Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Over the weekend, visitors to Fontana Dam had a nail-biting encounter with an Eastern Screech Owl stuck inside the dam.
According to Kim Johner, who watched the event, a small owl was visible in the back corner of the dam where the staircase goes down inside of the building.
Fontana Dam, the tallest dam east of the Rockies, often attracts visitors who marvel at the impressive structure built in 1942. It’s less visited by feathered friends.
“The owl was sitting in a bunch of boxes and there were feathers everywhere, he seemed really scared and like he couldn’t get out. So, I flagged down an officer driving across the bridge in his patrol car,” she said. “Soon after, a man on a golf cart, must’ve been a maintenance man, came along with a key, and the officer and the maintenance worker attempted to help the owl but when they went inside, he flew further down the staircase.”
After a few minutes, bystanders saw the owl fly out of the dam and cheered as he landed on the edge of the top of the dam. Some even caught a close up view of the bird.
“He sat there for a few minutes looking around as everyone admired him. I have always loved owls, so I had goosebumps watching him fly out. I wasn’t going anywhere until I knew he was safe,” Kim said.
From Florida, Kim Johner was unfamiliar with this type of owl. She said they have burrowing owls where she lives, so she and her husband Googled it and determined from photos that he is an Eastern Screech Owl. She was glad that these kind folks were nearby to help get the owl out of his predicament and that no one or flying friends were harmed.
About the size of a robin, Eastern Screech Owls are relatively common in Western North Carolina in wooded areas, and the bird’s unique calls can be heard in the evenings and at night. Sometimes described witch like, it is almost like a horse whinnying, according to Cornell Lab (allaboutbirds.org). It’s rare to spot the bird that roosts in tree cavities. The bird is quite the hunter, watching from its perch and swooping down to take prey. It can locate prey by both sound and sight. Screech owls eat mostly large insects and small rodents but can also eat shrews, bats, frogs and even small birds, according to Audubon (audubon.org).