The Great Horned Owl that was saved by few local residents in April was released by its rescuers back in Willow Bay on Saturday after more than two months of recovery at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
Madeline Miles, a long-standing community leader and avid birder, was birding alone when she first came upon the large bird of prey tangled in discarded fishing line hanging from a tree at the bay. Miles said it was heartwrenching to see such a beautiful bird injured and struggling, and knowing she had to act, started what became a team effort to rescue the raptor.
The impromptu rescue team, which consisted of Miles, her friend Linda Ordiway, a licensed bird-bander for the state and member of the Ruffed Grouse Society, and Don Watts, another avid birder and licensed transporter for Tamarack Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, reassembled at Willow Bay Saturday to see the bird they saved returned to its natural home.
Though Miles found the bird, and after a few tries was able to untangle it, she credits Ordiway and Watts for their roles of carefully capturing the bird and transporting it to the rehab center in Saegertown.
“(Saving the owl) wasn’t a job that any one person could have done,” Miles said. “We were a team of three with very different skills, and it mean a lot to us to be there together for the release.”
She said the trio met at the bay at 8 p.m., Watts bringing the owl in a cardboard box from the center to be set free closer to dusk around 8:30 p.m. She said Watts had gathered the group and they were joined by photographer Wade Aiken to document the release.
“We were not permitted to release the owl for fear that crows would see the new bird in the environment and sort of attack it,” Miles explained. “We hung around and took the box up a little trail, just about opposite of where we’d found her, a nice place where she could make a home in the trees.”
Being able to watch the owl she had found in such pain and distress make its way out of the box and into the wild, healthy and happy, is something Miles says she won’t soon forget.
“It was an exhilarating experience,” she stated. “I just can’t even describe it. I was amazed. The bird must have been very comfortable in its rehab environment because when we opened the box to look in, there was no anxiety in that bird at all.
“She just looked up at us with those big golden eyes, the eyes I remembered looking down at me when she was in desperate need of help,” Miles continued. “When we first tried to untangle her, she began to get very aggressive and afraid. But Saturday night, she was very calm. She didn’t even rush out — just kind of came out, didn’t even look around, and went directly to an area in the trees where there was a little hole.”
According to Miles, Ordiway and Watts tried to find where she had gone, but were unsuccessful. “So, I guess that bird found a good niche and I’m sure she is well off to a good life,” Miles said.
She said the entire experience with the bird has given her a “new view on fisherman’s lines and how dangerous they can be.
“We really should have something at boat landings or boat docks to put the used lines in — something to encourage people to pick up the lines after themselves,” Miles contended. “Don’t leave them around for another bird. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the tree or on the ground, either.”
Carol Holmgren, executive director at Tamarack and licensed wildlife rehabilitator, said both of the owl’s wings were injured in the initial ordeal and it also suffered capture myopathy, which is caused by chemicals being released with extreme exertion and stress.
The owl suffered soft tissue injuries and strain to tendons and ligaments in its right wing that was tangled in the line and strain in the left wing from flapping in an attempt to get free.
Holmgren said the owl also had extensive bruising and swelling in the right wing that showed up on an X-ray two weeks after the injury. “Some of the soft tissue injuries actually take longer to recover from than an actual fracture.”
She said the owl’s treatment came in three phases. The first involved simply stabilization, getting the owl hydrated and administering pain and anti-inflammatory medicine, fluids and food, until she was strong enough to begin rehabilitation. Then, three weeks into her treatment, she began physical therapy, undergoing stretching exercises with her wings to regain full movement, according to Holmgren.
“She did not want to move her wings at all. We could extend it but she, herself, would not raise the wing,” Holmgren said.
Next came flight conditioning, and because large flight buildings at the rehab center were already filled, the owl became the first bird at Tamarack to be rehabilitated using the falconer’s creance, which involves easy flying while tethered.
“She was the first bird we’ve been able to creance. She needed this technique and we had the opportunity to learn from experts and employ that expertise to her benefit,” Holmgren said. “It allowed us to incrementally exercise the bird and carefully analyze her flight pattern, making sure she was using her wings equally and checking her stamina.
“Her flight was classic female Great Horned Owl flight, they tend to fly long and low and the females tend to fly even lower,” she continued. “These birds have to be athletes to be able to survive and hunt.”
Though Holmgren was not present at this owl’s release, she said in her years with the nonprofit center, the experience has never grown stale.
“It’s really thrilling,” Holmgren said. “She had a lot to recover from. Just like humans, they don’t always heal predictably and we didn’t know that she would make it all the way back. We are so thrilled that the story had a happy ending.
“I don’t know what it was about this bird, but everyone was interested in her story,” she continued. “This bird had the most intense yellow eyes of just about any Great Horned Owl we’ve ever had, she is just a very beautiful bird.”
