A pair of young wild barn owls were reunited with Mother Nature Sunday thanks to the efforts by the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center. Dozens of people took part in an upbeat send-off party at Little Uvas Vineyards in San Martin.
The hour-long twilight gathering also served as an educational and fundraising event for WERC, which has been serving Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy for more than 30 years with wildlife rehabilitation and education.
Besides an information table, photos and information panels strewn about, people also had a chance to come face to face with another barn owl, Barnadette, an educational bird who calmly perched on the arm of a WERC team member watching with equal curiosity.
Ashley Quick, executive director of WERC, said the pair of owls were orphans and were found by passersby after their home, an owl box, fell apart.
“They were too young to sustain themselves in the wild,” Quick said. “They were probably around three weeks old when they were brought to us in June. Since then they were fostered by our educational owl, Barnadette, who taught them how to fly, how to hunt and how to survive on their own in the wild.
“Today, we are going to open their kennels and point them in the direction we want them to go, but who knows where they’ll go.”
As the crowd enjoyed a variety of wines, sizzling hot pizza pulled from a wood-fired oven and other refreshments, dusk fell and they were summoned to the edge of a vineyard for the evening’s climax.
That’s when Quick had the crowd, many with smart phones and cameras at the ready, form a semi-circle around the blue cardboard kennels.
With that, Quick quietly unfolded the lid to one box and one barn owl instantly took flight, its long colorful wings flapping out over the vineyard. But within seconds, as the crowd gasped in surprise, a red-tailed hawk got into the act and charged at the owl who immediately joined in a dramatic dogfight over the otherwise quiet farmlands of San Martin.
As some folks in the crowd, especially children, recoiled in horror, Quick assured them it was part of the natural scheme of the birds folding back into the order of nature.
That’s when she opened the second box. And the same thing happened again, only it was another red-tailed hawk who challenged the newcomer to the open skies in a brief zigzag air battle.
Both owls appeared to break away from the drama and head off in their own directions.
Kylie Malone of San Jose was part of the crowd alongside her father, Rob. She said she had just graduated from UC Santa Barbara in ecology.
“I’ve seen some other releases in Santa Barbara but they were always smaller birds,” she said. “But this was the first raptor release I’ve seen. It was really awesome. I liked that they opened up a safe corridor for their release. It was a touching moment.”
John Quick, who died in 2010, is the co-founder of Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center and the first attending veterinarian of the organization with his daughter Ashley as executive director.
More than 40 different species come through their doors each year.
