During early spring of 2005 Wayne Driskill was on his way home one night when something flew into the path of his truck and hit the grill. Upon arrival at home he found out that a screech owl had met it's demise on the grill of his truck. Thanks to the wide bumper the owl had made it back to Wayne's house with little damage.

Miss Amy was excited to see the diminutive owl and decided to see if she could put it to good use. It just so happens that Ms. Driskill is an explorer teacher at West Hills Elementary and their school mascot is an owl.

After calling this writer and asking about a good taxidermist, Miss Amy was advised that it was a felony to have an owl, or any part of an owl, in her possession and that it would be best to dispose of it as quickly as possible. "Bury it or throw it away" was a phrase that she would hear repeated quite a few times. As an afterthought I also told her to call Jay's Taxidermy and the local Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP) office to see for herself. At that point I thought the story would end. Little did I know how tenacious Ms. Driskill could be.

Little chance

Upon calling the local MDWFP District office and talking with an officer there, she was again advised that it was a felony to possess the owl since it was on the protected species list. She was told that they would dispose of it, or that she could call the state office in Jackson if she wanted to pursue it any further. There was little chance of success however, as others had tried the same thing and came up with nothing to show for it.

Following a couple more calls Ms. Driskill got in touch with the Natural Science Museum where she was referred to the United States Department of the Interior's Atlanta office, a division of the State Department. She found out that some permits were issued to mount owls for use by museums and schools for educational uses in special circumstances.

She was told that she had to put her request in writing along with the story of how she came to possess the owl. She also had to get the school principal's signature to authenticate the story. Much to Ms. Driskill's surprise she ultimately received a letter granting her permission to have the owl mounted. However, the permission letter would have to stay with the owl at all times.

With all of the groundwork laid and permit's granted, it was time to find a taxidermist. Upon talking with Jay Belcher of Jay's Taxidermy, she learned that she had to have a federally approved taxidermist mount the owl. Although Jay doesn't mount birds and ducks, he put her in touch with Kevin Hines of Slidell Louisiana. Hines is a five-time world champion in bird mounting. Jay even carried the owl down to Hines with a few other birds last July.

With the money appropriated to pay for mounting the owl, everything was falling into place and sailing smoothly. And then it happened; hurricane Katrina hit on August 29th and Slidell was right in its path. For quite some time nobody knew the status of Hines or the owl. Finally through painstaking effort by several people who knew somebody who knew somebody working in the Slidell area, contact was made with Hines.

Ms. Driskill was advised that Hines had escaped injury and his house had escaped serious damage but that he had been without power and had lost several birds. In fact he just didn't know the condition of the owl and wouldn't until he attempted to mount it.

Fateful call

Months later the fateful call about the mount finally arrived. The news came from Jay's Taxidermy as they announced that they had received the mounted owl. Shortly after Christmas Driskill picked up the bird and learned that it was in great condition. After a school-wide contest to pick the owl's name, it was decided that it would forever be named "Screech" and become the official school mascot. It was also the focus of unit lessons regarding animals and birds currently on the endangered and protected species list.

A grand celebration was held last week in a school ceremony when the owl was presented to the school and dedicated as the official school mascot. Many of Ms. Driskill's explorer students read papers compiled about the owl story. Other students related other facts about the eastern screech owl and it's home range. One local outdoorsman even spoke of the owl and gave an impromptu owl hooting session.

Thanks to one tenacious and enthusiastic teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty, many West Hills students and others have become knowledgeable about owls and their place in the outdoors. They have also learned what it means to be on the endangered and protected species lists, and why animals and birds are on the list. Yes, thanks to Ms. Amy Driskill, the West Hills explorer class was able to explore a world outside of books and classroom walls and gain a little first hand experience of the world and how it works!