Columnist Susan Snyder: Buoyed by owl’s flight to freedom

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003 | 8:34 a.m.

It was a historic flight.

Historic for the owl, anyway.

Humans celebrate 100 years of winging it Wednesday, the 100th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright's first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

But a different type of flight was celebrated on our valley's northwest side Friday when a tiny burrowing owl was released back into the wild -- by a ballroom dancer.

Maybe we should start at the beginning.

About two months ago the small, sandy-brown owl knocked itself silly when it rammed into a window in the small town of Yerington. The stunned bird was turned over to the Wild Animal Infirmary for Nevada (WAIF), a Reno-based nonprofit group that rehabilitates wild animals.

Volunteers treated it for shock and an intestinal infection, said Suzette Feilen, the WAIF volunteer who brought the owl to Southern Nevada from Reno for release.

Yes, Feilen is the ballroom dancer, but we're not there yet.

As their name suggests, burrowing owls live in holes in the ground. They are less than a foot tall, and weigh less than half a pound. They have round heads, large, wondering eyes and long, spindly legs. If any owl could be considered cute, this is the one.

They are protected under the 1918 International Migratory Bird Treaty Act and also listed as a "species of concern" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A species of concern isn't protected as an endangered species, and being listed doesn't guarantee endangered or threatened status later. But its population and habitat is closely monitored for conservation. Care must be taken when developing land to see that any burrowing owls are moved in a manner that doesn't endanger their lives.

By the time the Reno owl recovered, it was too cold and snowy for release in Northern Nevada, Feilen said. The region's owls already had migrated south for winter, and there was no food for the little Reno refugee.

Feilen contacted Mary Siero of Las Vegas' Red Rock Audubon Society. Siero knew of half a dozen burrowing owls living on New Vista Ranch, a 15-acre property Jack Skirvin owns near Grand Teton Drive and Rainbow Boulevard. The private land sits just east of Gilcrease Orchard.

Feilen, who owns a Sparks ballroom dance studio, had planned to visit Las Vegas last week for a ballroom dance competition. So she volunteered to bring the owl with her and do the release.

A small group of neighbors gathered on the New Vista Ranch just before sundown Friday and held their breath as Feilen set the owl's carrier on the ground. A pair of resident owls peeped out of their burrows a few yards away.

Feilen opened the cage door and the owl darted skyward. It flew over the fence.

"Right into the street," Feilen said. "The flight looked good though."

Two other owls followed it. They'll help the little Reno transplant catch on.

All-terrain vehicles rumbled in the distance, bringing a collective shudder to those watching the owl's historic flight. A tiny burrow isn't likely to catch the attention of someone barreling over the desert at 40 mph. That any of the little birds survive at all seems a miracle.

Or at least, a combination of the right stuff.