nice article - thanks for sharing it.

Mariel Stephenson
Columbia, Mo
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Whitworth" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 1:49 PM
Subject: Snowy owl story from Sunday Telegraph


> Hello Mobirders:
> Here is the article I wrote and that appeared in the Sunday Telegraph
> about the New Year's Day snowy owl. My caveat is that I'm writing for the
> general readership and so didn't get into a lotta discussion about the
> frequency of snowy owl visits to our area or theories of why this bird
> showed up in this place. I also had included a little more scientific info
> about the owl's range, preferred habitat, physical characteristics, etc.,
> but my story was shortened somewhat on the Copy Desk. Anyway, here it is:
>
> Snowy owl spotted in area dies of injuries
> By STEVE WHITWORTH
> The Telegraph
> BRIGHTON - A ghostly visitor from the north thrilled a handful of lucky
> observers near Roxana on New Year's Day but later met a tragic end,
> despite the best efforts of those who tried to save it.
> Motorists driving along Illinois 255 on Monday were startled to see a
> snowy owl perched atop a highway sign at the Roxana exit.
> "I was driving on 255 with my niece when I saw a car stopped along the
> road. I looked up and saw the owl sitting on the sign, and I went
> 'eeeeent,'" said Mary Ruder of Prairietown, imitating the sound of her
> pickup truck's squealing brakes.
> Ruder, 46, is not exactly an avid birdwatcher, but she knew that the white
> owl on the sign was a rare sighting.
> "I'm familiar with them from school," she said. "I thought it was neat and
> unusual to see a snowy owl."
> Ruder said she started becoming more interested in birds after moving to
> the countryside near Prairietown a few years ago.
> "We have turkey vultures out here; I had never seen one before we moved
> here," she said. "And I see red-tailed hawks, and I take pictures of the
> eagles."
> Thanks to her penchant for photography, Ruder had her Canon digital camera
> with her in the truck, so she pulled onto the shoulder of the highway, got
> out and approached the striking-looking bird to capture its image.
> "I walked up practically to where the sign was and took pictures," Ruder
> said. "She just looked down at me, and I looked up at her. She didn't
> move."
> Ruder wasn't the only one who noticed the snowy owl, a species that has
> become familiar to millions of children around the world thanks to its
> prominent role in the "Harry Potter" series of books and films. In North
> America, the bird's normal range is the Arctic, Alaska, Canada and the
> northern tier of the United States, but it sometimes is found in more
> southerly states during the winter.
> Word about the unusual sighting quickly went out to the network of
> enthusiastic birdwatchers in the St. Louis area, several of whom were
> lucky enough to get to the area before daylight gave out on New Year's Day
> and observe it on its roadside perch.
> Unfortunately, something terrible happened between Monday evening and
> Tuesday morning, when a worker at the ConocoPhillips Wood River Refinery
> in Roxana found the owl injured on the ground along the highway. The bird
> apparently had been hit by a vehicle, possibly while swooping down to
> catch a rodent or other prey animal.
> The worker took the bird to the oil refinery's guard shack, where
> employees called the Treehouse Wildlife Center in Brighton, which cares
> for injured birds of prey and other animals. Treehouse volunteers went to
> the refinery, picked up the injured owl and took it back to the center for
> treatment.
> Pam Lippert of Treehouse said it appeared the injury was fresh and that
> the bird could not have flown after being hurt.
> "It had a compound fracture of the left humerus (which corresponds to the
> upper arm bone of a human being)," Lippert said. "It was a real diagonal
> kind of break. There was also a piece of bone kind of floating loose in
> there, too.
> "We kind of knew from the get-go that it probably wasn't going to be
> releasable, but we were hoping to at least save the wing to keep it in
> captivity," she said. The bird also had an injury to the cornea of its
> right eye, Lippert said.
> After Treehouse volunteers nursed the owl for several days to try to
> stabilize its condition, a veterinarian attempted to surgically repair its
> severely broken wing Friday morning, but the ordeal was too much for the
> bird, which died during the operation.
> "Our vet was trying to get the puzzle back together, but it wasn't meant
> to be," Lippert said. "We did our best. It was a long shot."
> Lippert said that if the bird had been found with such a severe injury in
> its normal range, such as Minnesota or Canada, wildlife rehabilitators
> probably would have euthanized it immediately, but because it is so rare
> to find a snowy owl in Southwestern Illinois, Treehouse volunteers "wanted
> to try everything we could to save it."
> She said the snowy owl was the first to be brought in to Treehouse in the
> 20 years she has worked there and only the second since its founding in
> 1979.
> Adult male snowy owls display plumage that is nearly pure white, but this
> bird had dark bars all over its body and the top of the head, which
> Lippert said indicated it probably was female. It could have been a
> juvenile male, she said, but the vet did not open up the bird's internal
> organs to confirm its gender. Area birders also identified the bird as
> most likely being a female.
> Lippert also described the bird as "a little on the thin side," weighing
> 3.5 pounds.
> She said it seemed unusual that the snowy owl would be so far south,
> considering that the winter in the area has been unseasonably mild and
> there was no snow cover at the time. Snowy owls are reported in this area
> occasionally but usually during periods of colder weather, especially when
> there is snow on the ground.
> Even so, birdwatchers in several nearby states, including Missouri, Kansas
> and Iowa, have reported seeing snowy owls this winter. A snowy owl was
> seen in the Springfield, Ill., area last winter, but it also was injured
> from being hit by a vehicle and had to be euthanized.
> Lippert said Treehouse volunteers hope to preserve the bird's body.
> "It's cosmetically good enough that it would make a good mount," she said.
> "It's such a rare bird around here, it would be a good thing to have for
> our education programs. A lot of children are familiar with snowy owls
> through 'Harry Potter.'"
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