say hello to my little friend

One of the things I look forward to on the weekend is visiting and taking care of my owl, eagle, hawk, and vulture friends, along with a few others (most notably the squirrels and the possum, which I'm sure I'll get into more detail about later). The little guy in this picture is Lefty. He's a saw-whet owl...TINY. One of the smallest species of owl, and probably the smallest found anywhere around here. You can see how small he is based on my hand, which he's sitting on! You can also see some of the reasons why he lives at the nature center -- permanently. His two eyes are different colors. The one that's darker has had problems ever since he was hit by a car -- probably cataracts. He doesn't see very well out of that eye. Also, his left wing was broken and didn't heal right, so it sticks out a little funny, and he can't fly. Finally, he has a cross bill, which makes it difficult for him to tear apart his food. I have to try to reshape it and trim it back every so often -- with a Dremel -- which, in case you aren't familiar with these, is basically like a power drill with a sandpapery end. I use it to file his beak so he can use it more efficiently. I'll probably have to do that again very soon even though I feel like I just did it! He's a very good boy and doesn't wiggle around too much. It's hard to shape such a small beak but he's patient and I want to make him just as handsome as possible. Isn't he just the cutest?!