Road To Recovery

Last year we were really delighted with our rehabilitation rate of 48% of the injured birds that came in to the Sanctuary hospital.  It is, however, a sad fact that a large number of the injuries we see to wild birds of prey are caused by road traffic accidents.  There isn’t always a lot that can be done for a bird which has shattered bones after either colliding with a vehicle or being smashed into the road via the downdraft of a speeding truck and sadly the kindest thing to do is to ask our vet to relieve them from their suffering. 

Volunteer Steve tenderly holds the injured bird as Andy administers some remedial eyedrops followed by some hand-fed nourishment

Sometimes though, luck is on the bird’s side - as was the case with a Little Owl found by a member of the public at the side of the road last week.  Fortunately, close examination by one of our dedicated falconry team revealed no broken bones but the poor owl did have extensive facial bruising and both eyes were swollen completely shut.  It seems most likely that the unfortunate bird had been caught up in the slip-stream of a vehicle, rather than being involved in a collision.  Owls in particular can be pretty unstable in flight in windy conditions.  Owl feathers are designed to have a lot of movement in them, enabling the owl to fly completely silently and thereby catching their prey by surprise. Unfortunately this does mean they are easily caught out by a gust of wind or the draught caused by a passing vehicle.  This Little Owl’s injuries suggested that it had probably hit the ground fairly hard, hence the bruising and swelling.

Battered & bruised - but not defeated. This Little Owl should live to tell the tale

A visit to our supporting vet confirmed the diagnosis and the Little Owl is now on a course of antibiotics and also eye-drops, which will need to be administered for an undetermined length of time.
 
This is one reason why our supporters’ donations and adoptions are so important to us; they enable us to continue to deliver the care & treatment that our hospital residents so badly need. We are very grateful indeed for everyone’s continued help and support.
 
Fortunately, regular volunteer Steve has been on hand to help Andy administer the medication – definitely not a one person job when you’re dealing with a wild animal.  Despite their size, Little Owls can be really feisty and their tiny talons especially sharp!
 
It’s now just over a week since the little chap (chapess?) was brought into the Sanctuary and I’m very pleased to report that s/he is doing really well.  One eye is now open and everything is looking far less bruised and swollen.  The falconers are confident that, barring unforseen complications, this Little Owl will make a full recovery - so I really look forward to being able to report on its release!

Feed me, Seymore

For us here at the Sanctuary however, the most exciting herald of spring is the arrival of our first newborn chicks.  At this point in time we have no idea how many young our residents may be expecting, but the signs are looking good. Rheia our European Eagle Owl has definitely produced 3 owlets and there are also suspicions that our Malasian Wood Owls may have had young, but without entering their aviary and risking upset, it’s not yet possible to tell for sure.

Pungu the Bateleur Eagle basks in the Spring sunshine

What we do know with absolute certainty is that one of our Lanner Falcons ‘Lady’ laid four eggs, one of which was fertile.   Lanner falcon eggs are slightly smaller than chicken eggs and are a mottled, reddish-brown colour.  Incubation normally takes about 33 days, after which the chicks are born covered in fluffy, white down feathers and weighing around 2 oz.  Lady is 13 years old, which considering her natural lifespan would be 12 to 15 years, means she has done really well to have a chick at all.  Despite her age though, she is a relatively inexperienced mum and could possibly turn on her hatchling, so the falconers have elected to take the chick away just for a week or so.  This gives the chick a chance to grow a bit and gain some strength before going back to mum, who is then more likely to be able to cope and rear her baby successfully.

At only one day old, this baby Lanner is carefully fed by hand

Of course it’s impossible to say at this stage whether the youngster is male or female, but it’s certainly a feisty littl’un and remarkably vocal about being hungry!  At just one day old it was lifting its head up really strongly, demanding to be fed and voraciously gobbling down the proffered food.
 
Peregrine falcons usually stay in the nest for about 6 weeks, when they will make their first attempts at flying.  Once they have fledged, they are still dependent on their parents for around four weeks until they can hunt for themselves.

It is truly inspiring to witness these first signs of new life here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary.  In the words of the immortal Bard ‘April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.’   

Feed me, Seymore

The last couple of years have seen us struggle through hard winters, so it’s especially uplifting to see the sun shining and the trees in blossom.  Many of our raptors love nothing more than a good bask in the sun, particularly Pungu our Bateleur Eagle, who spreads her glorious wings to their full 6 to 7 foot span to be sure she catches every single ray possible. 

Pungu the Bateleur Eagle basks in the Spring sunshine

For us here at the Sanctuary however, the most exciting herald of spring is the arrival of our first newborn chicks.  At this point in time we have no idea how many young our residents may be expecting, but the signs are looking good. Rheia our European Eagle Owl has definitely produced 3 owlets and there are also suspicions that our Malasian Wood Owls may have had young, but without entering their aviary and risking upset, it’s not yet possible to tell for sure. 

What we do know with absolute certainty is that one of our Lanner Falcons ‘Lady’ laid four eggs, one of which was fertile. Lanner falcon eggs are slightly smaller than chicken eggs and are a mottled, reddish-brown colour.  Incubation normally takes about 33 days, after which the chicks are born covered in fluffy, white down feathers and weighing around 2 oz.  Lady is 13 years old, which considering her natural lifespan would be 12 to 15 years, means she has done really well to have a chick at all.  Despite her age though, she is a relatively inexperienced mum and could possibly turn on her hatchling, so the falconers have elected to take the chick away just for a week or so.  This gives the chick a chance to grow a bit and gain some strength before going back to mum, who is then more likely to be able to cope and rear her baby successfully.

At only one day old, this baby Lanner is carefully fed by hand

Of course it’s impossible to say at this stage whether the youngster is male or female, but it’s certainly a feisty littl’un and remarkably vocal about being hungry!  At just one day old it was lifting its head up really strongly, demanding to be fed and voraciously gobbling down the proffered food. 

