New York State Parks mechanic Danny Games showed us the concrete distribution blocks near the Gideon garage in Saratoga Spa State Park where he saw something surprising last week.

“We came into work, the containers have tadpoles in them we’ve been taking care of and we looked in and the owl was just floating in the water,” said Games.

“Looked like he’d been in the water for quite a long time. He was water soaked and exhausted.”

He immediately took action. He grabbed a snow shovel and got the owl out.

“We wrapped it in a towel, put it in a box and put it in a quiet corner just to relax so nothing would bother it and scare it, and just let it relax.”

At first the owl’s eyes were not fully open, but after a while, he looked more alert. Games took pictures.

Sigrid Wallace is a wildlife rehabilitator with North Country Wild Care.

“He was wet and waterlogged and stressed, very stressed out,” said Wallace. “He was so waterlogged that he couldn’t fly. And he had no way of getting out of the vat, so he was just getting more and more wet.”

She also took it to an owl specialist.

The young Great Horned owl was checked out and treated. They stabilized it with fluids and made sure it didn’t have any parasites.

“He wasn’t injured in any way and he was picking up food by himself, which are rodents, so they decided to go ahead and release him in 48 hours,” said Wallace.

“I’m happy, very happy. It’s always a good– it gives me goosebumps to know that it was released and it’s good news.”

Experts say never try to care for a wild animal yourself; contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

Games has worked with them in the past, and says knowing this owl rescue was successful was a good feeling.

“We’ve seen owls back here in the trees, but never was able to get this close,” said Games. “It was kind of nice.”

North Country Wild Care has an emergency hotline to call for help or advice on all kinds of animals and birds: 518-964-6740