Monday, May 28, 2012

365 Photo Project - Rabbit vs. Owl


April was a good month for taking photos.  Spring is always a good time for wildlife photos, and I had a hard time choosing this month’s feature photos.
 Definitely a rabbit/owl standoff
My first favorite photo from this month is of the young Barn Owl our education department is raising—Minerva.  Until they are a certain age, our hand raised Barn Owls are given the freedom to roam our wildlife kitchen.  This accustoms them to humans and their activities. One day she wandered into the Nature Center and discovered our rabbit, Hazel.  She put her wings out in a threatening manner.  This was very amusing to watch especially since, in the kitchen, Minerva always liked the rabbit and would sit in front of her cage for hours just watching.  However, it seems that in the classroom it was another story altogether.

My second favorite photo is not the greatest quality, but it means a lot to me.  On April 21, 2012 a group of us traveled to Onondaga Cave State Park for Missouri’s first bat festival, which was presented by the Organization for Bat Conservation out of Michigan.   We had a good time and saw a program about bats, which featured a few live bats of different species. 
 Peggy, a Malaysian Flying Fox
The program had two live bats; one was a Common Vampire Bat and the other is the one pictured in the photo—Peggy, a Malaysian Flying Fox.  Very cool bat!  This is the world’s largest bat weighing in at about 2lbs.  She is an injured bat and cannot fly, but still an amazing animal.

If you would like to meet Minerva, our young Barn Owl, or see a real live bat up close, come visit our Nature Center, which is open 363 days of the year from 8 am to 5 pm. 

Submitted by Cathy Spahn, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist

2 comments:

  1. I adopted Minerva this summer! She is so cute in that picture!

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  2. @Anna - We all think she is adorable--but of course, we are just a little prejudiced.

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