What a hoot! Animal control rescues owl stuck in backyard garden netting

Updated: 11:35 AM EDT May 27, 2023

An animal control officer made a feathered friend when he rescued an owl from a Mountain Brook, Alabama, home.Watch video of the rescue in the player above.Officer Preston Sloan found the captured critter hanging around in some garden netting. Working carefully, Sloan cut the bird free, posed for some pictures, and then released it in the backyard. Owls are quite common in the state of Alabama and, despite being largely nocturnal, are often active during the day. If you encounter an injured or trapped owl, or wildlife of any kind for that matter, you should contact your local animal control department.

There were numerous attacks on a New Hampshire family's pet on St. Patrick’s Day.

Video shows an owl trying to attack Buddy the parrot.

While celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with her family, Cynthia Auger of Merrimack, New Hampshire, heard a large bang.

"So I came in and I looked out the windows, and all of a sudden in the tree, I could see this big, huge owl," Auger said.

The owl was looking to make Buddy the parrot a snack.

"The owl started to move a little bit. Then flew, and bang." Auger said. "We were all just 'Oh my gosh, what's happening?'"

After numerous tries of breaking through Buddy's window, the owl finally flew away.

Buddy was safe, or so the family thought.

"We hear Buddy freaking out," Auger said. "Squawking, screeching, and flapping around."

The owl came back.

"I looked down and there's the owl in the snow below the window staring at the bird cage," Auger said.

Auger said she was worried that the owl would break through the window.

The next night the owl came back, just staring at Buddy for hours.

Sister station WMUR spoke to Maria Colby, owner of the nonprofit Wings Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Henniker, New Hampshire, about the situation.

"This happens usually a couple of times a year," Colby said.

She said the culprit is a barred owl, which can be found all over New Hampshire. They can go after smaller birds, but it's not their favorite.

Her advice to make sure this doesn't happen again was short and simple.

"Move the bird so the owl doesn't see the bird, or pull down the shades," Colby said.

Buddy the parrot remains safe.

Auger said she's never seen an owl in her neighborhood until the night of the incident.

Superb Owl. No wait, Super Bowl.

Too late.

Instead of Super Bowl information, one small typo later and your search results are filled with owl content instead. And we'd like to encourage you to lean into the error. Because owls truly are "superb."

These birds are a far cry from football, but over the years the trend has gained significant popularity. So much so, that many people flood the internet with photos of owls before the Super Bowl each year. (And you know what a gathering of owls is called, right? A parliament.)

This internet phenomenon puts these feathery creatures in the spotlight, which ultimately aids awareness, said Matt Williams, director of conservation with the Indiana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

"I say anything that helps get the message out about the importance of conservation is a good thing," he said.

A stone-cold predator

Owls are quite interesting. Some people think they are innocent balls of fluff, but that couldn't be further from the truth, Williams said.

"Owls are voracious predators that hunt mostly at night using a very keen sense of hearing to help locate their prey," he said in an email.

Their disc-shaped face directs sound to their ears, which allows them to hear the quietest noises, Williams explained. Their feathers are designed to make them almost completely silent when they fly, a useful trick for sneaking up on their prey, he added.

Most owls are content to feast on small mammals like mice and shrews, said Seth Magle, director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Some larger owls like the great horned owl can snatch up rabbits, skunks or even other owls, Williams said.

Super Bowl owl mascots

The Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals may already have their own mascots, but there's no harm in adding some owls into the mix.

Williams thought the barred owl could represent the Bengals because the birds share a similar stripe pattern to the team's helmets.

"For the Rams, I'd have to say the snowy owl of Harry Potter fame because their quarterback Matthew Stafford has been a wizard during their playoff run so far," he explained.

Magle assigned the Eastern screech owl to the Bengals because it's found in Ohio and shares a similar color to the team.

The California spotted owl would fit quite nicely with the Rams, he added.

"It has a four-note call sometimes described as 'hup, hoo-hoo, hooo,' which seems like it could be an audible called at the line of scrimmage," Magle said.

Adobe Stock

See an owl in the wild

Your experience with owls doesn't have be limited to the internet. Communities around the United States are hosting educational events about the nocturnal animals that include a nature walk.

Shaver's Creek Environmental Center in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, offered a special Superb Owl event on Saturday of Super Bowl weekend.

The Leslie Science & Nature Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will host an owl event on Sunday morning. The center will have resident owls on display, and people can dissect owl pellets, which are the undigested parts of their meal that they regurgitate.

Why not venture outdoors this weekend so you can get to know these fascinating creatures? It'll be a hoot.

Now meet some superb owls

There are over 250 owl species, and we'd like to introduce you to some of our favorites.

Many people think all owls make a hooting noise, but that is not the case. The great gray owl does not hoot, Williams said, but rather makes a series of "hoos" in a low pitch.

The short-eared owl can be found in prairies and wetlands, unlike most other owls who live in forests, Williams said.

Barred owls are very vocal birds that can often be heard making the traditional hooting noise, said Charles Eldermire, Bird Cams project leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Great horned owls are known for their iconic ear tufts and catlike eyes, Eldermire said. You can watch the goings-on at a great horned owl pair's nest near Savannah, Georgia, on a live cam.

