Stacey O'Brien : Wesley the Owl

    Monday, May 3, 2010


      Here's what I'm going to do:
 
Ok.
Some people were extremely put off by my "anger" in the following blog
post. However, it's not so much anger as a defense of my and all other
scientists' reputations.

When someone with so huge an audience (including the media) goes on
daily and declares that "Scientists have never worked with wild owls"
and implies that therefore anything we have to say about owls is
tainted, this is damaging to our reputations and to the information we
are giving to the public. It also impacts me as an author, directly.

So what do I do?

So far, nothing. But enough really IS enough.

He has been told repeatedly that what he is saying is not true, that I
have worked w/ wild owls and studied almost 100 nests in the wild, and
that scientists have been studying wild owls for over a century and that
we've been putting cameras in nests since cameras were invented, that we
are the ones who came up w/ that idea in the first place.

He then goes on the next day and continues to say that scientists have
not worked w/ wild owls.

True, it is a real bummer to have to put up such a strongly worded post.


But after someone has been told over and over and over again, what am I
to do?

So here's what I'm going to do:

I'm going to leave this post up for now, but I'm submitting the entire
matter to Simon and Schuster's legal team first thing in the morning and
I will do as they advise. There is a limit as to how long THEY will put
up with one of their authors being slandered publicly, especially in
terms of slandering that author's credentials.

Remember that this is a serious matter that can affect my career as an
author and biologist as well as the careers of other biologists who have
spent their entire lives on barn owl behavior.

Maybe that doesn't matter to the public, but it matters to the
scientists and to the publishers. So. That's that then.

Stay tuned and we''ll see what Simon and Schuster has to say about it.
... we'll see.

-Stacey
Posted by Stacey O'Brien at 11:27 PM


      Why Most Scientists Refuse to Be Bothered.... or...ENOUGH!!!!

Hi! I'm back from a WONDERFUL trip to Bellingham and a tour of one of
the best run wildlife centers around.

But I came back to read about some of the things said about scientists
and really, I have been holding my "tongue" quite well, I think.

And I'm exhausted, so my defenses are a bit down and I'm probably not as
liable to be able to focus on the "bigger picture", whatever that is,
and I'm soo.. sooo... tired that I feel myself getting a tiny bit
impatient. I've tried to just ignore the things being said about
scientists ...

But there is a time to say...ENOUGH!!!!!!

How DARE anyone go on the internet, day after day, in front of a huge
audience, and ignorantly declare that "scientists work with CAPTIVE
owls, not WILD OWLS.

THIS IS A LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

I have said, over and over again, on the owl box, when I knew a certain
someone was also logged in, that I and other scientists have worked with
and observed hundreds and hundreds, possibly thousands collectively, of
WILD OWLS.

WHY would ANYONE want to LIE about scientists, when they themselves are
IGNORANT? Why is there such hostility to scientists?

Has this person EVER read a scientific journal in his LiFE? Obviously
not, because in all the journals I read, even though I"m just a stupid
biologist who is clearly so beneath big time businessmen that I should
hide my little blonde head in the lab and we can all pretend that
scientists are a bunch of idiots who have NEVER EVER EVEN THOUGHT of
putting a CAMERA in a NEST before, ....pant pant....in nearly all the
journals I read they are talking about their observations of WILD OWLS!

Well DUHHHHHHHH....who came UP with the whole IDEA of putting cameras in
nests, Huh Huh? Classs...CLAAAAAASSSSSSS.......
(Anyone? Anyone?)

Scientists.

YES!

Who came UP with the careful observation of animals in the wild, in
studies that last over 50 continuous years, with reams of extremely
detailed field notes all compiled and shared worldwide HUH? CLASSSS
CLAAAAAASSSSSSSSS (anyone? anyone?)

scientists.

----YES!
Poor dumb dizzy headed scientists. Blunderheads all.

And who has dedicated their LIVES to the conservation of habitat and who
has sounded the alarms about how we are destroying ourselves(ultimately)
when we destroy habitat and poison the environment....CLAAASSS
CLAAAAAAASSSSSSS///anyone?anyone?

scientists.
poor unbathed humble poverty-stricken disheveled sodden dunderbunder
scientists.

Now, now that anyone can get a camera and get famous, they're all
experts, right?

Instant knowledge! Just add water and stir.

Man has been exploiting animals for profit for centuries in circuses and
dogfights cockfights, shows,....

OK. now.
The guy who put these owlboxes up all over north county San Diego is
NOTORIOUS among wildlife experts. For YEARS wildlife experts have
watched this guy and, agonizing over the results, have patiently taken
in the HUNDREDS of injured baby owls, carefully nurturing them back to
health. Vets have volunteered their time, surgeries, and X-Ray machines,
people have labored day and night to teach these owls to hunt, to
strengthen their wings so they cold fly...all because of this one guy
and his hack of a business selling "owlboxes" on a pole to unsuspecting,
innocent homeowners.

