From Cape Wildlife Center

🚗🦉lt’s Owl Awareness Week🦉🚗

If you’ve never heard of this, that’s ok, we kinda made it up lol. BUT it’s important to make everyone aware that their chances of accidentally hitting an owl while driving at night drastically increase this time of year.

As the sun sets earlier an owl’s prime hunting time now coincides with rush hour traffic, especially after the clocks go back with daylight savings time. Now as these birds of prey are crossing roads in search of food they have many more cars to contend with, making them more vulnerable to collisions.

It might not seem like roadways would make good hunting grounds but raptors have good success finding their next meal around these areas because the open spaces make prey easier to spot and rodents are attracted to eating discarded food from travelers.

Pretty much like clock work the number of injured owls admitted to our hospitals unfortunately skyrockets. These birds tend to sustain severe head trauma, eye damage, and sometimes fractures after being hit by a car. Let’s do our part to keep them safe!

Here are a few tips to help protect our feathered friends:

Slow Down: Reduce your speed during dusk and dawn, especially in areas known for wildlife.

Stay Alert: Keep an eye out for wildlife crossing signs and be mindful of your surroundings.

Report Injuries: If you see an injured owl, contact us or a local wildlife rehabilitation center for advice on how to safely get the bird help.

Together, we can help reduce the number of owls injured on our roads this fall. Let’s keep our nocturnal neighbors safe!