Thanks to the efforts of a local logging truck driver in April, a Barred Owl has a new lease on life.
“Gary Lee, with Hytest Timber, was coming down Highway 20 toward the Sheep Creek Bridge and he saw an injured owl,” said Sue Burton of Williams Lake who has volunteered for 2nd Chance Wildlife Care Centre in Quesnel.
Lee, 60, lives in near Springhouse. He said he saw the owl on the side of the road.
He swerved a bit to see if it was moving, then went into town, dropped off his load before returning to pick up the owl in his pickup truck.
The owl had a broken wing tip, said Burton who arranged for it to go to O.W.L. Rehabilitation Society’s sanctuary in Delta.
Pacific Coastal Airlines flew the owl from Williams Lake to Vancouver.
Last week, Burton picked up the recuperated owl from Pacific Coastal at the Williams Lake Airport.
On Thursday afternoon, she stopped by the Tribune to introduce the owl to the staff.
“He’s eating quite a bit,” Burton said of the owl.
With help from another volunteer, Burton released the owl near where it was found.
She took him to Doc English Hill, or what locals call Monkey Face, above the Fraser River, but noted she did not plan to release the owl on the river side.
Within a few hours of letting the Barred Owl free, Burton received a telephone call asking her to pick up an injured baby Western Hawk Owl.
“It came from 100 Mile House,” Burton explained Friday. “The people’s dog found it.”
Here Lee talks about the rescue.
blackpress.tv
Correction sent in by Lee Sollenberger:
The article on the Barred Owl was a happy ending, but you made a mistake in the other owl that you called a Western Hawk Owl.There are no Western Hawk owls,only Northern Hawk Owls.
This owl is a tame diurnal owl of the muskegs of northern Canada.It has a falcon like appearance.It rarely moving south into the U.S.
Thank you Lee.
