isaacgreen.org / Great Horned Owl 3845

Great Horned Owl 3845 was a baby when he was found in late March 2007. He was found on the ground tangled in vines off Orange Grove Road in the West Ashley area. The person who found him called a wildlife removal company to see if they could help. They responded and pulled down a large number of vines to retrieve the baby owl and brought him to the center. He was unhurt, so the plan was that Jess, an intern at the center, and I were going to try to reunite the baby with it's parents. We made contact with the people living on the property. They were aware of the owls, but didn't know where the nest was. On my first visit, both parents were flying around and vocalizing. That is a good sign, but I did not have the owl with me at the time. Since it was late, the decision was made to wait until the next day to bring the baby owl back from the clinic. Since we were unable to locate the nest, we had to resort to a nest platform.

The nest platform attached to an oak

Placing a nest platform involves carrying it up a ladder and strapping it to the tree using tie-downs. As you can see from the above, it was after dark by the time I got the platform up. Jess came with the owl, and I placed him in the platform. We retired to a dark corner of the yard to wait for the chick's re-union with its parents. Unfortunately, there was no activity at all. The parents never came back. We stayed for a few hours, being interrupted briefly by a raccoon who was started to find us hiding in the yard. So, we had to go to plan B -- get the baby owl back out the nest platform and take him in for the night to try again the next night. So, GHOW3845 had to bunk with me for the night. [See a story where Plan A worked!]

The Ritz it isn't.

He spent the night in my guest bathroom (and had to share with the grow light and seedlings for that year's garden!). I fed him a rat that Grace had thoughtfully sent along in case we resorted to plan B. This taught me the utility of always having a frozen rat on hand -- you never know when you'll need to fed an owl. [So, be warned before opening my freezer -- you may find frozen rats!] Over the next couple of days, I went back to look for his parents both morning and night. There was no sign of them. He spent another night at my house before he was returned to the clinic. I still checked, but never found his parents. I suspect that the nest wad destroyed when the wildlife guy pulled down the vines. One can't be sure, but without a nest and the baby gone, parents will only stick around so long. All was not lost, though...GHOW3845 would be raised by humans. He got plenty to eat. While still young, we would fed him wearing a camouflage drape and using a stuffed great horned owl as a puppet to make him think owls were still raising him. Later, he was kept with other great horned owls. Finally came the day of his release. Since I had spent so much time working with him, I had the honor of releasing him. Also, since I live less than a mile from where he was found, I was able to release him in my backyard.

On August 8th, 2007, GHOW3845 was released back into the wild -- sporting a fancy new identification band. We invited my neighbors over to see him go. Erin took most of the photos shown below --

One last bite...
Owl release

First taste of freedom

He couldn't resist one last bite. I let him go, and he flew up into my pecan tree and sat to get his bearings. The local song bird population rolled out the "unwelcome mat" by flying around him and making nasty calls. They usually don't appreciate the appearance of raptors in the neighborhood. He sat in the tree for awhile and we went inside to avoid being complete consumed by mesquitoes. When I check a short time later he was gone. Hopefully he is still doing well.