Bad way to hitch a ride: Owl survives being struck by vehicle on Highway 101

As he was driving along Highway 101, Walter Doucette says the owl swooped in out of nowhere, leaving no time for him to react.

Doucette knew he had hit it with the Toyota RAV4 he was driving. His first instinct was to check his rearview mirror. He was looking for feathers or a bird. When he saw nothing on the pavement or shoulder behind him, Doucette said to himself, “Uh oh.”

He knew what that meant.

He pulled over. The owl was stuck in the front grille of the vehicle.

It was Monday, Oct. 19, shortly after noontime. Doucette, a resident of North Range, Digby County, was on his way back from a trip to Greenwood. He was alone in the vehicle.

He was around exit 18A near Middleton when he picked up his unexpected hitchhiker while driving just over 100 kilometres an hour.

“It just came right out from nowhere. There was nothing I could do,” he said.

After pulling over, he called his wife – whose vehicle he was driving – to tell her he had hit an owl and it was stuck in the front grille.

“I said, I don’t know if it’s alive or dead. She said, ‘You gotta get it out. You gotta get it out.’ All I had was cotton gloves in the car,” he said. Looking at the owl’s talons, he didn’t think his flimsy gloves were going to be a match for those.

He tried to release it, but the owl was really wedged in. He was shocked it was still alive, considering how mangled it looked sticking out of the grille.

He knew the owl needed to get to Hope for Wildlife for care. But he also knew he couldn’t drive the approximate 180 kilometres to its Seaforth location with the owl sticking out the front of the vehicle.

Knowing there was an animal hospital nearby off the highway, he drove there seeking help, but he was told there was no one available to help him. Among the options suggested to him was that he drive to a car dealership. He had a good friend who works at the Dodge dealership in the area, so he went there.

“I pull in and there are two guys literally walking towards the car. They see this thing flapping and stuck in the front of my grille,” Doucette said. “I jumped out and said, ‘Just what I need, some help.’”

One of the fellows had a pair of “really stinky” fishing gloves that he pulled on. They all got to work to free the owl.

Doucette had found a wooden pole in his car and used that to manipulate the grille, which had not been broken or cracked when the owl hit it.

“It literally unhooked the clips on the bottom of it somehow, and drove it in. That’s one lucky bird. If he would have hit an inch either way, higher or lower, he probably wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t be alive,” Doucette said.

It took about 20 minutes to free the owl. Doucette figures overall, it had been stuck in the grille for around 45 minutes.

“Thank God for this one guy that worked there. He put his gloves on and he wasn’t really nervous,” Doucette said, although the owl did bite the man’s gloved finger.

“It made him let go of the bird in a hurry,” Doucette said.

“Finally, we got it out. He set it on the ground, and his eyes were rolled back in his head. All of a sudden – almost like a blink, if you want to call it – his eyes opened up and he started looking around,” said Doucette.

Doucette said the bird seemed fixated on him. Was it gratitude or anger?

“As I walk, every move I make, it seemed like he’s following me,” he said, laughing. “I think he knows I’m the one who hit him.”

With the help of others, the owl was transported to Hope for Wildlife to be cared for. In an Oct. 22 post on its Facebook page, the wildlife rescue organization shared an update.

“Call him Lucky! This barred owl was not only hit by a car, but somehow managed to get himself caught in the grille. Amazingly, he survived,” the post read. “We did find that he has a broken left wing, and he’s scheduled for a full medical exam.”

The post noted that Hope for Wildlife receives a lot of barred owls that have been hit by cars.

“They are nocturnal/crepuscular perch-and-pounce birds, and hunting along roads is common for them,” the post explained. “There’s a good supply of food along roadsides. Although they aren’t scavengers themselves, they hunt animals that do scavenge. Mice, rats, squirrels, birds. Anything that’s eating discarded food or roadkill, or even animals warming themselves on the warm rocks along the roadside. And when dusk overlaps rush hour, which is going to happen soon, the situation gets far worse for them.”

Doucette said he’s been invited by Hope for Wildlife to be present when the owl is eventually released.

“What they want to do is for me to basically tell them exactly where I hit it, so they can get as close as they can to where it happened to release it,” he said.

Doucette is looking forward to being present when the owl is released. He’s happy the owl survived the ordeal. He’s also happy he was able to return the vehicle to his wife without any damage.

“People say, ’you’re a hero,’” said Doucette about getting the owl free. He begs to differ.

“I’m not a hero. I don’t really feel like a hero. I’m the one that hit the poor thing.”