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By LIZZIE BOWEN | Staff Writer

PELHAM – The Halloween season is coming soon and Alabama Wild Life is more than ready for it.

The Alabama Wild Life Center will hold its Owl-O-ween at Oak Mountain State Park Saturday, Oct. 29 from noon to 2 p.m. The event will feature many different types of owls to observe.

AWC is a nonprofit that has served the area for over 45 years as a rehabilitation center for birds and has worked to connect members of the community with wild life.

Chris Sykes, the executive director of AWC, said the event is fun for everyone.

“It is an event for families,” Sykes said. “Children have come to know and love it. You get to come to the wild life center and meet owls and connect with nature.”

This year, the event is being done slightly differently and will focus more on the animals.

“In the past we have decorated the facility and made it a walk-through, kind of like a spooky trail,” Sykes said. “We are doing a little different approach this year where we are having more of a different approach with owls particularly. We think owls are sort of spooky raptures so we think it’s cool to get people to get close to them and learn about them.”

In addition to live owls being present, a few owls will be released back into the wild after they have been rehabilitated through the wild life center.

“The owl release is a rehabilitated owl that is ready to go back into the wild,” Sykes said. “Participants that come up here to the wild life center will get to watch and learn about that specific owl species and then get to watch us release it back into the wild.”

The event will be an open house according to Sykes, and candy will be available for children.

“Kids are more than welcome to dress up if they want to,” Sykes said. “They can take pictures with a live owl. It is an open house, and we want children and their families to experience owls, get close to them, get some candy and watch an owl get released back into the wild.”

More information about the Alabama Wild Life Center can be found at Alabamawilflifecenter.org.