Have received a number of requests for owl pellets from schools and other programs. We are currently out of pellets. We were only able to get a few this year because of the rain. Most were dissolved by the time they were found. Probably won't have any more until next year. We give them away on a first come basis, please keep that in mind when you are planning programs.
All our native owls species, except the barn owl, have been talking up the evenings. If you are sitting quietly outside, right after twilight, you may be able to hear screech owls trilling and making their whinny calls. It's very soft and you need to be away from noise pollution ( hwy, radio, tv, etc) but they are talking and folks are hearing them.

This is an eastern screech owl in the gray phase. They come in 2 colors, gray and red. For size contrast this is sitting on a finger. 2 of them do not equal a pound in weight.
Below is a red screech hiding in the corner. Both of these are males. Females will be slightly larger.

Barred owls are very vocal and sound like they are carrying on conversations. One calls " who who who cooks for you" and the other answers " who who cooks for you all". Listen to the first Barred call and count the interval until the next call, 1thousand 1, 1 thousand 2, 1 thousand 3...... When they the first one calls count the interval and try your best Barred Owl call. With a little practice you will find them coming to investigate the "newcomer"
 At times the juveniles begin a call that sounds like  a howler monkey.  If you try to join in they will get quiet and vanish.

Great Horned Owls make a loud who sound. They are often referred to as whoot owls. They will not answer you. If you are very still and listen you can hear an interesting range of  very resonating whoots from them. Right now they are doing most of their talking after 10 pm. 

This time of year the owls are talking and if you take time you can get an earful. Their discussion is about getting together for nesting. Yep owls in the winter time.
If you should happen to hear a blood curdling scream rest assure the devil ain't after you but some hapless wanderer just stumbled onto a Barn Owl.!! It is unbelieveable hear such a hideous sound come from such a humble looking owl.
Take time to enjoy the sounds- spend time with each other ........... God bless and we'll see you next time.

Found the last picture of the graduating class 2013. It was stuck in the wrong folder, image that. Stuff like that happens when I am on the computer with no adult supervision. Any way these 4  barred owls (strix varia) are the only Barred owls to go through complete rehab in the new flight pen. They were released around Sept. 1, 2013.

"Ya'll look this way" There is always one in every bunch. These was taken on one of the few sunny days we had in the summer of 2013. Young can see the brown bars on the wings, which gives them the name Barred Owl, but you also see the gray fuzz of a juvenile. So this fall when you hear "who cooks for you" answered by "who cooks for you all" it could be one of these youngsters.
Speaking of fall and days getting shorter, have seen evidence of the migration already. Every year on hwy 18 east, near Elliot's store (McKinley Road) there are 3 American Kestrels that spend the winter. The Kestrel is the smallest Falcon in North America and is frequently mistaken for a dove because of their size. Kestrels sitting on a power line flick their tails rapidly from front to back to help maintain their balance. The first Kestrel has already arrived.  There are always 3 on this mile stretch of road every winter. Don't know where they come from but I do know that when the 3rd one arrives winter is close behind. This has been going on for about 10 years and every year it's 3.
Also with fall the owls have started getting very vocal early this year. Owls are not getting ready for Halloween, they could care less about bogey men, instead they are getting ready to mate. Since owls don't build nest they are scouting for cavities and, in the case of the Great Horned Owls, unoccupied Redtail Hawk nest ( that couple is going to be upset when they return and see the mess in their nest). So when the cold blustery days of January arrive female owls will be sitting on eggs. Their goal is to have the babies out before the return migration in spring.
Special thanks to the Clayton and Carol Paul fund for their grant to help us build the new flight pen. After 15 years of searching this was the first grant we found that was available for this type of project. Community Foundation of Central Georgia handled the paperwork. Thanks Julia, Alexis, and the rest of the folks at CFC in Macon.
Thanks to Susan Cropper and E. Rowson of New York City for their donations as we prepare for the fall migration.
Thanks to the Vinson family, the Gres  family and the Owens family for their support. All three families live in Ga. 
Thanks to Rachel McDaniel and Becky Watts for their expert journalistic coverage.
We don't have all the numbers yet because the year isn't over we don't know how many releases we have until the end of December when we compile the reports for the feds and the state.

