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Annabell Whelan woke up on Tuesday frantically checking on her holiday guest – Nowl the snowy owl, who she had rescued from a car grille the day before.
Whelan stepped out with her boyfriend’s family on Monday Duluth, Minnesotawhen she saw the owl “just hanging there, literally” after the car and bird collided, she told The Associated Press. The car’s owner had already called for help, but the animal rescue organization the bird needed was closed – so Whelan stepped in, not for the first time that day.
Earlier Monday, Whelan found an injured great gray owl on the ground further north in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Experts at Wildwoods, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Duluth, told her how to safely capture the bird.
“I definitely thought I had gotten rid of the owls with the first one,” said Whelan, 22, a guest manager at the Lake Superior Zoo who graduated earlier this year with a bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental science.
“I could tell he was having a hard time with one eye,” she said. “I kind of took my time and just sat with him and talked quietly and just kind of tried to get him to trust me a little bit.”
Whelan bundled up the owl in a blanket, transferred it to the dog crate in the car and left the great gray owl in the Wildwoods. It was sent along with another animal to University of MinnesotaRaptor Center in St. Paul.
But the snowy owl she found hours later was in a much more dire situation, she said.
“There was obviously a lot more trauma,” she said.
Since Wildwoods had already closed for the night, Whelan wrapped Nowl in a blanket and placed her overnight in a dark, quiet room in her home — keeping her and her cousin’s curious cats and dog away. She called it Nowl, a play on Noel.
“I tried to prepare myself in case I woke up in the morning and she didn’t make it through the night,” Whelan said. But she said she cried happy tears when she saw Nowl moving and waking up, bringing her to the Wildwoods that morning.
Nowl was “pretty beat up,” Wildwoods posted on Facebook Tuesday after examining the bird. “We set up a wing, gave her meds and coordinated with the Raptor Center to get her to them.”
Rescuers said people should slow down, stay alert and call for help when they see an injured animal. The animals are terrified of people and should be quickly moved to a quiet, safe area where they can be left alone until professionals come in, rescuers say.
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Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa.