Birdie hit by golf ball in Lancaster back on par (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Birdie hit by golf ball in Lancaster back on par

3:16pm Wednesday 5th October 2011 in High and Low Bentham news

A BABY tawny owl knocked out of a tree by a stray golf ball has made a miraculous recovery.

Golfers teeing off at the first green at Lancaster Golf Club could not believe their eyes when the fledgling owl plummeted from a tree to the ground.

They picked it up and handed it over to the club greensman who took it to a vet.

After checking it over, the vet contacted birds of prey specialists, The Corio Raptor Care and Rehabilitation Centre based in High Bentham.

Now, two months later, the young owl has recovered and is almost ready to be released back into the wild.

Centre owner Nick Henderson said he had doubted it would survive, but the bird had proved to be a real fighter.

“It looked like it had gone several rounds with boxer Mike Tyson when we first got it,” he said. “It was in a really bad state. One of its eyes was swollen and completely closed. I was surprised that it survived.”

But, despite the odds, the bird was being hand-fed with small bits of meat within a few hours and two days later was taking food itself.

Mr Henderson said: “If the ball had hit it straight on, it would have killed it. I think it probably ricocheted and hit it on the rebound.”

The bird was only about four weeks old when it was knocked from the tree.