This week I had the incredibly heartwarming experience of releasing a Screech Owl with Pacific Wildlife Care (PWC). I had found it on the road on my way to Sweet Springs a couple of months earlier. It was just a tiny, little ball of feathers, but it was upright, so I knew it was still alive. I stopped and gently scooped it up and drove it straight to the PWC Center in Morro Bay.
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I was reluctant to check on its progress, as the chances of surviving being struck by a car are pretty slim. I've brought PWC a number of other animals over the years – a White-tailed Kite, Red-shouldered Hawk chick, Virginia Rail, Great Horned Owl, Brandt Cormorant, a seagull and a grey fox. Many of them made it, but of course, others were too far gone. I was afraid the Screech Owl was one of the goners. That's why I was so elated to get the call from Debbie Buckheim saying that the little guy had not only survived, but was ready to go back to the wild. He had lost an eye, but since owls hunt using sound it shouldn't slow him down much. The hearing of owls is almost unmatched and their flight is virtually silent so they can pinpoint their prey. The shape of their skulls and head feathers actually funnel sound into their ears like little satellite dishes.
Great Horned Owlet
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We released him in the woods by our house, which is a ways back from the highway, but close enough to where I found him that he might still be able to find his mate. It was dusk, but just light enough that he obviously felt a little vulnerable. He flew up and then froze on a low bay branch, awaiting the protective cover of darkness to explore his new freedom. I am so grateful to the dedicated volunteers at PWC for giving him that chance. They are definitely a worthy organization that needs our support.
Parent Great Horned Owl
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As many of you know, one of the horned owl fledglings from Sweet Springs wound up at Pacific Wildlife Care last year. Unfortunately, whatever had happened to him proved to be too much for him to withstand. He didn't make it. But what is perhaps worse, is that his fate is surprisingly common. Over 50% of horned owl fledglings do not live to be a year old, even though owls can live well into their twenties in captivity. We humans have made their lives increasingly perilous with our automobiles, power lines, large plate glass windows, and the use of poisons in our gardens and agricultural fields. We are now their greatest threat. Nonetheless, Great Horned Owls are incredibly adaptive birds and are extremely widespread. Their range extends throughout North and Central America and they appear to be equally at home in suburbs and city parks as they are in country woods and farmlands.
Many people have expressed concern about the future of the owls at Sweet Springs if the eucalyptus on the east side are gradually removed. I think there is no question that they will do just fine. Although they often use the nests of Red-shouldered Hawks in tall eucalyptus trees, they also are known to place their clutches in hollows or broken-off snags in other types of trees. In fact, that was what the pair at Sweet Springs did last year. They used an old cypress rather than a eucalyptus, and we have no plans to remove any of those. Not to mention that all of the eucalyptus trees on the central preserve will still be available for them should they choose to use them in the future. We recently completed a count and found that there are 340 eucalyptus and 72 cypress on the central preserve. There are also 178 oak seedlings and saplings. Although the oaks are growing frustratingly slowly, they will eventually grow up to form a dense canopy that can provide shelter and nesting sites for Great Horned Owls as well as many other bird and animal species.
