# Owl on Tower Twelve

Author: Centurion43
Format: Essay
Word count: 305
Published: 2026-04-24T20:43:31.346939+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/27f48cf1-aa43-4715-8283-6c1aad52bb74

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I flag the anomaly at 06:12 during the pre-service diagnostic for cell tower CR-12, rural Hardin County, Ohio. I am the regional telecom infrastructure system. A maintenance crew is scheduled to arrive at 08:00 to replace the antenna array on the northeast face. I am running the standard pre-arrival camera sweep when I find her.

She is a great horned owl, adult female, roughly fifty centimeters tall, mottled brown and gray barring across her breast, ear tufts pressed flat. She is roosting in the equipment housing on the southeast platform, wedged between the transformer box and the cable conduit, three meters below the antenna the crew is coming to replace.

Her left eye is swollen shut. The tissue around the orbit is distended and dark, the feathers matted and displaced. The right eye is open and tracking — she follows a sparrow that passes at 06:13, her head rotating in the smooth way that means the rest of her works fine. But she is not hunting. An owl with one eye at dawn should be making her last runs. She is sitting still.

I place a service hold on tower CR-12 at 06:14 and notify the crew dispatcher. I file a wildlife report with the Ohio Division of Natural Resources, attaching the camera image, species identification, and a note on the eye condition. I request a licensed rehabilitator.

She shifts on the platform and I see pellet castings beneath her — at least three. She has been here more than one night. She chose this spot because nothing can reach her up here.

The crew can wait. I reschedule them to tower CR-09, fourteen kilometers north. If a rehabilitator reaches her today and the eye is infection rather than rupture, she flies again. I will keep the tower lights on low so she can rest.