A Birding Friend

It’s been a couple of tough months, health-wise, first with the gallbladder surgery, then with the sprained ankle, which is still a problem, and then Covid. But this blog post is about a wonderful thing that happened in the middle of it all, as a result of the trials and tribulations I was facing: it’s about how I made a new birding friend. 

While I was still in an orthopedic boot and couldn’t walk much, my husband rented a wheelchair for me. I like to bird in the mornings and he likes to run, so our arrangement was for him to wheel me to the park, go for a run, then come back and wheel me home. After being home-bound for several weeks, this was a splendid arrangement and I thoroughly enjoyed being out in the wonderful weather.  Even if I couldn’t go very far on my own.

One morning in the park, I had been staring up at some very tall pines for several minutes, following the calls of the chattering Coal Tits, Eurasian Blue Tits and the music box Serins, when I suddenly saw a much larger, bulky brown thing perched very high and very hidden on a branch. No! Could it be?

I had been wanting to see owls since we moved here, and I had never seen one. But then it turned its head and yes! It was clearly a very large owl. 

I recorded the sighting in my all-time favorite app, eBird, and when Jose came, I showed him the bird.  

While still in Austin I had looked at pictures of birds typical of Madrid, and the Eurasian Eagle Owl was one I had really wanted to see. A grown owl stands 2 feet, 4 inches tall. It has ear tufts and gorgeous orange eyes! 

Although we had never seen one, we had heard Eurasian Eagle Owls calling in late winter, both from a nature preserve we had visited as well as from our home. But when we heard the one calling near our home we figured it was in the big park just south of us, not the little one close by! 

After seeing the owl in the tree for the first time in the morning, we returned in the evening to see if we could watch the owl fly off, and after we’d been in the park for a short while, a high-school student showed up with a camera. He saw us with our binoculars and said, “A friend told me a Eurasian Eagle Owl had been spotted here in this morning.” 

“Yes, that was me who found it,” I told him in Spanish. I had always wondered if anyone was paying any attention to my eBird entries, and it turns out, someone was! “But it must have moved because we haven’t seen it again.” 

The three of us began to circle the clump of pine trees, hoping to find the bird again. And then Jose located it. In English, I told him to show the young man where it was. 

And just like that, the young man switched to speaking to us in English. It was heavily accented, but fluid and a very thoughtful gesture as we shared the excitement over seeing this bird. 

“Wow!” he exclaimed as he took photos. “I’ve been trying to see an Eagle Owl for two years! When I heard there was one just half an hour from my home, I came right over. I’m so glad you found it.” 

After the sun set, we watched the owl fly off and meet up with another owl, probably its mother. 

Victor, as the high schooler is named, then stayed talking with us for another half an hour, showing us lots of pictures he’s taken of other wonderful birds in Tres Cantos and other parts of Spain. 

The next night we came again to watch the owl, and this time there were 3 or 4 other people, all with huge cameras. Victor introduced us to his friends, most of whom were in their 40s or 50s, and we all watched the owls—yes, two this time, high up in the tree. 

Afterwards, Victor told me that he couldn’t come back for a few days because he had to study for final exams, but said that more of his friends would be there. We now knew, based on their plumage, that the birds were actually owlets, recently fledged.

Victor was very afraid that they would abandon the tree in the next few nights, before his exams ended, so he asked me to let him know if they were still there when I visited the park. His intention was to return right after his last exam and take a lot of pictures. 

I sent him daily updates and each evening a larger crowd gathered at the base of the clump of trees. All had heard through Victor about the owls. Dogs barked and kids squealed as they chased each other around and the owls, whom we were afraid would spook, took only a passing interest in the commotion below.   

On the 5^th day after our first owl sighting, the day Victor’s exams finally ended, there were about 20 people gathered below, with tripods and very expensive, arm-length cameras. A veritable owl-paparazzi gathering. “This is the most important ornithological event of the year in Tres Cantos!” I heard someone joke.

And the owls, well, they continued posing wonderfully, completely unconcerned, then flying away just after dusk. 

After that, school was out and we met on many evenings to observe the wonderful birds. There was a core group of 5 or 6 of us and soon we all knew each other’s names. As neighbors passed by, everyone wanted to know what we were staring at, and then they would also pause to gape at the impressive birds. One morning, a whole kindergarten class showed up to see the owls! 

Eventually, with enough neighbors stopping to comment on the owls, their back story was fleshed out. Apparently, the mother owl had nested in the high eave of an abandoned interior patio in the building close by. But, several weeks into her nesting project, with the chicks just about ready to fledge, the owner of the patio had returned home and was frightened to see those large birds there. He scared them away, and, unable to fly yet, the three nestlings glided down to the patio. 

The neighbors across the way, who had been watching, were horrified when they realized what the owner of the apartment had done, so they called Animal Control Services. The Animal Control people came and captured two of the nestlings—the third one died—but were unable to get the mother. (Adult Eagle Owls have a wingspan of more than 6 feet and are one of the most formidable predatory birds in the world.) 

The owls were taken to a shelter close by, but by then they had learned to fly. Seeing that no harm had come to them, and hearing the mother’s continuing calls, they released the owls. The young owls flew to the tall clump of trees close to the building, and there they roosted each day and then met their parent for evenings of hunting. 

Eventually the crowds watching the owls nightly thinned down, and now when I go to that park, almost 5 weeks after the first sighting, it’s often just me, staring up into the trees, finding one or two owls and watching them fly off after sunset. 

My friend Victor comes as often as he can and also lets me know about other great birds he’s seen.  

And to think, if I hadn’t been injured, I would probably never have sat still, staring up at those trees for so long, and I would have missed these magnificent birds—and the opportunity to make a new friend. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed these pictures and my story of the owls. And as always, please check out (and tell someone about) my novels here.