Today was the day we've been waiting and planning for for months!  We finally released our first 6 families onto our first preserve!

After consulting with experts at the Zoo, we carefully picked our owls to relocate.  We decided to pick families with fledgling chicks that can't fly just yet, which would force adult parents to remain on the preserve to care for the chicks.  This will minimize the chances of abandonment of the reserve as occurred with a previous experiment, as families will have to stay until their fledglings can fly.  We're hoping their presence might attract other owls, though this is an unproven theory thus far.

We banded owls before we released them.  I hope they stay and find happiness here, and in the process, maybe they will heal this scarred and damaged land.



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