OCC OWL

Margo and Clive Egginton

(Margo and Clive are cruising the Caribbean aboard Revid, their She 31.)

It was late afternoon and we were cruising along the south coast of Cuba, about 5 miles offshore, on our way round the west end to Cayos de Lena, when an owl landed on one of the solar panels, gripping onto the edge. I quickly grabbed the digital camera - flat batteries! - so pulled out my old camera and started snapping away, expecting the owl to fly off. He wasn't going anywhere, though. He found himself a more comfortable perch on the lifebelt, then on the outboard. We put out some fresh water for him but he ignored that. He didn't seem bothered by us but he didn't like the sails flapping, but then nor did we. He didn't bother with the engine noise either - he was one very tired bird.

He spent part of the night on the outboard, then decided that there was a better perch under the sprayhood. I quickly closed the hatch as I didn't want him flying down below, but he made himself comfortable, with his claws on the mainsail halyard and his bottom on the cockpit speaker. Whenever I went down below to plot our position I had to crawl under the hatch to avoid disturbing Fidel (well, what else could you call an owl that close to Cuba?). Our usual seat on night watch is in the companionway, leaning on the hatch cover. Clive had Fidel leaning on him while he was on watch.

Next morning, while Fidel was making himself more comfortable under the sprayhood, he overbalanced. Since there wasn't enough room for him to use his wings he fell down through the hatch onto Clive's head, bouncing onto the cabin sole. I handed Clive some thick gloves and a rag for protection, but he made no attempt to peck while Clive replaced him under the sprayhood .

As we turned into the cut into Cayos de Lena we could hear the birdsong above the engine - and so could Fidel. He was like an excited child. As I rounded up to anchor Fidel flew to the guard rail and was off before Clive got the anchor down. Unknowingly, we had probably taken him to owl paradise - no people but lots of mangroves, birds etc.

We had the privilege of Fidel's company for 23½ hours, during which time he really became part of the boat. His face was incredibly expressive, although we did find it a bit disconcerting when one minute we were looking at the back of his head and the next at his face without any apparent movement of his body. That would be a great facility for watch keeping! The only noise he made was a clacking reminiscent of false teeth, generally if we went up and down through the hatch too quickly or too often.

When our bird-watching friends consulted their numerous books they concluded that Fidel was a migrant short eared owl. It was decided that he was migrating because he had hairy legs, and it seems they quite often land on boats and oil rigs for a rest. He was one of the highlights of our cruise and we hope he made it to his final destination. (Our bird watching friends thought they might put up a sign on their boat offering free trips for owls.)

We had three cattle egrets later on the same trip but they were not very bright - they tried sheltering on deck behind the rolled up dinghy but got wet every so often and left pretty quickly. We have had other birds land on Revid, but Fidel will always be numero uno.

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