Above: Sharing a happy ending for a distressed owl and concerned animal lovers. (Photos by Jen Cunningham and Raptor Tales Rescue)
Less than four years an owl was rescued from a soccer net at Trottier Middle School, another owl became entangled on the same field.
The tale will hopefully end happily tonight, but could have ended badly. Rescuers are seeking to alert the community of the hazard that athletic nets left out unattended can pose to area wildlife.*
Southborough resident Jen Cunningham reached out to alert me to the story. She was one of several people who played a role in the rescue. (She hoped I could help get the word out on the operation’s success to two concerned young men who she believes got the ball rolling.)
Following advice from the Town’s Animal Control Officer (ACO), two officers attempted to free the owl from the net. Unfortunately, they were forced to cease their efforts due to the owl’s wild reaction to their attempts.
The ACO was tied up on another rescue call and unable to make it to the field before dark. The officers were forced to leave the owl still trapped with plans for the ACO to respond in the morning.
Cunningham and her husband were passing by the Trottier campus on Sunday and spotted the police car entering the campus. She asked two young men on the scene what was happening and they explained that an owl was trapped in the soccer net. (She believes they are the ones that had called Southborough public safety for help.)
Concerned, Cunningham went to the field to check out the situation. When the officers’ rescue was unsuccessful, Cunningham went home and began making calls. She was able to reach Jess Zorge from Raptor Tales Rescue. (I’m told that the ACO had also left a message with that organization, hoping that they could aid with the rescue.)
Zorge was unavailable to get to the scene. But she advised Cunningham against leaving the bird overnight. She promised that if someone could get the owl into a “box” and bring it to her facility, she would take care of it.
Cunningham was then able to reach the head of a Hudson animal rescue organization, Lazuka’s Landing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation. Lazuka was not in the area at the time, but able to reach two volunteers — Hudson residents Brianna and Harry Williams. They agreed to pitch in.
I spoke to Brianna. She explained that she and her father often help Lazuka out with the rescue of snapping turtles and other ornery creatures that some other volunteers are afraid to rescue. But they had never dealt with an owl before.
The Williams arrived after the campus was dark, wearing headlamps and tough, leathery work gloves. They used a utility blanket to subdue/disorient the bird while they cut away more of the netting around it. They then, slowly and very carefully, maneuvered and slid the blanket covered bird into the crate.
Brianna drove the owl to Shrewsbury where Raptor Tales Rescue took over its rescue. In examining the bird, Zorge wrote that they were “astonished by the extensive amount of netting that had to be removed”. On a positive note, they were:
delighted to report that the owl is currently in good condition, eating well, and using its formidable talons effectively (what we refer to as murder mittens!)
Scroll down for the full posts with more photos, including the plea to “Please remove all sports netting when not in use!”
I spoke to Zorge this morning. She informed me the young owl was born this year. Because of its youth, it will be important to return the owl very close to where it was discovered. The parents are sure to be in the vicinity and will be looking for it.
She was waiting for another vet checkup, but hopeful that the return to nature could happen tonight.
She reiterated that if the bird hadn’t promptly been rescued, it could have died from “constriction” by the netting and other injuries as it attempted to free itself.
As I noted at the start of the story, this is the second time in less than four years that a Great Horned Owl was trapped in a net at Trottier.
In October of 2022, two officers responded to reports of a trapped bird. (I shared that news here.) Based on a video posted (here) that owl appeared to have been stunned or exhausted, and didn’t fight the officers’ successful rescue work (or even appear to react to it). According to the SPD, once freed, that owl took off in flight.
Zorge tells me that the owls return to the same area every year for mating. It’s possible that the recent victim is an offspring of the original bird.
Below are Rescue Raptor’s Facebook posts which included a thank you to everyone who helped:
*Note: I’m not sure if nets in town are made this way, but in googling advice from on how to deal with the problem, I read that some soccer and hockey nets can be rolled up from the bottom and fastened to the top crossbar.
