Of all the things that could break a car windshield in Saskatchewan, a fish that fell from the sky ranks pretty low on the list of possible suspects.
But that’s what happened to Marie Ahlstrom when she was driving home on Sept. 19 near Turtle Lake, Sask., about 200 kilometers northwest of Saskatoon.
“You could see the impression of fish scales on the windshield,” said Ahlstrom, who was uninjured.
He initially assumed a rock had hit the car, but when he saw the blood, he said he knew it had to be something else. Then, when Ahlstrom got home, she and her husband were able to assess the damage and find what was left of the fish.
The fish had damaged the car’s windshield and side mirror. Ahlstrom said there was some confusion when he tried to file the wildlife collision claim under his insurance, and an adjuster told him that fish are not wildlife, but it was resolved.
Ahlstrom said fish drops are not common, but he has heard of them before in the Turtle Lake area.
He said birds in the area, particularly osprey, have been known to occasionally pick up fish that are too heavy to carry, causing them to drop them.
“You might find a fish in your yard, and a good friend of ours a few years ago found one in the eaves of his house,” Ahlstrom said.
CBC News asked Trevor Herriot, author and prairie naturalist, what he thought.
“It must have been an eagle,” he said. “There’s no one else except ospreys that does that kind of fishing… but most of the ospreys have already migrated south. There may be a few left, but I’d say it was most likely a bald eagle.”
Herriot said the only other possible explanation would be a lake waterspout, a phenomenon known to occur. From time to time he picks up fish and throws them great distances. . But he said that possibility is highly unlikely, given the weather at the time of the incident.
Whatever the cause, Ahlstrom found some humor in the situation.
“I don’t know if it was wildlife or an act of God or an act of fear,” he said, “but something dropped that fish and it scared the hell out of me.”
The Morning Edition – Sask4:20Turtle Lake woman got the surprise of her life when a fish smashed her windshield
Marie Ahlstrom of Turtle Lake was driving home from a friend’s house when suddenly a fish fell from the sky and broke her windshield. Their insurance was hesitant to cover the costs because fish were not considered wildlife in their policies.
