It's not often an owl flies into someone's face but it happened to Skyler Steier, a vehicles and equipment mechanic with Fleet Services from North Battleford, June 21.
"I got a call to a broken down truck in Unity and I was just driving down the highway with the window rolled down. It was a gorgeous day and then I got a wing to the face," says Steier. An owl had swooped into his open window as he drove. "It knocked my sunglasses off, hit the passenger seat and banged into the window."Bewildered, Steier pulled over, got out and opened the passenger side door to see what had flown into his truck."Once it was in the truck I could tell it was a bird, but once I got a real good look at it, I was like 'holy crap, it's an owl.'"A closer look also revealed to Steier that the animal's leg was broken. At this point, the owl was agitated and was snapping and hissing at him. Being mindful of his own safety, but still wanting to help the injured animal, Steier put on his welding gloves, grabbed a pair of spare coveralls and wrapped the owl up before placing it in an old plastic milk crate he had in his truck."I couldn't just leave him there," says Steier so he was off to the vet. With the veterinary clinic in Unity on the way to the yard where he was headed for work, Steier stopped in to see what could be done to help the owl."The vet took two minutes, felt his wings and legs, and said the bird seemed to actually be in good health other than his leg," says Steier.The vet recommended Steier arrange to have the owl, which he identified as a Great Horned Owl, taken to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. As luck would have it, a relative of Steier's who studies at the U of S was driving through North Battleford and was able to pick it up later that night.Until then, however, the animal was in Steier's care. He took it home to North Battleford and set it up with some water and food in a spare dog kennel. At this point, he says, the animal had calmed down considerably."He was pretty good, except for when my dog ran by. Then he puffed up like a giant cotton ball," says Steier. "I actually got him to eat a little bit of sliced up raw deer steak, which made an awful disgusting mess in the cage that I've got to clean up."Steier says he wasn't the only member of his family to take an interest in the owl."Oh, my kids just absolutely went nuts over the bird in the cage," he says, adding the owl was delivered to the vet college the following morning."It was absolutely a phenomenal experience," says Steier. "I haven't been able to stop talking about it."Safety incidents are possible in any situation. While Steier came away from his encounter with the owl with a great story to tell and no harm to himself or his vehicle, Don Henricksen, aafety co-ordinator for Transmission and Distribution, says this near miss is a good example of how safety incidents can occur at any time.If the owl had hit him directly in the face, or been larger and more aggressive, says Henricksen, it could have caused Steier to lose control of his vehicle."An incident can happen when you least expect it, on a bright sunny day," says Henricksen. "You should always expect the unexpected . . . normally you expect if someone's getting hit while driving it's by a deer or a moose, so this is very different."While there are no reports of collisions with owls, according to SGI, there were 10,500 instances of vehicles colliding with deer in Saskatchewan in 2010.Henricksen says Steier's quick thinking and compassion for the injured animal is admirable."He did a lot of good things," says Henricksen of Steier's approach to staying safe in the situation. "He wore the leather gloves so he didn't get bit or clawed and he cared enough to take care of the animal."While Steier doesn't know what's going to happen with the owl now, he did send his business card to the vet college. He hopes the staff there will get in touch to let him know what happened with the bird. "It'll be interesting to see what happens," says Steier, "I really hope they'll update me about whether he can be rehabilitated or let go."
