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The Owl Box 3 Buddy Fluffy

111,870 Live Views 187 In Crowd Fluffy and Buddy Adopt!

During last year's nesting season, Buddy and Fluffy raised 5 happy healthy owlets who all grew and fledged successfully. What fun it was to be along for the ride! This year when the pair returned to their box to nest, there… Fluffy and Buddy Adopt!

During last year's nesting season, Buddy and Fluffy raised 5 happy healthy owlets who all grew and fledged successfully. What fun it was to be along for the ride! This year when the pair returned to their box to nest, there was a turn of events that our box followers could never have expected. Fluffy laid two consecutive clutches, one of 7, the other of 5 eggs, and not a single egg hatched. Fluffy was a dedicated sitter, and those of us who were here to observe the comings and goings of the pre egg laying time (for both clutches) know that Buddy and Fluffy had plenty of bonding time... Though there has been much speculation about the cause of the failed clutches, the truth is, we will never know for sure why the eggs didn’t hatch!

After the second clutch was clearly beyond its window of viability, Fluffy continued to diligently sit on those eggs while Buddy repeated his role as a dedicated provider. Many of Buddy and Fluffy's human followers experienced a deep sadness as the reality set in; it appeared that there would be no fuzzy owlets in the B&F box this year.

Enter my wildlife educator and rehabber friend, Nancy Conney of Sky Hunters. I have known Nancy since last year when she was a huge help to me in my efforts to create the right branching support needed for Buddy and Fluffy's 2010 family. Since that time, I've taken my children to her facility to volunteer, and I've seen first hand the hard work and enormous dedication that Nancy and others in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation face daily in their lives of service. "Baby season" is an especially demanding time for rehabbers and the angels who staff them. With 100 resident birds and as many as 50 baby or injured raptors being cared for at one time in her facility, Nancy never knows when the call to come rescue another raptor will ring in.

When the second clutch failed, Nancy was contacted by Charlotte and was asked if, under the circumstances, she might have some barn owl babies that she could place with Buddy and Fluffy. Nancy's response provided great hope: "I would love to have surrogate parents for some of the babies I have!"

The use of surrogate parents is quite common and has been a very successful operation when raising young orphans within wildlife facilities. Wildlife personnel have come to understand that their non-releasable adult owls are a great help in raising young rescued orphans for release back to the wild. Their parenting drive is extremely strong.

There have been wildlife experts who have placed other breeds of baby owls in wild nests. At the time I coordinated with Nancy I was not aware of this ever having been done with wild barn owls! There are many hunting and flying skills that owlets need to learn to live successfully in the wild. As thorough as any wildlife expert can be in preparing raptors for release (and my friend, Nancy, is among the best), there is simply no substitute for the real thing.

Though this idea of owlet adoption seemed the perfect plan, it was not without its hurdles. To begin with, it was late in baby season and out of over 20 barn owlets that Nancy was raising at the time, only one was young enough to consider for adoption if the operation was to have a reasonable expectation for success. You now know this owlet as “Nancy”! The fact that there was only one owlet bothered Nancy Conney; she was reluctant to undertake the exercise. Then there was the challenge of arranging the time between Nancy’s extremely busy schedule and mine to have Nancy make the long drive from the mountains in Alpine to my place in Escondido. I also had to coordinate with my friend, Greg, who was to climb the ladder, remove the eggs, and replace them with the owlet. In short, it was a major operation to coordinate; it required basically a miracle for all things to fall in to place. That is exactly what happened!

Two days before Nancy was to come out, she was called out to rescue a smaller baby (you know him as owlet “Greg”). The fact that this owlet appeared on the scene to be a sibling for the lone orphan was a blessing of coincidence and timing that I can only credit to the number of prayers that were being said!

The plan was set for Friday night. Nancy arrived at 6:00 with owlets Greg and Nancy on board. (She also had six other owlets that she had stopped to rescue on her way over from Alpine!) After waiting for dark and for Fluffy to leave the box, Nancy and my friend, Greg, helped orchestrate removing the eggs and placing the two owlets in the nest box. Fluffy flew back and while sitting there high in the doorway, did a barn owl double take. There on the floor of her nest box were two fuzzy owlets where her eggs had been! After a brief survey of the scene below, Fluffy jumped down to her newly adopted brood and immediately began preening them (appearing to love on them) with great enthusiasm!! The babies appeared to be in adopted-momma heaven.


When all was said and done and the fuzzy owlets were snuggled up together with their new mom in their new home, Nancy Conney stayed late into the night to ensure that the adoption would be a success. Before she could drive the long road back to Alpine, my friend needed to sure that Buddy would step in and feed his new babies, demonstrating that he was as drawn to his instincts in parenting as Fluffy had been earlier.

The success of this adventure makes me smile every day. I give thanks for the hearts and intentions of all who were involved, especially my friends, Greg (who literally risked life and limb to climb that ladder) and Nancy Conney. The amount of time that Nancy devoted to the adoption effort that night alone was over 8 hours. For a woman whose entire life is devoted to wildlife education and to nurturing the wild ones under her care, there is no such thing as “free time”. Those 8 hours came at great personal sacrifice. Wildlife angels like Nancy and my Ustream friends Cyndi (“Eagle Eye”) and Pat (“Herpnut”) and those others who follow the same path, are our unsung heroes. Their life’s work, their labor of love, and their human kindness and outpouring of compassion for our wildlife often go unnoticed. Nancy herself refuses to take any credit for the good that she does along the way. Two days after the adoption, Charlotte, who also loves Nancy, called her to thank her for the herculean effort that this adoption operation entailed. Nancy would not take any praise. Her response was a simply “it is just what I DO.”

Nancy would be the first to insist that none of what she does is about money. I know that beyond all doubt. I know also that Nancy’s nonprofit, Sky Hunters, and other wildlife nonprofits like hers rely heavily on the donations of animal lovers like us to be able to feed and care for the throngs of animals they nurture each and every day. If this real life barn owl adoption fairy tale touches you in any way, please consider making a donation to Nancy’s Conney’s Sky Hunters or to a wildlife center near you. You CAN make a difference!!


Donations can be made to Sky Hunters through Paypal, using email address: Skyhunters@Juno.com (Be sure to mention the barn owl family of Buddy and Fluffy!!)

I'm so thrilled you are able to be a part of this glorious event. Thanks for stopping by! More