Ottawa birders come to rescue of fallen great horned owlet

[Donna]

OTTAWA — High in the treetop, the wind blew, the cradle rocked, and sure enough, the baby fell out.

Its mother, a great horned owl, found the nest empty and called, long and loud, for her owlet.

A group of Ottawa birders, out for that fateful day on Petrie Island, heard the mother.

Gary Fairhead, an experienced birder, had days earlier taken photos of the nesting owl and owlet. Keeping aconsiderable distance from the nest, he used a high-powered telephoto lens to capture photographs of the owlet being fed rodents hunted by the mother.

And then, on that windy Saturday in early April, he brought some interested fellow birders to see the great horned owl pair.

“One of the lads had not yet seen this owl and when we neared the area, I pointed to the squirrel nest that they were using. I was startled to see through my binoculars that the mother owl was not sitting on the nest and I could not see the owlet either,� he recalled.

They could, however, hear the calls of the mother.

“We feared that a predator had taken the little one, but about 10 minutes later it was suggested that the base of the tree be checked as it was extremely windy and one of two owlets had fallen from a similar nest last year,� Fairhead said.

The fluffy white owlet was found on the ground, having landed on a pile of dead leaves. It appeared to the birders to be unhurt.

The nest, however, seemed to be destroyed, probably by high winds. In fact, the birders discerned that it was actually an abandoned squirrel’s drey that the great horned owl mother had adapted for her own use.

William McMullen, one of the group, called the Wild Bird Care Centre and explained the situation. The staff at the Moodie Drive centre advised the birders how to transport the owlet.

Another member of the group, James McDonald, had a box in his car and McMullen had a blanket. The trick then was to approach the owlet without provoking the mother since great horned owls have a reputation of attacking people who get close to their young. McDonald and fellow birder, Ted Busby, worked quickly to smoothly transfer the owlet from ground to box. With his back to the mother owl, McDonald carefully picked up the owlet, and placed it into the blanketed box. He then departed immediately for the walk to his car and then the drive to the Wild Bird Care Centre.

Fairhead stayed behind for about an hour. ‘While it was comforting that the owlet had a chance at surviving its ordeal, the mother owl was still calling and seemed unaware that the owlet had been removed from the area,� he said.

At the Wild Bird Care Centre, the owlet was checked over and found to be in good health. On the scales, the owlet weighed in at 747 grams and was promptly named Boeing.

Three days later, the Wild Bird Care Centre staff made an attempt to reunite Boeing with its mother. Jody Miall scaled the tree and attached a reconstructed crow's nest to the partially destroyed squirrel’s drey in the hopes that the mother owl would return and resume her care of the owlet.

Near sunset, it became apparent that the mother owl was not returning. Boeing was once again taken from his nest and returned to the centre.

The staff at the Wild Bird Care Centre knew immediately that if Boeing had any chance of living the natural life of a great horned owl, he would need to be put in the care of another owl. They contacted The Owl Foundation, a non-profit conservation organization that operates a centre for rehabilitation of owls.

There, Boeing is thriving under the care of an experienced foster mother owl. He even has a foster sibling to be owlish with.

Check World of Birds for further updates on Boeing.