--- title: Great Horned Owl Swims in Lake Michigan: Viral Video description: Could he be the avian Ryan Lochte? This video points to yes canonical: https://time.com/3619260/lake-michigan-owl-swim/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-04T23:18:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:15:01.856Z og:title: Here's an Owl Going for a Swim in Lake Michigan og:description: Could he be the avian Ryan Lochte? This video points to yes og:url: https://time.com/3619260/lake-michigan-owl-swim/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94c49cb5e7367d23/69876ccc5f570fd11fb13fa1/screen-shot-2014-12-04-at-6-02-31-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-12-04 at 6.02.31 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's an Owl Going for a Swim in Lake Michigan twitter:description: Could he be the avian Ryan Lochte? This video points to yes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94c49cb5e7367d23/69876ccc5f570fd11fb13fa1/screen-shot-2014-12-04-at-6-02-31-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # And Then Here's an Owl Going for a Swim in Lake Michigan by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Dec 4, 2014 11:18 PM UTC  by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Dec 4, 2014 11:18 PM UTC Silly owl, your primary mode of transit is supposed to be flying, not swimming! But alas, here you are, doing what is essentially the butterfly stroke in the cold waters of Lake Michigan. MORE: [The Top 10 New Species of 2014](http://time.com/3594685/top-10-new-species/) Chicago area photographer and birder Steve Spitzer captured the brief (but, come on, totally riveting) footage this week in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood, WGN [reports](http://wgntv.com/2014/12/02/watch-this-owl-swim-in-lake-michigan-after-being-attacked-by-falcons/). The Great Horned Owl had apparently been forced into the water by two peregrine falcons — but clearly, he ended up making the best of the situation. _Read next:_ [_This Is How Electric Eels Shock Their Victims_](http://time.com/3619910/electric-eels-shock-victims/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3619260/lake-michigan-owl-swim/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3619260/lake-michigan-owl-swim/"},"headline":"And Then Here's an Owl Going for a Swim in Lake Michigan","datePublished":"2014-12-04T23:18:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:15:01.856Z","description":"Could he be the avian Ryan Lochte? This video points to yes","url":"https://time.com/3619260/lake-michigan-owl-swim/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94c49cb5e7367d23/69876ccc5f570fd11fb13fa1/screen-shot-2014-12-04-at-6-02-31-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94c49cb5e7367d23/69876ccc5f570fd11fb13fa1/screen-shot-2014-12-04-at-6-02-31-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-12-04 at 6.02.31 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3619260/lake-michigan-owl-swim/","name":"And Then Here's an Owl Going for a Swim in Lake Michigan"}}]}] ```