QUENTIN ROUX / Staff

A rehabilitated burrowing owl scoots hastily out of its box Friday afternoon, Nov. 14 on Marco Island after being released by Jess, Bender (partially obscured); Alli Gilly, her daughter Piper and Rebecca Galligan. The bird was injured by a car in September, 2008, and sent to the Raptor Institute in South Carolina to be used for education, but its recovery was so remarkable that it was returned to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which took care of it before deciding to release it back into the wild. Bender and Galligan are with the Conservancy, while Gilly is with the center in South Carolina. She flew down especially for the occasion.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

More Features

• Changing of the guards, power plans top 2008 Marco news
• Celebrate the Season
• It's The Law: Contract guarantee may not be enforceable

Share and Enjoy [?]

Thanks to a combination of care and a small miracle of nature, an injured burrowing owl is now thriving and back in its home territory on Marco Island.

The owl has had quite a year of it, according to Rebecca Galligan of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and Alli Gilly of the Carolina Raptor Center near Charlotte, N.C.

In September, 2007, it was hit by a car near its Worthington Street burrow on Marco Island, resulting in severe wing injuries.

A woman resident saw the bird and contacted the Conservancy, which was able to get the bird to a veterinarian within a couple of hours.

He pinned the bones, after which Conservancy staff cared for the bird, but by December it appeared the owl would never fly again and thus woulnd’t be able to go free.

The owl was transferred to the Raptor Center, where conservationist Alli Gilly trained and used it for education.

“We used him in an adopt-a-bird program,” said Gilly, who flew specially down to Marco with husband Edward and young daughter Piper to watch the release.

“He molted, and in the summer grew feathers. He began to move around quite well, and one day we noticed him on higher perches than he’d been able to reach before,” she said.

Gilly and her staff shifted their focus to rehabilitation of the owl, culminating in the decision to release it close to its former territory on Nov. 14.

On hand were Galligan, wildlife specialist Jess Bender and the Gilly family, who watched as Bender carefully opened the box containing the owl.

At first it seemed fearful of pending freedom, but after about a minute it whizzed out of the box and flew off in a westerly direction.

Just as quickly, however, it circled back and landed right by a couple of unoccupied burrows where it remained until the onlookers left.

As for devoting almost a full day’s travel to basically watch an owl fly out of a box, Alli Gilly said the round trip from North Carolina had been well worth it.

“We even gave him a name at the Raptor Center,” she said. “We called him Calusa.”