Smokey The Barn Owl

11/08/2022

Check me out in the news!

A barn owl rescued from the Silverado Fire has made substantial progress in recovery, despite losing all its feathers.

10/27/2022

Has it already been another year? Time flies… like me!
The humans say it’s October 27th again, which means it’s been 2 years since I was rescued from the Silverado Fire by the firefighters of the Orange County Fire Authority. It's been a long road to recovery since then, and while there's still a way to go, there has been plenty of progress.
After being rescued I was sent to the Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital for my initial treatment and recovery. Once I was out of the “danger zones,” where I was eating on my own and off medication I was sent to the Orange County Bird of Prey Center's new facility! I’ve been here ever since, building my strength, screaming at all the humans, and most importantly still working on those feathers.
Birds typically only molt out a few flight feathers a year so they can remain flighted. Losing all of them at once is a far more catastrophic injury than meets the eye to you humans. Growing all of them back has taken a lot of time and energy on my part, but I have to say I’m an expert at growing feathers, I’ve been doing it all my life!
While I’m not ready to return back to the wild yet, I hope you’ll stick around to continue sharing in my journey.
Thank you to all the firefighters, veterinary professionals, and volunteers who have saved my life and continue to help me get better!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

06/03/2022

Who’s this s***ky owl with all these feathers? It’s me, Smokey!

As you all can see, I’m continuing to make great progress! Growing feathers is really hard work, so progress at this point has been really slow without many exciting updates. But what’s important is that even if it’s been slow, it’s been steady. In the meantime I’ve not lost any of my s***k or wild owl behaviors while in recovery. Hopefully this next molt will go really well and I’ll be back in prime mouse fighting shape soon!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

01/16/2022

Big Recovery Update!

I’ve moved on site to the Orange County Bird of Prey Center! This means several things for my recovery. I am now in a large flight cage so I can work on building up my muscles and practice flying before release, it also means the humans think I’m doing well enough that I don’t have to be constantly monitored. (Which I’m a big fan of.) There’s still a long way to go, but we’re keeping all talons crossed that my recovery continues as well as it has been.

Thank you to everyone who has been following along, make sure you hang around to see what happens next!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

10/31/2021

Only YOU can wish everyone a, “Happy Owloween!”
I may not actually celebrate human holidays, but I can appreciate having a holiday with owls as important characters!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! Https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

10/27/2021

It's October 27th again! Owls don't keep time like people do, but the humans say this is important, because it's been a year since I was found in the Silverado Fire.

Since then so much has happened! I was in the news a whole lot, I got over 1,000 followers on social media, and I screamed at a lot of very helpful humans to show them exactly how feisty I am. Mostly though, I've been spending a lot of time and energy growing back my feathers. To all the humans following me, keep up the good work! Learning about raptors and the challenges we face is the first step to showing everyone the best ways to help keep us safe.

We're not at the end yet, so make sure you stick around for when I'm finally able to fly free again! Thank you to all the vets and volunteers at the Seranno Animal and Bird Hospital as well as the Orange County Bird of Prey Center for helping me and all the other raptors get back to the wild.

And a special thank you to the firefighters of the Orange County Fire Authority for rescuing me a year ago! Make sure you all stay tuned for more updates about my recovery!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! Https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

10/05/2021

I have some amazing recovery news, not only am I growing new feathers, they’re like real owl feathers! (Like ones that can actually do flying stuff!) The humans have been keeping a close eye on my feathers as they grow back, when a bird goes through anything like what I’ve been through the humans worry about if the feathers will grow back correctly. The follicles feathers grow out of are in the skin, so if those get damaged it can cause the feathers to grow incorrectly and make flight impossible. But it looks like mine are growing back like real owl flight feathers!

I was really lucky to be found and placed in the care of humans who not only want to help birds but are well trained and do a good job of taking care of us, and right now there’s a lot of other birds in Orange County who need that kind of help due to the oil spill off the coast. If you want to help out my fellow feathered friends get better you can check out https://linktr.ee/OCBPC to donate to Sea and Sage Audubon Society’s 2021 Oil Spill Bird Response Fund.

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! Https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

07/19/2021

There's some big news about my recovery... I'm growing new feathers! The vets have been working hard to help me get my beautiful plumage back, it's a lot of hard work growing new feathers! To help me with that hard work they've been giving me a lot more food, I can use all that energy to regrow my feathers even faster and better.
There's still a long way to go until I'm fully recovered, so stick around and see how much cooler I get with every new feather I grow! ;)

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

06/04/2021

Only YOU can help keep baby owls safe. So, once we’ve got hatchlings (baby owls) how do we raise them to be big and cool like me? Through a lot of hard work is how! After hatching and until flight (fledging), baby birds are dependent on their parents to take care of them. It’s a really hard life out in the wild, and not all baby birds will make it, which is why it’s super important not to take baby birds home with you if you find them on the ground. You humans really want to help, and that’s great! But it’s important to know how to help so you don’t hurt instead. The best thing to do if you find a baby owl is to call Animal Control to come help; don’t try to grab the bird yourself. Just make sure the area is safe until help arrives. If all goes well for the baby Barn Owls then at about 7-10 weeks of age they will “fledge!” Fledging means they’ve got flight feathers and are learning how to use them. After the babies fledge, their parents will teach them how to hunt for about 3-5 months. Then they’re fully fledged mouse fighters, like me!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

05/06/2021

Thank you to my friends in Oregon for this awesome gift (it's me!!), I'm so lucky to have friends all over the world!

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd

04/29/2021

Only YOU can count eggs! The other week I told you about when and where barn owls nest, but what do we put in them? I think a lot of you might’ve guessed, but it’s always nice to hear you’re right. We lay our eggs in our nests! Specifically, we can lay anywhere from 2-18 eggs at a time! But more often we lay around 4-6 eggs in one clutch. Our eggs are a dull white in color, about 1.5 inches long, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Parent Barn Owls will incubate the eggs for about a month, give or take, before those eggs start to hatch. But because the eggs are laid over several days, they don’t hatch at the same time. Nestlings will be close in age but generally a few days apart. Barn owls can have multiple clutches of eggs in a year. We’re also not that great at math, to be honest. Sometimes when rehabbers get baby owls in they can foster them into a new nest and we just adopt the new baby as our own! Close enough, right?

If you want to donate to help my recovery, check out my GoFundMe! https://gf.me/u/y8cvdd