Thanks for your attention, you can have it back know.
Appreciate your interest in our American Heritage, people are coming from around the world to see our raptors.
God bless.............thank you.

These are some the owls of the graduating class of 2013. There were some in and outs whooo did not get photographed.
The best case was an adult male named "Charger" as a result of being tangled in an electric wire and hanging upside down for an unknown length of time. He was suspended upside down so his head was touching the wet ground. His left leg was wrapped in the silver electric wire preventing him from escaping. When the property owner found Charger he immediately disconnected the electrical current and cut the poor guy out of the wire. He was in rough shape after having low voltage electrical current flowing through the wire on is leg and into his body, exiting trough his head that was in contact with the wet ground.
When we got him he was unable to stand as his leg was immovable in an extended position. Both eyes were fully dilated in the sunlight. He acted like 1/2 of him was a stuffed owl and the other 1/2 might be real.  Never have seen anything like this.
Set up consultation with Dr. Gardner, DVM, who was fortunately in the area, and got her assessment. once again- never have seen anything like this. After exams and conferences and calls we decided to take it slow and see if he can regain anything.
Hand fed him on day 2 and 3. By day 7 he was wobbly but was standing. By day 20 he was standing and eating on his own, if you dropped the mice on his feet. The biggest concern was his vision. Day 87 we noticed the pupils dilating and contracting in regular light. Finally on day 122 he was blinking and eyes were reacting perfectly normal" How did I get here?".
With his success recovery and the juveniles sort of reaching maturity( this difficult to determine in Great Horned Owls because of their "offbeat behavior") it was time for graduation day. Tom and AJ found a perfect location and toted 4 boxes( 1 owl in each) to freedom. The release was in late afternoon so the graduates could be observed and rescued if necessary. All did very well.
The following photos are from the release.

Pretty cool pictures. They did good( the grads and the photographers).

This Redtail is inside one of the sections of the new flight pen. Love the vinyl coated fence on top, some one was actually going to throw it away! This gal is not happy with people taking pictures through the slats. She recovered nicely and is free too.

This young Barn Owl was one of three that came in this year. Notice his happy response to having his picture made in the sunlight. All three were raised and released into one of the Barnie areas here in Pike County.

Thanks to the Gres family for emailing an update on the gal in the previous post. They explained how they had to dig around in poison ivy to get her. It is always great to hear from the first responders, helps create an accurate history. Still trying to get a good picture of her now that she is all growed up, at least in her mind, but she is not a picture poser. The only time she gets still is at night or in the overcast weather conditions and neither afford good photo opportunities. We aren't giving up!

The New Flight Pens

Rocky made sure all the holes were round. Billy Bob made sure the 2x4s were level. In spite of these two onsite inspectors we got the job done.

The progress was slow as we dealt with mother nature and scheduling conflicts but we eventually got it done. Thanks to AJ Rogers and Jim Davidson for their expert technical assistance. Thanks to the others that contributed a day or two of labor. The primary design was done by AJ and she did great! She incorporated all the design issues necessary to comply with Fed and State regulations and added some really nice touches to the overall project.

This was the first section completed. We had to build in sections as the old decrepit owl pen in the background had some big yellow eyes that were fascinated by our presence. Once they were released were demolished the old pen( didn't take much effort) and started on the new.

The whole front of the finished flight pen. There are five sections, if you count the doors. Slats can be removed from interior walls to double the size of any sections. Please excuse the debris in the picture as we were still in cleanup mode too.
THANKS-
Thank you all for all your prayers and support during the past couple years. As most of know my mother sustained a neck in August of 2011 and was in treatment until Jan. 2013. She is at home and has to have help daily with her activities of daily living.
We have also been able to get the Donation button on the website so we can raise funds more easily. We are trying to get our freezers restocked for the fall migration. And we will have to start replacing our other 4 fight pens. I hate to end our time talking about money but neither the Feds nor the state give us any funding.
These are our raptors they are part of our heritage and they survive by our efforts.
Thanks for your time.......God bless