I am quoting a FEDERAL AGENT here who said, "This guy has been fleecing
San Diegans for years. It's sickening."

From what I heard Carlos state when challenged about where all these
donations are going, I got the message that he is shutting out Tom and
wants to sell owlboxes and other bird boxes HIMSELF, but he worded it by
saying he was going to "Provide habitat and put boxes all over San Diego".

First: The reason all the boxes he saw are just like the one he has is
that the "owl box business" in San Diego is dominated by the same guy
who sold him his owl box.

Second: Boxes are not "habitat".

Habitat is a complex ecosystem that includes dead hollow trees, etc
where owls can nest and owlets can fledge. Oh..yeah. We already
destroyed that. So we put up "owlboxes" but if we're trying to
substitute for a TREE.... a TREEEEEEEEEeeeeee......
oh dear. I see the problem.

See, evolution doesn't work overnight. Owls, over the last, oh, 100
million years, have always been able to count on the fact that if they
found a hollow place, it would pretty much end up being in a tree. Barn
owls are not attracted to cliff faces, so trees it is. We can't just
decide that they should now have evolved to fit our idea of what kind of
owlbox we wish to build.

We need to do it correctly.

Now. Why am I responding so strongly?

Well, I'm tired, exhausted really, and.....

I am sick, sick, sick of hearing (and I've heard this from Carlos' mouth
directly)

That we scientists (meaning me, I suppose) have "NEVER WORKED WITH WILD
OWLS"

Oh, So is Carlos doing something COMPLETELY NEW HERE? WOW! WOW! OH how
embarrassing. Silly scientists! WHY oh WHY didn't we SCIENTISTS EVER
THINK OF THAT!!??? GOSH we feel so STUPID now!

oh please.

give me a break.

does ANYONE believe what he is saying? ANYONE? Isn't it an OBVIOUS LIE?

Think about it:

Scientists are so intent upon watching wild creatures that we have
created/used submarines and other submersibles to get as deep into the
ocean as possible to understand deep ocean organisms. We crawl through
jungles and have our feet rot off and get all kinds of tropical diseases
just for the pleasure of learning how this or that animal behaves IN THE
WILD. We camp for years in snow, rain, hail, wind, extreme heat, just to
watch our species of choice 24/7 for days, weeks. months, years. lifetimes.
Lifetimes have been spent watching wild barn owls.

Did you know that?

LIFETIMES!

Yes. I personally know several biologists who have given every moment of
their lives to watching BARN OWLS in the WILD!

One of them was my mentor.

Did they ever even marry? NO

Did they have families? NO

Why?

THEY WERE WATCHING WILD BARN OWLS AND THAT WAS THE SUM OF THEIR ENTIRE
LIVES.


So to hear this over and over again is so deeply, deeply, deeply
insulting I really am at a loss for words.

Of course, my mentor just laughs and says, "What do you expect? This guy
is not a scientist? He will never be able to grasp it!"

But I tend to be more of an optimist than that. (although I must admit
my mentor has been doing this since the end of WW2 and I haven't).

There ARE A few of us who do venture out and 'go public' with our
acquired knowledge because we think it IS important for people to know
what we've seen, to understand what we've come to understand.

Because what we've come to understand impacts the world around us!

Because we LIVE ON THIS PLANET WITH THESE ANIMALS!

So it might actually be IMPORTANT to share what we've learned and what
we've come to understand.

And we feel very passionate about that.


I remember one time I went into the lab all upset because Jack Hanna
had, for possibly the thousandth time, gone on late night TV and
declared to the world that "Owls hunt by echolocation, just like bats!"

Now, this is a running joke among scientists. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha He did
it again. Oh ha ha ha those silly regular people.

But I was upset because we had spent, oh 40+ some odd years in our one
program proving how owls hunt by hearing and all the brain systems and
physical adaptations and silent feathering and all, Oh god, All that WORK!

The work itself represents hundreds of post docs and professors and
field biologists and lab biologists from places like Harvard, Caltech,
MIT, Purdue, Cornell, Stanford, and from other countries as well....but
no one even cares....spending their LIVES on this one study, and still
they've got this one guy on TV continuing to say, "Owls hunt by
echolocation."

It can cause a scientist to feel despair. If no one cares or knows, what
the heck are we doing, learning and growing and exploring and finding
out? Are we ONLY doing it cuz it's fun? I DO admit that I think it 's
great fun to study wild owls and


and..

and..

please listen closely:

I HAVE STUDIED ALMOST A HUNDRED WILD OWL NESTS PERSONALLY IN MY TEENY
TINY PATHETIC LITTLE LIFE and I'm NOBODY compared w/ my mentor and all
these heavy duty people like my mentor at Caltech.

