Children and adults flocked to see the release of 15 owls by the Southeastern Raptor Center at Chewacla State Park on Friday, Sept. 25.
Seth Oster, assistant clinical professor in the department of clinical sciences and primary veterinarian at the raptor center, supervised a group of volunteers carrying yellow-orange cat boxes.
Inside of these boxes were barred and screech owls, some of which were injured and others removed from their natural habitat.
One-by-one, each volunteer freed an owl from its box and boosted the bird from its perch on their gloved arms into the air.
All of the owls took flight to perch on nearby trees.
While these birds have been referred to as orphan birds, Oster said most of the birds released were not actually orphaned.
"They were fledglings that left the nest which they commonly do when they are not able to fly, and the parents still take care of them on the ground," Oster said, "except what happened was someone didn’t understand that, picked the bird up and brought it to me thinking it was an orphan."
Oster said while most of these owls were misunderstood to be orphaned, a few of the owls had come to the Southeastern Raptor Center injured and in need of repair.
“Most [of the owls] are 6 months old," Oster said. "They hatched in the spring.”
The screech and barred owls were released in separate areas of the park.
“We are releasing all our screech owls over here, not near our barn owls," Oster said. "The reason is, the screech owl is food to anything that is bigger than it.”
He said the barred owls are known to hunt screech owls and the barred owls will eat anything smaller than themselves, including other birds.
The screech owls were released first near the pavilion, and then the barred owls, further into the woods.
The screech and barred owls flew to perch in nearby trees, although, the screech owls' camouflaged feathers made them difficult to spot.
However, since the barred owls were closer and larger they were easier to discern from the background.
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