DRUMMOND ISLAND, MICH. -- A struggling snowy owl found stranded along a Michigan roadside has been given a new lease on life, thanks to some quick-thinking locals and a little luck.
The owl was discovered late last week sitting along M-134 on Drummond Island, off the eastern coast of the Upper Peninsula, by a resident who pulled over in her car to photograph it, not knowing the bird was unwell. As fate would have it, the next car to pass by was driven by Dick Bennett, a longtime veterinarian and founder of the Drummond Island Animal Clinic, who stopped his own vehicle to see if the first car was having trouble.
Bennett then saw the snowy owl and realized something wasn’t right.
“I said, ‘oh, that owl is sick,’” Bennett said. “It started to run toward the woods and flap its wings but couldn’t get airborne."
Bennett and two other motorists were able to safely secure the owl in a sheet and a cardboard box so the veterinarian could take her home. Upon examining the bird, Bennett determined it was malnourished and dehydrated, so he put out a call to friends and neighbors for mice and freshly road-killed squirrels to feed it. Local residents responded with barn mice, duck breast, and other owl-friendly treats, which Bennett said the hungry snowy owl “slugged down” with gusto.
When Bennett shared the developing story on his clinic’s Facebook page, word spread far beyond the island. Thousands of people responded, commented, and shared the story.
After a few days of letting the owl regain some strength, Bennett transported the bird to Grand Rapids to continue its recovery at the Wildlife Rehab Center, a nonprofit organization specializing in rehabilitating orphaned, abandoned, injured, or incapacitated wildlife.
Bennett says, so far, everything points to a successful recovery: The owl, determined to be a female, has been eating well and even splashed around in a water bowl to give herself a bath.
But recovery could take four to six weeks, Bennett said.
“It’s looking good, but she’s gotta get back to flying,” he said. “She’s gotta be a virtual Olympic athlete to live outdoors and hunt. Muscle mass goes off quick and comes back on slow.”
Snowy owls are a wintertime bird in Michigan, as the Great Lakes region is one of the areas where they overwinter after breeding in the summertime in the Arctic. While they are not on the U.S. endangered species list, the striking white owls are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and are labeled a “vulnerable” species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. As of 2017 there were roughly 28,000 mature snowy owls worldwide, and the species’ population is considered to be in decline, according to the IUCN.
As for the lucky Drummond Island snowy owl, Bennett said that when she’s ready to return to nature, she’ll be transported back to the island for a very small, very quiet release into the wild. Bennett said perhaps a few of those island residents who came to her aid will be in attendance. As for all of the owl’s well-wishers on Facebook? Bennett plans on filming the release and posting it for her fans on his clinic’s Facebook page.
“It’s nice that there’s so many people that respect wildlife," he said.