CALGARY - It's not every day you get to drive a transit train with a bird riding shotgun.
But that's just what happened Tuesday to Calgary transit operator Warren Duclan who rescued an injured great horned owl that ended up on the tracks.
Duclan was approaching a station when he noticed something crossing the tracks.
"As I was pulling into the station I saw a shadow starting to go across the tracks and went under the platform," he said.
He stopped the train, announced to his passengers there would be a slight delay, and walked over to the platform where he found the owl, a female about two years old weighing 1.8 kg, with a broken wing hiding underneath.
"She was struggling so I took off my vest and wrapped it around her," he said.
"I tucked her into my right armpit to keep her warm and comfortable."
He then took the bird back to the cabin of the train and continued driving toward downtown where he met up with supervisor Brian Moreland, who is also a volunteer with the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society.
Duclan said his passengers didn't seem to mind the delay when they saw him carrying the owl back to the train.
"With the owl's eyes so huge, they were giving me smiles," he said.
Moreland said the owl, now being assessed at the wildlife centre, likely was hit by a car before landing on the tracks.
He said the owl probably would have died if she wasn't rescued when she was.
But Duclan said he chose to stop to help simply because it was human instinct.
"I am an animal lover and it was human nature," he said. "They deserve tender loving care and with the size of the bird there was no way she could survive her injuries."
Kind-hearted Calgary transit driver flies to the rescue of injured owl
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Published on
December 30, 2009
- Published on February 25, 2010
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The Canadian Press ~ The News
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