{"id":6042,"date":"2013-10-27T17:04:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-27T23:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6042"},"modified":"2013-10-27T17:09:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-27T23:09:23","slug":"a-phone-call-for-owlivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6042","title":{"rendered":"A Phone Call for Owlivia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Owlivia<\/a>

Owlivia makes her getaway.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have two volunteer gigs, and they both involve unexpected telephone calls.<\/p>\n

For the rural volunteer fire department, it will be a recorded voice saying something like, “We have a smoke report east of Highway 165 and north of Highway 78.”<\/p>\n

That is followed by a sudden switch into Nomex clothing, either the yellow shirt\/green trousers wildland-firefighting outfit or the slightly heavier all-yellow “interface gear,” a fine product of California’s prison industries. Then comes urgent radio chatter as I try to figure out who is able to respond and if someone can pick me up with the engine on the way or the fire, or if I have to drive down to the station \u2014 or if I should just slap the magnetic flashing light on the Jeep and head for the incident directly.<\/p>\n

The other unexpected type of call might be from the director of the raptor center down in Pueblo saying, “Someone in [some town] has an injured hawk in their back yard. Can you go pick it up?”<\/p>\n

Or perhaps it is it’s the area wildlife-volunteer coordinator: “A rancher in [the valley] found some abandoned fox kits in a hay stack. They’re at a veterinarian’s office up there. Can you go get them and take them to the rehabilitation center?”<\/p>\n

And M. and I get gloves, pet carrier, capture net, goggles, flea powder \u2014 whatever we need \u2014 load the truck and go.\u00a0 Maybe I pin on my official Colorado Parks & Wildlife name tag (she never bothers), so I don’t appear to be some random animal-snatcher.<\/p>\n

Last Monday, the 21st, was the second kind of call. This time,\u00a0 an injured sharp-shinned hawk was<\/a> in a garage\u2014the homeowner had found it outside, unable to fly, and shooed it into the building for its own safety.<\/p>\n

I was able to catch it pretty quickly \u2014 always good when there are people watching, and there usually are people watching, because they made the original phone call, and they want to see what happens next. And I gave the usual reassuring speech that it would be at the raptor center that evening and evaluated by a veterinarian the next day.<\/p>\n

I knew its prospects did not look good. A day later, we learned what had happened: broken humerus, dislocated elbow, possibly the result of being hit by a car. Result: euthanasia. The expert opinion was that this bird would never be healed well enough to live on its own.\u00a0 More than not, that is what happens.<\/p>\n

But there was better news. A great horned owl <\/a>chick that had been found in a certain hardware store in our county last spring had spent all summer learning to fly and hunt at the raptor center, and now it was ready to be released. Could we pick it up and take it back to the same general area?<\/p>\n

Such calls \u2014 all too rare \u2014 are the pay-off for the rest. We picked up the owl in her carrier, and before many miles, M. had named her “Owlivia.”<\/p>\n

“Willow Creek Road,” I suggested, thinking of a small canyon in the national forest where I had heard great horned owls before, one that offers a mix of habitats: deep forest, brush, and pasture. After supper, as night was falling, we drove up there and let her go. She did not hesitate.<\/p>\n

M. and I have special feelings about owls. For several years, they helped put food on the table for us, when we spent many spring and summer nights hiking in the dark, counting them for the Bureau of Land Management<\/a>. If you’re fond of owls too, the Cornell Ornithology Lab has a package of owl sound clips that you can download for free <\/a>\u2014 at least through H-owl-owe’en.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have two volunteer gigs, and they both involve unexpected telephone calls. For the rural volunteer fire department, it will be a recorded voice saying something like, “We have a smoke report east of Highway 165 and north of Highway 78.” That is followed by a sudden switch into Nomex clothing, either the yellow shirt\/green […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,66,81],"class_list":["post-6042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-halloween","tag-wildlife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1zs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9176,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9176","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":0},"title":"A Fire at the Castle","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It is 5:39 a.m., and the computer-generated voice on the telephone is saying, \"We need a response to Bishop's Castle \u2014 report of a structure fire.\" I pull on my jeans and scamper down to the garage. \"Structure fire\"\u2014that means bunker gear, and so on go the heavy rubber boats,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/engine-2-front-view.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9063,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9063","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":1},"title":"Fire, Fortune, and Fate","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Southern Rockies are in a drought, and fire season has come early to Hardscrabble Creek. The alarm came on Monday, and as usual, the \"fog of war\" (which applies in wildland firefighting too) descended rapidly. I am part of a little rural volunteer department \u2014 secretary of the board\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/sardine-can-fortuna.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2623,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2623","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":2},"title":"Why Did I Agree to Do this Workshop?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I have spent much of today being nervous about the weather (warm, dry, windy) while yet working on a workshop presentation on nature religion. Nature is making me nervous. Ironic, eh? Even though M. and I have been back in our house for a week, we are still jumpy. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fire and law enforcement people gather as the Sand Guch Fire spreads.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/fire-web-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1126,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1126","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":3},"title":"Blogging in Fire Season","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My days this week were split between book-editing, another writing project, and fire-fighting -- or worrying about fires.In late January I joined the little rural volunteer fire department, which seems in a way to embody what the Founders meant by \"militia\" back in the 18th century.M. and I also signed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1308,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1308","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":4},"title":"I’m Glad That is Settled","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From my current reading, Essentials of Fire Fighting:As you look at the world around you, the physical materials you see are called matter. It is said [passive voice!] that matter is the \"stuff\" that makes up our universe.Sheesh.Maybe instead of being a volunteer firefighter I should be editing the textbooks.Anyway,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0135022347","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7333,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7333","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":5},"title":"Pagans Rebuild after the Sockeye Fire","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As a volunteer firefighter who also has had to evacuate myself three times in ten years because of forest fires, I am pretty accustomed to media coverage of such catastrophic events. This one from Channel 2 in Anchorage is pretty normal : \"One thing left standing after Willow wildfire: an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Alaska\"","block_context":{"text":"Alaska","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=alaska"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6042"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6050,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042\/revisions\/6050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}