“The best-laid plans o’ mice and men…”

Remember our attitudinal little male screech owl from last week, with his threats and posturing? Since his eye had cleared up beautifully, the plan was to release him Monday. And then both Monday and Tuesday, we had really high winds, and as a general rule, I don’t release on windy days.

So…release delayed a couple of days. No problem; he was eating well and I moved him into a bigger indoor pen so he could move around more while we waited for the weather to cooperate.

Then it rained. *sigh* Release delayed again…

Finally, toward the end of the week, the weather cooperated and I hied Sir Attitude hence to release him near where he was found.

Take him out of the box, hold him for one last photo op before release…

…and release my grip on his feet. And wait. And wait. And…well, see for yourself in the video below.

The reason it ends so abruptly is that when Sir Screech decided to gather his little body and take off, he coasted right to the ground and took off running, eventually wedging himself under a half-rotten log. I had to chase him through the woods and pry him out from under the log—and bring him back to LWR for a while longer.

I’ve consulted with Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends raptor rehab, who says he can’t remember ever seeing a screech do this. We’re thinking there’s some sort of neurological issue here, although Steve did suggest, tongue-in-cheek, that perhaps I’d been feeding the little guy too well and he was just plain too fat to fly. Believe it or not, that really can be an issue for birds in rehab, but this screech hadn’t been with me long enough to pack on that kind of weight.

Meanwhile, on the flight pen front, two more Georgia Southern students helped my nephew Alex, my father and me put up the roofing tin and most of the outside hardware cloth yesterday. Junior Jessica Emery of Brunswick, GA is a mechanical engineering major and a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and freshman Richard Rising of Atlanta is also a mechanical engineering major.

This afternoon my nephew Alex and niece-in-law Brooke helped finish the last outside hardware cloth and put up a bit of flashing, suggested by my father. We’ve got the inside mesh to go--and the door, of course. By next weekend, weather cooperating, this flight should be ready for use!

And Cody Rogers, who spearheaded last week’s GSU volunteers, is already recruiting another group to return later this month to get the raptor pen up, as well. To show my gratitude, I’ve promised to name the first downy raptor of the year in his honor!