The Tale of the Great Horned Owl

Lindsey Wildlife Museum rescues animals of all kinds. And sometimes, in the process, they also rescue humans.

Case in point: the great horned owl. It came to the facility in a rather unusual way, said volunteer Jim Holmes.

It seems that someone let the owl loose in a local park when he was just a baby, and it never learned how to feed itself properly. So it flew around seeking food from humans. It would land on their shoulders, and their heads, Holmes said (though other museum officials cannot confirm that the bird ever landed on anyone’s head).

Owls, you probably know, have quite large and sharp talons for picking up their pray, so when an owl lands on you, you know you’ve been landed upon.

A call was made to the museum, and a crew came out with a blanket, wrapped the bird up and took it to the museum, where it now spends its days perched on a limp, looking at the dozens of admirers that come through every day.

And maybe it’s just me, but it looks as though that bird would love to land on someone’s head if he could. But (pun intended) who?