{"id":651577,"date":"2026-08-23T01:52:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T01:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/651577\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T01:52:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T01:52:35","slug":"british-army-sailors-rescue-bedraggled-barn-owl-70-nautical-miles-out-to-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/651577\/","title":{"rendered":"British Army sailors rescue bedraggled barn owl 70 nautical miles out to sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

A British Army sailing<\/a> crew competing in one of yachting<\/a>‘s most demanding races found themselves coming to the rescue of a bedraggled barn owl 70 nautical miles from shore<\/a> when the exhausted creature made a determined bid to join their team.<\/p>\n

The bird’s arrival aboard Fujitsu British Soldier during the 50th Anniversary \u200cRORC Round Britain and Ireland<\/a> Race sparked a complex coordination effort between \u2060the military sailors and multiple wildlife agencies\u00a0\u2013 all while the crew pressed on toward the finish line at Cowes.<\/p>\n

“We have an extra crew member \u200bfor the latter parts of the race: an exhausted barn owl \u200cthat we are nursing back to health,” skipper Will Naylor reported to race officials.<\/p>\n

He dryly noted that finishing the race with their original complement could prove awkward.<\/p>\n

“Someone is going to have \u200cto walk the plank,” he joked.<\/p>\n

Read moreRed fox stowaway from UK finds shelter in NY\u2019s Bronx zoo after transatlantic trip<\/a><\/p>\n

The owl’s boarding proved less than graceful. After failing to land on a crew member’s head and \u200btumbling from the mast into the sea three times, the bird finally collapsed onto the deck, where sailors secured it with a towel.<\/p>\n

“We thought we’d lost her, \u200bbut she kept fighting her way back up and to the boat,” said \u200bSergeant Mark Petherbridge of 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment. The \u200bcrew christened their passenger “Little Reg”, before discovering that “Little Regina” would be a better fit for their stowaway.<\/p>\n

The rescue operation involved the Barn Owl \u200bTrust, Marine and Wildlife Rescue and Caister Independent Lifeboat, which collected the bird for transfer to a wildlife centre while the Army Sailing Association crew continued their 1,805-nautical-mile circumnavigation.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)<\/p>\n

What is ‘The Bright Side’?<\/p>\n

For those tired of anxiety-inducing news, The Bright Side<\/a> highlights initiatives, new discoveries and lighter perspectives to showcase progress and positivity in the world. Whether covering scientific innovations, inspiring profiles or striking images, our stories are always based on rigorously verified facts.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British Army sailing crew competing in one of yachting‘s most demanding races found themselves coming to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[100,18,1015,19,17,44494,133,167978,1294,461,44495],"class_list":["post-651577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-eire","tag-europe","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sailing","tag-science","tag-the-bright-side","tag-uk","tag-wildlife","tag-yachting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117142326212819927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}