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!
This is my favorite look for a Snowy. It’s not silly like the meme face, it’s not too angry considering owls always look at least a bit angry. They just look like a living Squishmellow.
I do prefer the females for the black spots, I really think the pattern makes them look great. But this pic makes me happy!
I feel judged
Yes, his disdain for us humans is very palpable!
It’s him, the O RLY owl!
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.
Sending you love 🥰
Hey, I think you did the trick, I just got a job!
It’s a little far away, but pays good and sounds pretty easy, and it’s 5 minutes from the park with the owls I visited over the weekend!
Wow, great!
I’m happy to hear that 🎉 Congratulation 🎉
Me too, it’s such a weight off my shoulders! I’m the only income for my house and my contract ends next week so I was really stressing.
Thank you kind stranger!
Thank you so much for your posts! They really make my day.
Anything for Hedonism Bot!
Lol I’m kinda proud of this one, I’m not a good photoshopper, so I’m a little sad only like 5 people will see this. 🤣
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!
I lived right next to Quechee for 4 months. Drove past that raptor sanctuary many times and went to it once. It’s really neat.
Awesome! It looks to be a great place. I have so many great memories of Vermont and I really want to go back. This is definitely in my to do list when I go.
I lived in Woodstock. It’s a nice little town to visit. Just don’t expect to find any rooms available in Fall when the leaves are changing.
Quechee is cool, too, a little more touristy. But the gorge is neat.
That area is so nice.
I stayed right near Bartlett Falls, as I was hitting up lots of touristy stuff between Burlington and the Montpelier areas. Magic Hat, Ben and Jerry’s, Cabot Creamery. I think i went after leaf season, I get those where I’m at.
I went to the Bobcat Cafe in Bristol a bunch. All their food and house brews I thought were some of the best I ever had, and it was in this little town that was like 1 block long! 😄 I’m sorta nervous to ever try it again, that it won’t live up to how I remember it!
VINS is so much fun!
It really does look pretty amazing. Most of these places are so small and have a shoestring budget, but this place looks awesome!