Peregrine falcons usually stay in the nest for about 6 weeks, when they will make their first attempts at flying.  Once they have fledged, they are still dependent on their parents for around four weeks until they can hunt for themselves.

It is truly inspiring to witness these first signs of new life here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary.  In the words of the immortal Bard ‘April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.’   

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Strange Bedfellows

Here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary we pride ourselves on providing a safe haven for all our resident birds of prey and for the wild raptors that are brought into our hospital. Imagine our surprise though, when Andy announced that we had a feathered friend of a completely different variety nesting in front of one of the aviaries.

To set things in perspective, it is undoubtedly a bird-eat-bird world out there as far as raptors are concerned.  Basically, if you’re a bird of prey then anything smaller (or slower) than you can potentially be considered as lunch. The Peregrine Falcon is renowned for its swiftness, often reaching speeds of 150mph or more during its characteristic hunting stoop or dive.  Historically the Peregrine is also known as the ‘Duck Hawk’, which makes it all the stranger, then, to find a Hen Mallard serenely nesting right up close to the aviary of 'Comet', one of our display falcons.

All birds are sensitive when it comes to breeding, which is why when our resident birds are nesting, their aviaries don’t have their regular clean-out over the period in order to avoid disturbing or distressing them.  Some birds won’t lay at all if there's a hint of danger in the air and some simply leave the nest if they feel threatened, so to see this little Hen Mallard placidly resting right beneath the roost of one of her greatest predators seems a little ironic!  Fortunately, we know that she is totally protected from being Comet’s repast at any time - but does she know that?
 
Anyway, it’s a lovely sight to see her nestling among the daffodils and she didn’t even so much as flutter a wingtip when I cautiously pointed the camera in her direction! We will be monitoring her closely and look forward to being able to announce the patter of tiny webbed feet - a first for the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary! 

Strange Bedfellows

Here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary we pride ourselves on providing a safe haven for all our resident birds of prey and for the wild raptors that are brought into our hospital. Imagine our surprise though, when Andy announced that we had a feathered friend of a completely different variety nesting in front of one of the aviaries. 

To set things in perspective, it is undoubtedly a bird-eat-bird world out there as far as raptors are concerned.  Basically, if you’re a bird of prey then anything smaller (or slower) than you can potentially be considered as lunch. The Peregrine Falcon is renowned for its swiftness, often reaching speeds of 150mph or more during its characteristic hunting stoop or dive.  Historically the Peregrine is also known as the ‘Duck Hawk’, which makes it all the stranger, then, to find a Hen Mallard serenely nesting right up close to the aviary of 'Comet', one of our display falcons.

All birds are sensitive when it comes to breeding, which is why when our resident birds are nesting, their aviaries don’t have their regular clean-out over the period in order to avoid disturbing or distressing them.  Some birds won’t lay at all if there's a hint of danger in the air and some simply leave the nest if they feel threatened, so to see this little Hen Mallard placidly resting right beneath the roost of one of her greatest predators seems a little ironic!  Fortunately, we know that she is totally protected from being Comet’s repast at any time - but does she know that? 

Anyway, it’s a lovely sight to see her nestling among the daffodils and she didn’t even so much as flutter a wingtip when I cautiously pointed the camera in her direction! We will be monitoring her closely and look forward to being able to announce the patter of tiny webbed feet - a first for the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary! 

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School Out! (and In)

This time of year is always really busy for our Education Team and already the S.O.S. Wise Owl Roadshow has visited a number of schools, including as far as Beccles and Lowestoft.  

School's Out - and so are the cameras, with lots of opportunities presented for some unusual photographs

As a point of information, we normally have a limit of an hour’s travel for our raptors as, although the birds we take with us are used to travelling, their health and welfare is of prime importance!  The travel boxes in which the birds are transported are of course specifically designed for the purpose. Astro-turf covers the perches to allow the birds to safely grip them during movement and as with all animal carriers, the boxes have plenty of ventilation holes in them, although raptor boxes are especially designed so that you can’t put your fingers through - definitely not a good idea with some of our bigger birds!
 
This Thursday saw the second school of the season visiting the Sanctuary itself and, as luck would have it, the weather was absolutely glorious.  In fact, it was more like a bright summer’s day than an early spring one.
 
When the children arrived, they were greeted by two members of the education team and given a guided tour of part of the Sanctuary.  The tour always includes at least one member of each raptor group – Eagles, Owls, Hawks, Falcons & Buzzards and definitely wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Gypsy our charismatic American Black Vulture!
 
At school the children had been working on a book called  ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson, so their activity was tailored to reflect this.  At the moment, we are also refurbishing our classroom area, so we asked the children to do a special owl collage for us. They had great fun getting bits of tissue paper and glue everywhere and the finished result was a fabulous multi-coloured, multi-textured long-eared owl, perfect to go up as part of a display.
 
Although our regular programme of summer flying demonstrations was only due to start after the visit, our display birds have been exercising for several weeks now in preparation, so after lunch the children took a trip to the flying ground where falconer Maz was exercising Baloo, the Indian Eagle Owl.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed watching Baloo take to the air and were eager to ask questions and take pictures at the end.
 
The children and their teachers told us they’d had a lovely day and had learnt a lot about all the different birds of prey.  This is the second year they have come to visit us at the Sanctuary, so we look forward to seeing them again next year!

Camera Shy

The Suffolk Owl Sanctuary has run its adopt-an-owl program for a number of years and every adoption helps to support the vital conservation work that we do here.  Although the Centre is called an owl sanctuary, we also house a variety of birds of prey from all the five raptor groups; eagles, owls, falcons, hawks and buzzards and of course our tremendous character ‘Gypsy’, the black vulture.

