Owls sit still most of the time. Not so their human carers. For us, life is never dull and always busy.
Our amazing collection of birds of prey has been growing rapidly. It now includes 45 owls, ranging from European Eagle owls to South American Pygmy owls, Harris Hawks, a Tawny Frogmouth and, of course, Sheila our very noisy Kookaburra loved by everyone for her crazy ‘laugh’ !
As you can imagine, housing everyone presents a challenge! We built additional aviaries.
But last winter an unexpected solution was also found by two of our owls! An interconnecting door between their two aviaries blew open during a storm one night. Next morning, we found the two cosied up together in one aviary. We left the repaired door open in case they preferred the single life but they decided sharing was the way to go and so we have left them together.
At the same time as this happened, we were asked to provide a home for a Barn owl. He took up residence in the vacant aviary and settled in well. Maybe we should allow the owls to decide their own living arrangements in future!
Our work rehabilitating injured wild birds continues. Owls, buzzards, sparrowhawks and even a duck have all been brought to us for some TLC and maybe a visit to our vet to be checked over. Sadly, not all our ‘patients’ survive but the vast majority, once recovered, are released back into the wild in the area where they were found.
We are, of course, always grateful for your continuing support by way of donations and adoptions. (https://www.theowlstrust.org/adopt-an-owl) This year we were also very lucky to receive a generous sum from the Local Community Fund of the Co-operative Group which will enable us to start work on some exciting projects. We were even luckier to learn that we will continue to benefit from this Fund.
In addition we are also supported by Zimbolics. They are a company who offer a range of bird and wildlife sculptures made from recycled and reclaimed metal. A donation is made to the Owls Trust for every one of their owl sculptures sold. https://www.zimbolic.co.uk/special-offers/owl
For those of you not able to visit us, it is hard to visualise exactly what the sanctuary looks like. Here’s a couple of photos of where our owls live
And we’re not sure that they appreciate the amazing view they have from their aviaries! We certainly do!
SEVEN ASHY FACED OWLS BRED IN THE DR
