One of the sad truths around here is that we have more than our fair share of the imported red fire ant (check out items 3 and 4 on how to identify as they are many more good ants than bad ants!).

These ant are invasive and their painful bits can injure or even kill livestock, wildlife, domestic animals and I am led to believe, humans. Their mounds are large and unsightly (except to a fire ant) – at least until you start hunting them down in extreme drought conditions we are experiencing at present. Two weekends ago I spent more than 4 hours walking around with fire ant bait in hand looking for nests and only found three – only to find out that in extreme conditions they will move on underground – Guess I’ve got a lot more to learn!

Few weeks back, we experienced the danger to wildlife that fire ants pose firsthand – Vashti and I came across a baby Great Horned Owlet (Okay, I guess all owlet’s are babies by definition) that was really in a stressed state and was obviously on its last legs. Having nursed an owlet before I felt it best to see if I could find its nest or get it out of harms way, but was unable to find where it may have been nesting. This together with fact that its feet were swollen and eyes were shut we decided to bring it home – much to Vashti’s fancy. We fed it some minced meat slightly warmed and dipped in water (I was concerned bird was dehydrated and knew that trying to force feed water could be disastrous). She (we decided the owlet looked like a she) at first ate very little but after few feedings was happy to eat and ate more than I thought possible. As I wanted to feed her every few hours she accompanied me to the office the next day where she had many admirers.

Noleen managed to track down a lady in South Austin that rehabilitates larges owls and she was more than happy to take over and place the little one in a more appropriate environment. When Noleen dropped baby owlet with “owl lady”, she said that the owlet had been attacked by fire ants and which is why feet were so swollen and deformed – and eyes were swollen shut. We are hoping that feet will recover (apparently they don’t always) – so far, baby is doing fine and we will post pictures and updates once we hear back.