What happened to one of Hilton Head’s famous young owls? | Beaufort County News

HILTON HEAD ISLAND – Except for fleeting glimpses, the lives of wild animals take place largely beyond the sight of human eyes.

That’s why the appearance of a pair of Great Horned Owls at a particular nest on Hilton Head in December was extra special. That nest happened to have a Raptor CAM aimed at it, continuously broadcasting all of the nest’s activities to anyone with an internet connection. The live feed, set up by the Hilton Head Island Land Trust, captured the attention of people from all over the world.

Against all expectations, the pair gave birth to two eggs in the first days of the new year. The parents carefully cared for the eggs during the month-long incubation period, and two owl chicks hatched in early February. Both appeared healthy, much to the relief of the many online viewers. Two months later, the owl chicks jumped from a branch and flew for the first time. Everyone was filled with hope, as the owl chicks survived every milestone of their young and perilous lives.

Sometime in mid-May, one of these dangers caught up with him. It is assumed that one of the two young men is now dead.

Land Trust board member Robin Storey said the carcass of a young female great horned owl was discovered near the nest where the pair, identified as HH5 and HH6, hatched. The young were not banded, so it cannot be said with certainty that the dead owl came from that nest. However, there are several clues that lead to that conclusion, Storey said.

Great Horned Owls are not migratory birds. Although the owl families leave their nests when the young owls can fly, they stay in the area. The age of the dead bird was another indicator, as were auditory and visual cues.

“Every day I hear the owls on our Raptor CAM,” Storey said. “I can tell from the calls that there’s only one left. We only hear one owl call. People on the ground say they only see three (owls). There’s good evidence that it’s probably one of our owls.”

The owl carcass was taken to the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw, where staff suspected the bird had died as a result of ingesting the poison. They sent samples to Texas A&M for further analysis.

“They wanted Texas A&M to find out the exact chemicals that were found in the bird,” Storey said, adding that the testing took several months.

Analysis revealed the presence of three different rodenticides that likely caused the bird’s death. It is suspected that the owl ate rodents that had ingested the poison.

“It’s a slow, painful death. It takes days,” Storey said.

Jim Elliott, executive director of the Center for Birds of Prey and Avian Conservation Center, estimates that 50 to 60 great horned owls are harmed by rodenticides each year in the center’s service area, which includes South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina.

Owls aren’t the only species vulnerable to rodenticides. The bobcat population on Kiawah Island, for example, has been threatened in recent years by the newest form of rat poison, called second-generation anticoagulants, which are more lethal and faster-acting than previous variants. Storey said extremely high levels of first- and second-generation anticoagulants were discovered in the dead Hilton Head owl.

It is not known what fate awaits the sibling owl or the parents.

“The risk is high. You could face the same fate,” Storey said.