Spoiler alert: there is a picture of animal bones and a distant picture of a disembodied leg. These are owls we’re talking about.
We’ve had a couple of owls living on our little street (a cul de sac with just six houses). They’ve been hooting away during the day and night for several months. That’s not all they’ve been doing, either.
This morning Tom and our neighbors, David, Betsy, and Roger (Betsy and Roger are married) found a surprise in the middle of our cul-de-sac. I was sleeping at the time, as I’m not currently a responsible, contributing member of society. So, rather than re-hash all of this in my own words, particularly since I wasn’t there and don’t deserve to pretend to be, here’s the baby owl’s story as told through Facebook posts.
First, David posted a picture of the owl:
Tom posted a video of him:
And Betsy updated her status and explained what the owl-helpers told her:
And, of course I wanted to see owl pellets. So, I headed over to Betsy’s driveway, where she told her son he could “keep” them (the same place he found them). We all know owls are bad mother-shut-my-mouths, but as we looked at one pellet, then found another, and then another, we slowly realized we were standing below their nest, and let me tell you, I am glad I’m not a mouse. Or a bird. Or a chipmunk. Or a rabbit.
Seriously, y’all, they sit up in their nest of horror and drop animal body parts over the side.*
Betsy also told me that the raptor rescuer said that while the babe’s blood was from breakfast, he DID have fly eggs on him, which, if hatched could cause maggots, which would then have caused his death. So, he had several baths at the rescue place, and they will let him dry overnight and will bring him back tomorrow. Hopefully there won’t be any issue and he’ll be welcomed back with open wings and the slaughter can begin again (they eat up to 10 mice a day). So, yay for Betsy and the Chattahoochee Nature Center for preventing what sounds like a pretty horrible maggot-related death.
This is the picture Tom took of him when he first found him. Even as a relatively helpless birdie, he looks pretty intimidating – look at those talons!
*I’m kidding, owls! I love you. Please don’t hurt me.
Update: My title was a lie! This morning, the raptor lady came in to check on baby owl (I keep wanting to nickname him “bowel” but that’s not right), and he had blood on him again. After another thorough pat down, she discovered three puncture wounds on his inner thigh. So, he’ll stay with them while he’s on some antibiotics and will be returned after the wound is in the clear.
She thinks the cause of the injury was that his parents stepped on him. I would go over and lecture up at the nest about them needing to be more careful with their babies, but I’m afraid they’ll toss a squirrel head over the side at me and I know I wouldn’t recover from a trauma like that.
The theory is that the wound made him tip forward when he ate, so he would fall in his bloody food, which explains why he looked like Stephen King’s Carrie at the prom. That would also explain why he’s all hunched over in the scary pictures of him.
Update 7/24/12 – I’ve noticed this post has gotten some traffic lately. I feel like I should complete the story even though it’s a sad one. The baby owl passed away a few days after I posted this. I was so bummed about it I didn’t have the heart to write about it.
He died from rat poisoning. A rat must have ingested rat poisoning, and then the baby owl and the rest of his family probably caught and ate that rat. Most likely they all died as all owl sounds in the neighborhood ceased shortly after we found the baby.
Rat poison is serious, serious business. It doesn’t just kill rats – putting it out is a risk for many animals, including pets. The irony is that the rat poison killed one of nature’s best pest controls. Such a shame.
Holy crap. I saw the picture earlier and was waiting for the story, if only because I wanted to know how you scooped the little hooter (giggle, giggle b/c I’m 12 years old) up. I would have loved to have been in the car for that rise…or not.
He probably thought you were going out for dessert. Bummer for him.
Betsy said he was ok in the car but then perked up and didn’t like being handled once he got there. Probably because of the disappointment in finding out there was no dessert.
My youngest daughter has pj’s with an owl on them. YOUR owl would give me nightmares. Hers says (if you ask her) “hoo, hoo”.
This one said “GRAHHHRRRAAACH!”
You have helped the baby of the earthly masters. Therefore you will be spared when the Owl Apocalypse comes.
Very cool that your neighbors did that!
I shudder to think what an Owl Apocalypse would entail.
Instead of woot woot, I offere hoot hoot. Owl tell you something, Carrie, I’m upset we’re not the facebook friends.
glad the owl’s ok.
Lance Burson on the book of faces. you can like the blog there too.
Your punny request has been fulfilled. All requests should be in pun-form.
(heh heh, hooters)
Obviously this little dirty bird never heard the song, Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.
Don’t tell him I said that.
I won’t. I’m afraid to tell him anything.
Now I feel bad. Poor little hooter. (heh heh)
Does it make me a good person because I actually didn’t think of the “hooter” joke?
Definitely. I think it’s in the bible or something.
I think that last picture just stole part of my soul. Since it’s not all that big to begin with, I fear for the repercussions of now having less soul. My dance moves will most definitely suffer. ((Shudder)).
Misty, I’ll look in the owl pellets to see if there were any parts of your soul that they couldn’t digest and get it back to you.
Crazy freaking monsters. I don’t understand why people have turned owls into cute decorative birds to adorn clothes and bags and things, when they’re clearly violent, murderous monsters who want to kill you. Anyway, it must be pretty cool to be able to watch them for reals.
We mostly hear them. Luckily we haven’t heard the constant slaughtering, that would be the stuff of nightmares.
Love the pictures! We used to have a owl in our backyard and we would always hear it making odd noises in the middle of the night. This past winter we didn’t hear it though. I’m hoping it comes back eventually. (Although our old senile neighbor has been trapping all the squirrels in the neighborhood and taking them out to the parks because he ‘doesn’t like them digging up the vegetables’.) One never knows what the neighbors are going to be up to. lol!
You have a neighbor who has been trapping and re-releasing squirrels at the park? That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.
At the last count, he was up to 52 squirrels trapped and moved. I bet they are the same ones coming back home and then getting caught again. Boy, is my neighbor proud though. lol!
That is hilarious! I love it.
Man! I thought bats in my house were crazy and interesting. You win! 🙂 In the good way…
Well, I’m really just the messenger. I’m hoping I can see him when he comes back so that I can then seem first-hand interesting.
The owl, even though a wee tyke, is scary in the before AND after shots. It’s that white poofy hair. Glad he’s all sanitized and back to his slaughters.
He’s supposed to have even more white poofy hair, but it was completely covered in blood.
Oh dear god that first picture is scary. I thought all baby things were supposed to be cute? That thing looks more like something the cat coughed up and then proceeded to eat the cat.
That is an excellent description. I would hate to see something an owl coughed up that proceeded to eat the owl – THAT would be the height of terror.
To write that I was yelling ,”It’s a leg, it’s a leg” is more than generous of you. In truth, I was shrieking like a little, sissy, nancy-girl as I was high tailing it across the yard! You were far more brave than I was!!!
You came back, though. Although you were kind of repeating quietly to yourself, “it’s a leg…it’s a leg…”