Three images of a Great-Horned Owl rescued from a mob of crows. After getting home from doing some shooting, I had a message from a friend to come over. He explained that a G.H.O. had been repeatedly chased and harassed by 40 - 50 crows to the point of exhaustion. The Owl had flown into several parked vehicles, landed in my friends backyard on top of a shed. Still the crows didn't let up. The Owl then flew to a nearby park.
A Masonry Contractor, named Richard Scissons, was doing some work across the road. Realizing that the crows might kill the owl, Richard followed it and found it exhausted on the grass in the park. He captured it by placing his coat over it. The owl did not resist. He then put out some blankets in the back of his enclosed pickup truck and placed the owl on it. It did not appear to be injured except for perhaps some problems with its right eye. Richard and his helper Chris also placed some earth worms and water out for the owl to eat/drink. They intended to take the Owl back to Richard's farm outside the city and release it there.
When I got to my friend's house, the Richard and the Owl were still there. One could see the owl through the tinted rear window of the pickup truck. It was upright squeezed into a corner with eyes wide open. It had relieved itself on the blanket and seemed to have eaten the worms. When we opened the back window the owl did not move. It just looked at us. Richard asked if I knew of a G.H. owl's nest in the area. I did not. I subsequently asked a couple of people living in the area, but no one had seen a G.H.O. around the area.
I took some photographs of the Owl without flash and using a high ISO as I did not want to startle the Owl.
P.S. Richard's friend emailed me the next day to tell me that the GH Owl made it safely to the farm in Pakenham. Richard had placed the owl in a recycle box and sealed the top with cardboard to prevent it from getting injured during the one hour ride in the back of the truck. Once at the farm the cardboard was taken off. Initially, the owl just looked up at the people around the box with wide open eyes. Then, when the container was tipped slightly on to its side, the owl flew off low across the fields and disappeared into the woods beyond. Hopefully, it will find a good home there.
Top Image: Close-up of the Owl in the truck.
Full image of the Owl.
Wide-angle shot showing the Owl squeezed into the far corner. This image was taken at a very high ISO, hence it is quite noisy.