The Owl Moon 2023 calendar features 12 stories about Owl Moon’s amazing avian patients together with beautiful photographs by volunteers and other nature lovers. This calendar is our thank you gift for donations $25 and up! Donate online or visit us in person at the Owl Moon Raptor Festival!
If you would like a calendar mailed to you, please include your address and the number of calendars requested (up to 1 per $25 donated) in the comments section of your donation.
Join us, rain or shine for the 8th annual Owl Moon Raptor Festival for an afternoon or fun and education for the whole family.
Sunday, November 13th, 2022, 12:00 – 4:00 pm
Located at the Black Hill Regional Park Nature Center, 20296 Lake Ridge Drive, Boyds, MD.
Featuring special guests: Adventures with Raptors, Raptor’s Eye, and Secret Garden Birds and Bees.
There will be live owls, hawks and falcons, activities for kids, an Osprey 101 presentation, Owl Moon T-shirts and calendars, food trucks and raptor releases.
Admission is Free!
Owl Moon is a non profit 501(c)(3) organization and gratefully accepts donations to support the rescue and rehabilitation of injured, sick, and orphaned raptors.
Looking for a new way to support Owl Moon? Please check out our new store!
https://www.zazzle.com/store/owl_moon
We have t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, tote bags, and more available with fun designs. Select from an adorable art piece of a Eastern Screech Owl peeking out from a tree cavity by our very own volunteer Maggie Steinhilper ,or a photo of “Walt” with his family by Jennifer Packard. Walt is a Red-shouldered Hawk we rescued earlier this year and returned to his family. Or perhaps you prefer just a simple Owl Moon logo this year. If you shop through our store, Owl Moon gets a portion of every purchase, all of which will go towards the care and feeding of the many raptors we rescue throughout the year.
Like everyone, Owl Moon has had a challenging year. We’ve reduced our volunteer coverage to help keep everyone safe, haven’t had time to produce our annual calendars, and were unable to host our popular annual festival. With our new store, you can still support our important work while staying safe!
Enjoy holiday shopping and THANK YOU for your support!
25You, Nancy E McDonald, Kristina Motley and 22 others12 SharesLikeCommentShare
Greetings, friends! We have proudly managed to remain open and answering calls throughout 2020. However, we were forced to reduce our volunteer staff to protect everyone’s health and safety. This required us to put in many extra hours caring for injured birds, and allowed less time for social media. So now I am writing to bring you up to date!
In a normal year, we would be celebrating this season with you at our 7th Annual Owl Moon Raptor Festival on the 2nd Sunday of this month. Like so many social events this year, we were forced to cancel our popular fundraiser. We know many of you look forward to our festival each year, and we promise to bring it back in 2021! Not only that, but for the first time since 2012 we have been unable to produce our favorite Owl Moon calendar. Believe me when I tell you that I missed putting the calendar together as much as you will miss having one, and sharing it with family and friends this holiday season. Sad times!
However, we do anticipate a great new offering for you, which we know you will enjoy, and we hope will bring us some much needed revenue to keep us going strong through 2021. We will soon be announcing an online “store” where you will be able to purchase merchandise decorated with our Owl Moon logo, artwork, and photos of birds. Stay tuned for our “grand opening!”
You can also help us with your purchase of a wonderful book entitled “Enraptured with Raptors”, now available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/…/dp/0578737248/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0….
This book was written by amazing Jennifer Packard, and Illustrated with her stunning photographs. It tells the story of a family of Red-shouldered Hawks growing up on Rock Creek in Washington, DC. We come into the story when the adult male, “Walt”, becomes hopelessly entangled in fishing line and requires rescue and rehab to get back to his duties of fatherhood. All proceeds from this lovely book will be donated to Owl Moon. It makes a great gift, and you can support us with your purchase!
Alternatively, you can donate to Owl Moon Raptor Center just to help us help the over 300 injured, sick, or orphaned birds of prey that come to us each year. We truly appreciate your support, this year more than ever!
Photo below by Jennifer Packard
As always, you will be proud to display your 2019 Owl Moon calendar in your home or office, and give it as a gift to friends and family this holiday season. Each year, the Owl Moon Calendar features wonderful images and stories of some of the owl, hawk, falcon, eagle, and vulture patients that have come through our rehabilitation center, as well as a “raptor calendar” describing what is happening in the raptor world each month.
The 2020 calendar features 12 stories about our raptor patients, including the arduous rescue and rehabilitation of a baby barred owl whose leg was trapped between branches in his nest tree, the recovery of an adorable Northern Saw-whet Owl found unconscious after striking a window, the rescue and rehabilitation of a beautiful American Kestrel found in a barn with a broken wing, and the story of an injured Turkey Vulture that was squeezed in a box and dropped of at a vet clinic with no explanation!
2020 Calendars are available for a donation of $25 for one or $100 for five.
Please specify (in the comments after you donate online) if you would like a calendar with your donation, and how many. Thank you!
