A London police training exercise turned into a bird rescue after a K9 officer found a baby owl that had fallen from its nest.
“I let my dog off the line, and he actually stopped and started investigating the ground. I realized he was sniffing a little baby owl,” said Nick McGlone, a K9 handler with the London Police Service.
“It must have fell out of the tree because I saw a nest up at the top.”
McGlone along with other officers feared the bird was hurt in the 25-metre fall at the Easter Seals Camp in the city’s west end, Friday.
Alone in a wooded area with coyotes and other wildlife, McGlone says he was also concerned for the small bird’s safety.
“I love animals. As soon as I saw it there I knew I wasn’t going to leave the little guy to let nature take it’s course. I figured we could step in and give this guy a little bit of a chance at life rather than just ignoring it,” he said.
“It felt really good to be able to help the little guy get back to safety.” said McGlone.
After wrapping the owl in some clothing to keep it warm, officers contacted Mike Shore of Shore Bird Control.
Shore said he arrived to find the bird, which he believes was about a week old, was healthy but needed to get back to the nest.
“I put him in my binocular case and wore him around my neck while I climbed,” Shore told 980 CFPL.
“I put my 40-foot ladder against the tree and used it and then I had to go another 30 or 40 feet just on the branches. it was a pretty windy day up there, it was blowing around.”
“It looked like all these wind storms we’ve been having kind of destroyed his nest a little,” Shore added.
“I snapped a bunch of branches off and worked away on the nest and rebuilt it. There was lots of food up there waiting for him; his mom’s a good hunter!”
Shore said he remained in the area afterwards and confirmed that the mother owl is taking care of him again and he stressed that contrary to what some may believe, human contact with birds has no impact on whether or not its mother accepts or rejects the bird.
He also added that he couldn’t have saved the bird without the help of the two officers who kept the bird safe and warm prior to his arrival.
— With files from Jess Brady, Christian D’Avino and Jaclyn Carbone
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