Trial & error... no matter what Andy did, Pungu did NOT want to watch the birdie!

The final result - a stunning pictureof a stunning bird...

Up until last year all our adoptive birds were owls, but we thought it would be appropriate to have a couple of representatives of our other resident bird of prey species too.  One of these is Comet the Peregrine Falcon, one of our flying display stars who frequently delights visitors with his incredible speed and agility. The other is Pungu the Bateleur Eagle, a real personality with a definite mind of her own.

When you adopt one of the birds here at the Sanctuary, you receive a certificate and a stunning, professional photograph of your chosen raptor with our compliments.  Last year, when Pungu had her photo taken, she still had her juvenile brown feathers, but her plumage has changed considerably since then, so Andy asked our friend and professional photographer Paul Sawer if he would come and take some more up-to-date pictures.

To be fair it was a bit cold and windy (well freezing and blowing a gale if the truth be told) so maybe it wasn’t entirely surprising that Pungu decided she wasn’t in her most obliging mood.  Whichever angle Paul stood at with his camera, Pungu helpfully sat hunched up looking the other way or gazed loving at Andy instead of the camera.

Amongst other things however, Paul runs some of our extremely popular photo days, so he’s well used to the vagaries of animal photography!  It wasn’t too long before he caught Pungu looking her radiant best and, it must be said, we think Pungu herself might have been rather taken with the results.

Coming on a treat…

A few weeks ago, I reported that the S.O.S team were hard at work laying the foundations for a new suite of aviaries and I must say, the guys have been doing a sterling job.  From mere gaping holes in the ground, concrete has been laid, foliage planted and the structure is definitely beginning to take shape.  There’s still a fair bit of work to be done yet, but hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before our flying display birds have plush new homes to inhabit.

Work in progress... the new aviaries near completion

The new Red Squirrel enclosure is also beginning to take shape, although much of the work so far has involved re-structuring the existing pens.  Matt has worked hard on the new design, which looks complicated, but will no doubt all become clear in due course and promises to be a secure and stimulating environment for our small colony.

Callous & Cruel

A few days ago we received an email from a very distressed member of the public which included a You Tube link to footage of a soccer game between two Columbian clubs.  One of the teams had a wild owl living at its stadium and adopted it as a mascot. Whilst it’s difficult to tell from the images, it looks as though the football inadvertently hits the owl during the course of a game and falls stunned onto the pitch as a result.  

However, what happens next is more than clear and, it has to be said, caused serious disquiet amongst the team here at S.O.S..  A member of the opposing football team, a Panamanian player called Luis Moreno, walks towards the owl and looks for all the world as though he’s going to pick it up.  He doesn’t. Instead, he aims a hefty kick at the already stunned and bewildered bird, sending it flying along the ground.  Apparently the poor owl suffered severe injuries as a result of this cruel and heartless act and died a few hours later.

Such blatant animal abuse should not only be condemned, but many people believe the perpetrator should be held to account for his actions.  Though our emailer, Tracy, sent us the link to the incident on You Tube we do not feel inclined to reproduce it here, but she also sent us a link to a petition being raised which urges justice for the poor creature. At the time of writing, there are already well over 12800 signatures on it, so if you feel as outraged as we do, please add your name to it at http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AgCZN/zK85/bZY7I

We would like to say thank you to Tracy for drawing this matter to our attention and for adopting one of our owls as a result of the experience. She wrote: ‘I was so devastated by what I saw I felt I had to give something back, no matter how small, as a way not only to help other owls but also to try somehow to make amends for what another human being was capable of.’

The proceeds of her donation not only help us to look after our resident owls, but also aid with the funding of our Raptor Hospital, where we treat injured wild birds with a view, wherever possible, to releasing them back into the wild.

Camera Shy

The Suffolk Owl Sanctuary has run its adopt-an-owl program for a number of years and every adoption helps to support the vital conservation work that we do here.  Although the Centre is called an owl sanctuary, we also house a variety of birds of prey from all the five raptor groups; eagles, owls, falcons, hawks and buzzards and of course our tremendous character ‘Gypsy’, the black vulture.

Trial & error... no matter what Andy did, Pungu did NOT want to watch the birdie!

Up until last year all our adoptive birds were owls, but we thought it would be appropriate to have a couple of representatives of our other resident bird of prey species too.  One of these is Comet the Peregrine Falcon, one of our flying display stars who frequently delights visitors with his incredible speed and agility. The other is Pungu the Bateleur Eagle, a real personality with a definite mind of her own.

When you adopt one of the birds here at the Sanctuary, you receive a certificate and a stunning, professional photograph of your chosen raptor with our compliments.  Last year, when Pungu had her photo taken, she still had her juvenile brown feathers, but her plumage has changed considerably since then, so Andy asked our friend and professional photographer Paul Sawer if he would come and take some more up-to-date pictures.To be fair it was a bit cold and windy (well freezing and blowing a gale if the truth be told) so maybe it wasn’t entirely surprising that Pungu decided she wasn’t in her most obliging mood.  Whichever angle Paul stood at with his camera, Pungu helpfully sat hunched up looking the other way or gazed loving at Andy instead of the camera.

The final result - a stunning picture of a stunning bird...

Amongst other things however, Paul runs some of our extremely popular photo days, so he’s well used to the vagaries of animal photography!  It wasn’t too long before he caught Pungu looking her radiant best and, it must be said, we think Pungu herself might have been rather taken with the results.

Coming on a treat…

A few weeks ago, I reported that the S.O.S team were hard at work laying the foundations for a new suite of aviaries and I must say, the guys have been doing a sterling job.  From mere gaping holes in the ground, concrete has been laid, foliage planted and the structure is definitely beginning to take shape.  There’s still a fair bit of work to be done yet, but hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before our flying display birds have plush new homes to inhabit.

