WATER CONSERVATION GARDEN OWLETS NAMED JUST BEFORE TAKING FLIGHT

Local elementary school names wild owlets and wins their own owl nesting box with spycam!

June 14, 2011 (Lakeside) –The four owlets of Hoot and Holla, a mated pair of wild barn owls at The Water Conservation Garden, have fledged the nest (or taken their final flight into the wild) as of June 7, 2011.   Unbeknownst to them, the owlets have been observed by a loyal group of fans 24-hours a day via a live infrared Owlcam at www.thegarden.org, since they were eggs laid by Holla in mid-February of this year. 

Their leaving the nest is bittersweet, but before they fledged, each owlet received a name from students at Winter Gardens Elementary School in Lakeside, CA.  Students from the school participated in The Garden’s owlet naming contest and offered up the winning names of:  Google, Skype, Tweet, and Twitter.    

“It has been such an amazing experience for both the Garden staff and the public to witness our first mated pair of owls, Hoot and Holla, take up residence in our owl box and raise a healthy brood of 4 owlets that have now taken their place in the wild”, said Pam Meisner, Education Specialist at The Water Conservation Garden.  “We are thrilled to offer this same opportunity to the children of Winter Gardens Elementary School, who will be receiving their own owl box equipped with an infrared camera as the prize for submitting winning names for our owlets.”

Students at Winter Gardens Elementary adopted the owlets early on and as their own cyber owls, and would watch them online daily from classroom computers, according to Winter Gardens Elementary School kindergarten teacher, Debbie Jenkins.  Connecting to the owls via cyberspace was the inspiration for the winning, cyber-themed names.

“Thanks to Kaboom and Georgia Pacific, we have a beautiful working garden that is cared for by our 190 K-5th grade students, said Jenkins.  We have been saving our plastic water bottles to raise money for an owl box.  Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine getting a box with an owl cam!  The children are very excited and extend their sincere thanks to The Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College.”

The Water Conservation Garden staff is proud to have inspired a public appreciation for wild barn owls and hopes that people needing to control rodent and rabbit populations, as The Garden has, will choose the natural method of population control—barn owls—and will install an owl box of their own.  Members of the public can learn more about the options for installing their own owl boxes by visiting Air Superiority’s website, www.barnowlboxes.com.