A chimney sweep has rescued a tawny owl after it wedged itself into a six-inch stove pipe at a home in Angus.
John Soutar, from Kirriemuir, operates a chimney-sweeping business which helps people prepare their fireplaces for the upcoming winter months.
However, on Sunday, John received a call from a concerned customer asking him to rescue a tawny owl they had found behind the stove of their Noranside home.
John, along with his wife Lynsey, sprang into action, and within ten minutes the couple were at the scene, trying to figure out how to get the small bird out.
He said: “I was contacted by one of my clients who heard scratching coming from their stove. They had removed the baffle plate and saw an owl inside the pipe.
“I jumped in my van with my wife and sure enough when we got there, there was an owl staring back at us from the stove.”
Lynsey SoutarJohn said, “It’s not something you get called to every day”, but found it really rewarding to assist the small bird, which he says remained relatively calm throughout.
It’s not the first time John has had to rescue an owl; he was previously called to rescue one that had been trapped for more than a week.
He says that having that previous experience helped him navigate how to get the tawny owl out of the six-inch-wide pipe.
John said: “It was really lucky the owl went down headfirst because it doesn’t have a lot of room to move.
“It was a small gap that I had to push it through. I first tried to pull it backwards but it wriggled forward instead.
“We gently coaxed it to the front of the stove, and then wrapped a towel around and eventually brought it out.
“It was definitely a strong little thing.”
John commented that once the owl was free, he could feel how “cosy and soft” it was, and how emotional everyone felt after the owl flew away.
Despite being in the stove pipe for over a day, the owl was “immaculate”, according to John.
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