Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!pacbell!att!cbnews!pmd
From: pmd@cbnews.ATT.COM (Paul Dubuc)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: A Home for an Owl
Message-ID: <14484@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 5 Mar 90 15:44:37 GMT
References: <14411@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: pmd@cbnews.ATT.COM (Paul Dubuc)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 41


    This latest installment of our owl story is a bit sad, but I'm still
hopeful that it may turn out all right.  Yesterday (Sunday), after church,
I found our owl sitting quietly, with eyes closed, in the street by the curb
under the tree where he's been roosting.  This was about 1:00 PM in bright
daylight.  Even I knew something had to be wrong.  I have no idea how long
he'd been sitting there.  The last I saw him in the tree was Saturday after
noon.  I didn't hear him that night, so he could have been there most of the
evening and I just hadn't noticed.  My neighbor and I picked him up and though
still alive, he didn't struggle.  I couldn't see anything obviously wrong,
but I put him in a a box, covered it with a blanket and brought him to the
Wildlife Rehabilitation and Research Cooperative (WRRC) here in Columbus.
(This is one of the contacts I made while trying to figure out how to save
the owl's tree from being cut down.  I'm sure glad I had their number handy.
I wouldn't have known what to do otherwise.)   The people there really seemed
to know what they were doing.  They examined Hoover (our name for the owl)
and put him into an incubator to keep him warm.  He was in shock with trauma
from some sort of impact on his left side.  They could feel swelling, but
couldn't tell if anything was broken until they do an X-ray.  Most likely
he was hit by a passing car.
    That's were I left our owl (In good hands, at least).  I'm glad I found
him before a neighborhood cat or dog did (or before someone decided to park
their car where he was sitting).  If Hoover recovers well enough to be
released, they said they would bring him back to our yard to do so.  This
surprised me.  I thought he would be better off in a park.  But owls are
territorial birds and I suppose it's better to have him back in a place
that is familiar.  We sure do miss hearing his song in the evening.  My
family has become pretty attached to this little owl, our neighbors are
concerned too.  If he comes back, I plan to build a nesting box for him in
one of our other trees.  This tree, besides being marked for removal by the
city, is not a good place for an owl.  The cavity faces the street and
the only flight path out of it is across the street.  Owls are low flyers,
apparently.  I saw him fly out at dusk on Friday and he was almost hit by
a car then.  It looks like some starlings have taken over his old tree
cavity already, anyway.
    I'll post again here for those who are interested when I get more news.
-- 
Paul Dubuc   |   "We must know where to doubt, where to feel
att!asr1!pmd |   certain, where to submit.  He who does not
	     |   do so, understands not the force of reason."
	     |   			    Pascal