Quite a productive day today. I started out early by catching up the Long-eared Owls and our Short-eared Owl that shares an aviary with them. Once they were safely tucked away somewhere quiet I began to try out some of the branches collected recently to make new perches. I had aimed to get this pen done today as the new trees would be arriving and planted in there too. I later discovered that the trees are delayed until Friday. Oops. Oh well, I got two new perches planned anyway and got one perch put up with the help of Stuart, our first university student on placement with us.
Stuart will be picking an owl related subject for a project to write a report on for his degree in zoology, and we offered a few suggestions for him to ponder.
He was a great help to me today as we collected more branches from out around Polkemmet Country Park and took them back to the Rainforest Realm. These aviaries are still empty, but the building work on the roof of this tropical zone is coming along nicely. It would be great to have all the perches and nestboxes in these aviaries done by the same time the roof is finished. Well between us today Stuart and I kitted out the aviary that will house the two Black-banded Owls, and finished off the Boobook Owl pen too. I’m really happy with the branches chosen for this pen as they are all really twisted in strange shapes. They make quite a different and otherworldly theme for the Australian birds compared with the South American, Asian and African aviaries.
Speaking of strange birds, we picked out another odd looking branch to go in the aviary that will be home to Woody, our Tawny Frogmouth. He has been settling down a little more each day this week, and today was often seen looking relaxed rather than in ‘twig mode’, all skinny and hoping people won’t notice him. It will be good to move him into his proper aviary and see how he settles there. I think a few days in there with more to look at will do him good, and he will have a lot to look at with the owls in aviaries all around him!
Right, I’m signing off so til tomorrow, gnite all!
