\u00a0entangled\u00a0in a barbed wire fence. The adult didn’t fly off until I was very close to both birds which tells me of its concern for the juvenile. I fired off a couple of shots of both birds from my pickup and then just sat there for a moment as we tried to figure out our strategy in rescuing the youngster. If you make a mistake in these situations you might live to\u00a0regret it if you care anything at all about birds.<\/p>\n

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This shot shows what an obstacle course\u00a0barbed wire\u00a0fences present to\u00a0these young birds as they’re learning to fly, often in the semi-darkness. There are\u00a0five strands of wire on the\u00a0fence and those deadly barbs are very close to each other. The barbed wire I remember in Montana years ago\u00a0had significantly fewer barbs and it only takes one of them to snag a bird or other wildlife.<\/p>\n

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This view from a different angle shows how\u00a0seriously the wing\u00a0was mangled.<\/p>\n

Cutting fence in cattle country is serious business so I was determined to avoid cutting it if\u00a0at all possible. I spent almost 15 minutes trying to get the owl off the wire but the wing was already badly damaged and it was wrapped around the wire in such a way that I simply could not extract the owl without further mangling the wing. A comment\u00a0made by\u00a0friend and wildlife rehabilitator April Olson on the post I made about the Barn Owl entangled in wire in Montana kept coming to mind as I\u00a0was\u00a0struggling to make\u00a0my decision. In that comment she said:<\/p>\n