Sometimes there are no easy choices when you find a vulnerable bird in a potentially dangerous situation.
1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
The spring of 2016 was a good breeding season for local Short-eared Owls and correspondingly for this bird photographer. In May of that year I spent some time with this recently fledged youngster and its darker sibling in Box Elder County. Both birds were fearless and curious which is typical of this species at this age but that combination isn’t necessarily a good one.
1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 400mm, not baited, set up or called in
At one point I caught the young bird doing a leisurely wing stretch. I was too close to avoid clipping its wingtip but in this case I don’t think the clipped wing is an image-killer.
But there was a problem and it was related to why I was so close to the bird. Both of the very young owls were perched very close to a road – far too close for their own safety. I’d estimate they were only about 6′ from the edge of the pavement. The road was fairly remote and didn’t have a lot of traffic but it was paved and some of that traffic, including large trucks, typically travels much too fast so the situation was a potential disaster. Young SEOW’s at this age love to roam which is why they were here in the first place. They could be out in the middle of the road within seconds.
What to do about it, if anything? One option was to pull up very close to the owls in my pickup in hopes it would scare them back into the thick grasses and relative safety, which is what I’d already done and it explains why I was so close to the birds. But my very close presence had no effect on these fearless young owls. Another option would be to get out of my pickup and shoo them back into the vegetation and even handle them physically if I had to. But I was very uncomfortable with doing that for reasons that should be obvious. A third option was to leave them be and hope they’d retreat to safety on their own.
In the end I chose the latter and drove down the road to look for other birds but I was nervous about having made the wrong decision. Perhaps 90 minutes later I returned to the same area and both young birds were gone, apparently after retreating to the safety of the thick vegetation.
Had I made a wise choice? I don’t necessarily think so, it was only lucky. Had I returned and found one or two dead owls on the road I’d have regretted that choice for the rest of my life.
It made me think of what bird and wildlife rehabbers go through – having to make life and death decisions about their vulnerable and helpless patients on a daily basis. Personally I couldn’t handle that stress and the inevitable second-guessing.
Which is one of the many reasons I admire rehabbers as much as I do.
Ron
Yes it is a hard choice, we both know the consequence of the redtail nest and the road. These are some of my favorite photos, you were lucky to capture shots of their curiosity.
I figure that we, as human ANIMALS, are part of nature, though we far too often are detrimental to it, and because of our negative impact, we have an obligation to help other creatures, whenever we can so.without screwing things up any further…vehicles that might injure or kill these young birds, are NOT part of nature…so their potential for causing UNATURAL HARM is to high to ignore. I would have made a big fuss and shooed them away…It’s the same reasoning that I use when I put out feeders…to minimize our negative impact loss of habitat, food sources, etc,) on wildlife…I love seeing the birds, but mainly want to mediate some of the harm my species causes….
“I would have made a big fuss and shooed them away”
And maybe I should have too, Patty. But these youngsters were still being fed by their parents and I can almost presume they were watching me so I didn’t want them to see me seeming to threaten or handle their offspring. The way things turned out I’m glad I didn’t but it sure could have gone the other way.
Glad things worked out for the owls. I feel for your dilemma. It is too bad that some people just don’t care about birds/animals and their safety. You have to wonder how they treat their fellow human beings.
These owls are just too cute. The first photo with the head turned sideways is just funny.
Thanks for sharing, Ron
Thank you, Alice.
Hard choices for sure – glad it worked out! 🙂 LOVE the photos! 🙂 High drama continued yesterday with 2 mature Bald Eagles (one a bit more than the other) and a hawk competing for the deer carcass across the creek…..
Thanks, Judy. I envy you your ongoing carcass/raptor drama.
“Personally I couldn’t handle that stress and the inevitable second-guessing. Which is one of the many reasons I admire rehabbers as much as I do.” Amen, Ron. I give that little speech regularly. Thank you for continuing to reinforce the rehabbers importance.
Cheers,
Dick
Dick, as you know rehabbers put their hearts and souls into their work. No one cares more about helpless and injured critters than they do so when they have to make the decision to put their patients down it’s heart-wrenching for them. It’s very stressful but then they go back and do it some more, day after day, year after year.
Their main reward is successful outcomes and releases back into the wild but those can be few and far between. Rehabbers are heroes in my book and I don’t use that designation lightly.
Love that owl! Perfect photo! 😍 That is always a difficult decision when there is a bird so close to the road. Unfortunately there are too many people who could care less if they hit a bird or any animal that is roadside. I will admit I’ve tried to shoo them back when I see speed approaching. I have heavy leather gloves in my auto to help that slow moving turtle crossing the highway…I just can’t help my self, right or wrong. I’ve seen pick-ups intentionally aim for a pheasant roadside gathering pebbles for their crop. Not too much can be done about stupid I guess…
“Not too much can be done about stupid I guess”
That’s right, Kathy. When I cut Galileo (SEOW) out of the barbed wire and told the rancher what I’d done he was obviously unhappy about it. His response was “we hit those owls on the road all the time” – his point obviously was that it wasn’t worth it to cut the wire to save the owl. I wasn’t surprised but I was still dumfounded….
A hard decision with a good outcome. I wouldn’t want to be in your boots! But I love that wing stretch. The intense green really sets it up nicely.
Arwen, this time my choice worked out but the outcome could just as easily have been tragic.
One of the reasons I made the choice I did was because it was early in the morning and traffic was still light. Later in the day there would have been more vehicles on the road so at that time of day I might have chosen to shoo the birds away or even physically handle them if it came to that.