From WXOW

Southeastern Minnesota will again be the perch for the International Festival of Owls.

It happens from March 7 through March 9 in Houston. For more information, click here.

Organizers say the event includes just about everything you can think of related to owls: ambassador owls from the International Owl Center and visiting owls from the Illinois Raptor Center (including a Snowy Owl), owl prowls to call in wild owls, owl nest box building, owl pellet dissection, owl crafts, owl face painting, a kids’ owl calling contest, vendors of all manner of owl products, owl-themed food, and more.

This year’s World Owl Hall of Fame Award winners, selected by a panel of five owl experts from four continents, are Scott Rashid from Colorado and Rudolf Schaaf from Germany.

Scott Rashid is the founder and director of the Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute (CARRI). He has spent 27 years working with owls, banding more than 1,400 owls of 10 species, delivering hundreds of educational programs, and live streaming owl nests to the world. Rashid has put up more than 150 owl nest boxes, has published many popular and scientific articles, and rehabilitates wild owls in need of help. To top it off, he has written several books about owls, generously illustrated with his own artwork and photographs. He will be the keynote speaker at this year’s International Festival of Owls.

Rudolf Schaaf from Germany is being honored with a Special Achievement Award for his more than 30 years of dedication to the publication of international owl research, conservation and cultural aspects in KAUZBRIEF, a publication of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Eulenschutz im Landkreis Ludwigsburg (owl protection and research group). One thousand copies of each issue are disseminated to members of owl groups and universities conducting owl research. Schaaf is unable to attend in person but has created a 30-minute presentation that will also be shown at the Festival.

Former World Owl Hall of Fame Award winner Raju Acharya from Nepal will also attend this year’s festival and will give a presentation. Acharya has created a sister festival that takes place in early February: the Nepal Owl Festival.

For more information, click here.

  • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
    3·
    3 days ago

    Champion of Owls Award Scott Rashid, Colorado USA

    Scott Rashid is the founder and director of the Colorado Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute (CARRI). He has spent 27 years in the Rocky Mountains working with owls and will receive the 2025 World Owl Hall of Fame Champion of Owls Award for his work.

    Rashid documented the first Flammulated and Boreal Owl nests in Rocky Mountain National Park. He also monitors nests of Barn, Northern Pygmy-, Northern Saw-whet, Eastern Screech-, and Great Horned Owls and has installed over 150 nest boxes in Colorado plus 10 in Texas. He designed a larger Barn Owl box that helps prevent mortality of owlets due to crowding.

    Over 1,400 owls of 10 species have been banded by Rashid, including 553 Barn Owls from his nest boxes and 461 Northern Saw-whet Owls. He incorporates public education programs with his Barn, Northern Saw-whet and Boreal Owl banding efforts to give people an unforgettable up-close experience.

    He employs live cams on nests to better study breeding behavior of Great Horned and Barn Owls and shares their intimate details with the world via livestreaming. In a single 24-hour period 56,000 households from 38 countries watched his livestreams.

    Education is a key part of Rashid’s repertoire. He has delivered hundreds of educational presentations focused on several different owl species, primarily in Colorado, but also in Texas and Arizona. He has a number of popular and scientific articles to his name, and has published in Colorado Birds, Bird Watcher’s Digest, and the American Birding Association’s Birder’s Guide to Conservation and Community. He also authored five books about owls, illustrated with his own beautiful artwork and photographs.

    Due to need in the area, Rashid also wound up becoming a bird rehabilitator, including helping many owls.

    Truly, Scott Rashid is a champion of owls.