Work in progress... the new aviaries near completion

The new Red Squirrel enclosure is also beginning to take shape, although much of the work so far has involved re-structuring the existing pens.  Matt has worked hard on the new design, which looks complicated, but will no doubt all become clear in due course and promises to be a secure and stimulating environment for our small colony.

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Callous & Cruel

A few days ago we received an email from a very distressed member of the public which included a You Tube link to footage of a soccer game between two Columbian clubs. One of the teams had a wild owl living at its stadium and adopted it as a mascot. Whilst it’s difficult to tell from the images, it looks as though the football inadvertently hits the owl during the course of a game and falls stunned onto the pitch as a result.

However, what happens next is more than clear and, it has to be said, caused serious disquiet amongst the team here at S.O.S.. A member of the opposing football team, a Panamanian player called Luis Moreno, walks towards the owl and looks for all the world as though he’s going to pick it up. He doesn’t. Instead, he aims a hefty kick at the already stunned and bewildered bird, sending it flying along the ground. Apparently the poor owl suffered severe injuries as a result of this cruel and heartless act and died a few hours later.

Such blatant animal abuse should not only be condemned, but many people believe the perpetrator should be held to account for his actions. Though our emailer, Tracy, sent us the link to the incident on You Tube we do not feel inclined to reproduce it here, but she also sent us a link to a petition being raised which urges justice for the poor creature. At the time of writing, there are already well over 12800 signatures on it, so if you feel as outraged as we do, please add your name to it at http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AgCZN/zK85/bZY7I

We would like to say thank you to Tracy for drawing this matter to our attention and for adopting one of our owls as a result of the experience. She wrote: ‘I was so devastated by what I saw I felt I had to give something back, no matter how small, as a way not only to help other owls but also to try somehow to make amends for what another human being was capable of.’

The proceeds of her donation not only help us to look after our resident owls, but also aid with the funding of our Raptor Hospital, where we treat injured wild birds with a view, wherever possible, to releasing them back into the wild.

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First Signs Of Spring

Come On Down! Taiga gets comfy as he tries toentice his mate to share the billet

The mornings are getting light that little bit earlier, the evenings are drawing in that little bit later and the garden birds are singing their hearts out at waking and roosting times, sure signs that perhaps spring is shaking out her floral skirt once more.

Here at the Sanctuary too it’s time to prepare for the advent of new life and indeed some of our residents are getting suspiciously broody.  With this in mind, Andy has begun to prepare the nestboxes up in the aviaries of some of our paired birds.

Our Great Grey owls are definitely feeling very broody and it took Taiga (the male) mere minutes before he had settled himself comfortably into their nestbox.  He sat there calling softly to Napoleon (rather strange name for a girl, but there you go) who almost flew to join him, landing on the perch above the nest box.  Clearly she’s not quite ready to accept his amorous advances just yet, but love is definitely in the air.

Fred surveys his refurbished nesting box

Fred the American Kestrel was quite impressed with his and Paula’s nestbox too and he sat for quite a while giving it contemplative looks.  Meanwhile, Huron our Great Horned owl was most certainly getting in the mood and called and paraded his charms most beautifully for us when we passed by his aviary.

Huron struts his stuff in demonstrative fashion

The Southern Boobook owls Tasmin and Darwin looked on with interest as their nestbox was returned to its usual place in the corner of their aviary.  Andy made sure they had plenty of stones in their box, as Boobooks like to make a shallow scrape to lay their eggs in.  Boobook owls only have one brood per season and tend to lay between 2 & 5 round, pale white eggs at 2 to 3 nightly intervals.  The eggs are incubated solely by the female, for anything from 26 to 33 days, during which time she will be fed by her mate.  Once hatched, the chicks are totally helpless and dependent on their parents, so both the mother and the father feed them and sometimes will even enlist the help of a second female.  Young Boobooks fledge when they are five to six weeks old, but stay with their parents for another two to three months until they can hunt for themselves.

Last year our birds produced 29 young in total, so here’s hoping we hear the patter of many tiny talons again this year!

First Signs Of Spring

The mornings are getting light that little bit earlier, the evenings are drawing in that little bit later and the garden birds are singing their hearts out at waking and roosting times, sure signs that perhaps spring is shaking out her floral skirt once more.

Here at the Sanctuary too it’s time to prepare for the advent of new life and indeed some of our residents are getting suspiciously broody. With this in mind, Andy has begun to prepare the nestboxes up in the aviaries of some of our paired birds.

Come On Down! Taiga gets comfy as he tries to entice his mate to share the billet

Our Great Grey owls are definitely feeling very broody and it took Taiga (the male) mere minutes before he had settled himself comfortably into their nestbox. He sat there calling softly to Napoleon (rather strange name for a girl, but there you go) who almost flew to join him, landing on the perch above the nest box. Clearly she’s not quite ready to accept his amorous advances just yet, but love is definitely in the air.

Fred surveys his refurbished nesting box

Fred the American Kestrel was quite impressed with his and Paula’s nestbox too and he sat for quite a while giving it contemplative looks. Meanwhile, Huron our Great Horned owl was most certainly getting in the mood and called and paraded his charms most beautifully for us when we passed by his aviary.

Huron struts his stuff in demonstrative fashion

The Southern Boobook owls Tasmin and Darwin looked on with interest as their nestbox was returned to its usual place in the corner of their aviary. Andy made sure they had plenty of stones in their box, as Boobooks like to make a shallow scrape to lay their eggs in. Boobook owls only have one brood per season and tend to lay between 2 & 5 round, pale white eggs at 2 to 3 nightly intervals. The eggs are incubated solely by the female, for anything from 26 to 33 days, during which time she will be fed by her mate. Once hatched, the chicks are totally helpless and dependent on their parents, so both the mother and the father feed them and sometimes will even enlist the help of a second female. Young Boobooks fledge when they are five to six weeks old, but stay with their parents for another two to three months until they can hunt for themselves.

