The Chief of Police stopped by yesterday, asking about the cattle egret. Seems it is still in town, happily eating away on the town's lawns.

And he mentioned the great-horned owls nesting on the hotel.

Now, the most prominent feature in our town, besides the huge refinery, is the old three-story Spanish Mission-style hotel, built in the first half of the last century. It has been closed for the vast majority of the 20-some years we have lived here, and was even auctioned off on eBay a while back.

(A total rip-off by its nonresident owner. Rather than buying the hotel, bidders were instead, if you read the fine print, bidding to receive one of the official bid notices of a more formal real estate auction. Don't think some folks knew that. Who would bid $122,000 just for a bid sheet, when you could acquire the same with a simple request? The owner was basically using eBay to advertise his property. Hope they busted him off the site for that. He got no acceptable bids at his auction.)

Anyway, the hotel has been unoccupied for many a year. And a while back, a pair of great-horned owls took to nesting in one of the bell towers.

This year they moved a little lower. They are nesting in a flower box on the second floor. Each pair of second story windows on the front face is decorated with faux French grill balconies. These reduced versions of the real thing would never support a human, but they hold the flower boxes, roughly a meter long and a third as wide, just fine.

And the owls are nesting in the flower box of the second balcony from the left (not seen in the pic from last April). Only about 4 meters above the sidewalk. Where almost everyone in town has been watching them. Taking pictures and trying to keep track of the owlets.

The owls are nesting right where they can look down on anyone entering the hotel. Which no one has done for quite some time.

Until today.

Today the absentee owner decides to come back and air out his property. After no visits for two to three years.

Town clerk called me about 14:30. To complain that the hotel owner had opened the drapes in the windows by the owls, forcing the female to leave the nest.

"Will she come back?"

Yeah, probably.

"Can we do anything to protect our owls?"

Always good to hear someone take public ownership of wildlife to heart. These aren't the government's owls. These are ours.

I advise her the owls are protected by state and federal law, as is their nest. He can't hurt or move them without all sorts of permits. Best if he just waits a couple weeks until the young fledge, and then he can try to move the nest.

She was quite excited by this news. Just the things she was hoping to hear. I hear her relaying my comments to someone else in the office.

After our talk, I call the warden. And apprise her of the situation. (I love the word "apprise", it sounds so official.) And then decide, for fun, and maybe for a little intimidation factor, to drive by the hotel (an entire two blocks away) to check out the owl situation.

Before I can get the masked heeler and myself into the rig, a neighbor pulls up alongside, all excited. She had just been looking up at the owlets (three, she said) with the hotel owner. She mentions the Police Chief had just stopped by, apprising the owner of the legal protections in place for the owls, owlets and nest.

Now I know who the Clerk was talking to.

So I head over and park across the street from the hotel, on the other side of the median island with the lion fountain and Civil War cannons. And scope out the owl situation.

Two owlets in the box, panting in the sun and watching the refinery trucks roll by. Soon they are joined by the mother, who first lands on the railing with the old Christmas lights before hopping down to join the kids. The one owlet looks unusually tall, so I assume it is standing on something, like third sibling.

They are still grey and fuzzy, but with the scope you can see the yellow and black pattern of the adult plumage coming in. Especially on the tall one, who stretches its wings several times.

The goods news? The drapes were closed in both windows behind their box. All the others in the hotel have been opened, but the owner has apparently gone back in to close theirs and give them their privacy back.

Nice.

I watch as all three owls lean out and crane their necks to watch the Qwest service man go inside. Totally unconcerned about the human traffic, or the owner's car parked below their perch.

If he keeps the curtains closed, and takes the Chief's warnings to heart, they should be okay. But I wish they had some shade.