A barred owl which suffered an injury in a Waterloo subdivision recently took to the skies once again, having made a successful recovery at the World Bird Sanctuary.

Remlok, named after the subdivision in which he was found, was brought to the sanctuary by local resident Sarah Desai.

As Desai said, it was originally her neighbor across the street who encountered the raptor in the road on Sept. 13, reaching out online as she wasn’t able to handle the matter while taking care of her kids.

Desai responded and went out to investigate, finding no blood or other outside sign of injury, though she described he was “favoring his left wing.”

She scooped him up in a towel, placed him in a box and brought him home, getting in touch with the World Bird Sanctuary in the morning and taking him to the refuge in Missouri.

From there, Desai kept up-to-date on his progress as the folks at the sanctuary’s raptor hospital helped Remlok recover.

Raptor Rehabilitation Technician Kylee Schooley spoke about the owl’s experience at the sanctuary, recounting from records that it was determined Remlok had been struck by a vehicle, fracturing a bone in his left wing and inflicting minor ocular trauma.

As she recalled, surgery was performed Sept. 16, during which a pin was placed in the broken bone. This pin was later removed prior to his release.

Along with other minor care, Schooley described how much of Remlok’s time at the sanctuary was simply focused on evaluating how he was recovering himself.

He was first moved outside to an enclosed space in which he was able to stretch his wings. After about two and a half weeks in the small flight, he was brought into a larger flight where he was able to properly fly back and forth.

“We make them fly so many passes to make sure that their muscles are well conditioned, that they’re able to maneuver around obstacles,” Schooley said. “They also go through live prey testing to make sure they can hunt before going back out into the wild.”

Schooley also offered a number of facts about Remlok and the sanctuary’s work.

She noted Remlok is a first-year bird, with the sanctuary’s patients largely consisting of these younger birds of prey.

She also indicated Remlok was a female given his apparent size, though Desai said she was informed on the day of the owl’s release over the weekend he was actually a male.

On Remlok’s strong recovery, Schooley reported the sanctuary has a success rate of about 65-70 percent of raptors who wind up recovering and getting released.

She also spoke to Remlok’s injuries, noting how many patients come to the sanctuary having been struck by vehicles.

Schooley mentioned an apparent anecdote or word of caution shared among the sanctuary, warning folks against tossing, for example, an apple core out the window of their car as it is likely to lead to prey animals gathering on the road, accompanied by predators like owls which can then get struck by vehicles.

Remlok was released Sunday after the weekend snowfall calmed down.

Schooley said it is the goal of the sanctuary to release its patients back to their homes when possible.

“We try to release the adult patients back to where they were found because that is their home territory, and we’ve found that even if we release them closer to us, they just fly back to their home territory pretty well, and we want to remove all those roads and obstacles that they would have to traverse to get back home,” Schooley said.

Desai was there for Remlok’s release alongside about a dozen individuals who had followed updates on the owl via Facebook.

She spoke quite positively about the experience of joining friends to witness  the owl’s first free flight in some time.

“There are a lot of people in our community who followed his progress and seemed very invested,” Desai said. “It felt good to have so many people cheering on a little injured owl.”

Desai also encouraged folks to donate to the sanctuary if they can, noting over $3,000 had gone toward Remlok’s rehabilitation.

For more information on the World Bird Sanctuary, located in Valley Park, Mo., visit worldbirdsanctuary.org.