Off Beat

Poisoned prey almost did in ‘Owen the owl’ at Faneuil Hall — until a trio of rescuers stepped in

The bird is now being rehabbed at Cape Ann Wildlife.

February 22, 2023

2 minutes to read

A trio of civilians worked together to save Faneuil Hall’s resident owl Monday after it had fallen ill from rat poisoning. The bird — whom people dubbed “Owen” after it first started being sighted at the historic site — is now in the care of Cape Ann Wildlife.

Andrew Joslin, a tree climber and founder of Tall Pine Tree School, was the first to take on the task. He attempted to climb the tree and catch the owl, and when it proved too difficult, Jim Joyce and Massachusetts licensed falconer Diane Welch came in with an assist, according to WCVB.

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When she was first notified of the issue, Welch said she thought the rescue would be simple.

“I said ‘I can get it,’ and they kind of looked at me and I said, ‘I can trap it,’” she told Boston.com. “I had said, ‘I really don’t need any backup.’”

She later realized that would not be the case. Typically, catching birds is easy for someone like Welch, who has trained to do the task, but Faneuil Hall’s busy location made it more difficult.

“It was really tough,” Welch said, adding that the bird was in bad shape.

Whatever “Owen” had been preying on — most likely rats — had been poisoned with rodenticide, and the owl got poisoned from eating it. Rodenticide acts as a blood thinner, and when Welch finally caught Owen after what felt like a three-hour battle, she said she was taken aback by how little he weighed.

“It had been bleeding for three days,” she said. “I can’t even imagine how sick it was feeling.”

Now, though, Welch said the bird is “in the best hands possible.”

“She saves the unsavable,” she said about Erin Hutchings, the Cape Ann Wildlife rehabber who is charged with Owen’s care. “She’ll stay up all night administering medicine.”

Hutchings was working so she couldn’t talk on the phone, but she said in a text that “he’s improving day by day. Not out of the woods yet by any means.”

And just as Welch predicted, Hutchings added that she is “up day and night treating him.”