Blue Ridge Wildlife Center rehabilitator Amber Dedrick (left) and founder and director
Belinda Burwell release two barred owls Sunday afternoon (Feb. 20th) in front of a crowd
of spectators at Kernstown Battlefield. (Photo by Scott Mason/The Winchester Star)
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WINCHESTER- In the time it took camera bulbs to flash, two rehabilitated barred owls were reintroduced into the wild Sunday afternoon at the Kernstown Battlefield Association's Pritchard-Grim Farm.
The owls were injured in separate incidents and were nursed back to health by veterinarian Belinda Burwell, founder and director of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center.
One of the owls released Saturday was brought to the center in December by local students after they found it on the side of Interstate 81. It had sustained head and eye trauma as a result of being struck by a vehicle. The other owl arrived from the Purcellville area in January after suffering similar head and eye injuries from being struck by a vehicle.
One owl was slightly larger than the other, an indication that one is a female and the other male, Burwell said. Typically, females are about 25 percent larger than males. February, she noted, is mating season for barred owls. Since they were rehabilitated in the same cage, Burwell hopes the two will stay together in the wild. Her hopes were temporarily dashed when the two owls flew in opposite directions after being released.
"Well, that usually happens," she said, laughing. "I think that once it gets dark outside, they'll get back together and hopefully stay that way."Burwell said the tall trees and open field at the site of a Civil War battlefield should be a great habitat for the owls.
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