COTR Wildlife Rescue: Story of Enoch the Owl

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Welcome to May!

The Story of Enoch the Owl
By Karl Eiriksson, Jr.
Photo & Video Credit: Karl & Lisa Eiriksson

While on an off-island journey back in February of 2018, I received a call from Lisa.  She told me that one of the workers was heading to a job early one morning and saw an injured owl on the side of the road, and he called her.  She headed right out and found the bird unconscious. She gathered it up in a towel, brought it home, put it in the bathtub and began reaching out to her contacts. Gwen, from Freedom First Wildlife Rehab Inc., who is a Federal and State of CT Owl Rehabilitator, began to coach Lisa as to how best to give the owl a chance.     

After three days, in what we would consider to be a coma, the owl began to respond. It seems the owl flew into the side of a vehicle as it passed by. It had a head injury, and one of his eyes was closed. 

After he showed that he could stand, Lisa placed him in a cage on our dining room table. 

In a very creative way, Lisa began to get the owl to drink.  She got a clean spray bottle and lightly sprayed him, and amazingly, he began to swallow the water.  

Lisa’s next concern was nutrition, so she got out a piece of salmon from the frig, cut it up and began to coax the owl to eat. Amazingly, he cooperated and began to eat! 

After we started to believe that the owl was going to survive it became evident that the owl would need more room to rehabilitate, (not to mention that we needed our dining room table back!)  Fortunately, my dad, Karl Sr., was living on the island at the time and we began a flight cage project. We also had additional help, a raccoon that we rescued the year before.  

It wasn’t long before we were able to get the owl, who we began calling Enoch*, out to his new rehab facility. 

Even though Enoch was eating what Lisa fed him, we were concerned. If he were to survive in the wild, he would need to be able to catch his own food, but with only one eye, we were worried. It was then that we learned something new; owls do not hunt by sight alone — their hearing is instrumental in helping them to locate prey. So to test his ability, we picked up some mice and put one in the flight cage. Within seconds, he located and captured his prey. 

Now that Enoch exhibited that he could catch his own food and he navigated his flight cage skillfully, it was time for his introduction back to his home.  Lisa gathered him up and we brought him back to where she found him.  We then took him deep into the woods, said our goodbyes and set him free.  He flew to the nearest branches and somewhat clumsily landed in them.  We kind of expected that after not flying for two months.  But after getting his “sea legs” he took off to the next branch, looked back and we headed for the car.  

We were so grateful to have had such an amazing experience with another one of God’s critters and to have played a part in his rehabilitation.  We had several calls after that from people who have seen a one-eyed owl and suspect that it was Enoch.  

With the new season coming and more vehicles on the island, animal and vehicle collisions are bound to happen, but it’s been my experience that if I keep my speed down below the 30mph speed limit, and keep my eyes open, I’ve been able to avoid the many turtles, squirrels, rabbits, and mink that are trying to get to where they are going too.  Let’s hope that we all get through this season collision-free and to where we’re going injury-free.  

Another special thanks to Gwen for sharing her love and expertise with Lisa and Enoch. 

By Karl Eiriksson Jr

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*The name Enoch is typically pronounced: EE-nuck

• EE: Like the word “see” or the letter “E.”
• nuck: Rhymes with “luck” or “duck.”

In some regions, you might hear a slightly softer ending (EE-nok), where the second syllable rhymes with “rock,” but the first version is the most common standard pronunciation.