Cheadle Owl

I'm going to volunteer at the wildlife place and feed baby birds. They have a lot right now because they are all trying to fly and keep not flying.

Where I work, at the university, there’s a great horned owl (the very largest of the owl species) that laid three eggs on the ledge of the third floor of Cheadle Hall outside the window of the Graduate Division Dean's office. The Grad Dean freaked when the owl laid the first egg ("she made a haphazard nest out of leaves that had blown into the corner of the ledge wall; it wasn't a real nest at all") and she called the police. "What do you want us to do about it?" The cops said. "I'm going to be a Grandmaw!" the Grad Dean, exclaimed. Let me call my friend from the raptor rescue, I told her. I peered out the window at momma owl. She looked up at me from where she sat on her nest with intense and wistful yellow eyes.

The crows made an awful ruckus for the first few days. Hardly anyone could get their work done on that side of the building for all the commotion of the large owl sitting ominously in the middle of the tree outside our windows. The momma owl pushed out the first egg from the nest and then the second egg. They sat on the ledge, pure white and a bit larger than the jumbo eggs at Albertson‘s. They balanced on the ledge for all to see abandoned. I named them Chris and Roni and made everyone in Grad Div call them that. The momma owl stayed on the third egg in her makeshift nest. We never saw the male owl. Never. He was supposed to be around. Some people said they saw him, but when I questioned them they never saw two owls together and these people had no credibility in the area so I dismissed their sightings. It was obvious to everyone that this was the momma owl's first clutch.

Baby Postdoc was hatched a little over five weeks later. The birders would climb up to the third floor outdoor stairway in the administration building across the way. They brought binoculars and cameras. People from different departments sent pictures around on email. When baby Postdoc was just a few weeks old I went and peered out Lynn's window on the third floor. She had a direct view into the nest, and I could see momma owl and baby with 4 rats (groceries) piled in the corner of the ledge. Momma owl started leaving baby Postdoc alone more and more during the day. It kinda pissed off the moms in the offices, but I talked to a raptor lady and she said that they will leave their nest to find a place to sleep and she had selected a really bad, public nesting place. There were several owl sightings in front of the Vice Chancellor for Research’s office window ledge. It’s much quieter in the front of Cheadle than the back except during protests. I think baby Postdoc and his untenured momma were probably pretty stressed out from all the attention and interaction they had with us.

I had connected Lynn and Gale with Terri who has been working with raptors since before I met her in that very Cheadle courtyard at least 6 years ago in the month of May. She had a tiny owl on her arm and was giving a demonstration from Eyes in the Sky. Since I’ve been in SB County I’ve heard of the bird and raptor programs and my ears have always pricked. I would like to have a yard where I could nurse large raptors. I’ve had this feeling since the first time we found an injured hawk. I must’ve been about 5 or 6 years old and my teenage uncle had found him and put him in a rabbit hutch in the barn. About the size of a red shoulder, I would say now. He was ferocious and angry in that coop, but my curiosity was stronger than my fear as I approached the hutch and it hissed at me. A noble animal whose flight can only be respected. I felt it at that first meeting and the feeling has never wavered.

So, momma owl was gone more and more often and baby Postdoc started wandering up and down the ledge. The people in those offices noticed, especially Lynn. People came to me regularly, “I haven’t seen the baby owl yet today, where is he?” and I’d have to reassure them one way or another, but I always went and found baby Postdoc and his momma with my own eyes. I saw momma owl sitting in the tree late Monday morning and being pestered by the crows. I thought all day about trying to see baby Postdoc, but I had to work, too. It’s a busy time of year for everyone or maybe we would have noticed when baby Postdoc, alone for quite some time, attempted his first flight. Terri had warned us to expect him to perhaps land on the 2nd story ledges. People in those offices were told.

Postdoc landed in the late afternoon that Monday, unbeknownst to any living creature in Cheadle. He landed in the far corner of the courtyard between the entrance to Budget and Planning and the koi pond with the duck-a-doodles. The ducks and their babies are a regular feature for the Cheadle Hall and SAASB crowd. The koi pond, too with the large koi and smaller fishes swimming zenfully beneath the lily pads. Don’t stick your fingers in the koi pond, btw, just a friendly warning.

There were no witnesses. Postdoc must have fluttered to the ground directly beneath the dean’s office, all the way from the third floor ledge. He must have landed near Phyllis’ office and he probably sought a perch and fluttered again only to land on the edge of the cement trash can lid. The lid has a sloped top that funnels upward and in he slid like a kid through a chute at Chuck E. Cheese. There’s no way he could get out.

 Britt is a tall man. That afternoon he heard an odd noise coming from the trash can and he peered in only to be met with an alarmed pair of yellow owl eyes clacking for its mother. Postdoc made sharp bite sounds with his beak. Britt walked into Phyllis’ office “Well, I can retire,” he said, “I’ve finally seen everything.” They called the police. Phyllis sent someone to find me. This time a police man showed up and he turned the cement trash bin onto its side. The top cover was pulled off and Postdoc instinctively paddled his new wings and sorta fluttered in a bumpy fashion down the covered one story corridor to the other building entrance door by Admissions.

Staff immediately placed a sentry at both the inside and the outside of the door to keep people away from baby Postdoc. Everyone from the building came down. The Chancellor took a couple of pictures with his cellphone from inside. I explained to the others about the behaviors of owls. I couldn’t believe how much I had learned and how much I already knew since Postdoc and his mum came into my life. Postdoc hunched like a cat in the corner peering at us with his piercing yellow eyes and clacking his beak and waving his wings at us if we got too close. He was very frightened. The lady at the SB Wildlife Care Network said that if the mother was around she would probably dive bomb us. But we did not see her. That Monday morning was the last time I saw the momma owl. I looked around the next day, but did not see her. It’s like teen mom and she left her baby in a trash can. I emailed the Grad Dean. She said that Chris and Roni were gone.

The SB Wildlife Care Network picked up Postdoc that evening so he wouldn’t be eaten by land animals and he was transported to the Ojai Raptor Center the next afternoon. I didn’t know he had left Goleta until after work Tuesday when I went to the Fairview location and Julia told me about Postdoc. She said he was very worked up and clacking like one mad owl and ate four mice. I told her how public his birth had been. As we spoke I watched her thaw out mice in the sink for a beautiful baby redtail. He was at about the same stage as Postdoc, not quite a juvenile, but not quite a baby.

Julia said that right now they have a ton of baby birds that need feedings, so she gave me information on how to apply as a volunteer. I filled out the application and have to go view an hour long training video and then I’m gonna be the momma bird! Terri said that maybe she could hook me up with Kim at the Ojai Raptor Center and maybe I can see baby Postdoc, maybe even his release. I better follow up on that in a hurry. Baby owls grow up fast!