Yesterday a tawny owl owlet found in Viimsi was brought to the Environmental board office. This is nesting nearly one and a half month earlier than on average. Recently newspaper notices told about tawny owls breeding in winter in mid-city Helsinki. Winter nesting of tawny owls is a relatively common case there. In winter the passerines visiting bird feeders are an ideal prey and owl chicks can be nicely brought up with them. And so the breeding time shifts towards winter. It seems that in Estonia too this happens periodically.
Tiit Koit fed the found owlet and brought it back to where it was found.
Since owl chicks are frequent „guests“ in the wild animal rehabilitation centres a baby owl boom may be expected in this „mouse year“. Let us see what to do – owl chicks scrambling around on the ground look particularly helpless but as a rule they don’t need help. Crawling out of the nest and tumbling to the ground is common and usually they manage to crawl up in the tree again – precisely, the owlets climb up into the nest. Help might only be useful in making the climbing easier by lifting the owlet on to a branch. The parents will have no problems to find their young from their food begging calls and can take care of their babies far better than we.
Chick