Last year our birds produced 29 young in total, so here’s hoping we hear the patter of many tiny talons again this year!

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Red Squirrel Residence

Since the advent of our new baby Red Squirrels back in June last year, head falconer Matt has been working on designs for a new enclosure. With an increased colony size and the possibility of breeding more youngsters this year from unrelated pairs, it’s important that we have the requisite space so that we can manage the family groups appropriately.

Head Falconer Matt has been hard at it creating the foundations for a new Red Squirrel pen to house our expanding colony, some of which are donated to controlled wildlife release programmes in Wales

Red Squirrels are lively, inquisitive creatures and so it’s essential that they are encouraged to develop naturally and have the opportunity to demonstrate the behaviours that they would in the wild. As with the original pen, the new enclosure will be especially high to encourage climbing, with bushes & branches, trees & logs for them to scamper around, much as there would be in a natural woodland environment.

Work has already begun and the footings have now been dug, so we’ll keep you posted with how things progress over the next few weeks.

Conservation, Creation & Biodiversity

Our woodland walk not only houses our Red Squirrels and chipmunks, but also a variety of other wildlife, including the many birds that regularly visit the feeders strategically placed outside the bird hide. This is a good time of year for a tidy up and a bit of TLC, so Andy has been working hard doing just that.

Andy constructed a few dead hedges in our woodland walk, laying down the natural detritus to form a prospective home for all sorts of local insect wildlife

Over the last couple of weeks, using the natural wastage that occurs in the woodland, Andy has been creating new ‘hedging’ to adorn parts of the walkway. This serves two purposes (apart from utilising rather than wasting natural resources) as it helps to provide an attractive feature and, more importantly, will help to encourage an even greater diversity of insect wildlife to make our woodland walk its habitat. This in turn will hopefully encourage more birds to visit – perhaps even species we haven’t yet seen here before!

In addition to his hedging exploits, Andy has also been selectively coppicing, which is a traditional method of woodland management. Trees naturally shed unnecessary branches in order to extend their lives, a procedure called ‘retrenchment’. Coppicing mimics this natural process by taking advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. This exercise resets the ageing process and lengthens the life of the tree.

Andy coppiced the small woodland area at the Sanctuary to make way for fresh growth and more light

There are other benefits too from the careful coppicing of trees, which, as you would expect, provides areas of greater light intensity where other plants are then able to flourish. This in turn opens up greater possibilities in terms of animal biodiversity, as many animals are dependent on plants other than the trees that grow in a woodland.

Remember to keep up with our blog for further developments at the Sanctuary and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Better still, why not come and see for yourself? – we look forward to your visit!

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The Heavy Mob

Undoubtedly, if you’ve read our blogs before, you’ll know that the Sanctuary is a bit like the Forth Railway Bridge, in constant need of repair, updating and sometimes good old fashioned replacement. Rain, snow, frost and the vigorous winds of Suffolk have all played their part in continually undermining the fabric of our substantially wooden structures, none moreso than one particular block of owl aviaries which - being on the edge of the wide open spaces of our flying ground - bear the brunt of our brisk nor' westerlies!

Being a charity, the tremendous support we receive from donors to help us maintain the centre in good order is vital and therefore we were very grateful last year to be given a donation specifically for restoring this particular suite of aviaries.

They were definitely beginning to look somewhat dilapidated and so, having planned, costed, drawn up the blueprints and sourced materials, Andy and the team began digging the footings.  The concrete arrived with perfect timing late in January, the whole 4m very kindly donated by Eastern Concrete, to whom we are once again indebted for their continued & generous support!

Many thanks go too, to our regular volunteer Pete Ruddy who generously donated his time to lay all the blocks for the aviaries’ foundations. 

Andy feeds in the last of the concrete footings by hand - phew!

The Heavy Mob (our benefactors Eastern Concrete) trucked in a weight 4m of the grey stuff which then all had to be barrowed in by hand

Our friend and faithful volunteer Pete had muscles on his muscles when he'd finished with the building blocks

Once the team had barrowed the concrete into the footings, Dean set about levelling it whilst the rest of the gang began proofing & painting wood in anticipation of the erection of all seven new aviaries, which should be completed in a few week's time, providing 5-star accommodation for all of our flying demonstration owls, including the newest member – Cecil the Spectacled Owl.

Oh, Lucky Man! One of the residents of the new Owl Block will be Cecil, our Spectacled Owl, who contrives to look more handsome by the day!

Keeping Up with the Wider Picture

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to attend a meeting about the wider benefits of farming in the local area.  We receive a lot of support from local farmers, who often allow us to put up nest boxes on their land or to release rehabilitated wild raptors on their property, so General Manager Andy thought it would be useful and informative for an S.O.S representative to attend.

The evening was hosted by URSUS Consulting, on behalf of Sustainability East (a group including Government Office, Defra, Natural England, NFU & CLA) and as well as ourselves, there were representatives from the local ramblers association, local organic and conventional farmers, country land owners and parish councillors.

The discussion focussed on aspects of concern such as increasing levels of soil erosion and looked ahead to the future priorities in farming in particular relation to food production, irrigation, fuel, wildlife and pest control.

Some changes are already being made, for example Rape fields in the area are now being directly drilled rather than ploughed, which not only cuts the farmers’ fuel costs by 50%, but also means that the stubble from the harvested crop provides an abundance of food for the local wildlife. Current thinking suggests that the future will bring wetter winters and warmer summers, thus giving rise to the need for the conservation of water during the winter to enable effective irrigation during the summer.

Taking care of the countryside will make sure that released raptors - like this fully recuperated Barn Owl who left our charge last week - have a good (natural) home to go back to.