So can we stop with the "she's only worked w/ captive owls" routine? I
mean, for my own self, I don't have a deep need for anyone to know this,
but when it's said to discredit what I've been so diligently trying to
say, by way of educating people about these precious, sentient,
passionate, sassy, lovely creatures called barn owls...then I do care
that you know.

And I'm a DROP IN THE BUCKET OF THE SCIENTISTS WHO HAVE STUDIED WILD
W-I-L-D WILD BARN OWLS.


People have said to me, "Don't be bothered w/ doing a public book or
trying to explain. They're not scientists. It's hopeless. It's a losing
battle.


Some wildlife experts and scientists and biologists have said, "There's
nothing you can do. There's no hope. These people are so ignorant and
they don't want to know the truth."

I MUST disagree.


When I go do these events, I meet SO MANY people who DO want to learn,
to know, to understand, to find out.

And then they get shut down by someone who is threatened, apparently, by
anyone having knowledge beyond his own.

But no one can be EVERYTHING, so there are experts in different
subjects. That's the beauty of diversity of knowledge and talent among
us humans. We can spread out and become experts in different things and
then offer our expertise to each other!
Well, hey! What a great idea!

If you wanted to have a house built but knew nothing about building,
would you not consult an expert?


So why is it so THREATENING, So ODIOUS, so PAINFUL for a person to
simply consult an EXPERT about these owls? WHY? WHY? WHY?

I'm not a psychologist so I won't pretend to even begin to know why not.

No one associated with these owls has ever tried to contact me about any
of this, nor have they tried to contact Nancy Connie at Skyhunters who
is a font of wisdom and practical knowledge about WILD...yes WILD
W.I.L.D BARN OWLS and other raptors.

I've seen this woman single handedly save a golden eagle from certain
death and seen many many many other examples of her blinding expertise.

But if you have a huge bottle of water and you take it out on a trip
through the desert, and you keep saying, "I'm fine because I have this
huge bottle of water...and slowly you become more and more thirsty and
lose strength until you are fainting, but you say to yourself, "It's ok!
I have a huge bottle of water with me!" and on you walk until you are
stumbling and delirious and falling to the ground and you die saying,
"It's ok, I have with me a huge bottle of water"....what is the use of
having the huge bottle of water nearby unless you OPEN THE BOTTLE AND
DRINK FROM IT?

So is this situation.

You have a huge font of knowledge and practical experience available to
you, waiting w/ beepers ready to be summoned to help, but you refuse to
avail yourself of it, what use is it? What use is all the wisdom in the
world if you do not heed it?

All wisdom is as nothing to he who does not heed it.


I do ask that the slander stop. When you say "Scientists have never
studied wild owls, therefore they have no knowledge" and label anyone
with wisdom and practical knowledge as a "worry wart", you are
committing slander.

MY WORST FEAR in all of this is that the owlets will fall and be injured
and instead of asking for help, because of ego, the owlet will be killed
and we will all be told that, contrary to what ALL THESE SCIENTISTS who
have SPENT THEIR ENTIRE LIVES STUDYING WILD OWLS HAVE SEEN IN EVERY
SINGLE CASE....this PARTICULAR owlet just flew away all on his own.

If that happens, KNOW THIS! The owlet died or was injured and ego
prevented anyone from helping it.

I AM happy that there's now a platform there but it is not what experts
suggest. Would it be so painful to ask any real experts!

See.. when you're hocking a "become an instant millionaire! Live your
dream by buying my book about flipping houses" program, you can bs your
way through and make stuff up as you go along (This is what Carlos'
"other book" is all about and "other websites").

You cannot b.s. in science.

You cannot BS your way through this one.

I might take this post down. I dunno. I've never had to get this direct
before.

sigh.

It's kind of an age old problem for biologists. You start out just
wanting to study your animals and enjoy the beauty of it all, but then
you see how the animals are being abused, endangered, misused,
exploited, and you have to make a decision whether or not to just stay
completely out of it, or become more of an activist, or what.

I really don't think I can become an activist AND be an author, because
of my health.

So I've tried to stay out of that part of things in the sense that I
have not gone to try to have the laws changed regarding owl boxes, etc.

But please stop saying that we scientists don't know anything about wild
owls and have not worked with wild owls, ok?
Thanks!
:-)

Glad we settled that!

Peace and joy,
Stacey

You know, the fascinating thing for me is the juxtaposition of the
behavior of the owls on the left side of the screen with the behavior of
the humans on the right side of the screen. Now THAT, my friends, is
going to make a great chapter in the new book. ;-) OOPS! Too late! It
already has. ;-)
Posted by Stacey O'Brien at 7:18 PM