‘Hoo’ ya gonna call? Haldimand wildlife refuge swoops in to save injured owl

It was still dark out early Tuesday morning as an employee at Valens Lake Conservation Area turned her car into the park's front entrance.

Her vehicle's headlights passed over what she thought at first was an unusually shaped rock.

And then she looked at it again and saw these eyes glistening," said park superintendent Paul Karbusicky.

She screeched to a halt and discovered a baby owl who appeared to have been recently clipped by a passing car.

He looked really rough when he was found," Karbusicky said. Bloody beak, his eyes were shut. Looked like he was in a lot of pain."

The eagle-eyed employee carefully bundled the ailing owlet in her coat and got him off the road in the nick of time.

She said within 20 seconds after she picked him up, this car went by and he would've been squashed," Karbusicky said.

Once the dazed owl was safely inside, park staff lined a cardboard box with a towel and set him down to rest while they debated what to do.

Because it was a raptor, I wanted to call somebody that was more knowledgeable," Karbusicky said.

So they rang Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge in Haldimand County, a privately run non-profit rescue that rehabilitates all manner of injured wildlife. Within half an hour, a volunteer from Hobbitstee arrived to take the owl to the group's treatment centre at Peacock Point, near Nanticoke.

I was quite impressed with them," Karbusicky said. They were quite quick with the response."

The owl is recovering nicely, Hobbitstee founder Chantal Theijn told The Spectator.

Doing quite well, actually. Quite a bit more alert," she said.

Some level of head trauma - so think like a concussion. We often see damage to eyes with this type of injury, but this little one is very lucky. Both eyes are fully functional, so we're very happy about that."

The tiny patient has no broken bones and both eardrums are intact, which Theijn said bodes well for his recovery and eventual release back at Valens Lake.

I'm thinking it's one of last year's babies" based on the plumage being fairly new" and without evidence of moulting, Theijn said.

These guys are so little and they hunt at night. They can easily get caught up in the slipstream of a car and go tumbling."

Theijn expects it will take two or three weeks to get the owl flying again. The immediate prescription is lots of rest, with medication to manage the pain and reduce swelling.

Park staff will be really happy" to have the sweet-looking owl" fully recovered and back home in the wild when the time comes, Karbusicky said.

The baby owl is just one of Hobbitstee's current patients. Already this year, the refuge has taken in a blue heron found by the roadside, an injured goose, a fox with mange, a herring gull, and two squirrels who were hit by cars.

That's just the last couple of days," Theijn said.

If recent trends continue, she expects Hobbitstee will again care for more than 3,000 sick or injured animals this year.

The group welcomes more volunteers - especially drivers willing to respond to calls from around southern Ontario - and donations to fund the care of the animals and support the construction of a new wildlife hospital to replace the existing treatment centre, which is located inside a converted 40-foot shipping container.

J.P. Antonacci's reporting on Haldimand and Norfolk is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. jpantonacci@thespec.com