Free flying: Rehabilitated snowy owl released in Polson

POLSON — A young female snowy owl got a second chance to fly free after sustaining a shotgun wound to her right wing near Malta, Mont., in mid-December. Following nearly three months of rehabilitation at the Montana Raptor Conservation Center (MRCC) in Bozeman, owl experts released the magnificent white bird into the wild, Thursday afternoon in Polson.

“She was a little rambunctious when we first left this morning,” said MRCC Director Becky Kean, who transported the bird to town via a crate in the back of her Subaru. “She was ready to go.”

Polson’s Mission View Drive has been a popular hangout for snowy owls this winter. With around 10 birds still in the area, researcher and owl conservation advocate Denver Holt of the Owl Research Institute in Charlo recommended releasing the young owl in the area, where there is both companionship and a plentiful source of food.

Kean said the conservation center treated five snowys this year, but of the five, this one was the sole survivor.

“We treated mostly for emaciation,” she said of the other birds. “The younger ones get pushed down and maybe don’t get to eat as much — they were skin and bones.”

This female came in relatively healthy, with body weight in good condition. The center fed her mice during her stay in Bozeman. The gunshot wound had fractured her wing, so volunteer veterinarians with the non-profit used vet wrap to stabilize it for four weeks before starting physical therapy with her. The therapy involved rotating the wing on a daily basis.

“She did it all on her own,” Kean said of the recovery process.

While radiograph evaluations of the wing revealed several implanted heavy metal fragments, Kean said surgery was not necessary and that the bird’s muscles had sealed the wounds off without infection, which is often a problematic side-effect of such an injury.

Before release, Owl Research Institute employee Matt Larson attached an aluminum band to her leg with a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) identification number.

“That band number will from now on be that bird’s ID, so if she’s caught again, we’ll know where she’s been,” William Blake, also with the Owl Research Institute, said.

After attaching the band, researchers opened the owl’s wing in order check the bars on her feathers for an age estimation, predicting she was in the first year of her life.

Holding her high above his head, Larson released the owl in front of a small crowd in the Skyview subdivision. She sputtered only slightly on the take-off, nearly touching pavement before lifting off toward a house with two snowy owls perched on the roof and two others in a nearby tree.

With the weather warming and the owls’ internal clocks continuing to tick, Holt thinks the parliament may soon be headed back to the Arctic for the breeding season. Snowy owls lay eggs in June and incubate for about a month. At three weeks, young birds leave the nest and walk about, but they won’t make their first flights until about 45 days old.

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