WELLINGTON — Four barn owls spread their enormous wings and glided into the pink sunset settling over the stubbled fields that hug Harvest Farm.
Just a few weeks ago, the owls were helpless and unable to survive on their own. Their first taste of free flight — reached as many of the 72 residents of Harvest Farm looked on — was unsteady but thrilling.
It was also symbolic, since those who work and study at Harvest Farm also are stumbling their way through a rough patch of life.
But the men hope for the day when they will strike out on their own to live on their own terms, said Harvest Farm director Michael Gulliksen.
“It’s a neat metaphor that the birds are being released here, because what the birds have gone through mirror what we do here,” he said.
Harvest Farm is used by the Denver Rescue Mission to treat men determined to break cycles of addiction and poverty. Men are referred to the 209-acre farm to gain skills and the stability to become self-sufficient members of society.
The barn owls were rescued by the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, which works with injured birds of prey in hopes of releasing them back into the wild.
The owls were found Sept. 23 in a nest under a bridge near Proctor. They had been abandoned by their parents and, at 8 weeks old, were completely defenseless, said raptor program executive director Judy Scherpelz.
Two foster barn owls at the raptor center in Fort Collins literally took the younger owls under their wings while they learned to hunt at a “mouse” school. The young owls were put into a flight cage with live mice to get the hang of being a predator.
“They have to learn to catch food or they won’t survive,” Scherpelz said. “They need to learn good hand-to-eye coordination.”
Harvest Farm, in the meantime, was donating rabbits to the raptor program to feed the birds. Eventually, it was decided that Harvest Farm’s wide-open habitat was an ideal spot to release the owls, Scherpelz said. “Really, what better place for the birds to start their new lives?”
Each owl — three males and a female — were put in small cages in a field just north of Harvest Farm’s main buildings. Each owl was released to the applause of residents.
Their ascents were a little clumsy. But each owl took the sky with growing confidence.
“They may stick around here for a few days or so,” Scherpelz said, “but eventually they’ll find their own path.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
