State 45 - Vermont
VT Institute of Natural Sciences - Quechee, VT
Finally another place that sounds pretty big, is easy to visit, and has a lot for you to do!
Today's bird friend is LaGuardia. From his bio:
LaGuardia was found badly injured at the LaGuardia Airport in New York. His injuries likely resulted from a blast of hot air from a jet engine. Both of his wings were badly fractured, requiring surgery and care from rehabilitators. His injuries resulted in flight too weak for hunting and migrating, so VINS became his permanent home in 2014. Although he was shy at first, he has adapted to life as an exhibit ambassador and prefers to sit next to a favored stump in his enclosure.
Their Facebook page is very active with thousands of pics of animals and nature and events. There's a Halloween event coming up I'll put in the comments. Lots of fun to be had here. Check then it if you can!
Sure is! I'm hoping he catches the attention of anyone scrolling All and gets us some more subs.
Back before taking an active interest in owls, I didn't know what type of owl it was. I always thought of snowies having all the black spots on top of the white background.
They all get that pattern when they start to get midsized, but the males lose most of their black as they age.
Baby snowy, almost all black
Juvenile snowy, black giving way to the white with black spots
Adult female left,. Male right
You've been single handedly carrying my fave community on Lemmy, my wife is tired of all the owl photos I've been showing her lol
I really appreciate hearing that. When I first switched over from Reddit, I was glad this place was here, but it went quiet so fast. I liked owls, but it wasn't like I really knew much about them, at least not much more than anyone else. But after seeing days of no posts, I couldn't let it fizzle out, so I decided if do something if nobody else was going to.
It's been very rewarding, I feel I'm giving you guys a positive experience every day. It's been a tough year for me, I'm losing my job next week and it's been hard to find work, had to do some major home and car repairs after finding out I'm losing my paycheck, and then we had a sudden and unexpected death in the family, all in about the same month, so this has been very therapeutic for me as well because I know I get to give you guys a smile when I post one of these fluff balls.
It's a little difficult sometimes, because I'm pretty introverted, and sometimes I post things I think people are going to love and they hardly get any attention, and then I'll post something low effort and it gets twice as many votes. But at this point, I'm starting to recognize some of my frequent commenters, and I'm glad there's a solid base of people that I know Leo coming back every day and enjoy the content.
I try to give something for everyone. I post mainly US owls because that's what I'm most familiar with, but I try to sprinkle in ones from around the world to keep it fair. I also try to respond to everyone and give them an upvotes too so you guys know I appreciate your participation. It's kinda boring to talk to myself every day when I could be talking to you guys!
You don't have to say anything earth shattering, just let me know you're there! Things like the person that asks for colorful owls or the person that asked about talons. That gives me something to look into that I know somebody will get a special kick out of seeing. Tell me I post too many or not enough Screech Owls. Don't be afraid to participate. I was at first, but now I have a lot of fun here compared to Reddit, where I always felt there was too much competition for me to be heard.
Ok, you're here for owls, not to know my life story. Thank you for coming here every day and for letting me know you like what I'm doing. It means a lot to me, and I hope I can keep this up for a good long time.
Is there such a thing as too many Screech Owls?? 😂 Hope things get better, and in the meantime, please have a virtual hug from an internet stranger! 🤗
I appreciate it! I did get an offer from a place I interviewed on Friday so hopefully I'll be starting soon. My current work is over the end of this month, so it happened just in time!