You can receive your calendar in person with a donation at the Owl Moon Raptor Festival at Black Hill Regional Park, 12pm-4pm on Sunday, November 10th (see post), or…
Donate online or mail your check to:
Owl Moon Raptor Center
20201 Bucklodge Rd.
Boyds, MD 20841
Features:
Owl Moon is a registered 501(c)(3) and all donations are tax deductible.
Join Owl Moon Raptor Center volunteers and friends for our annual celebration of birds of prey at Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds, MD. Adventures With Raptors will join us with a large collection of owls, hawks, and falcons, including a rare and exotic Spectacled Owl, for up-close looks, photo opportunities, and flight demonstrations. There will be lots of activities and crafts for the kids, raffles with wonderful donated raptor-theme items, and programs about the important work we do at Owl Moon. Our 2020 Owl Moon Calendars, new design T-shirts, books, jewelry and other items will be available for purchase, and all proceeds will go to help injured, sick, and orphaned birds of prey at Ow Moon Raptor Center.
As always, you will be proud to display your 2019 Owl Moon calendar in your home or office, and give it as a gift to friends and family this holiday season. Each year, the Owl Moon Calendar features wonderful images and stories of some of the owl, hawk, falcon, eagle, and vulture patients that have come through our rehabilitation center, as well as a “raptor calendar” describing what is happening in the raptor world each month.
The 2019 calendar features 12 stories about our raptor patients, including four baby Eastern Screech-owls found wet and cold on a rainy spring night, the dramatic rescue and rehabilitation of an adult Osprey tangled in fishing line high in a tree on a stormy evening, the long distance rescue, rehabilitation, and return of our first Broad-winged Hawk chick fallen from his nest, and the heroic rescue of a juvenile Black Vulture trapped in a chimney for 3 days, and more!
2019 Calendars are available for a donation of $25 for one or $100 for five.
Please specify (in the comments after you donate online) if you would like a calendar with your donation, and how many. Thank you!
You can receive your calendar in person with a donation at the Owl Moon Raptor Festival at Black Hill Regional Park, 12pm-4pm on November 11th (see post below), or…
Donate online or mail your check to:
Owl Moon Raptor Center
20201 Bucklodge Rd.
Boyds, MD 20841
Features:
Owl Moon is a registered 501(c)(3) and all donations are tax deductible.
Join Owl Moon Raptor Center volunteers and friends for our annual celebration of birds of prey at Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds, MD. Adventures With Raptors will join us with their large collection of owls, hawks, and falcons for up close looks, photo opportunities, and flight demonstrations. There will be lots of activities and crafts for the kids, raffles, and programs about the important work we do at Owl Moon. Our 2019 Owl Moon Calendars, T-shirts, books, jewelry and other items will be available for purchase, and all proceeds will go to help injured, sick, and orphaned birds of prey at Ow Moon Raptor Center.
Photo by Andrea Montgomery.
On Sunday, July 1st, we received a call from Robert, who was spending the weekend with his wife, Andrea and their daughter, Cassidy, out near Deep Creek Lake in western, Maryland. Earlier that morning, Cassidy had discovered a baby hawk lying helplessly on the gravel walkway near the house they were staying in. They wanted to help the baby, but had no luck finding anyone nearby who could be of assistance. After further conversation, we learned that they would be returning to their home north of Baltimore later in the day, and passing through Frederick, not far from Owl Moon Raptor Center, on the way. So we made plans to meet there to transfer the hawk chick into our care.
Cassidy found the nestling hawk alone and covered in flies on the gravel walkway. He stood up when she approached. Photo by Cassidy Montgomery.
Meanwhile, we were concerned about the fact that they saw flies around the chick when they found it. Flies are a bad sign for two reasons. First, flies don’t normally bother a healthy animal, and second, flies lay eggs, which lead to maggots, and ultimately toxicity and death of the animal they are laid upon. One exception to the former is in the case of young birds. Flies WILL lay eggs on a healthy chick, because chicks are helpless, and they have developing feathers, which provide easy access to a blood supply for fly larvae. Therefore it is important to move them indoors, away from flies, and to then make sure all fly eggs are removed from their feathers. Since we would not be receiving the chick for several hours (time enough for fly eggs to hatch), we explained to Robert and Andrea, how to find and remove fly eggs from the young hawk.
That dark circle behind and below the chicks left eye is his ear opening. The ears normally have tiny openings hidden in the downy feathers. Monty’s are visible because they are swollen, filled with maggots, and crusted over with dried blood! (Photo by Kristina Motley)
When the young hawk arrived, we discovered he was a first for Owl Moon, the first nestling Broad-winged Hawk we’ve ever admitted! Broad-winged Hawks are rare in eastern Maryland. Not so in Garrett County, where “Monty” was hatched. In examining Monty, we found that Andrea and family had done a good job of removing fly eggs, but Monty had another kind of maggot infesting his ear cavities, botfly larva called warbles. His ears openings were swollen and encrusted with dried blood. Using drops of saline and forceps, we removed the warbles one by one. We counted 16 total!
Monty feels much better after his ears are cleaned out and the swelling has come down. (Photo by Suzanne Shoemaker)
When we finished removing the maggots, the swelling in Monty’s ears began to decrease almost immediately, and he felt much better. Over the next few days, Monty ate well, and grew and gained weight while we took steps to return him to his nest and back to the care of his parents. First, with Andrea’s help, we gained permission from their friend and Deep Creek neighbor, Jeff, to look for the nest, which was most likely on his property.
