Folks from Rogers Wildlife Rehab in Hutchins introduce us to their owl friends

by John P. Meyer

Kathy Rogers has been involved in wildlife rescue and rehab for about 30 years, specializing in birds. She started out doing it from her home; after obtaining certification and non-profit status, she moved her base of operations (in 1989) to Samuell Farm -- where this scribbler used to go on weekend campouts in his Boy Scout days.

Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (RWRC) relocated to a new, expanded facility in Hutchins in 1999, thanks to a grant of 20 acres of restored wetland habitat made by Browning-Ferris Industries. On a regular basis there are 600 birds of various species housed at the center, which borders on the Great Trinity Forest.

Since my wife and I are regular customers of the Wild Birds Unlimited store in Hillside Village, we received advance notice of an in-store appearance to be made by representatives of the RWRC this past Sunday. Among the representatives slated to appear were three non-human ones, in the "persons" of Razoo the American kestrel, Forrest the barn owl, and Archimedes the screech owl.

The three spokesbirds arrived right on schedule, along with their human handlers. Kathy Rogers brought along a helper named Renna, who assisted in setting up perches for Razoo and Archimedes. As for Forrest (named in honor of Mr. Gump): he remained perched on Renna's forearm for the entire affair.

Straight away it became clear that Razoo was something of a drama queen. (Or maybe king -- I rather neglected to ask whether she was a male or female of the species.) Those dozen or so folks in attendance were treated (?) to an extended caterwauling session as Kathy and Renna did their best to install her (his?) jesses and place the bird on its perch. (According to Kathy, this was the piercing sound of the bird's hunting call, employed to scare up prey from the surrounding terrain when it wants something to eat.)

When Razoo was rescued, he'd been in captivity for so long that he'd entirely lost his instinct for hunting. Thus, he would never be released into the wild, but would remain an "educational programs" fellow.

Forrest was born to a pair of rescued barn owls who were in the care of the Rogers people. He was the runt of the two-owl litter, and wasn't given much of a chance to survive -- but he's turned out OK, as you can see.

Screech owls such as Archimedes are fairly numerous in urban neighborhoods: Witness our story about "owl man" Joe Connelly from earlier this year.

I questioned Kathy Rogers about concerns I'd heard from neighbors about predatory birds accounting for some of the cat disappearances we've been experiencing, and while she stated that large raptors (such as great horned owls and red tailed hawks) are capable of attacking and killing housecats, the far more prevalent culprits are coyotes and wild dogs.