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Great horned owl makes Home Depot a home

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A Home Depot in northern Arkansas has someone new looking out for mice in the garden center. Someone with wings.

A great horned owl flew inside of the Harrison store’s garden center during a January ice storm and built a nest atop a pallet of merchandise. Over time, two baby owls poked their heads out. One fell to its death, but the other survived. Now, the mother is gone but the surviving youngster has decided to stay, looking down on surprised customers shopping for flowers and paving stones.

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Since the garden center is open to the sky, the owl leaves but always comes back, employees said. ‘He’s kind of our pet now,’ supervisor John Gallagher told the Harrison Daily Times. Randy Zellers, managing editor Arkansas Wildlife magazine, said owls are raptors, which are protected under strict federal regulations, and the store would have to get special licenses to remove its new tenant.

But Zellers said there’s really no reason for anyone to try that for now. ‘If he isn’t bothering anything, it’s perfectly fine,’ Zellers said.

-- Associated Press

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