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Bonus Article: Hooty the Owl

© Terrie Murray

The Oregon Zoo, located in Portland's Washington Park, has a great summer concert series. Last night they had scheduled Youssou N'Dour, a Senagalese singer and his band, and both my husband and I were interested in attending. We planned so that I would arrive early and stake out a spot on the always-crowded concert lawn, and he would pick up a picnic dinner and join me there later.

It was a beautiful day, with sunshine and bright blue sky. I arrived at the zoo around 3:00, just in time for the final Birds of Prey show. The show, which runs at the Oregon Zoo every summer day at 12:00, 1:30 and 3:00, is a great educational experience for families. The birds are all human-imprinted, injured, or in some other way unable to return to the wild, so they serve as ambassadors and allow us to get up-close looks which would be impossible in the wild. There are many birds involved: eagles, hawks, owls, and even an Andean Condor (named, appropriately, "Andy"). The birds, which are well cared for and look extremely healthy, are expertly handled by trained volunteers and full-time birds-of-prey zoo keepers.

When I arrived at the concert lawn, where the show was to take place, they were already into the pre-show activities. Perches are interspersed throughout the concert lawn, and several birds were free-flying from the stage to perches, directly over the heads of visitors. A Harris's hawk flew by me only a few feet from my left shoulder, directly to a perch several feet away where a volunteer was holding a piece of food. They were being flown one at a time, since, being birds of prey, if they saw another bird of prey in the air their instinct would tell them it was either a predator or a competitor, and they'd attack.

The last bird to leave the stage area was Hooty, a 26-year-old Great Horned Owl. Hooty's destination was a perch on the other side of the lawn from me, where a volunteer had put food on a perch. As Hooty left the stage, something spooked him and he flew into a tree on the side of the concert lawn, about 25 feet above the perch and away from the confused volunteer. It took us all a couple of minutes to realize that this wasn't part of the show.

One of the zoo keepers, who was to be the emcee of the show, came out and explained that Hooty had been spooked, probably by one of the smaller birds which nests near the stage area. They attempted to lure Hooty back to the perch, but he refused to budge. They explained that, although owls are among the hardest of the birds of prey to train, Hooty hadn't missed a cue all summer. We watched as he shifted around in the small tree, trying to find a stable perch, and we watched as the keepers tried again, unsuccessfully, to lure Hooty back to the stage and his transport box. Eventually the show had to be canceled, because the handlers did not want to fly any of the other birds while Hooty was still loose, for fear that he would be attacked by one of the larger birds.