Friday, June 12, 2009

Dear all:
I’ve been keenly following Ushahkalam blog ever since its conception. I am rather disappointed that not many have been contributing. However, that is not the point now. I was rather reading with interest, stories / articles / experiences recently written by Sailaja and Rani. I too would like to share my experiences with a baby owl, with all of you. This may be sort of a repetition, but this may inspire at least some of you, to observe nature, and contribute your little bit for its conservation. Man being the only intelligent animal, he must also contribute to help the lesser beings, put up efforts to save the species, thus save our globe it self.
Now my story:
We live opposite Timpany school and facing our balcony is a sheer wall with couple of windows and niches. We observed that every year a white owl couple was coming and living there throughout. I used to take a binoculars and observe them in the early hours. Once noticed that they have nested and we saw couple hatchlings. They would come to the edge of the niche in the early hours and observe the world with their huge saucer like eyes. Then unfortunately one hatchling and one big bird fell through the electric wires and died. Within couple of days the other hatchling came to the edge of the alcove and fell on to the sunshade. He still didn’t have the feathers to fly and mother was helpless. Meanwhile hoards of crows, natural enemies to the owls came and started bothering, pecking at the poor little bird. We watched helplessly for a while and I was determined to save it by hook or crook. I met the school authorities but they said they couldn’t do any thing. I phoned the zoo, animal rescue center, SPCA – all without any effect. Finally some one told me that there is an organization called Visakhapatnam Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (VSPCA) and also kindly gave me the number. I called them and there they were within an hour. Meanwhile the poor baby owl was pecked, injured by crows and was crouching behind some pipes. VSPCA people climbed on to the ledge, with the help of their equipment, put a box over the hatchling, gathered it into the box. I asked them what they would do and they said that they would treat its wounds, feed it and when it was stronger, would leave it in the wilderness. I do hope the little owl has grown stronger merged with Mother Nature and is bringing up its own offspring.
These stories should be inspiration to our youngsters so that they too would do their might to help and save animals and birds.

Vijaya Murthy (Jijji)
Visakhapatnam