Owl Ridge General Store

Every year the wonderful staff at Owl Ridge General Store invite REGI to their annual anniversary celebration! The second weekend in June is always made up of fun, food, music, and many of REGI’s owl friends. The weather was less than perfect this year. As you can see, I had to dig out my winter parka and mittens from my closet for the event on Sunday. Brrrr!! However, the gusty winds and cold temperatures did not stop the festival atmosphere. In fact the owner’s of Owl Ridge said Saturday was their highest sales day EVER. This was my second Owl Ridge anniversary and I have to say I recognized many of the same people from last year. It is wonderful to see the community supporting a local business.

Adults and children alike were lining up outside REGI’s tent to catch a glimpse at our five species of owls we brought this year including a: Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, Barn Owl, Eastern Screech Owl (both red and grey color phases), and Northern Saw-whet Owl. The REGI tent was full of action people of all ages asking questions, taking pictures, and learning some fun facts about each species. Festival events are different than our typical programs because we only have few brief minuets with each visitor. During this short time we hope to convey the importance and respect these beautiful creatures deserve. The REGI staff, interns, and volunteers this year greatly enjoyed interacting with all the visitors and Owl Ridge's staff. Thank you to Steve and Evelyn Fisher and Lance Holm for running the REGI booth on Saturday. Thank you to Natasha Siegel and Aprill Jaeger for helping me out on Sunday.

Our favorite memory from Sunday had to be a young boy who wanted a picture next to the stump of our Barn Owl. As his mother carefully aimed the camera the young boy turned to the owl and politely told him to say cheese. Hopefully, the close encounter with the owls that day and the memories in the picture will be carried with that young boy as he grows up.

To the left is our beautiful Barn Owl, Rhomey. He looks a little confused as to why that young boy told him to say cheese. He likes mice way more than cheese!

REGI often displays our owls in stumps like this one. A Barn Owl is a cavity nester so he feels more comfortable and protected inside his stump. It also allows REGI the opportunity to teach more about their habitat needs.

To the right is Bart, an Eastern Screech owl. He is also enjoying the comfort of his stump. He liked it in there so much he slept most of the day away as visitors walked passed and took pictures.

Nicole Swanson

Pictures taken by REGI intern, Aprill Jaeger.

Chilly Weather/Washington Island Bird Festival/Adult PasserineToxins

More new patients are pouring through the doors. We admitted several adult passerines during the past few days including a Cedar Waxwing, Brown Thrasher and a Female American Robin to name just a few. The Thrasher and the Robin likely came into contact with a pesticide on the insects they ate as both suffered neurological symptoms. It is hard to see otherwise healthy adults in such a predicament. It is harder when you consider these adults likely have left a nest filled with babies. Understanding that what mom and dad eat, they feed the youngsters adds insult to injury. Many will die in the nest due to toxins. It is like a game of domino's. With the work we do we have a heightened awareness of the environment and everything that affects the balance. We would sleep better if we didn't. :(

My goodness, another week of "unseasonably cold weather", or as I like to call it " "unreasonable cold weather". For those of us in the north land that translates into suffering freezing temperatures all week. The forecast for next week may be more of the same. It is tedious to those folks that have to cover their tomato plants and flowers that were planted in an optimistic moment, but at REGI freezing temperatures mean all of our baby birds still have to some inside every night. Wild birds have their babies out with them, but have the advantage of not being raising in incubators. They are therefore more climate prepared than those raised at REGI. We have to step down the temperature gradually so their bodies can cope. Having said that, I suspect many species will have poor reproductive success this year due to the "unseasonable temperatures. It will be interesting to see how the bird counts go in the fall.


I was honored to be the guest speaker for the Washington Island Birding Festival Dinner this past weekend. The topic of the evening presentation was Wild Owls of Wisconsin. I brought with me four owl species native to Wisconsin. It is interesting for birders to see up close and personal some of the birds they often only hear or catch sight of as a fleeting glance. I had to laugh as my education birds are so well known they are often greeted by the audience as old friends. So many wonderful people attended. We talked on for hours even after the presentation.
What a terrific group it was. Many thanks to organizer Sandy -Ursula Petersen for inviting me.


The Wood Duck census is growing here at REGI. More tiny Wood Duck ducklings have been admitted. They are such tiny and fragile babies and will be able to join the older Wood Duck ducklings when they can tolerate life without a constant brooder and develop some size to prevent being picked on. They are eating LOTS of bloodworms and waxworms these days. We appreciate JADA Baits of Antigo so much for providing our patients with waxworms. Hearing our pleading voices on their answer machine cannot be easy.

We continued to have Internet connection problems this past week, but as of yesterday that appears to be a thing of the past. We will be able to update the Blog consistently now. I thank those of you that have written to me missing our daily updates. It is great to know we are missed!

That is all for now. Have a great day everyone. Ours will be busy with two patients have been admitted already this morning and it is only 6:30 A.M.
Best,
Marge Gibson 2009