This Week at Liberty
February 11, 2025
Hoots, Howls, and Hollers
Megan Mosby
Executive Director
For the Love of Nature
It looks like cupid’s little dart has been busy. A few blogs ago I mentioned that we had assisted a family in constructing a new great horned owl’s nest in a tree on their property. There’s a happy announcement coming, but first the background… The story goes that the family/community had watched over time the shenanigans of a great horned owl family for generations of families. Courtship, egg laying, babies hatching, young ones fledging, until sadly what was thought to be the mother owl was found in the roadway seemingly hit by a car.
Owls that hunt at night fly low over the roads, which provide an open space to better hone-in on their prey. They unfortunately haven’t evolved enough to recognize the lights of the car as impending danger and find themselves enmeshed in the grill of cars with head injuries or broken wings and of course worse….they are killed. This particular neighborhood owl was found dead by the side of the road. Why is not known…just the sad outcome. Naturally, the folks were devastated as they had watched this family raise and fledge many babies and were bereft at the thought of the end of the line. That is when we were contacted to see if we could help.
We assessed if it would be possible to reconstruct the nest and perhaps move it to a tree that was healthier as the original one was looking sad and not long for this world.
We did a site visit to assess the situation and as I blogged on before a pretty swanky nest was constructed, attached to a nearby healthy tree and a camera was installed. The nest was first visited by a red-tailed hawk, but great horned owls are precocious and settle into nests earlier. So, this mamma owl moved in before the redtail could establish ownership…no title needed. Camera shots established that a mom (we assume) was rearranging the furniture and settling in. YAY!
The next chapter, the love is in the air part, resulted in the laying of an egg. See the video and photos attached. We all hope for a hatching in a month or so and are looking forward to the fuzz ball heads of baby owls. Watching the behaviors of the adults tell us a lot about what is happening. Is the mom owl sitting tightly on the nest? Is the male out hunting for the family? Do the hunting trips amp up indicating that the baby/ies have hatched? Just paying attention to what is happening in your world can hint to you what is happening in their world.
We applaud all of the players in this scenario. The family that cared so much that their concern for their wildlife neighbors resulted in the construction of a safe dwelling space. The respect of the folks involved to leave room for the wildlife in their yard allowing them to do what needed to be done…and the overall enthusiasm of the community!
Yes, love is in the air! Compassion, caring and yes, love, for all who share this planet with us is exhibited in this story. I am excitedly awaiting news of the hatching, pictures of the raising, and the good news that the babies have fledged. Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you nature lovers…darts and hearts are being sent your way.
This Week @ Liberty
The intake total for the year is now up to 320.
I’m not sure about you, but I’m not quite in the mood to adult right now. While I absolutely LOVE my job and everything Liberty Wildlife entails, it’s all the rest of it I’m not particularly fond of. If someone had told me growing up I’d have to figure out breakfast/lunch/dinner options for the rest of my life, I would have thought it was a scam.
Silly, I know, but it’s one of those random things that sometimes, I just don’t want to deal with (like laundry!).
Nevertheless, I’m happy to report our animals at Liberty Wildlife don’t have to worry about that. Our handfeed and daily care teams work diligently to prep food for both our rehab and education animals every single day. Not only are we grateful for their hard work and assistance, we know the animals are, too.
The Incredible Migration
While it would certainly be tempting to talk about Valentine’s Day and how that correlates with birds (because I assure you there are plenty of stories about it), I’m opting for a different direction–Migration. Mostly because it’s a fascinating subject, but also because we’re heading into the months where we’ll start to see a lot of those birds who migrate come through Arizona.
Starting now, we’re going to see a lot of little guys come through our tepid winter climate. If you’re out and about, you might see the common black hawk (especially around the Santa Cruz River), a Baird’s sparrow (they enjoy the San Rafael grasslands), sandhill cranes (Whitewater Draw and Willcox Playa!), and even northern flickers. In fact, these are all birds we’ll also see come to our hospital around this time of year; which also means when we’re ready to release, we have to consider the time they’d be heading out for their next migration.
But, one of the most fascinating migratory birds (at least, for me) are Swainson’s hawks. Known to have the second longest migration pattern of any bird of prey (second only to the peregrine falcon), the southern Canada populations can migrate nearly 6,200 miles down to their wintering areas in Argentina before heading back. These medium-sized raptors can be found in the southwest U.S., up to east-central Alaska and throughout Canada (British Columbia included).
And if you’re wondering what they eat, their diet changes based on if their hanging (plus mating and having babies) or working their way down to Argentina. During their permanent-ish stay, these raptors are looking for small mammals (like pocket gophers) with an occasional bird, reptile or amphibian thrown in there (for good measure, of course). Once migration hits, these raptors switch to an almost all insect diet consisting of grasshoppers and dragonflies. Not only do those provide a lot of bang for their buck (protein!) they don’t even need to stop to catch them. They are “in flight” meals.
Farmers really love these guys, too; not only do they feast on those insects that can be detrimental to their crops, but they hang around after a fresh mow to catch those pocket gophers as they pop up.
If you’re wondering just how many of these raptors make the journey down to Argentina each year (not all of them, but most of them), you’re looking at around 800,000 according to the Veracruz River of Raptors (Peregrine Fund, 2025).
Either way, these beautiful birds are often seen flying through Arizona to reach their summer destinations where they’ll find their mates (they’re monogamous) to nest and have babies before heading on out. Starting around March make sure to keep a lookout on our skies to spot one heading through!
Notable Mentions
Well, it’s about that time again! Another blog has come and gone, and with it, new stories and encounters. With Valentine’s Day mere days away, we ourselves are sure to start seeing those babes that come from the holiday of love. Soon enough, the slowness of the hospital will be gone, leaving a jam-packed scheduled for orphan care to start (more to come in the coming months).
That means that, without further ado, here are this weeks’ notable mentions:
A Coopers hawk is brought in with a severely fractured (can you guess)? Radiographs were taken to reveal a (can you guess)? (2 pictures)
Cheese makes his rounds after a bath (2 pictures)
Some new intakes from February (3 Pictures)
Some mallard ducks stop by at the wetlands for a pitstop (1 picture)
Education volunteer Beth makes an impromptu program with Rio the zone-tailed hawk when a field trip stops by (2 pictures)
Remember we’re open to the public Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am-1pm; make sure to catch our flight show/eagle feeding starting at 11:15. Oh! And El Rio Vivo is happening March 1st; find out more about it here!
Until next time!
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