{"id":212879,"date":"2025-10-14T17:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/212879\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T17:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:55:16","slug":"owl-rescued-from-north-sea-platform-and-released-back-into-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/212879\/","title":{"rendered":"Owl rescued from North Sea platform and released back into wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken BanksNorth east Scotland reporter<\/p>\n

\"HillswickHillswick Wildlife Sanctuary<\/p>\n

The rescued owl was nursed back to health in Shetland<\/p>\n

An exhausted owl that was rescued after landing on a North Sea platform has been released back into the wild.<\/p>\n

The female short-eared owl was found on the Noble Patriot platform 180 miles (290km) off Shetland last week.<\/p>\n

Offshore worker Sam Crowe managed to catch the unexpected feathered visitor, and kept her fed and watered until she could be helicoptered to Shetland.<\/p>\n

She was then nursed back to health at a wildlife sanctuary before being allowed to fly off again.<\/p>\n

Experts think the owl may have got into difficulties during the recent Storm Amy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gusts of nearly 100mph were recorded at the peak of the storm, which brought down hundreds of trees and caused damage to buildings.<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Crowe<\/p>\n

Offshore worker Sam Crowe said he was pleased to help his feathered friend<\/p>\n

Offshore worker Sam Crowe, 30, from Scarborough, told BBC Scotland News he found the owl in need of help on the platform last week.<\/p>\n

“I was going out on shift, and I came across this owl before starting, and tried to catch it, but I couldn’t catch it,” he said. “I mentioned it to a few of the lads.”<\/p>\n

Mr Crowe said it took him a few attempts to catch the owl.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

The owl was found in the North Sea<\/p>\n

“I managed to get my hands on it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Knowing it wasn’t going to survive out here, I made it a little home in a box, and got it some raw chicken and some water.”<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Crowe<\/p>\n

The rescued owl was flown back to shore<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, arrangements were put in place for a helicopter to fly the owl ashore.<\/p>\n

“The rescue team came and picked it up, and then it got released,” Mr Crowe said.<\/p>\n

“A very good ending to the story. It’s a little superstar is that owl.”<\/p>\n

\"ShetlandShetland Vets<\/p>\n

The owl was cared for at Shetland’s only wildlife sanctuary before being released<\/p>\n

In Shetland, Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary said the owl had been found in a “state of exhaustion” after apparently being blown off course during the first named storm of the season.<\/p>\n

The sanctuary said the “majestic” bird was examined and found to be in good shape, albeit “rather thin”.<\/p>\n

So she was taken to stay with local ornithologist Phil Harris to be “fattened up”.<\/p>\n

Why was an owl on a North Sea rig?<\/p>\n

Mr Harris said lots of birds are migrating from Scandinavia to better weather and better food sources at this time of year.<\/p>\n

“She will have headed off on her first journey across the North Sea and hit the storm,” he said. “They become exhausted very quickly.”<\/p>\n

He told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland<\/a>: “They will see the lights probably of an oil rig and even ships in the North Sea at night and they will use them as rest areas.<\/p>\n

“But she is a very lucky owl because that is usually the end of their journey because they are exhausted and there’s no food for them. So to be captured and fed for a couple of days has given her a lucky escape really.”<\/p>\n

Mr Harris added: “With the chicken she’d been fed and the warmth, she was actually quite strong.<\/p>\n

“We’ve only had to care for her for three days, she was released on Monday. She devoured a lot of mice while she was with me and put on a lot of weight.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ken BanksNorth east Scotland reporter Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary The rescued owl was nursed back to health in Shetland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-212879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}