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'Eagle' rescues owl from hawk

  • Published
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, Calif --  The wing commander here became an unlikely rescuer when he saved a fledgling owl from the clutches of an attacking hawk on June 1.

Col. Karl McGregor, commander of the 452nd Air Mobility Wing, happened upon the 'fowl' incident on his morning drive to work. "The action was in the middle of the road in my subdivision. When my headlights swung onto the two birds, the hawk flew off and the owl went into hide mode by tucking its head under a wing."

Realizing the owl was under duress, Colonel McGregor got out of his car, walked up to the startled bird and noticed it was quivering, but didn't appear to be wounded.

The two-month old owl had tremendously large claws. "I did a little operational risk management and decided to use an empty box that I happened to have," Colonel McGregor said. "The owl was actually very cooperative when I scooped him into the box."
 
He took the owl to Rebecca Rosen, a wildlife control officer with Falcon Environmental Services, which manages the Bird/Aircraft Strike Hazard program on March ARB. Rosen examined the owl and found no signs of harm. She identified it as a barn owl and estimated it at 60 days old. According to Ms Rosen, this is about the age that the baby would fledge (begin to fly). The reason the owl remained in the road and was not disturbed at all by being held by Colonel McGregor or Ms. Rosen is because barn owls are a strictly nocturnal species and are basically immobilized during daylight hours. Ms. Rosen said this makes them easy prey during the day and the owls' mortality rate is one of the reason barn owl adults have comparatively large clutches of chicks.

Ms. Rosen drove the owl to the Orange County Bird of Prey Center wildlife sanctuary in Lake Forest, Calif., later that day.  Click here for more photos of the barn owl.

(Ms. Megan Just and Ms. Linda Welz, 452nd Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs contributed to this story.)