Meet Alby the skateboarding Barn Owl. Alby is a resident of the Folkestone Owl Sanctuary in Folkstone, Kent, England, run by Brian Maxted who first opened the sanctuary back in 1989. The sanctuary has grown steadily since it was started and now has both the dedicated staff and space enough to care for as many as 50 birds of prey at one time.

But let’s get back to Alby. Brian says that he first discovered Alby’s unusual talent during a trip to a nearby shopping center:

“I often take some owls into town to try and get some donations from shoppers. I had the owls out one day last week and a young lad stopped to look at them. He put down his skateboard and Alby, who’d been fast asleep, saw it and jumped on. Someone pulled it along the ground and he loved it so much, we had to get him one of his own.”

13-year-old Alby has since developed his skateboarding technique. He swoops down on the board and uses the momentum from his flight to propel himself along. Once the board rolls to a stop, Alby takes off and flies in a small circle before once again swooping down onto the board, thus pushing it along again. Pretty awesome.

Watch video of Brian Maxted and Alby at the Folkestone Owl Sanctuary. Brian explains how Alby first discovered his unlikely hobby and gives a demonstration of Alby being pulled along on his own tiny skateboard.

[via Telegraph.co.uk]

It’s Animals Doing People Things Day on Geyser of Awesome!

Recycled Skateboard Art by Haroshi

[via My Modern Metropolis]