Happy ending for injured owl
LOREN BENOIT/Press Janie Veltkamp with Birds of Prey Northwest releases a barred owl into the wild on Friday in Post Falls. The owl struck a fender of a car a few weeks ago.
A young owl that flew into Laura Sable's front fender about three weeks ago has been in the care of Birds of Prey Northwest. The barred owl was rehabbed and returned to the wild near Laura's house in Post Falls on Friday. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Janie Veltkamp with Birds of Prey Northwest holds a barred owl before releasing it back into the wild in Post Falls on Friday. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Laura Sable, left, is reunited with the barred owl for the first time after it flew into her car fender a few weeks ago. Janie Veltkamp with Birds of Prey Northwest helped nurse the owl back to health. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
This young barred owl collided with Post Falls resident Laura Sable's vehicle on Nov. 13. She rescued it from the side of the road and got it to law enforcement and then Birds of Prey Northwest, where it spent about a month healing in the North Idaho nonprofit's facility. It was released back into the wild Friday morning. It is seen here about two hours after sustaining the injuries. (Courtesy photo)
By DEVIN WEEKS
Staff Writer
POST FALLS — In a hushed whoosh of feathers, a young barred owl took to the air from Janie Veltkamp's glove and swooped into an apple tree, where it instantly blended in with the bare branches.
"Look at that," Veltkamp said after releasing the bird Friday morning. "He knows he's home."
"Sometimes it kind of brightens up my eyes," said Janie's husband, Don. "About 50 percent of the patients get back in the wild, and it feels wonderful when they do."
This brown and white owl was returned to freedom after a stay at Birds of Prey Northwest. It suffered internal injuries when it collided with Laura Sable's Toyota RAV4 early the morning of Nov. 13.
This bird was lucky that the kind-hearted Post Falls citizen gave a hoot about its life and went through the proper channels to get it the care it needed.
"I was just going down the hill, which is Mullan (Avenue), and something hit my right front fender,” Sable said. "I turned around and saw that there was a bird on the side of the road, so I went, ‘Great. OK.’"
She knew not to touch it, so she went home and got a box and blanket to transport it to safety.
"He didn’t look good when I first found him," she said. "One eye was closed, one eye was partially open. I wasn't sure, but it was alive. It allowed me to put the blanket on it, didn't move. Allowed me to pick it up and put it in the box, didn't move. I put it in the back seat and figured, 'Now what do I do?'"
The nearest animal shelter was closed, so she went to the Post Falls Police Department, where she was connected with the Veltkamps and their nonprofit, Birds of Prey Northwest. Birds of Prey is permitted through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to care for injured raptors and rehabilitate them so they can return to the wild. Sable was instructed to remain with the bird if possible and bring it to Kootenai Animal Hospital, where Birds of Prey would retrieve it.
"I was afraid that this little guy would go back in the road and get run over, and I thought there might be a rescue around here and at least give it a chance to see if it is OK," Sable said. "There’d be no way I would just leave it to become part of the food chain. It’s a personal thing, any more so than I could probably leave a homeless person sitting there freezing to death."
Janie said the bird was indeed lucky to only suffer some internal damage and no broken bones.
"You get whacked by a car, you weigh 2 pounds, you’re going to have some damage," Janie said. "This is a pretty common scenario for us at Birds of Prey Northwest. We get a call from a citizen usually that encounters an injured bird of prey, and they need us to intervene to get the bird medical treatment and get it back on the wing, and that’s what happened in this case."
Janie, a trained nurse and raptor biologist, started Birds of Prey 25 years ago to provide medical care for these protected birds, which fall into a gray area when injured. Because this owl made it to Birds of Prey and was successfully rehabilitated, Janie said it's one example of how the system is working.
"People know to call Idaho Fish and Game if they don’t know about us directly, and Idaho Fish and Game will refer people with bird calls to us," Janie said. "Things went as expected with this bird. He wasn't gravely injured, but he was injured enough that he couldn’t fly to hunt, so he needed some time out to heal up so he can fly to survive."
A few neighbors gathered near the large field at the end of Sable's street, where the owl was released. Babette Banducci lives just a couple houses from where the bird swooped into the apple tree. She was happy to hear the owl's tale had a happy ending thanks to Birds of Prey and Sable's actions.
"I love her. She's a neat lady," Banducci said of Sable. "She was so pleased to be able to save this owl. You can just tell, very pleased. And she knew what to do, that was cool … She’s a part of something so wonderful. In this day and age, we can use something wonderful every day."