My name is Carri Honz and I’m a USPS retail associate in Lincoln, NE. I have worked for the Postal Service since 1986.
When I’m not on the job, I help care for birds of prey as a member of the Raptor Conservation Alliance, a nonprofit organization that treats hawks, owls, eagles and falcons.
I’m currently caring for Halsey, a great horned owl that came to us 28 years ago after he had been hit by a car and left for dead on a highway.
While Halsey didn’t break any bones, he did sustain a severe head concussion and some brain and optic nerve damage. As a result, he lacks an aggressive predatory personality and couldn’t be released back into the wild, so he has become my educational partner and a great avian ambassador.
We do presentations at schools, libraries, retirement centers, scout groups and with our local Audubon group. We’ve also had opportunities to work with Jim Fowler and Peter Gros from Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom” TV program and photographers Michael Forsberg, Joel Sartore and Thomas D. Mangelsen.
Halsey is known throughout the world. In 2010, when Steve Jobs was introducing the iPad at an Apple event, he went to the National Geographic website and pulled up an image of Halsey.
Great horned owls are called “tigers with wings” and in the wild, they might live to be 20-25 years old or as long as 60 years in captivity. Halsey is 34 and is considered middle-aged.
The Raptor Conservation Alliance has handled close to 17,000 birds since it started back in 1976. Of those, we have gotten about half of them released back into the wild. The ones that cannot be released may become an educational bird with our group or they might go to a nature center or a zoo or a breeding program.
The Postal Service has always been accommodating of my volunteer work. My family is also supportive. I’m married with two adult children. I knew my husband Dave was the right guy when he was cool with me taking in Halsey.
Halsey and I are pretty tight at this point. Could he work with other volunteers and people? Sure. But he is familiar with me, and we have a great bond and a trust that just works really well.
“Off the Clock,” a column on Postal Service employees and their after-hours pursuits, appears regularly in Link.
