Jenkins met a couple of friends at Eastern Virginia Medical School to carpool to the game when all of a sudden a little owl, came flying out of a tall pine tree, chased by four big linebacker crows.
“The owl, trying to evade the crows, flew into the mesh fencing that surrounds the lower level of one of the parking garages and fell to the sidewalk,” Jenkins wrote.
“The crows started landing around him; and he was not moving.”
Referee Jenkins decided to officiate. Personal foul!
He drove over, got out, and chased the crows away.
Of course he could have let nature take its course, but since the owl had flown into the mesh grating, he made the decision to save him.
“The owl, which he recognized as a saw whet, did not fly away; but he was sitting up right.
He dropped a small towel over him and picked him up. “We checked him over and he seemed to be ok. He was just stunned.”
They draped the towel over him again and drove him over to the Cape Henry Audubon Society’s Weyanoke Sanctuary in West Ghent where Vincent Liles too this photo.
He then placed him in a tree and he immediately flew off, hopefully no worse for wear,”
“Great way to start the day.” Way to go Ref!
Tiny saw-whet owls, about 8 inches tall, smaller than a screech owl, are seen here rarely and only in migration time.
