Storm Battered Screech-Owl Secures Second Chance

Posted on March 2, 2017March 2, 2017 by Monte Merrick

After the storms at the end of February raged across the North Coast, our caseload at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center saw many more battered birds. Collisions with rocks at sea, collisions with buildings – even frantic foraging during lulls in the wind and rain can cause otherwise cautious wild animals to take dangerous risks in order to eat. While we may never know what actually caused an injury, the treatment is often the same. Such was the case with this Western Screech-owl (Megascops kennicottii) who was brought in to our wildlife hospital the last week of February after being found in the middle of Murray Road, east of McKinleyville.

The small owl, presumed male, was in excellent body condition, had no broken bones, but his left eye was swollen closed. Fortunately his eye was in good shape, with just swollen tissue surrounding. So after only a few days of anti-inflammatory medicine, he was flying very well, and very stressed by captivity. While it doesn’t tell the whole story, a healthy wild animal is less tolerant of human caregivers than one who is weak, in shock, or otherwise debilitated.

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Soon, we were able to return this Owl to the neighborhood where he lives. There is no question that his chances for survival without someone who cared enough to get him help finding him was seriously jeopardized. Even an hour on the ground can be fatal for a bird, especially if the ground in question s a well used rural highway. Enjoy the photographs that tell the story of his release! Thanks for your support!

He flies very well!

Our aviary isn’t big enough for this Owl.

If he passes his release evaluation, this is the last time he’ll have to encounter the dreaded net.

Checking the progress of his wounded eye.

On the way to the release site…

Patient flying away – the best sight…

Thanks to you and your generous support, the folks who found this owl were able to find us. And thanks to the care that your support allows us to provide, there will be another Screech-owl in the Redwoods this Spring, preparing to raise another clutch of owlets with his mate. With our help, they’ll make sure there’ll always be Screech-owls in our forests.

All photos: Bird Ally X/Laura Corsiglia

After the Fall, a Winged Climb Back to the Heights – a Screech-owl’s Second Chance

Posted on August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Most everywhere that you find people, you find wild animals that are born into a world that isn’t the one evolution prepared them for … skyscrapers, cars and trucks, industrial agriculture, deer netting, cats, wind farms, deforestation, ocean pollution, radiation, – the breakneck expansion of the built world over the last 200 years has re-made huge swaths of Mother Earth, and her children, all of us, pay the price. We all know.

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Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center admits for care those wild animals who are found injured in the conflict. A Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) who’d been swatted by a roaming house cat in Rio Dell, a young River Otter (Lontra canadensis) from Crescent City whose mother had been hit by a car, or an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) with tail and flight feathers singed bare when he landed on powerlines and a fire broke out – each of these are recent cases. This is wildlife rehabilitation. The nestling Western Screech-owl (Megascops kennicottii) pictured above had fallen from his nest in Rohner Park, Fortuna.

Thin and dehydrated upon admission, the Western screech-owl quickly accepted the offered bits of mouse we fed, gaining weight daily.

This isn’t the first time we’ve raised a young Screech-owl found in that park. Up and away from the heavily used open area of Rohner Park is a forested low ridge of old Redwoods that makes an attractive fragment of habitat. Screech-owls are among our many wild neighbors who call it their home. Walking trails weave through the trees.

Ways in which we change the forest with our more urbane usage can wreak havoc on a nest of owls. Understory is cleared for trails, for safety, from repeated off trail excursions, leaving nothing to catch the first explorations of nestling owl, branching out, you might say. A fall to the ground leaves the youngster stranded in a strange world with only one outcome: death. Predator, machine, starvation, or even well-intended wrong actions from people – one of these will claim the owl. The only chance this owl had was to be found by someone who knew what to do.

The forested ridge of Rohner Park, Fortuna, home for Western Screech-owls and many more wild neighbors.

A regular walker at Rohner Park, a gentleman who knows the park well, found the owl at the base of a tall Redwood. He scooped the downy little one up into a box and delivered the box to park staff. They called us. Fortunately, we have a dedicated volunteer in Fortuna who was able to drive the owl to our clinic.

Growing up!

Soon more useful feathers for the future began to grow in. We have to wonder how things were back at the nest. Year-round, we admit adult Screech-owls who have been hit by cars. Of course some of these adults had active nests with young ones who may not survive the loss of this parent. We work in the trenches, where the machinery tears into the earth. We treat the injured, we grieve the losses, we struggle to do right by their orphans and raise them to be competent, free and able to thrive. And if possible, we retrun babies to their families.

As soon as the owl was eating on his own, nearly full grown, full feathered and sure footed (and still on the smaller side of average, so presumably a male), he was not yet flying well, he was what some call a “brancher.” A brancher doesn’t need the nest anymore, which mean that we could more easily re-unite him with his parents. All we need to find is his family.

BAX Wildlife Rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson briefly holds the owlet so that he can call, hopefully bringing his parents to ivestigate. This method can be a very effective way to locate families. Imagine our own children calling, who we’ve missed.

Unfortunately, the annual rodeo was at the park, and the noise and disruption was too great – no Screech-owls were seen or heard. We had to bring the young owl back to the clinic. Given the activities planned for the park through the busy summer, we decided to continue his care until he was able to fend for himself. A few more weeks of privacy and mice and the chance to learn to hear, to see, to swoop, to clutch, to kill, to eat, to live and he would be ready to return – and by then the rodeo, the car show, and other events, would be over.

Now, we housed the owl with natural forest items, evergreen branches and a leaf litter floor where we could hide food, and where he might learn to detect prey. Eventually we moved the owl to a large outside aviary, where thrived on his own, learning to hunt and learning to fly, with little interference from us except for weight checks, housekeeping and feeding.

