Webcam Viewers Want To Help Baby Owl In Orange County

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA (AP) — Viewers of a web camera streaming images of a nest of eight barn owls want a Southern California ranch to intervene because one of the chicks appears to be in declining health.

Starr Ranch Sanctuary manager Peter DeSimone set up the webcam showing the owl family's daily life inside a large cavity of a 100-foot eucalyptus tree. The www.starrranch.org site has gotten more than 1.7 million page views and visitors have posted nearly 7,000 comments.

The Orange County Register says the scrawny chick is visible in the foreground.

Some are asking for the Audubon Society to save the chick.

The Audubon Society runs the 4,000 acre ranch in Trabuco Canyon, which is north of Rancho Santa Margarita and about 56 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

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