Pond42sliders,
Nice save!
I had a similar experience about 12 years back with a young, male Great Horned Owl. Not in a pond, but along the roadside. I was out in the country taking a drive and noticed a pickup truck driving on a lesser maintained road. The owl flew up out of the ditch as the truck was driving by and smacked right into the front bumper or fender. The owl went careening back into the ditch. The driver evidentally didn't realize that there was even an impact there because he didn't stop.
I went down to the site and looked for the bird. Found it and took it home. His right wing was broken.
We have here what they call the raptor recovery center, which cares for injured birds of prey. I didn't know how to contact them right off, so I had to do some research and looking up names of people involved. Took me longer than expected, so the owl spent the night with me in my cabin. I didn't have a cage or crate to keep him in, so I just allowed him to roam free in the cabin.
Dang bird crapped all over the place! Hee Hee! But, he eventually got used to me and I just let him hop around the cabin and do whatever he liked. He liked to crap.
I finally got ahold of a lady who would take him in to the recovery center and I just needed to get him to her. So, I loaded him up in my pick-em-up truck and headed down the highway the following morning. By this time, he was quite content and docile. He didn't mind being with me and just rode most of the way on the passenger seat of my truck.
Occasionaly, he would jump up on the armrest and look out the window. I passed a semi-truck on the way and the guy driving happened to look over as I was going by and I think he about lost it! Here was an owl looking out the pasenger window at him and I bet he thought that it was the weirdest looking DOG he ever saw! LOL
Well, I delivered the owl to the lady from the raptor recovery center and she took him to the center in Lincoln, NE and patched him up. I assume he is now flying around today.
It was a really neat experience for me, but the best thing was the look on the truck driver's face. Priceless!
Gordy