Eventually after more than 6 weeks in care, we had done for him what we could. The only improvement we could offer him was freedom.
An excellent flier now, his ability to evade the net was impressive. Soon his skills will open up the dense branches of the forest for his silent passage.

The aviary of his youth will soon be only a memory.

At the end of the workday, BAX staff took the young owl back to Rohner Park. The sun was setting and the park was a normal park – families played in the playground – gunfire from a nearby shooting range sounded – but no large events – just the regular daily life that will always be a part of this owl’s experience.

We release our patients into the real world. It is unquestionable that many of the challenges that this owl face are not just, they are not right. But they are real. Nature always takes her own course, even when she is thwarted, when she is injured, when she is smashed into pieces. And this owl is a part of her and will thrive, we hope, and raise owls of his own some day, here in Rohner Park, and the struggle for life, and for co-existence, and for more will continue, here in our small corner of the wild blue world.

A cautious young owl hopefully grows to be an old wise one.

The young owl did not want to leave the box after first opening. It’s good when a juvenile shows reluctance to venture into a new territory or new situation. Caution is not a bad course of action, especially when you are completely ignorant of what awaits. The owl was offered a stick to perch on in the box and he waited for over 30 minutes before flying. As the light faded, he flew higher andhigher into the canopy. Until at last it was too dark for him to be seen.

The young owl’s first flight, free in the wild.

Perching relatively near after his first wild flight, the youngster gets his bearings.

At dusk he was perched much farther above – alive to the night.

His family of owls, if they are intact, will likely find this young male – and if they don’t we have given him the best education we could for him to thrive on his own. And nature herself has equipped him for life as an owl far better than anyone else ever could.

Your support made his care possible. Your support provides the care for all of our wild patients. Thank you for making it happen. Every gift helps. $5 fed this owl for a day. $500 paid for his entire care – food, electric, gas, medicine. While our patients’ gratitude may be uncertain, ours is deep and heartfelt.

All photos: Laura Corsiglia / Bird Ally X

Western Screech-owl in care shows his finery right before release to the wild

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Monte Merrick

One of the lesser known side-benefits of working at a wildlife hospital is the intense and privileged proximity caregivers have to wild freedom. Want to help give injured and orphaned wild animals a second chance? Volunteer with your local wildlife rehabilitator!

weso wingspread aviary

The Case of the Houda Point Screech-owl …

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Found at Houda Point, barely able to move, cold, very dehydrated and thin, almost unable to stand, it took a few days before this Western Screech-owl became fully aware of his surroundings. By appearances, his prospects looked pretty bleak, but after repeated exposure to such patients in this shape, the miracle of fluids, warmth and nutrition when ready can seem commonplace. And one strong reason for his optimistic prognosis was his ability and willingness to eat mice soon after being admitted.

Because he is on the small end of the typical range for the weight and size of Western Screech-owls we surmise that he is male. While it is true for most birds of prey that females are significantly larger than males, sometimes by as much as a third, among screech-owls this difference is less pronounced, with females averaging 13% more body mass than males (1).

After ten days in care, the small owl’s condition had improved significantly. This is our first photo of him after being moved to an outdoors aviary.

Motor vehicles are the most common cause of injury for all the owls that we see. Last year at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we treated 50 owls of various species. We know that 26 of these owls had been struck by a vehicle. 24 of the owls we treated were Western Screech-owls. Of these 24, 14 had been hit by a car. Due to the typical severity of injuries car strikes cause, only 5 survived to be released.

While an owl might fly in front of your moving car anywhere, it is important to remember that these nocturnal hunters use the edges of roads to find prey. Maybe before we destroy the world we’ll realize that a good neighbor puts lives before speed. Etiquette and courtesy: why not teach these things first about living in nature?

With his feet wrapped in cohesive bandage, Dr. Lisa Bartlett of Arcata Animal Hospital examines the owl’s legs while BAX rehabilitation assistant and board member Lucinda Adamson handles for her.

After 3 weeks in care, the owl was visibly more alert and energetic

This Screech-owl, however was not likely to have been hit by a car. After a few days in care, with varying ability to stand, his legs began to swell. Both legs had multiple small puncture wounds. With antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs added to his daily care, he soon improved.

While we’ll never know for sure what caused his injury, we speculate that it was a conflict with another predator, perhaps a feral or free-roaming cat or even another Screech-owl.

No matter the cause, this owl’s injuries healed quickly. A lingering problem with his left hock (analogous to a human ankle) where a puncture from claw or talon was causing apparent pain and swelling took a few weeks and a couple of trips to the veterinarian. Twice we needed radiographs to confirm that the joint was healing and this small owl would be able to carry his dinner (primarily small rodents such as mice and voles) back to his roost or nest. Carrying mice back to his partner is an important part of screech-owl mating. When nesting, the male screech-owl also shares the duties of hunting for the nestlings once the chicks have left the egg(2).

Our small patient recovers in our newest aviary, built in 2013.

Because a wild animal needs to be in top physical condition to thrive, our concerns regarding the use of his leg required a cautious approach to his release. Besides physical examination and radiographs to make sure that his bones were healthy, we offered live prey to determine that the owl was capable of providing for himself after release.

Evading capture! While we aren’t trying to cause our patient’s stress, it is nice to see his restored vigor and agility.

A remarkable feature of owls in flight: near-total silence as they rush past your head!

After another couple of weeks in care, we were sure he was ready. Two BAX/HWCC interns and Kim Hettler-Coleman, our volunteer coordinator, took the owl back to Houda Point, back where he’d been found. After coming back from the release Kim reports, “As he sat in the hollowed out part of the tree, disappearing into his surroundings, all was well, in the owl’s world and mine. Freedom never looked so good … in camouflage!”

Returned to his rescue location, the owl surveys the situation from a gnarly old Monterey Cypress.