Man tries to free trapped owlet, gets attacked by mom
Neither the owlet nor the Good Samaritan were hurt
There are many words that describe owls in the popular imagination: Wise. Poised. Majestic. And in one recent case in Alberta, terribly ungrateful.
The video above was captured by Alberta farmer Mark Sawyer, who thought he and a friend would be doing a good thing when he saw a trapped owlet earlier this month and decided to try free it.
Sawyer told CBC News he was aware the young owl's two parents were nearby, and that owls typically give some warning before swooping down on humans who have displeased them, but they didn't seem to want to give Sawyer that heads-up before one of them dive-bombed the would-be Good Samaritan:
Despite the onslaught, Sawyer and his friend persisted in working to free the owlet, even in the face of repeated dive bombs.
"It didn't help that I was screaming, but I grabbed the wings (of the owlet) and tried to make sure that they stayed together, and I didn't want it flapping around anymore," he told the broadcaster.
Eventually, their efforts paid off, and the owlet was free once more, but apparently the family still held a bit of a grudge.
"The mom or dad owl there was flapping its wings and barking," he told CBC, "and I said, 'well, I'm not going over there again.'"
