SEATTLE (Reuters) - A man who crashed his car into a utility pole near Seattle on Wednesday gave police a unique excuse for the pre-dawn accident: He was owl watching.

Police in Tukwila, about 10 miles south of Seattle, said the driver told officers he rammed into the pole by accident because he was in hot pursuit of one of the nocturnal birds.

Nobody was injured in the early morning crash on a residential street, the police report said. The driver, who was not identified, was not arrested and did not appear to be impaired by drugs or alcohol, police said.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere: Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christian Plumb)