The Importance of Sharing Observations With Others - Retrieving Bird Band Numbers

On 15 March 2009, at approximately 12:30 PM, I was exiting the 5 North at Jeffrey, when to the side of the road I noticed a very large bird, dead and lying on its side along the white painted line. Of course, my sighting was a quick one, as I was exiting the freeway at approximately 60 MPH, and so only got a quick glimpse of it through my windshield and then a backwards look in the rearview mirror.

My initial guess was that it was a red-tailed hawk, because we see so many of them on the large street and freeway lamps all along the 133, parts of the 5 and the 405. I also thought it was a hawk because every time I have tried to identify large birds otherwise, they have always ended up being red-tailed hawks! However, I was not sure.

In any event, during the afternoon I thought about whom I might contact, if anyone, to let them know of what I saw. I figured that Laura at the Nix Nature Center in Laguna Canyon would be an excellent person to start with – for she is quite knowledgeable about our surroundings, the birds, and is in touch with many fascinating people. So I sent her a quick email late in the afternoon and let her know where I saw the deceased bird.

The next day, 16 March 2009, I learned that Pete Bloom went out to retrieve the bird – it turned out to be a Great Horned Owl, banded as a nestling in Mason Park on 4-24-08, by Joe Papp and C. Thomas – Territory #GHO –OR-066. Its band number was 788 46681 with an auxiliary number of 067. I was then asked to report the band number on http://www.reportband.gov/, which I did- I am now expecting a “Certificate of Appreciation with additional information on the banded bird” in the mail.

Before I began volunteering for the Laguna Canyon Foundation, I would have never thought to contact anyone about a dead animal on the side of the road; without knowing that there are scientists and volunteers outdoors in Orange County studying the various animal and plant populations, I would have never thought that such an observation as mine even mattered that much. I write this post tonight, therefore, not only to share my little story with you all, but also to let you know how our observations of the natural world can be valuable to many more people than simply ourselves. As Pete Bloom wrote to me yesterday, the discovery was “maybe not a happy ending but a meaningful one” for this Great Horned Owl.

If you also have sightings that you would like to share, but don’t know whom to contact, feel free to contact me and we’ll see what we can do, together, to get your information into the right hands.