Barn Owl Release

Barn Owl Hanging From a Barn September 2, 2004

On Saturday, June 26, 2004, CRC got a frantic call from a homeowner in Pleasant Hill, Oregon who said there was a barn owl stuck hanging very high up on the side of their barn.

The bird had apparently been going into or coming out of the barn through the opening under the peak of the roof, gotten a foot stuck between two boards and slipped down the side, unable to free her leg. She had undoubtedly been there since the night before and was doing damage also to her wings by flailing about.

EPUD Helps Save Barn Owl

Immediate rescue was critical, or the bird could die of shock. Neither the homeowner nor we had ladders long enough, even when balanced precariously in the back of a pick up truck. Emerald Public Utility District (EPUD) very generously dispatched one of their linemen with a bucket trip (at their expense, at Saturday rates!) and Laurin, our assistant director, got to ride high again! Laurin had to be raised all the way to the peak of the roof, sliding the bird up as she went, in order to extricate the leg.

Luckily unbroken, the leg was badly abraded. We knew she would lose a great deal of the deeply bruised tissue, which always runs the risk that as the tissue dries, it constricts the blood supply to the foot, risking loss of the entire foot. (This is an accident, as bizarre as it sounds, that we've seen before around old barns.) The leg took weeks to heal, including hydrotherapy to stimulate circulation and one minor surgery - the tissue has to heal from the inside out and we knew the surface areas were going to die and slough off and all that skin then needed to replace itself.

Jonathan Releases a Barn Owl But it all healed up eventually, she got well-exercised in our 100' flight cage, demonstrated her continued ability to catch live prey, and on September 2nd took off well and strongly - and went back into the barn! We released her with a young barn owl, with whom she had been housed for some time, that had come in as a fledgling with a slight wing injury from landing in a dangerous area at a lumber mill.

A special thank-you to EPUD for their help!




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