Ollie the Owl turns heads - KFBB.com News, Sports and Weather

Ollie the Owl turns heads

An unlikely critter is making a name for itself at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse. Ollie the Owl showed up outside of Judge Mike Menahan's courtroom about two weeks ago

Since then, lawyers and clerks alike make the trek up to the courthouse’s second floor just to get a peek at this neat bit of nature.

Judge Menahan was going about his busineAs, presiding over his criminal law in motion cases when he looked out the window to see several crows attacking a Great Horned Owl's nest.

Its common to see crows and magpies flying around the area, usually to pick off pigeons, but its pretty rare for an owl to make its nest within any city limits.

"I am interested in why this owl would choose a nest in a fairly vulnerable place in the middle of town," said Menahan.

Since he was a kid, Menahan has had an interest in birds. He studied ornithology, the scientific study of birds, when he was at the University of Montana.

"I was always go bird watching anywhere I go."

As a judge and part-time bird scientist, he looks at the owl in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

"I don't name owls," jokingly said Menahan.

It was one of the court's clerks, Tammy Dillma, who decided the feather-filler creature deserved name.

"We didn't know whether it was female or a male, so I figured Ollie could go either Oliver or Olivia... Just a safe, not Terry kind of name," said Dillma.

Dillma was the first to get an up-close look at Ollie. She brought in her household pair of binoculars...
That made everyone want to get a better view of the owl. So, someone set up a camera and TV to do just that.

“ss you can see, its blown up a bit."

Dillma says Ollie’s fans can be distracting when court is in session, but they are happy the mama or papa owl has people rooting for it and its babies.

The chicks are going to be named after the other scheduling clerks in the courthouse.
So we can expect to see Cindy, Farah, Deb, and Sharon flying around in a couple of weeks.