Young snowy owl lands at Wild Skies raptor rehab program

By Jean Pocha

A young snowy owl is in rehabilitation and will be spending the winter at Wild Skies Raptor Center in Potomac. The injured owlet was discovered September in a field near Utqiagviv (Barrow), Alaska, unable to fly. The owlet is the youngest of six chicks in a nest that Owl Research Institute (ORI) monitored in the summer of 2022. ORI in Charlo, Mont., has been monitoring Snowy Owl activity in Alaska since 1992, and Wild Skies Raptor Center has been rehabilitating raptors since 2010.

ORI arranged transport for the owlet to the Alaska Raptor Center to evaluate her injuries. X-rays indicated she sustained fractures to the pelvis and a wing. After a few weeks in the care of the Alaska Raptor Center, ORI realized different arrangements needed to be made for her long-term care. Facilitators at ORI hoped the young owl could be released while the rest of her family was still in the area, but unfortunately her injuries were too extensive, and the rest of her family had moved on. Chick 6 needed a place to spend the winter and continue to heal.

After her time at Alaska Raptor Center, Chick 6 made the long journey to Montana (although, not a longer distance than some Snowy Owls fly in the winter, as we often see these birds coming south from the Arctic around this time of year). However, instead of flying on her own, Chick 6 got a lift from Alaska Airlines all the way from Alaska to Missoula.

Now that she's in Montana, Chick 6 will spend the winter in the expert care of the Wild Skies Raptor Center.

"Chick 6 seems to be healing well; she is taking short flights around her pen now," said Brooke Tanner, executive director, Wild Skies Raptor Center, in a phone interview. "We have started lure training so she can learn to hunt. She's eating well but hasn't met any live prey or made any kills yet. For her to survive, she has to be able to dispatch prey."

At the time of Chick 6's injury, the parent owls were still feeding the six chicks. Young owls continue to rely on the parents for food while they develop skills to fly and hunt. Only time will tell if she will be able to survive on her own back in the wild, Tanner said, and if all goes well, she may be released back up in the Arctic next spring.

A chance encounter with a pair of wounded kestrals near Greenough drew Tanner into raptor rehabilitation in 2003. Taking the kestrals to Grounded Eagle Foundation in Condon, Tanner met Ken Wolffe, director of Grounded Eagle, now closed. With a background in veterinary technology, Tanner was looking for a job with wildlife. In 2006 she began working at Grounded Eagle and learning the rehabilitation of raptors.

From 2010-2015 Tanner founded Wild Skies Raptor Center, applied for and obtained raptor rehabilitation permits from Fish, Wildlife and Parks and set up the non-profit rehabilitation facility in Potomac.

"Out of 107 raptors rescued this year, 43 have been released," Tanner said. "The remainder either died from injuries or were humanely euthanized due to the severity of their injuries. In the wild only 20-30% of raptors make it into adulthood."

Most injuries are caused by vehicle collisions with larger raptors; window collisions injure smaller hawks. Some birds are still electrocuted on power poles as well.

The biggest expense for raptor rehabilitation is food, costing over $12,000 this year alone, Tanner said. Wild Skies has permits to collect road killed deer and elk, which has helped with feed costs.

Wild Skies covers Missoula, Ravalli, Granite, Powell, Lake and Cascade counties as one of four raptor rescue organizations in Montana. They have 17 educational birds as full-time residents.

This year Tanner reports admitting 107 raptors and releasing 43 rehabilitated raptors. Currently there are six patients that are looking good for release in the near future. Since 2011 Wild Skies has released 352 raptors; 41 of those were eagles.

"Raptors have an amazing will to live, great skills and each of the different species is so specialized," Tanner said. "I'm still so amazed by them all."

Snowy owls are listed as "vulnerable" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. The population in the 1960s was 210,000 birds; 2018 estimates are 28,000 birds. In spring 2022, there were 64 sightings of snowy owls in Montana, according to the nature app INaturalist. They are listed as "erratic" visitors to Montana,

"There are plenty of natural threats to the survival of the young snowy owls," said Beth Mendelsohn, lead owl biologist at ORI. "Roads, climate change, poaching and development threaten their chance of survival. This owl was injured because of human causes, and we felt it important to do what we can to save the bird. In general, we work to protect wild populations, and maybe one individual doesn't tip the scale, but given the threats to survival, even giving one more owl the chance to survive to breeding age feels important. And at the very least this owl can help educate people on the beauty and importance of the species that is imperiled."

For more information or to support Wild Skies Raptor Center, call 406-244-5422, 406-210-3468, email Montanawildskies@gmail.com or visit their website at http://www.wildskies.org

For anyone interested in learning more about the Snowy Owl project, contact http://www.owlresearchinstitute.org