AUSTIN, Texas — Many Austin residents are familiar with Athena, the great horned owl who has famously nested at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center every year for over a decade. She’s such a local icon, in fact, that the City of Austin named her its Official Owl Ambassador last year.
But there’s another Austin-area avian supermom who deserves recognition.
Eddison, a 14-year-old great horned owl, is Austin Wildlife Rescue’s designated surrogate for injured or abandoned owlets. Jules Maron, the group’s executive director, said Eddison came to the rescue in 2021 with nine years of fostering experience after the retirement of her Bell County rehabilitator. In her five years at the Austin rescue, she’s raised more than 38 owls that later reentered their natural habitat.
Maron said wild animal foster parents like Eddison help babies in rehabilitation learn natural skills and habits — and a dislike of humans.
“Eddison hates us, which is fantastic,” Maron laughed. “We know that when a baby goes with Eddison, it is going to be a full-blown owl, and it will hate our guts. And that’s what we’re going for.”
The nocturnal matriarch cannot fly because of a wing injury she sustained as an owlet, so she uses ramps to navigate her large enclosure and, as Maron said, to “work her tail feathers off trying to feed all those babies.”
Maron said it’s not uncommon for Eddison to chase around a dozen foster owlets at a time. Last year, she raised 15 at once. Great horned owls are frequent flyers at the rescue, mostly as babies, with the group taking in 30 to 40 annually, Maron said. This year, that estimate includes Athena’s surviving owlet from her recent nesting season.
In April, Athena hatched two owlets from her signature Wildflower Center nest. Over the span of three days, one died, the other seemingly died, and Athena abandoned the nest. The Wildflower Center then discovered the second baby alive, and Austin Wildlife Rescue swooped in to help.
Athena’s baby entered Eddison’s care earlier this month as a Mother’s Day gift, the rescue said on Facebook. Eddison instantly took to the baby, as she always does. Maron said Eddison experiences a brooding period where she lets staff know that “she wants those babies.” One year, Eddison grew tired of waiting for babies and took to sitting on specially selected rocks.
“She’ll start to lose some of the feathers that she’ll pluck from her abdomen area,” Maron said. “She’s always excited when we finally put babies in. You can always tell she’s getting a little crankier than usual when she’s waiting for babies.”
Currently, Eddison is fostering Athena’s baby, who is 6 weeks old, alongside three other owlets. Once the owlets begin flying around the aviary — a developmental step called fledging — the rescue will place them into a large flight enclosure for monitoring. Those who show they are healthy, strong and independent are then released into the wild, where they are sure to come across another of Eddison’s foster owlets.
“She just does amazing work,” Maron said. “Such a hard-working owl.”