PORT ANGELES — In the woods around her home west of Port Angeles, she could hear the saw-whet sound.
It’s the owls’ call, like a blade on a whetstone, through the early morning air.
Merryn Welch recognized it, having cared for two of its sources at the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center.
Welch and her husband, Chuck Burnell, volunteer at the Sequim center, where wild things — bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, barred owls, young deer — recover from gunshot wounds and car strikes.
Last spring, two northern saw-whet owls were brought in, one badly hurt by a motor vehicle, the other in better shape but also downed by an apparent collision with a car.
The first “was pretty dinged up. I didn’t think it was going to make it,” said Jaye Moore, the director of the center at 1051 W. Oak Court in Sequim.
But when the two saw-whets were housed together, they became buddies — inseparable as they convalesced.
Welch and Moore watched over them for some seven months, naming them Grumpy and Happy for their facial expressions.
Happy was ready for release a bit before Grumpy. But the two were so close, Moore didn’t want to split them up.
So she waited until the evening of Oct. 2, when Welch and Burnell carried the diminutive creatures to a stand of evergreens outside their home west of Port Angeles.
They had seen other saw-whet owls in the vicinity, so they knew this was good habitat.
First, they held the owls in their hands like teacups. Then, as the sky darkened, they opened their hands and set the birds free.
The saw-whets flew away on silent wings.
This is releasing season for the raptor center. Two bald eagles and four young crows are also among those recently returned to the wild.
“They’re ready,” said Moore, who’s been caring for birds and other wildlife for more than three decades.
Two dozen birds — hawks, eagles and owls — are living at the center now. That’s a relatively small number thanks to releases in the past few weeks.
But Moore expects an influx with the hunting season and the onset of wintry weather. Eagles come in with bullet wounds. Young birds can’t find enough food.
Moore runs the raptor center, a registered nonprofit, on donations and with the dedication of volunteers such as Welch.
“In her, I see me 30 years ago,” Moore said.
Welch has both the affinity for the birds and the stamina for the dirty work — keeping the center clean, taking care of the raptors’ rodent food supply — to step up to a leadership role.
Which would suit Welch well. She has loved volunteering at the center since her first day this past spring.
Moore feels just as strongly after all these years, but she is ready to retire. She’s putting it off until her husband, Gary, takes that plunge as well.
“I can’t just leave the critters,” of course, she said.
“I’ll help [at the center]. I can’t just go cold turkey after 30 years.”
Welch, for her part, stays focused on the birds in her care.
She misses the two saw-whets and the way their faces made her laugh.
“But knowing they were going back to being free, where they belong,” she said, “was an incredibly good feeling.”
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
