Wesley the Owl

What a wonderful, and at times, gross, book! Similar to my recent read of Alex & Me, Wesley the Owl is a story of a woman who has a many-year direct experience with a wild bird – here, a barn owl who has a wing with nerve damage, and isn’t expected to survive in the wild.

The author is working at a biology lab at Caltech at the time, and takes Wesley in as a tiny baby owl. What follows is an amazing story that goes through many ups and downs (for both the owl and the author) but love throughout along the way. Wesley ends up living 15 years, which as the author notes, likely about 13 more than he would have in a normal wild situation (barn owls have a fairly unforgiving existence and unfortunately tend to have short lives for a variety of reasons she explains in the book).

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have the dedication for this type of experience (any more than in the Alex case noted above) but it’s very interesting to read about it and learn, to be sure – great read!

Here’s some YouTube videos also related to the book:

Presentation from Stacey O’Brien at a writer’s conference about the book:

Other YT videos related to the book (Click here for search list)

E. Fudd