What a hoot! Owl spotted swimming in bizarre footage

They don’t have waterproof feathers and can only take off from dry surfaces – but that didn’t stop this intrepid bird

Well, what a hoot!

Swimming is said to be among the best exercise it’s possible to do – and this owl appears to agree.

The majestic bird was filmed taking a dip in Lake Saint Clair, in the US state of Michigan.

Footage of the highly unusual sighting – owls don’t generally take to the water – was posted online by the marine division of the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.

“We had a special guest this morning,” the team wrote on its Facebook page. “We believe it’s the snowy owl that has been seen on several occasions in the area. Please remember to respect these beautiful animals by being a good observer; keep your distance, respect this living creature.”

Owls tend to avoid water: they cannot take off out of it and are not endowed with water proof feathers.

But they have been known to swim short distances in emergencies or if splash-landing while hunting.

“It’s a pretty unusual sight,” Richard Cooper, chief executive of the World Owl Trust based in Cumbria, told The Independent. “Owls occasionally go into the water to clean their feathers. But they won’t go too far from shore if they can avoid it.

“With this one, it looks like it has tried to catch a duck or some sort of waterfowl and ended up in the water. Because they have hollow bones they can float for a short period and make it to shore with that strange rowing technique.”

It is not the first time an owl has been filmed swimming either.

In 2017, tourists hiking through a Lake Powell canyon in Utah filmed what was thought to be a great horned owl swimming across the water. Experts said it had probably fallen in from a cliff side nest and was making its way back to dry land.