From our point of view, obviously all these factors have an impact on the local wildlife, including birds of prey, which generally speaking are at the top of the food chain.  This in turn helps focus the work we do here at the Sanctuary, especially with regard to the rehabilitation and release of wild raptors.  As it’s really important that we keep our finger on the pulse, it was very useful to be able to add our voice to what’s important to us locally and to take a hand in influencing emerging government policy.

Red Squirrel Residence

Since the advent of our new baby Red Squirrels back in June last year, head falconer Matt has been working on designs for a new enclosure.  With an increased colony size and the possibility of breeding more youngsters this year from unrelated pairs, it’s important that we have the requisite space so that we can manage the family groups appropriately.

Head Falconer Matt has been hard at it creating the foundations for a new Red Squirrel pen to house our expanding colony, some of which are donated to controlled wildlife release programmes in Wales

Red Squirrels are lively, inquisitive creatures and so it’s essential that they are encouraged to develop naturally and have the opportunity to demonstrate the behaviours that they would in the wild.  As with the original pen, the new enclosure will be especially high to encourage climbing, with bushes & branches, trees & logs for them to scamper around, much as there would be in a natural woodland environment.

Work has already begun and the footings have now been dug, so we’ll keep you posted with how things progress over the next few weeks.

Conservation, Creation & Biodiversity

Our woodland walk not only houses our Red Squirrels and chipmunks, but also a variety of other wildlife, including the many birds that regularly visit the feeders strategically placed outside the bird hide.  This is a good time of year for a tidy up and a bit of TLC, so Andy has been working hard doing just that.

Andy constructed a few dead hedges in our woodland walk, laying down the natural detritus to form a prospective home for all sorts of local insect wildlife

Over the last couple of weeks, using the natural wastage that occurs in the woodland, Andy has been creating new ‘hedging’ to adorn parts of the walkway.  This serves two purposes (apart from utilising rather than wasting natural resources) as it helps to provide an attractive feature and, more importantly, will help to encourage an even greater diversity of insect wildlife to make our woodland walk its habitat.  This in turn will hopefully encourage more birds to visit – perhaps even species we haven’t yet seen here before!

In addition to his hedging exploits, Andy has also been selectively coppicing, which is a traditional method of woodland management.  Trees naturally shed unnecessary branches in order to extend their lives, a procedure called ‘retrenchment’.  Coppicing mimics this natural process by taking advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. This exercise resets the ageing process and lengthens the life of the tree.

Andy coppiced the small woodland area at the Sanctuary to make way for fresh growth and more light

There are other benefits too from the careful coppicing of trees, which, as you would expect, provides areas of greater light intensity where other plants are then able to flourish.  This in turn opens up greater possibilities in terms of animal biodiversity, as many animals are dependent on plants other than the trees that grow in a woodland.

Remember to keep up with our blog for further developments at the Sanctuary and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  Better still, why not come and see for yourself? – we look forward to your visit!

The Heavy Mob

Undoubtedly, if you’ve read our blogs before, you’ll know that the Sanctuary is a bit like the Forth Railway Bridge, in constant need of repair, updating and sometimes good old fashioned replacement. Rain, snow, frost and the vigorous winds of Suffolk have all played their part in continually undermining the fabric of our substantially wooden structures, none moreso than one particular block of owl aviaries which - being on the edge of the wide open spaces of our flying ground - bear the brunt of our brisk nor' westerlies!

Being a charity, the tremendous support we receive from donors to help us maintain the centre in good order is vital and therefore we were very grateful last year to be given a donation specifically for restoring this particular suite of aviaries.

They were definitely beginning to look somewhat dilapidated and so, having planned, costed, drawn up the blueprints and sourced materials, Andy and the team began digging the footings.  The concrete arrived with perfect timing late in January, the whole 4m very kindly donated by Eastern Concrete, to whom we are once again indebted for their continued & generous support!

Many thanks go too, to our regular volunteer Pete Ruddy who generously donated his time to lay all the blocks for the aviaries’ foundations. 

The Heavy Mob (our benefactors Eastern Concrete) trucked in a weight 4m of the grey stuff which then all had to be barrowed in by hand

Andy feeds in the last of the concrete footings by hand - phew!

Our friend and faithful volunteer Pete had muscles on his muscles when he'd finished with the building blocks

Once the team had barrowed the concrete into the footings, Dean set about levelling it whilst the rest of the gang began proofing & painting wood in anticipation of the erection of all seven new aviaries, which should be completed in a few week's time, providing 5-star accommodation for all of our flying demonstration owls, including the newest member – Cecil the Spectacled Owl.

Oh, Lucky Man! One of the residents of the new Owl Block will be Cecil, our Spectacled Owl, who contrives to look more handsome by the day!

Keeping Up with the Wider Picture

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to attend a meeting about the wider benefits of farming in the local area.  We receive a lot of support from local farmers, who often allow us to put up nest boxes on their land or to release rehabilitated wild raptors on their property, so General Manager Andy thought it would be useful and informative for an S.O.S representative to attend.

The evening was hosted by URSUS Consulting, on behalf of Sustainability East (a group including Government Office, Defra, Natural England, NFU & CLA) and as well as ourselves, there were representatives from the local ramblers association, local organic and conventional farmers, country land owners and parish councillors.

The discussion focussed on aspects of concern such as increasing levels of soil erosion and looked ahead to the future priorities in farming in particular relation to food production, irrigation, fuel, wildlife and pest control.

Some changes are already being made, for example Rape fields in the area are now being directly drilled rather than ploughed, which not only cuts the farmers’ fuel costs by 50%, but also means that the stubble from the harvested crop provides an abundance of food for the local wildlife. Current thinking suggests that the future will bring wetter winters and warmer summers, thus giving rise to the need for the conservation of water during the winter to enable effective irrigation during the summer.

