Nature's
Way
Onward Owls!
by Lakin Khan
Every so often, something needs to be hand-delivered to the good folks in Salazar or Stevenson and I sally forth, relishing the opportunity to get off my duff, stretch my legs, gaze into the far distance.
Being indoors all day can become a bit aggravating for an amateur campus naturalist. I usually map out a route that runs through Stevenson’s inner courtyard in hopes of seeing a barn owl or two. I had thought there might be one family, but in conversation with Becky Olsen, from Administration and Finance, who has worked with the Bird Rescue Center of Sonoma County for almost 15 years, I learned that there are quite a few families residing under the overhang of the roof. The trough that runs all along the top of the walls is perfect for these cavity-dwelling owls, who otherwise would nest in the hollows of tall trees, or niches in the rock faces of cliffs.
Barn owls are magnificent birds with wide, flat, circular faces that act like a satellite dish, collecting sound and shunting it to their hidden ears, which are offset, one higher, one lower, giving them the ability to triangulate sounds, pinpointing the source with deadly accuracy. The merest rustle of a mouse spells doom when a barn owl scans the fields at night. Even breathing would be not be advised.
Farmers realize what a pair of barn owls can do to a rodent population and they put out the welcome mat, often incorporating good nesting sites into a barn’s design to entice them. One owl will consume maybe five mice or so over a night’s hunting; with a nest full of owlets, sometimes up to 12 little ones, this can become 10 or 20. Anyone who pays attention to the ground under the owls’ perches can attest that this adds up rather quickly.
Those dark rough blotchy blobs scattered around are owl pellets, a regurgitation of the indigestible bones and fur of their meal, for owls tend to gulp down the creatures more or less whole. No knives and forks for them. After a night’s hunting, owls spend the daytime in a protected location, digesting, snoozing, downright loafing, seemingly wise with all that time to ponder.
I have seen a few adult owls up on the ledges, but I’ve only seen one fledgling, stuck on a small low ledge in the angle of the walls. Just recently, Olsen, helped an adolescent transition from a small lawn by Schulz into some adjacent shrubbery where it could rest out of sight and try again. She later took it to the Bird Rescue Center for observation since it did not seem to be doing well. It was released later with other juveniles.
Do not try this at home, folks — owls need to be handled in a precise and practiced manner; they have talons, a strong beak and they are not intimidated by the likes of us.
In general, if not hurt and left to themselves in a safe spot, the fledglings will eventually catch their breath, re-strategize and regain their nest, ready to practice another day with another flight. Much as, I like to think, the just-arrived fresh-people are trying out their wings, looking to fledge themselves from their home of origin. Hopefully, after landing on a few trees, stopping on a ledge or two, trying out different branches of knowledge, and testing the merits of a few different majors, they will fly off from here to the next stage of their journey.
E-mail our amatuer campus naturalist with any observations, stories or reactions you have about our shared environment with the natural world on the SSU campus. Khan is an administrative coordinator in the biology department at SSU.
CAPTION: Donna Frances of the Alumni Office took this picture of a young owl looking down from a tree in the inner courtyard of Stevenson Hall.
Updated
9/13/05
Jean Wasp