Owl rescue proves dangerous and complex

In the end, a 70-foot-high rescue of owl eggs wasn't in the cards, but for Buteo Shadows Raptor Center owners Steve Staviski and Cindy Weisenberg, success isn't always measured by the completion of a rescue.

A call had come in days earlier to the Arizona Game and Fish Department from management at the Arlington Valley Energy Facility, located in the desert about 40 miles west of Maricopa. Workers at the plant had noticed a great horned owl had nested on a ledge next to a tower that had been shut down during the winter when less power output was needed.

With the summer months approaching and the need for the tower to be switched back on - a tower that can reach up to 600 degrees inside - workers were concerned for the well-being of the three eggs the owl had recently laid.

Game and Fish Wildlife manager Craig Heath said that while his department did not usually do rescues for individual animals, the power plant had done the right thing by consulting them.

"We normally don't get involved in a rescue unless it is an endangered species," Heath said. "We are normally just consulted to help property owners get rid of their problems."

Heath took interest because of the intriguing circumstances of the case and put Arlington Valley Plant engineer Ron Sager in touch with Maricopa residents Weisenberg and Staviski, who began operating Maricopa's own raptor center after moving here from Alaska.

"We just wanted to do the right thing for the mother bird and the eggs," Sager said the Feb. 23 morning of the attempted rescue. "We did have opposing viewpoints about taking the owl out of there because owls have been in this area before."

The rescue itself would be risky and none of the players involved liked the odds. Because of the positioning of the nest, more than 70 feet above ground level, Staviski would have to be lowered by a harness to reach the nest to remove the eggs. While Weisenberg had set up an arrangement with a facility in Cave Creek to have a surrogate mother owl hatch and raise the young owls, just getting the eggs down and transporting them safely was a risky proposition.

"It's a point where it was a 50-50 coin toss," Heath said. "There's the safety of the people trying to get the eggs and then the safety of the eggs themselves."

For Weisenberg, that made the decision easy.

"Sometimes after we've carefully evaluated it, we decide we need to leave it alone," she said. "We don't just pull the eggs without thinking about it. Sometimes when I get the call for these birds, my very own safety goes by the wayside."

Weisenberg said a standard rescue of eggs or an injured bird takes at least four hours of prep time, and isn't nearly as simple as coming out to a site and picking up the endangered animal.

"Some decisions to rescue or not to rescue leave me awake at night wondering if I did the right thing."

This decision became easier to live with for Maricopa's raptor center professionals when Sager did some reconnaissance with a sister energy plant in Mississippi and had them check the temperature of the same area on the tower approximately where the owl's nest was located. A temperature check revealed the temperatures on the beam may in fact be low enough - roughly 100 degrees - where the eggs could survive once the tower was turned on.

For the volunteer couple, this experience was one that illustrated how complex a potential rescue could be.

"We just don't always know what we're getting into when we get called up," Staviski said.