It wasn’t the up-close view of wildlife that photographer Susie Clothier had hoped to experience, but her encounter with a barn owl bound up by fishing line in Goleta last Saturday did have a happy ending thanks to a group effort.
Due to a fortuitous set of circumstances — Santa Barbara County Fire Station No. 14 is just next door, and Clothier has close connections to wildlife rescuers — the entangled raptor received prompt attention and has a good prognosis.
Clothier had just arrived in the area of the historic Stow House and Lake Los Carneros when a woman told her she had seen a distressed owl in a palm tree. It was an owl that Clothier had seen through her camera’s zoom lens on previous occasions, but this time the scene was not pretty.
“The barn owl was caught in a fishing line in and around its talons some 35 feet above ground,” Clothier said. “Fortunately, SBCF Station No. 14 is near the property, and I ran and asked for help. I also called my sister who was working the helpline for Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network.”
In turn, Dylan Helenberger, SBWCN’s intake lead, came to meet the growing group of helpers, who watched the owl flailing because of stress for about 90 minutes before a Goleta Public Works lift arrived to enable a successful rescue from the tree. The crowd gave plenty of space to the SBC Fire crew as they worked.
Once the owl was down, volunteers carefully wrapped her in a towel and Helenberger got to work detangling the fishing line that was bound around her talons. It took him about 10 minutes to remove the line, and Clothier immediately began transporting her to the Ojai Raptor Center.
ORC is in the process of evaluating and provided any necessary care before releasing her back at Stow House.
Clothier, a Carpinteria resident, photographs wildlife, dogs, surfing and families all over the Central Coast on a regular basis, but she also volunteers with SBWCN and ORC. It wasn’t the first time she’s been involved in a bird rescue, including other fishing line entanglements. She implores people who fish to pick up their lines and hooks, saying that rescuers “see this all too often.”
SBWCN cares for injured, sick, orphaned, oiled and vulnerable wildlife, and it conducts community education and outreach to further the prevention of harm to wildlife. ORC focuses on birds, especially birds of prey.
“While I love photography and capturing wildlife through my lens, nothing is more priceless than giving my time to both these organizations,” Clothier said.
Clothier thanked Capt. Sid Porrazzo and firefighter/paramedic Shawn Bahne from SBC Fire Station No. 14 for their rescue work. SBC Fire noted that the county’s Animal Services department also helped.
County Fire engineer Mike Gray explained that animal rescues are something that the department does get involved in on a fairly regular basis. While the majority involve domestic animals such as cats and dogs, the occasional wild animal or even livestock is the subject. On Feb. 13, SBC Fire spent five hours rescuing a cow that had been trapped in the ground by a mudslide. Gray recalls a rescue of a horse that had toppled into a trough and was unable to get out. The department’s Facebook page chronicles many of these rescues. Like these other incidents, Gray calls the barn owl rescue “a great story.”
An injured bird may be reported to the Ojai Raptor Center at 805.649.6884. The Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network, which helps with birds, reptiles, amphibians and terrestrial mammals, can be reached at 805.681.1080.