HWI’s education birds are named and “our” owl now has a new moniker – “Galileo”.<\/p>\n
Recently I received an invitation from Nikki Wayment, Education and Outreach Director at HWI, for Mia and I to visit Galileo and that reunion\u00a0took place\u00a0yesterday morning.<\/p>\n
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This is Galileo on the floor of his mew. The light in the mew was atrocious so it was very difficult to get sharp shots without flash (which we never use on birds, especially owls). Just look at the size of those pupils!<\/p>\n
Despite his wing injury he can fly short distances and when the three of us entered his home it made him a little nervous so he flew down to the corner of his mew and watched us from there. I don’t think he was quite as happy to see Mia and I as we were to see him.<\/p>\n
You’ll notice that he’s missing his tail feathers\u00a0which he lost during the rehabilitation process.\u00a0His tail should grow back when he molts in the spring.<\/p>\n
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While Nikki had him on the glove I was able to study those incredible eyes and facial disc\u00a0more closely. I could look into that face all day.<\/p>\n
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This is Nikki in the mew\u00a0with Galileo. As you can see Short-eared Owls really aren’t very large.<\/p>\n
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When we went outside we were able to get a little better light for photos even though the morning was overcast and dark. Galileo seemed to enjoy and be curious about the wide open spaces and trees that he can’t see from his mew.<\/p>\n
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I\u00a0couldn’t help but wonder if he didn’t feel just\u00a0a little wistful about the skies he’ll never fly in and the freedom he’ll never have. But then I reminded myself of the alternative.<\/p>\n
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This was how we found him on that June morning with his left wing wrapped around the devil wire and facing a slow and agonizing death. It was a heart-wrenching scene with one of his parents perched on a bush\u00a0only a few feet away and in obvious distress at the plight of its offspring. I had to cut the wire to get him off the fence without further damaging his wing.<\/p>\n
But now he’ll live a long, healthy life at HWI as one of their pampered education birds and be educating school children and adults\u00a0about raptors and conservation in the process.<\/p>\n
Given the circumstances that was the best outcome possible and I couldn’t be happier about it.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
PS – On an unrelated (sort of) note I thought some of my science-geek readers might be interested in a fascinating video involving one of the famous predictions of the human Galileo – the namesake of our owl who played such a major role in the scientific revolution.<\/em><\/p>\n You’ll recall that Galileo predicted that two objects of different masses (perhaps a cannonball and a feather) would fall at the same speed when dropped\u00a0in a vacuum where there was no air resistance (a heretical\u00a0idea that was contrary to the teachings of Aristotle). But for generations there was no technology to produce a vacuum that could adequately test the theory.<\/em><\/p>\n