PG&E contractor smashed Morro Bay owl eggs while trimming trees. What happened?

Theresa Pena came home to a devastating sight in February: two eggs smashed beneath a palm tree where great horned owls had been nesting in Morro Bay for about two months.

The owl fetuses in the eggs had already developed talons, feathers and beaks, according to Pena. After weeks of observing the owls, Pena said it was painful to see their nest and eggs destroyed without an explanation.

“I broke down. I was sobbing. I could barely even speak,” she said. “It was a combination of pure anger and confusion and heartbreak.”

According to PG&E spokesperson Suzanne Hosn, a landscaping contractor knocked the eggs out of their nest while trimming the palm on Feb. 26. PG&E had hired the company to trim two palm trees on Yerba Buena Street to prevent palm fronds from flying into utility infrastructure, she said.

According to Hosn, the contractor did not see the nests while trimming the trees.

“We deeply regret that the necessary safety-related work on these two trees resulted in the accidental loss of a bird nest and eggs,” Hosn wrote in an email to The Tribune.

Beyond the loss of two baby birds, the incident could have larger ramifications for PG&E.

Pena said she believes the utility company and contractor potentially violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by destroying two bird eggs.

PG&E also failed to notify the city about the tree-trimming ahead of time, violating its encroachment permit and preventing the city from inspecting the work site before maintenance began, a Morro Bay representative told The Tribune.

The incident also briefly displaced a popular pair of nesting kestrels that lived in the same trees — ruffling some feathers in the local birding community.

Pena posted about the incident on the social media platform Nextdoor, which garnered 207 comments.

One user said they looked forward to spotting the kestrels while strolling through the neighborhood.

“I used to hear the kestrels in the trees nearly every time I’d walk to the beach,” they wrote. “I just looked at your trees through my binoculars and can see how they butchered them. So devastating. I’m outraged at the callousness. Thank you for going the extra-extra mile for the birds.”

This story is part of The Tribune’s Reality Check series.

Why did PG&E trim the trees?

The debacle started with a late-winter storm.

During a recent February storm, a palm frond flew onto a high voltage primary overhead facility area nearby — causing 399 customers to lose power, Hosn said.

An arborist investigating the outage told PG&E to remove other loose palm fronds from two trees on Yerba Buena Street to prevent future power outages, Hosn said.

PG&E then hired a local contractor to trim the palms.

According to Hosn, if a contractor discovers a bird’s nest during tree maintenance, PG&E requires them to stop work so the site can be reviewed by its environmental team. The arborist and the contractor did not see the nests, however, and PG&E did not hear about the nest until the work was finished, Hosn said.

Pena, however, said the contractor should have seen the nests.

She was at work during the maintenance, but according to her neighbors, the owls circled the tree and screeched at the contractor during the tree trimming.

“My neighbors said (the contractor) was hacking away carelessly,” Pena said. “Birds were screeching and circling, and they referred to it as very eerie.”

Pena said she was not notified of the tree-trimming ahead of time. If she had been, she said she would have warned the contractor of the nest.

Meanwhile, the work could land PG&E in some hot water.

Great horned owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits people from killing migratory birds and their eggs without permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Pena said she filed a complaint with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to report the incident as a violation of the act. A Fish and Wildlife officer visited Pena’s house last week to pick up the bird fetuses for inspection. She had kept them in her freezer as evidence.

Fish and Wildlife did not immediately respond to the Tribune’s request for comment.

Organizations that violate the migratory bird act could be fined up to $10,000, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“I not only felt like something was taken away from the birds — I felt like they had taken something away from me,” Pena said.

PG&E has since offered to place an owl box in an adjacent tree, then reviewed its bird nest procedure with vegetation management crews, according to Hosn.

As of Tuesday, the owls had not returned, Pena said.

PG&E violated city permit

The city of Morro Bay issues an annual encroachment permit to PG&E allowing the company to perform year-round maintenance on trees in the public right-of-way to protect utility infrastructure, according to Morro Bay Public Works Director Greg Kwolek.

The permit requires PG&E to notify the city before starting work, which gives staff time to inspect the site before and after maintenance, Kwolek said.

The utility company did not notify the city before trimming the palm trees on Feb. 26 — a violation of the permit, Kwolek said.

“When city staff found out about the situation, it was a few days old already,” Kwolek said.

The city may fine PG&E $100 for violating the permit, which is the maximum allowable penalty under the city’s Municipal Code for a first offense, he said.

Additionally, a city ordinance prohibits tree trimming and removal during bird nesting season from Feb. 1 to June 30.

Kwolek can issue permits for emergency tree maintenance during that time span — but he didn’t have the opportunity to do so because PG&E trimmed the trees without notifying the city, he said.

PG&E “is committed to” alerting the city before performing routine maintenance, but does not always notify the city before performing emergency work, according to Hosn.

Regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission also allow PG&E to act outside local ordinances like Morro Bay’s nesting season rule, Hosn said.

“When possible, we do communicate regarding urgent/emergency work; in some emergency situations, notifications take place post-event,” Hosn said. “PG&E has acknowledged the gap in communication with the city in this circumstance and is working to address the concerns caused by this incident.”

Kestrels return to Morro Bay neighborhood

The trees were not only home to a pair of owls — they were also the longtime home of a beloved mated pair of American kestrels.

For the past two years, the Morro Bay Bird Festival has even brought tours to the tree to admire the two small falcons, Pena said.

The owls seized the kestrel nest about two months ago to lay their eggs, prompting the kestrels to make a new nest in the neighboring palm tree, she said.

When Pena returned home after the tree-trimming, both the kestrels and owls were gone.

Though the owls haven’t returned to the neighborhood, the kestrels settled back into their palm tree about six days ago, Pena said.

Pena also collaborated with Sean Ellis from Coastal Tree Experts to install a bird house in the palm tree for the kestrels.

She purchased the bird house, and he placed it in the tree while she was at work on a March afternoon. He also cleaned her gutters free of charge, she said.

“He spent a big part of his day on the project — just to be a kind person because he was disturbed about what had happened,” Pena said.

The kestrels haven’t yet built a nest in the bird house, but “they scope it out, they sit on it, sometimes they eat on it,” Pena said.

“I’m hopeful that they’re going to end up nesting in there,” she said.