The burrowing owl lives its life the opposite of most owls. Rather than being active at night and living in trees, this bird spends the day awake and makes its home on the ground, Magle said.

Rocky the owl inspires children’s book about his journey in the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

The story of a little Saw-Whet owl has sparked creativity across the country

Updated: 10:45 PM EST Nov 13, 2021

Special Projects Producer

This is the story about a story.Two stories, in fact.A month before the lights, the glitz and the pageantry of the 2020 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting in New York, the 75-foot tall spruce tree had to be cut down in upstate New York.Along for the ride, as the tree was transported from the woods to the big city, in his little nest, was a Saw-Whet owl. The poor guy hadn't had food or water for three days. The man driving the truck had noticed him in the tree, got a box, and put him inside.The owl was eventually taken to the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties, New York. They dubbed the little guy "Rockefeller," for obvious reasons. That being a long name, they called him "Rocky" for short. "I read the article and started thinking, wow, that would be a great children's book," said Kim Dwyer, a clinical psychologist in Denver, Colorado. "I had lots of other pots on the fire in my professional life, walked away from it, and like the idea just kept coming back. And I think, you know, I also felt, you know, so timely, like, I felt this, this like it, write this, write this now write this book now and get your thoughts out while they're fresh."Her thoughts turned to Rocky's journey, translated to human feelings. A Saw-Whet owl doesn't have the low-pitched kind of "hoot" you might think of. It's more like a higher-pitched, as Dwyer writes it, "toot." Not dissimilar from the whine of a saw being sharpened.The feelings and sounds were put into her first-ever Christmas book, Rocky's Christmas Journey."There's something there that's emotional," Dwyer said. "And I'm using that as an opportunity to, to talk as basic as like, how are people feeling right now? How do you think you know, the main character, how's Rocky feeling when he finds himself in this tree in the middle of a city, and he's so far away from, you know, where he grew up, or where he decided to build his nest?"In the end, though, her hope is that parents will help kids realize that they can see themselves in Rocky as well."I mean, if you think about it, we could take that story of Rocky, and we could substitute a four-year-old and you're going off to school, and I can remember being that age, and you know, I wasn't particularly thrilled to be going off to school, and a lot of kids feel that way," Dwyer said.It's more of a fictional account, but one she hopes will connect with kids.Dwyer isn't alone, the folks at the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center have written their own book for kids. Theirs is a little less fictional, but the same journey. They also sell tree ornaments, clothes, cups and more with Rocky's image on them. Dwyer's book is available at retail stores and online.The real Rocky, by the way, had a happy ending too, just like the Rocky in Dwyer's book —found and set free. Rocky's came with some help from the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center.

NEW YORK —

This is the story about a story.

Two stories, in fact.

A month before the lights, the glitz and the pageantry of the 2020 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting in New York, the 75-foot tall spruce tree had to be cut down in upstate New York.

Along for the ride, as the tree was transported from the woods to the big city, in his little nest, was a Saw-Whet owl. The poor guy hadn't had food or water for three days. The man driving the truck had noticed him in the tree, got a box, and put him inside.

The owl was eventually taken to the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties, New York. They dubbed the little guy "Rockefeller," for obvious reasons. That being a long name, they called him "Rocky" for short.

"I read the article and started thinking, wow, that would be a great children's book," said Kim Dwyer, a clinical psychologist in Denver, Colorado. "I had lots of other pots on the fire in my professional life, walked away from it, and like the idea just kept coming back. And I think, you know, I also felt, you know, so timely, like, I felt this, this like it, write this, write this now write this book now and get your thoughts out while they're fresh."

Her thoughts turned to Rocky's journey, translated to human feelings.

A Saw-Whet owl doesn't have the low-pitched kind of "hoot" you might think of. It's more like a higher-pitched, as Dwyer writes it, "toot." Not dissimilar from the whine of a saw being sharpened.

The feelings and sounds were put into her first-ever Christmas book, Rocky's Christmas Journey.

Kim Dwyer and Moran Reudor

"There's something there that's emotional," Dwyer said. "And I'm using that as an opportunity to, to talk as basic as like, how are people feeling right now? How do you think you know, the main character, how's Rocky feeling when he finds himself in this tree in the middle of a city, and he's so far away from, you know, where he grew up, or where he decided to build his nest?"

In the end, though, her hope is that parents will help kids realize that they can see themselves in Rocky as well.

"I mean, if you think about it, we could take that story of Rocky, and we could substitute a four-year-old and you're going off to school, and I can remember being that age, and you know, I wasn't particularly thrilled to be going off to school, and a lot of kids feel that way," Dwyer said.

It's more of a fictional account, but one she hopes will connect with kids.

Dwyer isn't alone, the folks at the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center have written their own book for kids. Theirs is a little less fictional, but the same journey. They also sell tree ornaments, clothes, cups and more with Rocky's image on them. Dwyer's book is available at retail stores and online.

The real Rocky, by the way, had a happy ending too, just like the Rocky in Dwyer's book —found and set free. Rocky's came with some help from the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center.