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Owl Motherhood is Intense. Give Her the Respect She Deserves! (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/superbowl@lemmy.world
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From Jason Fowler

This is why you leave owls alone when they are on eggs. People think the owl isn't stressed standing under her talking loudly with other people.

I haven't left this branch in 19 days.

It's 4°F. The wind is 25 mph. The wind chill is -15°F. (That's -15C, 40 kmh, and -26C respectively.)

I am a Great Horned Owl, and I am incubating three eggs that cannot survive one hour without my body heat.

- I cannot leave to hunt. My mate brings me food, when he can find it.

- I've lost 15% of my body weight since I started sitting.

-My feathers are caked with ice. I cannot preen.

- I rotate my eggs every 30 minutes, even at 3 AM.

- I have 9 more days of this before they hatch.

Beneath me, three heartbeats depend on my stillness. If I leave for 20 minutes, they die. If I shift wrong, they freeze on one side. If a predator comes, I must fight without abandoning the nest.

Motherhood is not a feeling. It is a 28-day siege.

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[–] [S] 8 points 9 months ago (6 children)

I scrolled the creator's feed, and while they have some recent owl shots, none are what this one is, a Great Horned Owl. I'm thinking this was an older photo of his that he made the infographic with. This is the time of year they nest though, so I will have a bunch of owl baby photos soon. There are usually nest cams you can find online as well, so you can see owlets hatch and what crazy things dad brings them home to eat. Snakes and fish are particularly exciting to me.

I post a few posts a day about owl facts and owls from all over the world every day. I will also be returning to my own work with wildlife in March, so I get stories from there and other rehab hospitals as well. I'm in the eastern US, the photographer from the image is in Wisconsin, and while a lot of what I share is from the US since I know how to find that stuff the easiest, I try to find things from all over. There are around 250 species of owl, so I have a lot to choose from.

I try to get everyone's questions answered, so if you comment, I will almost always see it, and I'll do my best to answer any questions you have, it doesn't have to be related to the post, just ask and I'll either reply to you if it's something small, or if it's more complicated, I can do a new post on it.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    I haven't seen this much wholesome, genuine passion on the intertubez in a very long time. Three cheers for Lemmy's very own Owl Ambassador! 🫡

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I've enjoyed growing along with the community. I came here as someone with a normal interest in owls, and through keeping you all and myself entertained, now I volunteer with wildlife and get to hold and care for owls and all sorts of other animals.

    Between learning with you all here and what I get to do in person, coming to Lemmy has been a very positive influence on my life. If I can get you all to see some positivity and delight in our natural world and maybe have a few of you volunteer or donate to your local rescue, I think it makes this world a tiny bit better when it needs it the most.

    I'm grateful to you guys, and hope to keep you entertained and inspired for a long time to come.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    ok, tks for the answer! about the cams, i usually have bird watching hq youtube channel on the background while on the computer

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 9 months ago

    Very nice! I see I've watched a few of their videos.

    I gave updates the one spring on a Great Horned family that took over an eagle's nest and they had two owlets. There were a few dramatic eagle raids where momma owl got knocked clean out of the nest, but she was ok and both babies made it to adulthood. Sadly, it looked like one got some poisoned food shortly after it left on its own, but I believe the other made it until it was fully independent.

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