Like many dramas, the one that drew a stream of people carrying binoculars, cameras and sometimes toddlers to Ventura’s Cemetery Memorial Park started with intrigue.
For more than two years, a pair of great horned owls roosted in an avocado tree near Rhiannon “Ray” Norman’s home outside of downtown Ventura. Norman knew them so well, she named the female Sassy because of her impertinence. The male was Fred.
And then Sassy suddenly left. Fred departed later. Norman, a registered veterinary technician, went searching. She found the owls in a large tree at the top of Ventura’s Cemetery Park, just a few strides from Poli Street. Mama was in a nest…