Helga goes home
Last week was the finale to a lot of work. “Helga” the Masked Owl was finally ready to be released. Her rehabilitation cost around $500, not only due to the quantity of food she ate and the length of her stay, but because of the specialist vet care she received. After her ankle wound was healed, she was transferred to a 12m raptor aviary hosted by a volunteer. There she was able to stretch her wings and build some muscle, and as final exam showed, a lot of fat!
12m flight exercise aviary
Last time I looked them up, Masked owls are classed as “near threatened” because the areas they live in and numbers of birds have been shrinking. Unlike the CITES listed Peregrine Falcon or the critically endangered black cockies, DEC doesn’t ask that they be reported when they show up in care.
Over the past ten years, I have had a few Masked Owls come from parts of Perth, as have other local raptor rehabilitators. It is unknown if there is a stable breeding population in the area, or if these birds are passing through in search of a place to settle down. If anyone wants to write up a research proposal and run around with a radio receiver tracking an owl, let me know!
Helga came from “Burswood”. Unfortunately, the vet she was dropped off at didn’t collect more information than that. I had to decide where to release her- in a more natural forested habitat which I felt was suited to an owl’s needs, or back where she came from. Because Helga seemed to be an adult (the pinkish hue was gone from her beak) I opted to take her back at least to the general area.
I did my research, and waited for favourable weather. GoogleEarth can be useful, but in this case, on the ground recon showed me that all the trees around the riverside Burswood golf course had lost their deciduous leaves. Other than a few car park trees near the main complex and the park on the other side of busy Great Eastern Highway, there wasn’t much cover to hide in during the day. Dismayed, I went to plan B. GoogleEarth had show larger bits of green space further up the Swan River.
I had returned a hit-by-car female Masked Owl to Bayswater a couple of years ago, which is just the othe side from the Ascot precinct. Another Masked Owl came from Kewdale, and unfortunately wasn’t able to return to the wild. So this may be a corridor they are traveling along from the bushland around Perth Airport and surrounds. On arrival next to the racecourse, I still wasn’t thrilled with the level of cover- however there were many large native trees and more habitat to move around in.
For Australian owls, one of the greatest dangers they face is discovery by Australian Magpies during daylight hours. Many smaller birds will tip off the magpies, too. If discovered in an inadequate hiding place the owl may be driven out, to the ground and attacked by the entire magpie clan- slashing through wings and stabbing eyes. However, before you vilify the magpies and other birds- remember that owls are the nightime snatchers, who steal roosting birds into death for their dinners. So it is tit for tat, as they say.
As Helga wasn’t a ‘wet behind the ears’ youngster, and had quite possibly travelled through this way before, I decided it would do. Her experience in taking care of herself along with a few days’ worth of fat on her bones should see her past most challenges. All that remained was to wait for full dark (at least as dark as it gets in the city). I had come prepared – packing a thermos of spiced hot chocolate and stopping at Subway for a cheese only 6inch and 3 choc chip cookies. After taking the dog for a wander and doing dog training stuff, I settled to watch the sky change colours and sipped hot chocolate, ate my cookies, and the dog had her 6 inch.
With the colours faded from the clear sky and stars coming out, I brought out the cardboard box that snapped and jumped, gently tipped it on its side on top of a convenient BBQ, and opened the lid. Helga hesitated, distracted by my pressence. Then she leapt free of the box and flew silently out along the foreshore and across the river. In the darkness, I lost sight of her almost at once.
Helga pretends to sleep
