• Admissions & Booking
    • • Planning your visit
    • • Group Visits
    • • About your visit
    • • Meerkat Kastle
    • • Find Us
    • • Discovery Centre
    • • Download a map of S.O.S.
  • About S.O.S.
  • Making a Donation
  • Help for Injured Owls
    • * Avian Flu
    • • What to Do
    • • Injured Owls
    • • Orphaned Owls
    • • The S.O.S. Raptor Hospital
    • • Raptor Rescue Orgs.
    • • Help For Other Injured Wildlife
  • Adopt-an-Owl...
  • Saving Britain's Owls
    • • Overview
    • • Wild Owl Nestboxes
    • • Keeping Owls as Pets
    • • Owls & The Law
    • • Nest Box Scheme
  • Education at S.O.S.
    • • S.O.S. Education Department
    • • Education Visits to S.O.S.
    • • Outreach Visits
    • • Higher & Further Education
    • • School and Group Projects
    • • The SOS Shop
    • • "The Screecher" Newsletter
    • • Group Talks
  • Encounters & Experiences
    • • Gift Passes
    • • Close Encounters
    • • Owl Encounters
    • • Meerkat Encounters
    • • Armadillo Encounters
    • • Porcupine Encounters
    • • Half Day Animal Keeper
    • • Half Day Bird Keeper
    • • Keeper for the Day
    • • The WILD Club 2025
  • Pellet Detectives
  • S.O.S. Events
  • We Are Hiring
  • Raptor Factors
  • Photography at S.O.S.
    • • 2024 Photo Competition Results
  • Home Fun For Kids!
  • The S.O.S. Blog
  • Volunteering at S.O.S.
    • • Help Us at S.O.S. H.Q.
    • • Volunteer Hosts
    • • Corporate Volunteers
    • • Join the Owl-Reach Team!
  • Hedgehog Care
  • Bees, Bugs & Butterflies
  • Suffolk's Endangered Wildlife
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Legacies & Donations
  • Local Events & Places to Stay
  • Our Sponsors
  • S.O.S. Privacy Policy
  • Use of CCTV at S.O.S.
  • S.O.S. Safeguarding Policy
  • Menu

Suffolk Owl Sanctuary

  • Admissions & Booking
    • • Planning your visit
    • • Group Visits
    • • About your visit
    • • Meerkat Kastle
    • • Find Us
    • • Discovery Centre
    • • Download a map of S.O.S.
  • About S.O.S.
  • Making a Donation
  • Help for Injured Owls
    • * Avian Flu
    • • What to Do
    • • Injured Owls
    • • Orphaned Owls
    • • The S.O.S. Raptor Hospital
    • • Raptor Rescue Orgs.
    • • Help For Other Injured Wildlife
  • Adopt-an-Owl...
  • Saving Britain's Owls
    • • Overview
    • • Wild Owl Nestboxes
    • • Keeping Owls as Pets
    • • Owls & The Law
    • • Nest Box Scheme
  • Education at S.O.S.
    • • S.O.S. Education Department
    • • Education Visits to S.O.S.
    • • Outreach Visits
    • • Higher & Further Education
    • • School and Group Projects
    • • The SOS Shop
    • • "The Screecher" Newsletter
    • • Group Talks
  • Encounters & Experiences
    • • Gift Passes
    • • Close Encounters
    • • Owl Encounters
    • • Meerkat Encounters
    • • Armadillo Encounters
    • • Porcupine Encounters
    • • Half Day Animal Keeper
    • • Half Day Bird Keeper
    • • Keeper for the Day
    • • The WILD Club 2025
  • Pellet Detectives
  • S.O.S. Events
  • We Are Hiring
  • Raptor Factors
  • Photography at S.O.S.
    • • 2024 Photo Competition Results
  • Home Fun For Kids!
  • The S.O.S. Blog
  • Volunteering at S.O.S.
    • • Help Us at S.O.S. H.Q.
    • • Volunteer Hosts
    • • Corporate Volunteers
    • • Join the Owl-Reach Team!
  • Hedgehog Care
  • Bees, Bugs & Butterflies
  • Suffolk's Endangered Wildlife
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Legacies & Donations
  • Local Events & Places to Stay
  • Our Sponsors
  • S.O.S. Privacy Policy
  • Use of CCTV at S.O.S.
  • S.O.S. Safeguarding Policy


The Suffolk Owl Sanctuary
Stonham Barns
Pettaugh Road
Stonham Aspal IP14 6AT
e-mail:
info@owlhelp.org.uk

Tel: 03456 807 897
Option 3: General information
+ Adoptions, Courses etc.
Option 5: If you need help with an injured bird of prey

Reg. Charity No. 1086565

Happy Families - many children brought their Mums along for a special photo opportunity

Happy Families - many children brought their Mums along for a special photo opportunity

A Special Weekend…

March 20, 2010

Mum’s the word

Last Sunday we had an important day here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary. It was of course Mother’s Day and all of our visiting mums had the opportunity to have a photograph taken with one for the owls. Fortunately, the sun managed to put its hat on for at least some of the day and we had lots of lovely smiles for the camera.

“Four Weddings” Outing

Three of our birds also had an unexpected outing this week, after Andrew received a phone call from the producers of the ‘Four Weddings’ programme, which appears on the Living TV channel.

image.png

As part of the series, they were going to film a couple getting married in Robin Hood & Maid Marion costumes - the theme of the wedding was ‘Robin Hood In Tights’. As well as having some rather beautiful horses on hand, the plan was to also have some birds of prey in the scene too. However, the company they had employed to provide the raptors had let them down, so we were asked to fill in at short notice..

image.png

Normally we don’t get involved in this sort of thing but they were nice people and offered to make a donation to our Charity, so head falconer Matt and chief fundraiser Maz duly set off for the Park Hill Hotel in Woodbridge with Ash the Common Buzzard, Comet the Peregrine and Baloo the Indian Eagle Owl in tow.

Though in strange surroundings It has to be said that our ‘crew’ played their roles impeccably and proved a great success. We think the programme will be shown on TV sometime in May or June this year, so watch this space for further details.

A little owl mythology - Wise Owl Theory pooh-pooh’d

As everyone knows, the wisest bird in the world is the owl. Not only do owls look wise with their wide intelligent eyes and seemingly benevolent faces, but also there are many myths & stories that give the lie to our beliefs, not least that Athene the Goddess of wisdom had a Little Owl as her constant companion. There is even a sneaking suspicion that Owl of Winnie the Pooh fame, who can proudly spell his own name ‘Wol’, was only feigning ignorance to his less intellectual friends!

The sad fact is, however, Wol is about as bright as owls get. Although they have nice, big brainy-looking heads, an awful lot of what you see is actually feathers. Once you get inside an owl’s head, you then find that most of the skull space is taken up by the cone shaped protuberances that form the vast part of its eyes. Which doesn’t leave much room for a brain! In fact, an owl’s brain is about the same size as a peanut and just about allows the owl to live its owly life to the best of its ability. So sorry to spoil the illusion but ‘wise old owl’ should definitely be filed in the ‘old wives tale’ department!


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