Posted on 02/13/2013 4:58:46 PM PST by Pyro7480
An owl has been freed after it was found trapped behind the grille of a sport utility vehicle.
When Sonji Coney Williams looked into the grille of her SUV, she noticed huge yellow eyes staring back at her. "I was about to faint," said Williams.
She found an owl stuck inside. On Thursday, she was heading south on the Florida Turnpike. "I was driving about 60 miles per hour, and he never moved, and so I said, 'Oh, my God, I hit a bird,' and I felt so bad, but it was very dark," she said....
...It was not until Friday afternoon, while she was running errands, when Williams noticed the owl was stuck behind the grille of her SUV. "There was a family that pulled in front of my parking space and flagged me down and said, 'Don't move, don't move, you have something in the grille of your car,' and they said, 'It's an owl,'" she said.
Williams immediately called Florida Fish and Wildlife. An officer showed up, popped the hood of her vehicle open and freed the owl.
The owl is a Great Horned Owl, which are common in Central Florida.
The officer said the owl appears to be in good shape and suffered no injuries.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsvn.com ...
Animal ping!
Grilled Owl: Serve with baked potato and salad
Ford Escape?
Owls freak me out. Everytime I’ve seen one...I’ve also seen snakes....
WH-o-o give a H-o-ot?
Try cleaning a dead cat out of the fan.
My favorite bird, Great Horned Owl. That’s a miracle it survived a 60mph hit, and a few score miles wedged in there while car was moving. Then, not discovered until the following afternoon? I think that’s the A/C radiator behind it and not coolant radiator, because coolant radiator would have been hot, hot hot! Unbelievable!
Same thing happened to a friend of mine in rural Butte County, CA. Late one night, he was driving back home in his old Willys Jeep when he felt something hit the grill. He didn’t think anything of it at the time. He gets home, turns the engine off and there is a horrible ‘CRACk!, CRACK!, CRACK!” coming from the engine compartment. He goes to check and finds a barn owl flapping in his grill.
His feeling at the time was, somewhere there was a ground squirrel that owed him one.
Beautiful GHO, thanks for the pic and the story.
I am glad that the owl survived the mishap. Cars kill a lot of owls this one was very fortunate...must be good luck. The woman is a Good Samaritan.
So, let me get this straight.
The woman wasn’t smart enough to pop the hood on her own, but had to wait for a man to arrive to show her what
she should do when one has an owl in their grille?
Bert always did freak me out.
The woman is a Good Samaritan
= = = = = = = = = = = =
How can you consider her a Good Samaritan?
She hits something at 60MPH feels the ‘bump’ and - though I can see maybe why she wouldn’t exit the vehicle on a dark highway if she hadn’t seen anything - BUT at least when you get home check for damage....hard to believe that the Owl wasn’t screeching while trapped in the grill.
“How can you consider her a Good Samaritan?”
She contacted someone trained to handle raptors and safely rescue the GHO. Usually, when you hit something going 60 mph on a highway, you assume whatever it was didn’t survive. I don’t imagine she thought she had something alive inside her grill.
Good Samaritan = once she discovered the GHO, she contacted professionals that could rescue the bird and seek help for it if needed. You would be surprised if you knew the number of people who would not have made the effort.
“For the last time, I don’t know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, damnit!”
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