An owl chick once believed dead at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is now in rehabilitation after wildlife experts discovered it was still alive and removed it from Athena’s nest, according to the center.
The unexpected turn came a day after partners monitoring the center’s well-known great horned owl nest believed the second owlet had died and that Athena had abandoned the site. But staff with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology kept watching the nest and later saw signs of movement, Scott Simons, the Wildflower Center’s director of marketing and communications, told the American-Statesman on Monday.
With the owlet still alive, the Wildflower Center coordinated with Austin Wildlife Rescue to remove the young bird from the nest and get it into care, Simons said.
By Monday morning, the owlet was showing improvement.
“This morning, the owlet is stronger and hungrier and we have reason to be hopeful,” Simons wrote.
Earlier updates from the Cornell Lab said one owlet died April 17 and the second was believed to have died by April 18. The cause of the setbacks at the nest remains unclear, though officials had said food availability could have been a factor.
Athena, a longtime fixture at the Wildflower Center, has drawn a devoted following in Austin over the years as viewers watched her return each season to nest near the center’s courtyard.