Well it was a lazy Monday evening. I had pottered around in the greenhouse, then came inside to watch Anthony Bourdain and drink cider with Caroline. About 8 oclock I got the Sun Chip cravings (there is a secret ingredient in them that make you crave harvest cheddar fortnightly). On the way back from the store I saw something very strange in the yard by the barn.
I thought for sure something had carried off one of our goslings and eaten it. The light was fading and I crept up expecting the worst. As I got closer it looked more like a big chunk of wool from a sheep. So, I was then really confused. As I squatted down next to it, I saw two legs and then realized I was looking at a barn owl fledgling. I touched its legs, which were titanic cold, and I thought for sure it was dead. It then gave me the slightest squeeze around my finger and Team Greyfields raced into action.
I sped into the house with it and we immediately threw it into the AGA warming oven with the door open. The warming oven (~150 degress with the door closed) has saved more livestock on our farm than anything else except maybe for our neighbor the "sheep guy". As it warmed I got hold of The Wildlife Center for the North Coast located out of Astoria.
We knew of the shelter as last summer someone scraped a barn owl up off the road in front of our neighbor's. That one had been hit by a car and someone just kept on driving. The owls fly ponderously slow and just a few feet above the road most time. So we had our routine already set, which is to rush the bird to Naselle where the shelter meets us half way and races the bird back to their facilities. They have a full service veterinary set-up and handle injured or abandoned wildlife. That barn owl last summer had to be destroyed; so we felt at some level we had to save this new owl it was our way to make things right. We love having barn owls and want to do nothing to discourage them from using our barn.
So, with the heat turned up to 2,000 degrees F in the car we raced to Naselle to meet her again. Caroline kept it awake as it warmed. It was obviously hypothermic. So the only thing we knew to do was warm it and not let it fall asleep. We transferred the bird and should know in two days how the prognosis. After inspecting the bird, she told us it was not a fledgling and was far too young to be out of the nest. So, it must have fallen and crawled to where I found it or possibly something happened to their mom and the babies left the nest because they were starving (he/she was very thin). As everyone knows in the PNW we have unseasonably cold weather this Spring and the shelter is treating lots of animals for hypothermia.
For those not aware of what an AGA is, let's just say you are not a Smallholder unless you own one. They are ubiqutous in England in cottages and farms. They are amazing ovens which are always on (run on gas, older ones oil and wood even). The four ovens are different temperatures (450, 375, 225 and 150) and the top surface is two cooking surfaces one hot, the other less to. You cannot adjust the temperature, you simply work in differing durations. (http://www.aga-ranges.com/) They are also pretty awesome at saving baby chicks who get too cold. We've even heard of people putting lambs and kids in them to save them.
So, we headed home about 9 pm after the rendezvous feeling like we did something good. Our spirits were down a bit as we lost a gosling on Sunday who got overchilled out in the hail and cold. So, we hoped this would offset that lost. Then as we drove home in the dark, around Grays River, a raccoon ran in front of our car and got obliterated by our front tire. I guess sometimes you cant win.
p.s. The Wildlife Center for the North Coast treats injured or abandoned wildlife in the northwest coastal corner of Oregon. They responsd 24/7 to emergencies:
http://www.coastwildlife.org/
I thought for sure something had carried off one of our goslings and eaten it. The light was fading and I crept up expecting the worst. As I got closer it looked more like a big chunk of wool from a sheep. So, I was then really confused. As I squatted down next to it, I saw two legs and then realized I was looking at a barn owl fledgling. I touched its legs, which were titanic cold, and I thought for sure it was dead. It then gave me the slightest squeeze around my finger and Team Greyfields raced into action.
I sped into the house with it and we immediately threw it into the AGA warming oven with the door open. The warming oven (~150 degress with the door closed) has saved more livestock on our farm than anything else except maybe for our neighbor the "sheep guy". As it warmed I got hold of The Wildlife Center for the North Coast located out of Astoria.
We knew of the shelter as last summer someone scraped a barn owl up off the road in front of our neighbor's. That one had been hit by a car and someone just kept on driving. The owls fly ponderously slow and just a few feet above the road most time. So we had our routine already set, which is to rush the bird to Naselle where the shelter meets us half way and races the bird back to their facilities. They have a full service veterinary set-up and handle injured or abandoned wildlife. That barn owl last summer had to be destroyed; so we felt at some level we had to save this new owl it was our way to make things right. We love having barn owls and want to do nothing to discourage them from using our barn.
So, with the heat turned up to 2,000 degrees F in the car we raced to Naselle to meet her again. Caroline kept it awake as it warmed. It was obviously hypothermic. So the only thing we knew to do was warm it and not let it fall asleep. We transferred the bird and should know in two days how the prognosis. After inspecting the bird, she told us it was not a fledgling and was far too young to be out of the nest. So, it must have fallen and crawled to where I found it or possibly something happened to their mom and the babies left the nest because they were starving (he/she was very thin). As everyone knows in the PNW we have unseasonably cold weather this Spring and the shelter is treating lots of animals for hypothermia.
For those not aware of what an AGA is, let's just say you are not a Smallholder unless you own one. They are ubiqutous in England in cottages and farms. They are amazing ovens which are always on (run on gas, older ones oil and wood even). The four ovens are different temperatures (450, 375, 225 and 150) and the top surface is two cooking surfaces one hot, the other less to. You cannot adjust the temperature, you simply work in differing durations. (http://www.aga-ranges.com/) They are also pretty awesome at saving baby chicks who get too cold. We've even heard of people putting lambs and kids in them to save them.
So, we headed home about 9 pm after the rendezvous feeling like we did something good. Our spirits were down a bit as we lost a gosling on Sunday who got overchilled out in the hail and cold. So, we hoped this would offset that lost. Then as we drove home in the dark, around Grays River, a raccoon ran in front of our car and got obliterated by our front tire. I guess sometimes you cant win.
p.s. The Wildlife Center for the North Coast treats injured or abandoned wildlife in the northwest coastal corner of Oregon. They responsd 24/7 to emergencies:
http://www.coastwildlife.org/
