SAVING THE SPOTTED OWL Zalea's Story A true story written by Nicola Jones Illustrations by Alexandra Finkeldey Kids Can Press
The Fall One spring day Zalea fell from her tree She was a baby owl just three weeks old and not yet able to fly She landed with a bump on the forest floor far below her nesting place She had fallen about as far as if she'd dropped from a seventh story window This was not good for little Zalea Tiny and vulnerable she was in danger of becoming a snack for a passing eagle or a cougar prowling this remote patch of Canadian forest Her parents couldn't carry their chick back up to the hole in an old growth tree where they made their home The most they could do to try to keep their chick safe was to dive bomb any predators if they came nearby
But Zalea got lucky Some wildlife biologists knew that Zalea's parents were nesting in that tree and they had been visiting now and then to see how the owls were doing For about a month they had noticed the father owl bringing a lot of extra food back to the tree They thought that probably meant there was a chick to feed in the nest The biologists carefully picked up the little owl At that point the owl chick didn't have a name no one even knew if it was a boy or a girl The team would find out later and then name her Zalea after the beautiful rhododendron bush an azalea that grows in British Columbia They scooped her up into a cardboard box and put her on the back seat of their truck Zalea was on her way to her new home When the scientists arrived that spring day in 2017 they spotted the little chick sitting on the ground She was smaller than a soccer ball and looked like an adorable puff of gray fluff Before the sun set they made the decision to rescue her
