An unexpected visitor to the Royal Jubilee Hospital ruffled some feathers on Sunday.
Staff at the hospital say they went outside to investigate when they heard crows “making a lot of noise” outside the emergency department.
“I looked over and there’s poor owl there and he’s been dive-bombed by probably about eight crows,” Jennifer Vye, a unit aid in the Royal Jubilee emergency department told CHEK News. “He was quite puffed up and he was quite lethargic.
Vye says she tried calling Wild ARC, the BC SPCA’s wildlife rehabilitation centre in Metchosin, to see if they could collect the owl, but the organization doesn’t have anyone on weekends who can pick up the owl.
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“They said to actually try and get him contained in a box and take them to the Wild ARC or the animal hospital on Roderick Street,” Vye said. “They were actually quite concerned but they don’t have anybody on the weekends to pick them up.”
So, in comes the Victoria Fire Department to try and contain the owl to get him seen by a vet. However, once firefighters were able to climb up to where the owl was perched near the Royal Jubilee ER, carrying a hospital blanket to trap the bird, it flew away.
“Maybe he was just resting,” Vye said.
When a firefighter climbed up to try and catch the thought-to-be-injured owl, it flew away.
Laura Brougham
