Massachusetts: Terrified owl found wedged between truck cab and trailer

MASSACHUSETTS -- Heading home to New Hampshire, truckers Will Sword and Tyler Buckley were on the road in Massachusetts when they heard a bang. At first, they thought the truck had hit a tree.

But when they stopped and Buckley got out to investigate, he was shocked to see an owl trapped between the cab and the cargo hold. And it was still very much alive.

"He said, 'Dude, it's an owl,'" Sword said, who snapped a photo of the male barred owl trapped earlier this month. He recalled it was flapping its wings and trying to escape.

Sword got on the phone to the New Hampshire State Police, who referred him to Jane Kelly, who runs a rehabilitation and education center in Epping for birds of prey called On the Wing.

She advised him to gently remove the bird from the truck with heavy gloves to avoid the sharp talons, keep it warm with a blanket and place it in a box.

"It's absolutely a miracle that it's alive after getting hit by a truck," said Chris McKee, a conservation officer with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, who picked up the bird the next day and brought it to Kelly. He said the owl was most likely trying to hunt for rodents along the highway when it collided with the truck.

Kelly brought the bird to Veterinary Emergency & Surgery Hospital in Brentwood to be examined. It didn't appear to have any broken bones but did suffer head trauma in the collision and is having trouble seeing out of its right eye.

Named Trucker, the bird has been recovering, eating and perching on its own.

Kelly said it should be moved this weekend to a larger enclosure and eventually be released into the wild.

"If he can fly, then we will start seeing if he can hunt on his own with live prey and hopefully get him out to where he came from in the next couple of weeks," Kelly said.

(AP - March 30, 2017)

Minnesota: Duluth cop checks out ‘injured’ owl, ends up with awesome photo

MINNESOTA -- Duluth police officer Richard LeDoux was on patrol in the eastern part of town Monday night when a passerby waved him over.

The person wanted to report what appeared to be an injured owl on the roadway in the busy intersection of 21st Avenue East and Superior Street.

“They thought it had maybe been hit by car,” LeDoux told the News Tribune.

But as LeDoux pulled up and prepared to call a local animal rescue organization, the barred owl jumped onto the hood of his squad car.

LeDoux quickly grabbed his cell phone and snapped a photo as the owl appeared to be peering into the squad through the windshield.

“It was there maybe a minute or so. It didn’t seem to be in any hurry,” LeDoux said.

Eventually the owl took off and flew away, apparently uninjured. And we’ll never know why it landed there.

Barred owls aren’t all white, this one just looks that way due to the lighting in the photo, said Laura Erickson, Duluth bird expert. They are usually mottled buff, brown and white.

Barred owls are fairly common in the Northland, but aren’t often seen in the city, especially on the hoods of squad cars. You can identify barred owls by their hoot, the distinctive “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?”

Erickson said barred owls favor moist forests for habitat. They often nest in tree cavities.

(Twin Cities Pioneer Press - Feb 9, 2017)

Nebraska: Blair police officers rescue injured owl at elementary school

NEBRASKA -- It's going to be “owl” right.

Blair police rescued an owl after it was struck by a vehicle early Wednesday morning.

Officers were dispatched to the area near Deerfield Primary School at about 2:30 a.m. for the report of an injured owl, Chief Joe Lager said.

Officer Joshua Hatheway was able to corral the owl into a cardboard box, which he covered with a rain coat.

The bird — possibly a barred owl — was still in the police station garage later Wednesday. Raptor Recovery in Bellevue was expected to pick up the owl.

Lager said officers often get called to tend to injured animals.

“A lot more than you think,” he said.

On Tuesday, officers were dispatched for an injured raccoon. They've also received reports of a coyote in the 66 Heights Division.

(Pilot Tribune & Enterprise - Feb 16, 2017)

Kentucky: Injured owl, rescued by local man, gets new lease on life

KENTUCKY -- A Pembroke Elementary School teacher said she was tickled to have him home Tuesday morning on her farm.

Nancy DeCoursey was talking about Owen, an owl that her family saved recently. DeCoursey’s daughter, Rachel, said a bird got tangled up on the evening of Jan. 23 on her way home from work. She and her father, Ray, went to investigate and found an owl caught on barbed wire.

“He was wrapped up in there good,” Ray DeCoursey said, adding he has a real soft spot for birds of prey.

Photos by Meredith Willse

DeCoursey set about freeing the owl. He cut the wings loose on either side and covered the creature with a blanket to help him calm down.

DeCoursey called a non-emergency line for the Emergency Communications Center, but they had no suggestions on where to take the owl.

In the meantime, Nancy DeCoursey posted on Facebook she needed a place to take the injured bird. That’s when she was told about the Nurture to Nature Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

The DeCourseys finally found someone to help with the owl, and her name was Kristin Allen. She volunteered to meet them halfway, but the DeCourseys decided to go all the way to Owensboro, with the owl sitting in a special box Ray DeCoursey made.

Allen said it was good that DeCoursey cut the bird loose the way he did. If DeCoursey had tried to pull the wire off of the owl’s wings, he could have injured the bird more. Rather, DeCoursey cut the wire on either side of the wing. When Allen got him, she did the last of the work and found the bird only had a small hole in his wing.

He eventually healed, retaining his wild side so he can be released back into the wild. Then the big day came for Allen to let him go Tuesday.

But before she did that, it was decided that the owl, which was named Owen, should be brought to Pembroke Elementary School, where Nancy DeCoursey works as a teacher, to teach a lesson to some of the students.

Allen told the students that as a wildlife rehabilitator, she’s been called a hero. She says otherwise.

“Let me just tell you something. Your fabulous teacher that called me and told me she had an injured owl is really the hero in this whole thing,” Allen said, explaining that she needs people that care enough to make the call, so she can go help the injured animals.

