Raptor Center of Southeast Michigan

By Alysha Albrecht

Eastern screech owls might be small and cute, but they sure are fierce! In early March, I ventured out of my house to meet some friends for lunch in Dearborn. As I was about to head home, I received a call about an eastern screen owl on the ground by a busy road, just sitting there. The location just happened to be a mile away from where I was. When I arrived, Frances the owl was dazed and calm and had blood on his nose. I took him home, gave him pain meds, and started him on a road to recovery plan. In just a little over a week, Frances perked up and started to show his fierce side again! This was wonderful news, so after a few days of reconditioning, we released him at the edge of a wooded park close to where he was found!

Not long after Frances was released, I received a call about an eastern screech owl in Canton that was picked up by the family dog, shaken, and then tossed on the ground. The finder saw it happen, but thankfully the dog didn’t have a hard bite and dropped the owl in a pile of leaves. When I received the bird he was dirty and wet. Once I cleaned him off I saw that he was of fledgling age and just learning to fly. I couldn’t find any injuries and by that evening the young owl made it clear to me that he wanted nothing to do with me or the crate, so I rushed out the door to get him released where he was found. As I pulled up to the house the finder and two sons came out the front door. The boys told me they hear the owls each night and could show me where they were living. We walked around to their backyard and saw a very large tree in the neighbor’s yard.

As we were choosing a place to release the owl, two more little boys came running out of the house with their mother. I spent some time educating them all about owls and then we placed the owl on a branch away from the yards with dogs. As I was getting ready to leave the sun was setting and one of the boys pointed out the owls coming out of the large tree. We saw four or five more owls climb out and fly, or try to fly, out of the large tree. It was a wonderful release to see a family coming outside to experience the owls and the owl family right in front of us, doing what they do best as explorers and hunters of the night.