Step two, was to actually find the nest, which was a 3-hour drive from Owl Moon. Our first call was to our friend Deron Meador of Adventures With Raptors. Deron, his wife Sherry, and their whole big family of birds and dogs recently moved from our area to Deep Creek Lake. Deron and Sherry responded immediately. They went to Jeff’s address and soon located the nest, about 35 feet up in a tall tree. The nest was being watched over by an adult Broad-winged Hawk. Step three was to find a tree service to assist, which Owl Moon volunteer Nicole Burns accomplished by making multiple phone calls to Garrett County. The kind folks of Earth and Tree LLC, Tree Experts in Frostburg, MD responded, saying they’d be happy to donate their time and services to help young Monty. The operation was set for noon on Sunday, July 8th.
From left: Kevin, Wayne, and Glenne, the wonderful folks from Earth and Tree LLC, who volunteered their time and services to help return Monty to his happy home in the tree. (Photo by Amy Rembold)
The renesting team included Earth and Tree Arborist, Wayne Blocher, Sr., his wife and coordinater, Glenne Blocher, and Kevin Hall, the all-important tree climber, and Deron and Sherry of Adventures With Raptors. Rehabber Amy Rembold from Owl Moon, who coordinated the effort from our end, arrived with Monty and our renesting gear. Kevin climbed the tree to just below the nest and lowered a rope. Amy prepared Monty by placing him in a padded bag, and then tied the bag onto the rope. Monty was then raised up, and placed into the nest by Kevin. This startled a second nestling who came out of the nest, but was unharmed. She was quickly caught and returned to the nest with Monty. A third chick had already “branched”. That is, had reached the age where they leave the nest and climb around in the tree. He was unperturbed by the operation. When it was over, the team soaked up the heartwarming scene of the reunion, as the young hawks settled contentedly into their natural home, with the company they were meant to keep.
Monty (left), reunited with his older sibling in his nest. He is relaxed and content, and back in the care of his parents, (Photos by Kevin Hall)
“Track” (front) and “Field” were both weak and dehydrated when they were admitted to Owl Moon Raptor Center. You can see Field was the larger and stronger of the two.
The Poolesville High School Track and Field Team were training cross country on Thursday, April 26th, when they found two tiny young hatchling Black Vultures. They picked them and brought them to Poolesville Veterinary Clinic for care. Poolesville veterinarians and staff examined them and could see that the younger of the two, we called “Track” was weak and dehydrated. They put him in an oxygen chamber to help him breathe. The second, older and larger chick, “Field”, was livelier, and showed an appetite by begging behavior. They called us at Owl Moon to see if we could admit the two babies for care. We retrieved them from the clinic and gave each of them a dose of warm fluids under the skin to rehydrate and warm them. Later we offered them food. Little Track was still weak and would not accept food, but Field was interested and took several bites before falling asleep. Sadly, when we checked on the chicks early the next morning, April 27th, we discovered poor Track had passed away overnight. Field, on the other hand, was stronger, livelier, and hungrier.
Field was much brighter, stronger, and with a bigger, better appetite the next day.
We had not received the full story of where, and under what circumstances, the track team had found the two chicks, and as always, we wanted to get the healthy baby back into the care of his parents as soon as possible. We called the high school in an effort to reach the students who had found the chicks and learn these important facts. The staff were very helpful, and the track team was happy to show us where they had discovered them. They were found under a shrub next to a busy road near the center of Poolesville, MD. There was no evidence of a nest there, but there was evidence of a recent nest in a nearby open and abandoned garage. The tiny hatchlings had could not have found their own way out, so we could only conclude that someone had removed them and placed them under the shrub. It was not safe to return little Field to his parents under these circumstances. It was time to activate Plan B. We were determined to find him a nest and vulture parents, because a chick raised by people starting at such a young age would likely become imprinted on people (no matter how well we disguised ourselves), and not be able to live in the wild.
We knew of a Black Vulture nest in previous years, in a silo on a farm in Tuscarora, MD. We went there to scout it out and see if the adults had returned, and if so, had successfully hatched chicks, how many, and of what age. We needed a near-perfect match, and we got one! There were two Black Vulture chicks, both slightly older than Field, in a well tended nest in the bottom of the silo. A perfect situation for fostering, because we do not want to endanger a successful nest by adding a bigger and stronger chick, but these chicks were all close in age and in a safe place where food is plentiful. So we plopped Field down, backed off, and observed.
This video was started right after Field was introduced to the nest. He immediately begins to beg food from the older chicks. They both respond with a firm no, but Field is strong and not deterred!
The beak grabbing and shaking goes on, until they seem to gain an understanding of the “pecking order”. No one is hurt, and evidently no feelings are hurt, as when we left all three were at peace. We cheerfully watched mom re-enter the silo from the outside, and feel good about Field’s and his new siblings’ chances of a successful upbringing.
Owl Moon Raptor Center 