Injured bird's fate remains unknown

MOSES LAKE - Some stories end in mystery.

The guys at the Two Rivers Terminal like the owls that fly overhead and nest in out-of-the-way places among the machinery. "They feed on our seagull population up here. And pigeons," said Tino Moreno, the plant manager. "They're kind of plant pets."

The facility, a bulk fertilizer plant, runs two shifts, so the night guys aren't quite as fond of the birds as the day guys. "They're cool to see in the day. At nighttime they scare the crap out of us," Moreno said.

"They like to be high atop our towers," Moreno said, where they can swoop down on prey, and they nest in empty tanks.

So the owls are a familiar part of the scene at the facility, and Moreno was concerned when he found an owl flopping around under a railroad car. The bird was injured, to the point where it couldn't fly when Moreno and the crew approached.

The workers put out a water bowl for the bird and called an animal rescue service. But by the time the animal rescuers got there the bird was gone, Moreno said. "We looked this morning (Thursday)," but the bird was nowhere to be found. There wasn't a carcass either, however.

So the bird's ultimate fate is unknown, although the property's caretakers have been known to care for injured birds, Moreno said.