Along with Owen, two other owls came to teach the students about wildlife, however, those birds were tamed. Allen told the children that one owl, a small screech owl did its hunting earlier than other owls do. The other one, a barred owl, did most of its hunting at night.

Owen is a horned owl. Allen explained that tufts of feather will pop up for him to show whose boss, along with hissing.

She also gave the children something to keep in mind with regard to the owl’s main prey, mice.

“It’s very important that when we’re controlling the rodent population in our home that we use snap traps,” Allen said. That’s because using the rat poison on the little critters will also poison the birds of prey further up the food chain.

A short time after the presentation, Allen released Owen back to his home on the DeCoursey farm, where he possibly has a sweetheart waiting for him.

Nancy DeCoursey was smiling as she filmed him flying off to a tree branch.

Ray DeCoursey will be happy to hear the owls chirping again, which was what he enjoys hearing at night.

For any looking to help a wounded animal, contact the center through their website, http://www.nurturetonature.org/contact.html, or call 270-993-6022, 270-314-9126 or 270-231-2764.

The center is a non-profit corporation that works with the Western Kentucky Raptor Center. They accept donations.

(The Eagle Post - Feb 14, 2017)

Minnesota: Aitkin County Sheriff's Deputy rescues injured owl

MINNESOTA -- An Aitkin County Deputy came to an owl’s rescue on Jan. 23 after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen.

Deputy Sheryl Cook came across an injured Barred Owl and carefully brought it to the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office where Deputy Jon Cline and Dispatcher Jacquie Honstrom created a temporary shelter and provided overnight care to the owl.

The next morning, it was brought to the DNR where it received medical attention and rehabilitation.

(Fox9 - Jan 30, 2017)

Connecticut: Animal Control and state trooper work to rescue injured owl

CONNECTICUT -- A Patrol Trooper from Troop I Bethany assisted in saving an injured Owl this morning on Rt 15 northbound near exit 58 in Orange / Woodbridge area.

We Thank the Woodbridge Animal Control Officer who responded to secure the injured Owl from the highway & transport it to a safe animal hospital for treatment.

  

  

 

Connecticut: Good Samaritan and police work together to help get injured owl to wildlife rehabilitator

CONNECTICUT -- This beautiful owl was hit by a car tonight in Colchester.

Colchester Police were kind enough to keep him safe, until I could get him to a veterinarian at BEVS. He is expected to live.

Thank you to Ellen, for helping me get him to a rehab expert.

  

  

UPDATE:

  

 

Connecticut: Officer rescues barred owl trapped in the grille of a car

CONNECTICUT -- An owl is recovering after getting stuck in the grill of a truck traveling from Willimantic to Groton on Thursday.

Steve Martin noticed something was wrong with his truck when he got to Groton on Thursday. After spotting the bird of prey, he immediately called the Groton animal control who came and took the owl to safety.

After receiving some help from the Groton animal control, the barred owl was taken to the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center in Mystic.

Officials at the Nature Center said they didn't see any obvious, major injuries on the bird. and expect it to recover.

"The first 24 hours really can be quite critical,"  Maggie Jones, who is the executive director of nature center, said. "There could be something that is not quite obvious to us."

Officials at the Nature Center said  they'll keep the owl overnight for observation and if all goes well, it could be released as early as Saturday.

 

(EyeWitnessNews3 - Oct 21, 2016)

Missouri: Owl get a new lease on life thanks to police officers and the World Bird Sanctuary

MISSOURI --  A wounded owl, left for dead, flew back into the wild Wednesday, thanks to a couple of St. Charles County Police officers.

Adam Caupp and Eric Feagans had no idea how to capture the Barred Owl when they found it on Highway 94 near Augusta, but they couldn't just drive on by.

About four o’clock Wednesday afternoon, they had the honor of releasing the bird.

Caupp practiced the release with a stuffed eagle toy first.

Then, he held the owl for the first time since the rescue about 4 weeks ago.

The powerful bird seemed far cry from the wounded one he and his partner found standing near the edge striping of Highway 94 near Klondike Hill.

“We saw a big semi drive by it and almost blew it over.  So we figured something was wrong with it,” Caupp said.

“It was not flying.  She looked pretty banged up.  She looked like she got hit by something, like ‘I need a minute and it hurts’,” said Sherry Seavers of the World Bird Sanctuary.

The officers never considered simply driving by the wounded bird.

“No…my family…we like the birds of prey, anyway,” Caupp said.  “We’ve actually spent some time, taken the kids down to World Bird Sanctuary.  So we’d actually been down there.  That’s how we knew of it.”

When the officers found the owl, they called World Bird Sanctuary.  A worker there walked them through the “no touch” capturing technique.  They threw a large shirt over the bird; put it into a box they borrowed from a winery, and took it the sanctuary.

The owl was blind in one eye and had a bruised or fractured collarbone, she said.

It recovered quickly at the World Bird Sanctuary, even fostering young owls while there.

Caupp lofted the owl skyward and flew into a nearby tree, clashing with crows already residing there.

“Yeah, he flew right up into the tree; didn’t bother giving us a goodbye but he was happy to be out,” Caupp said.

“She did not come flying back.  She took away.  She was like, ‘I’m out of here.  Thank you.  I’m out.  Thanks guys’,” Seavers laughed.

(Fox2Now - June 22, 2016)

Massachusetts: Rutland Police Department Detective Giglio does wildlife rehabilitation

MASSACHUSETTS -- What do you do in your spare time?

In his spare time, Detective Giglio enjoys helping to rescue injured raptors and owls.

He is pictured here with a Barred Owl - Photo by Brad Weber

(Rutland Police Department - January 7, 2014)