The couple, who reside in the Highland Park area of Elkins, reached out to local raptor specialist Jo Santiago, who knew right away from what she was told over the phone that something was wrong with the owl.

“Pam and Chuck called me back on Nov. 23rd and told me that there was an owl walking around their backyard and that it was perched on one of their lawn chairs,” Santiago said.

“They said they had seen it for a couple days in a row, so I knew something was wrong. Because you don’t see great horned owls out in the daylight like that, and certainly not perched on lawn chairs. And the fact that it was walking around and not flying, told me that the bird couldn’t fly and that there was something definitely wrong.”

Santiago made her way to the couples’ residence, and upon her arrival, noticed that the owl was weak and unable to fly.

From left are Conner Sneberger (rescue volunteer), Dylan Lewis (rescue volunteer), Amy Hill (ACCA volunteer), Chuck Merritt and Pam Moe. Merritt and Moe found the owl injured in their backyard and put in a call to raptor specialist Jo Santiago.

“When I got there, I took a large towel and approached it,” Santiago said. “I threw the towel on the owl and the owl hissed at me and made some attempts to grab me with its talons. But it was too weak to put up much of a fight. That in itself told me it had been on the ground for a while. I wrapped the bird up and I could tell when I lifted him up that he was emaciated.”

Santiago said she took the owl home, examined it, and administered an electrolyte solution to hydrate and stabilize the bird before transporting it to Dr. Jesse Fallon, a raptor specialist at the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia in Morgantown.

“Dr. Fallon called me up and told me that the owl suffered a badly fractured ulna (wing bone) and that he wasn’t sure he could fix it, because it was an old break that had started healing itself,” Santiago said. “So he operated on the bird and we had to wait and see how it mended and rehabilitated. He was able to successfully pin the broken wing, and after 11 weeks we were able to bring it back home to Elkins.”

On Feb. 6, with Moe and Merritt in attendance, the owl was set free in his home territory next to the couple’s residence.

If anyone finds an injured raptor, they are asked to call the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Conservation Police, or the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia at 304-906-5438.