Baby Owl at Reelfoot Lake

Baby owl at Reelfoot Visitors Center

I saw this beautiful baby owl at the Visitors Center at Reelfoot Lake in western Tennessee. He was found on the ground as an infant, and the Reelfoot Park biologists are raising him. I believe he is a Great Horned Owl.

While I was trying to pin down that identification, I came across an interesting story about rescuing baby owls who fell from their nests. If this Reelfoot baby could have been returned to his nest when found, like those in the linked story, he wouldn't have to spend his life with strange humans taking his picture and talking to him.

I wonder if he will be returned to the wild someday, He has no owl parents to teach him how to survive. But at least, he wasn't eaten by a raccoon or a coyote on the ground after he fell from the nest. And because he was brought to the park headquarters, I got to see him, up close and absolutely beautiful.

Such a wistful little fellow