THUNDER BAY — A pair of orphaned owls are back in their natural surroundings after spending the summer first at a rescue facility in Thunder Bay, then at a rehabilitation centre in the Niagara region.
The young Great Horned Owls initially had been taken in by Jenn Salo. who runs the Thunderbird Raptor Rescue in the city.
"These two were raised by me from tiny little fuzznuggets to big, healthy, ferocious teenagers (just the way I like them,) feels good to watch them go," Salo said in a social media post after releasing them.
The video of their release can be seen online.
In an interview Wednesday, Salo said one of the owlets was picked up in the Silver Falls Road area where residents who found it on the ground suspected a raven had attacked their nest.
"The homeowners and I went back quite a few times to see if the parents were still in the area, because we always try to re-nest first if there's nothing wrong with the bird," Salo added.
Since the nest couldn't be located, Salo wound up caring for the bird, and just a few weeks later took in another owlet that had been found in the Kakabeka Falls area.
"Even though it was too young to fly, it was favouring one of its wings," Salo said.
"So it appeared there was an injury, possibly a soft tissue injury. You can imagine falling 70 feet out of a tree can't be fun, right?"
This time, the nest was visible, but she knew the bird needed to be looked after.
"So then I raised the two owlets together...and I'm glad they had each other because that prevents them from imprinting on me, which we don't want," Salo said.
Around the end of July, Salo decided it wasn't in the birds' best interest to try to relocate them yet, but she was over-capacity at her facility and feeling somewhat overwhelmed.
When she reached out to The Owl Foundation, a charity in the Niagara peninsula that provides an advanced rehabilitation program for orphaned or injured owls and other raptors, they agreed to take both owls.
That's where the Canadian Wings of Rescue came into the picture.
The group works with animal rescue groups, shelters and wildlife rehab centres to arrange short flights via a network of volunteer pilots.
Spokesperson Cheryl Brean said the organization has organized a number of flights to transport injured wildlife from the Thunder Bay area and back.
"We are 100 per cent volunteer-run, and we always appreciate donations," Brean said. "All donations go to supporting future missions and to provide things like small comforts to animals. So we always appreciate support from the community."
Salo said Canadians Wings of Rescue "have been absolutely awesome with helping us fly birds back and forth from southern Ontario to northern Ontario and all over the place."
When the owls were ready to return to the wild at the beginning of September, Salo took them to the Silver Falls area, thinking they won't have trouble surviving there, hunting, and finding cover from predators.
She said "It went really well. They flew really strongly" once the covers were removed from the plastic boxes that protected them during the short road trip from the city.
"Please consider donating to our rescue so we can continue this much needed work for our wildlife," Salo appealed on Facebook.
"They deserve a second chance at life. But we cannot do it without you."