Taking care of the countryside will make sure that released raptors - like this fully recuperated Barn Owl who left our charge last week - have a good (natural) home to go back to.

From our point of view, obviously all these factors have an impact on the local wildlife, including birds of prey, which generally speaking are at the top of the food chain.  This in turn helps focus the work we do here at the Sanctuary, especially with regard to the rehabilitation and release of wild raptors.  As it’s really important that we keep our finger on the pulse, it was very useful to be able to add our voice to what’s important to us locally and to take a hand in influencing emerging government policy.

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A Year In Review

In our last blog, we were pleased to report on some very successful results from our hospital’s raptor rehabilitation program for 2010.  The year just gone was an eventful one in lots of ways and we thought it would be an idea to recapture one or two of its highlights.

The beginning of the year saw the completion of the new falconers’ huts, providing new, updated mews, food preparation room, weighing room, incubator room and general office.  Now, a year later and decked out with all the requisite falconery paraphernalia, they have seen us through blazing summer sun and wintry blasts and still look as good as new and are functioning well for the purposes intended.

Spring is always an exhilarating time, when the Sanctuary starts to come back to life. There’s definitely a buzz in the air as the flying display team birds are reclaimed, ready for the summer season and preparations are made for the new catalogue of events. We're a couple of weeks off from that for this year, but it won't be long before that feeling of anticipation returns to the Sanctuary.

Finding his wings - our spectacular spectacled owl (sorry) is getting to grips with flying free

We had an exciting program of events in 2010, beginning with our popular Mother’s Day photo-sessions in March and an Easter week full of events for visitors, the young ones in particular.  All through July and the summer holidays, we ran our ‘Summer Sunday Specials’, including the Funforce Crew teaching circus tricks like hula-hooping, tightrope walking, plate spinning and limbo dancing.  We also had brilliant Bouncy Castle Days, face painting and lots of good old fashioned fun with Punch and Judy - all providing some additional entertainment for the families who who made a day of it in the company of our owls and other fascinating birds of prey.

Undoubtedly our most popular and remarkable extra attraction, however, was Jenny’s Ark Pet Zoo, who set up camp with us periodically through the holidays.  Jenny has an astonishing array of animals, everything from giant millipedes, to inquisitive goats and even our youngest visitors can’t resist the chance to hold a slithering boa or feed the ever-ravenous rare sheep.  Our older visitors are also by no means immune to the draw of the wild and who doesn’t like a quiet cuddle with a cute, fluffy bunny?  We have had many enquiries about Jenny’s Ark since her last visit back in August and are pleased to announce that she and her entourage are once again firmly on our list of events for this year!

Jenny of Jenny's Ark Pet Zoo with one of her closest friends...

Of course, no summer visit to the Sanctuary would be complete without the superb flying displays, where visitors have the chance to see some of the world’s most stunning birds of prey stretch their wings as they swoop, stoop, glide & soar in the skies over Stonham. Displays begin on April the 9th this year, but visitors can also see the falconers exercising the birds daily as they up their fitness levels during the next couple of months.

Pleased to Meet You (1) The two Red Kite chicks born at the centre early last year...

Pleased to Meet You (2) Andy and one of the youngsters a little later in the year - "My, how you've grown!"

We also attended a number of outshows last year, which gave us a great opportunity to tell people about the Sanctuary and its work and to hand out information about the importance of raptor conservation.  Many people have never seen a bird of prey up close and we tend to spend most of a day out answering questions and posing for pictures.  (Not us of course, just the superb birds in our charge!)

Our education team worked hard to update the education package last yar and the response by teachers and children was really positive and enthusiastic.  Our new teacher pack was also very well received, providing lots of fun and informative activities for kids and plenty of information for teachers. (there can be downloaded from this website - see here for details.

A Year In Review

In our last blog, we were pleased to report on some very successful results from our hospital’s raptor rehabilitation program for 2010.  The year just gone was an eventful one in lots of ways and we thought it would be an idea to recapture one or two of its highlights.

The beginning of the year saw the completion of the new falconers’ huts, providing new, updated mews, food preparation room, weighing room, incubator room and general office.  Now, a year later and decked out with all the requisite falconery paraphernalia, they have seen us through blazing summer sun and wintry blasts and still look as good as new and are functioning well for the purposes intended.

Spring is always an exhilarating time, when the Sanctuary starts to come back to life. There’s definitely a buzz in the air as the flying display team birds are reclaimed, ready for the summer season and preparations are made for the new catalogue of events. We're a couple of weeks off from that for this year, but it won't be long before that feeling of anticipation returns to the Sanctuary.

Finding his wings - our spectacular spectacled owl (sorry) is getting to grips with flying free

We had an exciting program of events in 2010, beginning with our popular Mother’s Day photo-sessions in March and an Easter week full of events for visitors, the young ones in particular.  All through July and the summer holidays, we ran our ‘Summer Sunday Specials’, including the Funforce Crew teaching circus tricks like hula-hooping, tightrope walking, plate spinning and limbo dancing.  We also had brilliant Bouncy Castle Days, face painting and lots of good old fashioned fun with Punch and Judy - all providing some additional entertainment for the families who who made a day of it in the company of our owls and other fascinating birds of prey.

Undoubtedly our most popular and remarkable extra attraction, however, was Jenny’s Ark Pet Zoo, who set up camp with us periodically through the holidays.  Jenny has an astonishing array of animals, everything from giant millipedes, to inquisitive goats and even our youngest visitors can’t resist the chance to hold a slithering boa or feed the ever-ravenous rare sheep.  Our older visitors are also by no means immune to the draw of the wild and who doesn’t like a quiet cuddle with a cute, fluffy bunny?  We have had many enquiries about Jenny’s Ark since her last visit back in August and are pleased to announce that she and her entourage are once again firmly on our list of events for this year!

