Minn. snowmobiler survives collision with owl
BC-MN--Snowmobiler-Owl,130 Eds: APNewsNow TWO HARBORS, Minn. (AP) - A Two Harbors snowmobiler has survived a collision with a barred owl.
Thirty-five-year-old Chris Hatfield was zipping along the North Shore State Trail on his snowmobile last Saturday night when the owl hit him in the face mask of his snowmobile helmet.
Hatfield was knocked off his sled and knocked unconscious. He tells the Duluth News Tribune he "woke up flat on my back on the trail staring at the stars."
He turned the owl in to a Department of Natural Resources area wildlife manager. An adult barred owl is 21 inches high and weighs 1.6 pounds. That's about as much as a jar of spaghetti sauce.
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One layer of Hatfield's face mask was shattered. He came away from the collision with "two shiners, a cracked nose, a little whiplash."
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Information from: Duluth News Tribune
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)