Alberta Birds of Prey Centre managing director Colin Weir stands with Tammy Johnson (right), Jodi Oman Mack (left) and a trio of rescued baby Great Horned Owls at Penningtons clothing store in Medicine Hat on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Johnson discovered an owlet hiding behind a garbage can outside the store and contacted the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre for help.--NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The staff at Pennington’s made a few new friends Tuesday.
Pennington’s manager Tammy Johnson was heading back from Dollarama when she came across a baby great horned owl hiding behind a garbage can outside the store at Cornerstone Power Centre on Strachan Road, staring up at her in distress.
“I happened to go throw something in the garbage and the eyes kind of caught my attention,” said Johnson, adding they named the owlet Herman. “He was down kind of cowering between the wall and the garbage can.”
Knowing it needed a helping hand, Johnson reached out to Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation managing director Colin Weir, and by the time he arrived he’d already picked up two more owlets in need of a new home.
“It’s just the time of year,” said Weir, adding he found the other two owlets near Taber, and was even heading to Elkwater to pick up a fourth before returning to Birds of Prey in Coaldale. “A lot of the birds are growing and jumping out of their nests before they’re ready to fly. People are just finding them. Sometimes they get into very hazardous locations, sometimes it is best to leave them on the ground where they are … To be found at a storefront sidewalk in a busy parking lot is going to be a serious problem, so these ladies certainly did the right thing by phoning us.”
Great horned owls are the provincial bird of Alberta. Weir says there was no way to be sure of their gender, but the two from Taber are roughly five weeks old, while Herman is around six or seven weeks.
“The biggest one is just starting to learn how to fly. That’s why he’s here,” said Weir.
Corralling Herman for safe-keeping proved to be a bit of a challenge, says Johnson, who was understandably apprehensive when Weir requested they enclose the owlet in a cardboard box while he made the trip out from Coaldale to pick it up.
“We just got a box, tipped it over and then we just pushed him in with a broom,” she said. “We didn’t want it to get hurt. There are so many kids and you could tell it was just petrified.”
Weir says the rescued owlets will be raised and released back into the wild later this summer.
“We’ve been doing this as volunteers for Fish and Wildlife since about 1983. We don’t get any government subsidies, it’s all just done on donations,” he said, adding COVID-19 has been preventing Birds of Prey from receiving visitors and hosting school trips. “This summer is going to be devastating to us financially, so any donations are always needed, welcome and appreciated.”
Well done ladies!