Print Page - Northern hawk owl grabs birding attention Spokane

Just about every winter there is one (and only one) seen somewhere in southern Ontario. Ive seen 3 in the last 10 years. One was right in Toronto,the other 2 were a few hours from Toronto. One was in the same place almost all winter. It was very disturbing as photographers baited it most of that time and infact Im sure were the reason it stayed so long in one place. They had boxes and boxes of white mice and a burn barrel set up in a field to keep themselves warm. By the end of the winter they only had to motion with their hand that they put food down and the owl would approach,it was quite terrible. Realistically most photos to me were spoiled as many had white mice in them, most unnatural. The Ministry of Natural Resources was notified but refused to do anything, telling us that baiting isnt illegal as the law is written and they dont want to test the courts as to whether this constitutes harrassment. (and dont begin to tell me its the same as feeding chickadees or goldfinches in the winter) They actually said our better bet was to turn the animal rights groups onto these photographers in regards to them feeding live mice to the owl and calling it cruelty, as those mice are meant to be pets. NEVER bait birds of prey! Feeding them store bought food can have dire consequences. Sometimes mice carry a disease that come from pet stores, while other times its simply that people bait the birds near to roads and they get hit by cars! Again like other posts I say enjoy the birds,watch em but respect them!!

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Other Nature Related Information => General Nature Discussion => Topic started by: Donna on 13-Jan-12, 06:41:08 AM