I had an odd birding experience tonight, around 8:00 as I was driving home from work, just as I went through the tunnel on 88 from Kin to Onna, a bird flew right in front of me and hit my car with a thud.
"Oh crap, I've killed a pigeon" was the first thing that went through my head, quickly followed by, "wait dummy, it's 8:00 PM, no pigeons out at this hour, you've killed an owl". I drove about 50 yards and then decided to make a "U-turn" and looked for a sprawled out bird corpse on the roadside. Sure enough, there lying on the side of the road was a dark shape which turned out to be a Brown Hawk Owl.
I felt just horrible for the poor little guy and though he desrved more than to rot on the roadside so I picked him up and brought him home in a plastic bag. All the way home I'm thinking of, maybe I could bring him to a vet, if he's dead, I can give him to Yambaru wildlife center for their exhibit and other ideas of what to do with a dead owl. I arrived home and told Iku what had happened and brought the bag up to the porch to show her and take a few photos. Well, much to our surprise, the owl was alive and semi-alert. As I took him out of the bag, he flapped around a bit and went just inside our doorway which had Iku screaming and running into the kitchen. I picked him up and placed him back outside on a planter and turned off the lights and let him be, fairly sure there would be a dead owl on my porch the next morning. Some 90 minutes later, I just had to take a quick peek at him before I went to bed. As I opened the door and looked out, he was sitting upright, in a perched position, turned his head and looked at me and then flew off! Wow, I was delighted and relieved and hope he makes a full recovery!
"Oh crap, I've killed a pigeon" was the first thing that went through my head, quickly followed by, "wait dummy, it's 8:00 PM, no pigeons out at this hour, you've killed an owl". I drove about 50 yards and then decided to make a "U-turn" and looked for a sprawled out bird corpse on the roadside. Sure enough, there lying on the side of the road was a dark shape which turned out to be a Brown Hawk Owl.
I felt just horrible for the poor little guy and though he desrved more than to rot on the roadside so I picked him up and brought him home in a plastic bag. All the way home I'm thinking of, maybe I could bring him to a vet, if he's dead, I can give him to Yambaru wildlife center for their exhibit and other ideas of what to do with a dead owl. I arrived home and told Iku what had happened and brought the bag up to the porch to show her and take a few photos. Well, much to our surprise, the owl was alive and semi-alert. As I took him out of the bag, he flapped around a bit and went just inside our doorway which had Iku screaming and running into the kitchen. I picked him up and placed him back outside on a planter and turned off the lights and let him be, fairly sure there would be a dead owl on my porch the next morning. Some 90 minutes later, I just had to take a quick peek at him before I went to bed. As I opened the door and looked out, he was sitting upright, in a perched position, turned his head and looked at me and then flew off! Wow, I was delighted and relieved and hope he makes a full recovery!