Jenny of Jenny's Ark Pet Zoo with one of her closest friends...

Of course, no summer visit to the Sanctuary would be complete without the superb flying displays, where visitors have the chance to see some of the world’s most stunning birds of prey stretch their wings as they swoop, stoop, glide & soar in the skies over Stonham. Displays begin on April the 9th this year, but visitors can also see the falconers exercising the birds daily as they up their fitness levels during the next couple of months.

Pleased to Meet You (1) The two Red Kite chicks born at the centre
early last year...

Pleased to Meet You (2) Andy and one of the youngsters a little later in the year - "My, how you've grown!"

We also attended a number of outshows last year, which gave us a great opportunity to tell people about the Sanctuary and its work and to hand out information about the importance of raptor conservation.  Many people have never seen a bird of prey up close and we tend to spend most of a day out answering questions and posing for pictures.  (Not us of course, just the superb birds in our charge!)

Our education team worked hard to update the education package last yar and the response by teachers and children was really positive and enthusiastic.  Our new teacher pack was also very well received, providing lots of fun and informative activities for kids and plenty of information for teachers. (there can be downloaded from this website - see here for details.

Of the five Red Squirrels born at Stonham last year, two have already been released into the wild as part of the Anglesey Red Squirrel Project

Last, but certainly not least, we had two major surprises last year, which were incredible firsts for the Sanctuary.  One was the arrival of five rumbustuous red squirrels, progeny of a resident pair who form the basis of our breeding colony and two of which have now been released to the organised Red Squirrel release programme on Anglesey: it’s fantastic to be a part of such an important conservation schemes.  Then came the production of our two striking and distinctive Red Kite chicks by their long-time-resident parents, all the more exciting because of their rarity in this particular area. Both are both doing well and will make a special addition to the flying display team as they add to the diversity of raptors demonstrating their individual characteristics and capabilities during these shows.

Ladies who munch - one of Jenny's goats during a popular visit to the Centre during the Summer Holidays

Now we look forward to the year ahead but if you too would like to reflect on times past at S.O.S., all of our previous blogs can be found, year by year, on this website.  The links are situated just below the main page listing. But try nd pay us a visit this year - we look forward to seeing you!

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A belated Happy New Year!

Hi there! Welcome to the S.O.S. Blog for 2011 as we close one year and look forward to new challenges ahead.

We'd like to start by wishing all our supporters, visitors and donors a belated but heartfelt Happy New Year - your help is greatly appreciated and we hope that you will continue to offer your support in the months ahead.

We'd also like to say an extra-special thanks to the un-sung heroes of S.O.S. - the group of loyal volunteers who come into the Sanctuary fair weather and foul to help out with the many necessary repetitious and often grubby jobs around the Centre which enable us to maintain a clean and healthy environment for the birds in our charge.

Without our volunteer brigade, not only would our life be a lot more difficult but our very existence a lot more tenuous, man- and women-power being one of the more costly resources required to keep the place functioning efficiently & effectively. These guys turn up regularly, often more than once a week, to assist in cleaning aviaries, feeding round and lending a helping hand with some of the arduous building & repair jobs, so we'd like to give them a special mention in acknowledgement of their invaluable contribution to S.O.S (in no particular order!):

* Steve *
* Paul *
* Pete *
* Simon *
* Darren *
* Doug *
* Sarah *
* Lynn *
* Allen *

and our two current work-placement helpers from Otley College, the two Katherines & Catherine. Confused? We often are...:-)

We hope - indeed we know - our volunteers enjoy their time in the company of our magnificent birds, and although this is small reward for all the time they put in, we hope it continues to provide sufficient recompense for all their hard work. Thank you.

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2010 Raptor Rehab Results

Although the Sanctuary's raptor hospital generally ticks along quietly behind the scenes, it's an aspect of our operations which has a hugely important role to play and, as always, was kept busy throughout last year.

However we're particularly pleased about the recovery of the birds brought into us last year, of which we were able to release a higher than normal rate successfully back to the wild - all told, during 2010 our falconers attended to 77 sick or injured wild birds of prey brought into to the Sanctuary, of which 48% were re-released. 

This undernourished Kestrel was collected from a local farm a few days into last December's cold snap, when it had been unable to find food because of the deep snow cover.

The biggest cause of wild raptor injury by far - certainly in this area - stems from Road Traffic Accidents and over half of those brought to the Sanctuary year were victims of these RTA’s.

Many of the other birds brought to the Centre have been found in gardens or fields, either suffering from starvation or quite often - especially in the case of Sparrowhawks - having been stunned by flying into a window. Among the other hazards out there awaiting the unsuspecting raptor are getting caught in netting or barbed wire, all sorts of other perilous obstacles such as trains, chimneys & electric pylons - and on one memorable occasion, Sellotape!

This bedraggled Tawny Owl had fallen down a disused chimney - hence the wretched, muddy appearance - and was given a very careful wash-and-brush-up to remove the grime from its plumage

The majority of birds brought into the hospital last year were Tawny Owls and Little Owls, but the number of Barn Owls and Kestrels also exceeded double figures, in addition to nine Sparrowhawks and one Buzzard.

From the total number of raptors brought to the Sanctuary in 2010, the falconers were able to treat, rehabilitate and release nearly half of them, a fantastic result in this context. This is also an opportune moment for us to extend our thanks to the Stowe Veterinary Group, who have been brilliant once again with all the help and assistance they have given us throughout the last year in this and other regards.

Although not listed as injured in our Register, around May time we tend to have a higher proportion of nestlings or youngsters brought in, particularly if they have fallen out of the nest and are looking abandoned!  

An important stage of re-release for wild birds that have been in our care for a while is the 'hack-back' - a process whereby we continue to provide food for the released bird in a secure location, so that it can feed as it recovers its bearings and natural hunting instincts in the wild