Owl Vision 2018: Owl Child

by William Wayne Page –

The Owl Child at the Lower Mill

This magnificent Owl Child came out of its nest to land on these stairs.  The Lower Mill, which now houses The Rabbit Room and the Mill Art Center, has been around since the early 1800s, and we suspect Owls have nested in the roof recesses ever since.

While having brunch one Saturday I was called upon to come see an owl outside at the back of the Rabbit Room Restaurant on the lower floor of the Mill Art Gallery.  The owl was perched on the fire escape.

  I had gained some animal rescue reputation for getting a baby raccoon back into its lofty tree nest with the help of a high ladder brought to me by our community of Honeoye Falls Fire Department.  I hurried out to look and, yep, it was an Owl of the baby gender, standing talon spread on the second step up on the fire escape.

What to do. what to do, I was encouraged to do something?  Aside from getting gloves to hold it and reset it higher away from dogs and cats, I decided to call animal rescue groups.  I was told to leave the baby Owl alone and leave it where it was; that they tend to drop out of their nests when learning to fly and Mom Owl was most likely watching to help but not with us hanging over her child!   I decided to put things around the little creature to make it less visible to other animals and we left.

For the next two days we checked on Baby Owl to see it was still there?  More of us got involved and we all worried whether this fledgling Owl was hungry and maybe, sadly abandoned.  Our next day plan was to adopt and protect this wide eyed marvel of nature but that last day there was a note left on the stair under a piece of branch.   It said, “Owl B Bak”.   We all knew what that meant, baby owls can’t spell!