Large owl gets trapped between van and roof top carrier

A Sudbury man had an unexpected wildlife encounter when he struck a huge owl that then became caught in his roof rack.

Collisions with deer, moose and even bears are not uncommon in Ontario’s north, but Darin Johansen's incident with an owl was more unexpected.

He was driving home from Wawa with his family earlier this week when they hit an owl.

“I had a very large white bird come flying at me towards the windshield to the van without any ability to move,” Johansen said. “It struck the rooftop carrier I had. It was quite large and quite loud. I stopped to double check there was no damage that I could see.”

He said everything appeared to be fine until his son noticed some scratching sounds coming from the roof. The family pulled over and looked between the roof and roof top carrier to find a giant white owl trapped.

“We were fairly upset,” he said. “It’s not something you want to hurt or damage and I don’t think I’d ever seen that size of owl before.”

He disassembled the carrier and to his surprise, the bird "stood up and flew off."

“His wings were fully extended, he had to be approximately a metre across when he opened his wings” he said.