There were quiet gasps of awe as a barn owl took wing on Saturday, emerging from a cardboard travel box and then flying rapidly away from the people grouped near Stow House to witness her return to the wilds of Goleta.
Calm and quiet were important for the wild bird, Alyssa Torkelson indicated, who had brought the owl from the Ojai Raptor Center, where she had been receiving treatment for capture myopathy, a sometimes fatal condition that develops in overly stressed animals. The owl had been rescued from the top of a 50-foot palm tree four weeks before, where she had become tangled in string or fishing line for several hours. Her prognosis was guarded, veterinarian Kathryn Rasp had said, though the owl’s feistiness was a good sign. By last Thursday, the bird’s blood work showed she had recovered, and the release was planned for the same spot she’d been rescued from.
Amid a hush reminiscent of a David Attenborough documentary, Dylan Helenberger carefully opened the bright-blue box. Helenberger is an intake lead for the Wildlife Care Network, and during the initial rescue, he had released the owl from the tight string around her wing and feet, an action that may have saved her talons. As he slowly tipped the box forward to show the bird where freedom lay, in a flash, she was airborne, soaring away on a three-foot wingspan through the trees and toward the lake.
