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A Canadian woman received an unpleasant shock while on a routine drive home last month when a massive fish literally fell out of the sky and smashed her windshield.
Marie Ahlstrom of Turtle Lake, Saskatchewan, was driving home from a friend’s house on Sept. 19 when a mysterious object slammed into her vehicle — cracking the windshield.
“I don’t know if it was wildlife or an act of God or an act of fear, but something dropped that fish and scared the heck out of me,” she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
She initially thought it was a rock, but upon close inspection, she noticed something unusual.
“You could actually see the impression of the fish scales in the windshield,” Ahlstrom recalled to the outlet.
The flying fish damaged the windshield and side mirror, according to Ahlstron, who was not hurt.
When she filed her claim with her insurance company, she was told the damage wouldn’t be covered under its wildlife collision policy, which usually deals with auto accidents that involve deer, elk or moose.
The insurance agent told Ahlstrom that fish isn’t considered wildlife. Eventually, however, the insurance company relented, and the matter was resolved, according to the CBC.
Ashlstrom said that while it is rare for fish to fall out of the sky, it does happen on occasion in the Turtle Lake region.
When an osprey catches a fish, it typically takes its prey to a nearby perch, such as a tree, pole or other elevated location, or back to its nest if it is feeding young. This is where the osprey consumes the fish.
According to Ahlstrom, what likely happened in her case was that the captured fish proved too heavy for the bird, which lost its grip on its prey and ended up dropping the flounder right onto her car.
“You could find a fish in your yard, and a good friend of ours a few years ago found one in the eavestroughing of his house,” she explained.
Trevor Herriot, a prairie naturalist and author, told CBC that he believes an eagle was the likely culprit.
“There is nobody else except for ospreys that do that kind of fishing … but most ospreys have migrated south by now. There might be a few left, but I’d say odds are that it was a bald eagle,” he said.
