Hot Hot Hot

Well summer finally arrived with style. The BBC news tonight is saying that Scotland had the hottest places in the UK today and I can believe it. We had at least 22 degrees Celsius here but I think I can almost guarantee that the hottest place in the UK today was inside our Rainforest Realm!

Before I go further I must mention that I am still having difficulties with my blog service. Maybe I keep trying to log on when everyone else is hammering the server, but for whatever reason when I try to log in I get a message saying the site is unavailable. To get around this problem we are in the process of upgrading our official website, and my blog will be incorporated into that. Along with more powerful software for me to write my blog in we have a dedicated server just for our site, so I won’t have to compete with the many members that WordPress boasts. We aim to get this new service up and running in time for the Scottish Owl Centre’s official launch date in June – more on this when I have more info.

Back to the news and weather desk.

Two days of sunshine here in West Lothian has been very nice, with today hotter than yesterday. The owls have been making the most of the heat and many have been seen sunbathing in their aviaries. Some seek out the perch in the sun, others get down onto the floor and spread their wings to squeeze out every last drop of feather strengthening vitamin D. Not all of them love the heat though, most obviously the Snowy Owls. A bit of sun is okay but the temperature was just a bit much for them today. They sought out shade and shelter behind the big rocks in one half of their aviary. They are able to find some shade at either end depending on where the sun is in the sky during the day, and they have water to drink and keep them cool too.

This was one of the priority jobs for myself and the volunteer keepers today. We regularly checked that the water dishes had water in them, and those in which it had evaporated were topped up. I think our Spectacled Owls, Ural Owls and Tiger in our trained display team were very grateful of this as they all took the opportunity to bathe and cool down. Tiger bathed right before it was her turn to perform in the afternoon show! Normally this would mean the bird would be too waterlogged to fly but Tiger flew just fine. When Sarabi the Milky Eagle Owl flew she seemed to have her own hot wind preceding and following her slow and steady wing beats. It was quite the experience and reminded me of the hot sirocco winds of Southern Europe and Africa.

We’ve had some more disappointments from our breeding birds. Our Brown Wood Owl female was seen out of the nestbox one afternoon and was still off the next morning. I checked the box to find a single egg, stone cold and abandoned. Removing the egg and leaving the aviary I later checked inside and was dismayed to find an owlet in there. One theory I have is that the owlet formed well up to a point where the weather was particularly cold – we had a few minutes of snow even last week remember – and even in the warmer environment of the Rainforest Realm it would have been cold. This female has not had any luck in breeding in the past, having panicked during her first attempt and killed the owlet. This dead owlet today was particularly disappointing for us as this season is proving pretty awful so far.

To add to this, today I checked the African Wood Owls in the aviary opposite the Brown Wood Owls. Their eggs were due to hatch the day before the Brown Wood’s so were also a couple of weeks overdue now. I found broken eggshell beneath the box but inside I found the female still sitting on a single egg. This far overdue it looks like this is another infertile egg.

Tomorrow I will check on the African Spotted Eagle Owls as they too were due to hatch their three eggs around the same date as the Wood Owl pairs. I can’t help feeling there are more infertile eggs in that box too.

Oh well. Such is the way of things when working with breeding programmes for birds or any animal. We still have other owls on eggs and I’m thinking that our Tengmalm’s Owl and Burrowing Owl females may have laid eggs this week. Our Mottled Owls and Ashy Faced Owls are coming up to their estimated hatch dates in the next few days. The year isn’t over yet and neither is the breeding season – after all, the weather just improved! Our fingers remain crossed.

On a brighter note; Sam the American Barn Owl is doing fine. The six week old owlet seems to have a smaller appetite lately, but I remember the last Barn Owl I helped hand rear going through a similar phase. Up to now all the effort has gone into growing big and tall, now things slow down a little and the work goes into growing feathers – so not as much food is needed I guess. We still take Sam out into the displays each day and each day the owlet is walking a little more, either for food offered or to go over to the nearest humans to investigate their footwear. Sam seems to be going through that phase that all children go through where feet are the most interesting things in the whole world! It is quite comical to see this young creature look at human feet or shoes then look down at its own feet and back again. In a time of disappointments from the breeding birds it is good to have this little one around to lift the spirits.  :)

Sam had a first experience of being in an aviary this afternoon, as I put the owlet in one of our empty places for half an hour just to let the owlet get used to it. The ‘Prep’ room has been awfully hot these last two days and I decided that the owlet would fare better outside. At least in the aviary there is shade and a refreshing breeze. The little owl took it all in with ease. This aviary will be Sams home once old enough, and is right next to the entrance to the Rainforest Realm, so plenty of people will get to see him/her.

I’ll leave you tonight with a pic of Sam in the aviary. Signing off, see you next time, gnite!

 

Snoring

I haven’t been able to log into WordPress for the last few days, so apologies for the lack of blog entries. It isn’t the first time I’ve had problems with the site and I envision moving to a different host at some point. For now it appears I’m here.

We have been continuing to experience an overabundance of eggs in the collection this week, it seems to be the theme for the year. Well, except in the case of the Tropical Screech Owls who seem to have ‘lost’ their three eggs at some point. It isn’t unusual for a female to eat eggshell to get the calcium back into her system so I assume her eggs were infertile and she did some recycling of materials. It’s a shame but at least she laid some eggs to begin with. Maybe next year, with no disruption from moving home and the noise of a building site, they will have fertile eggs.

So like I say, an overabundance of eggs; we discovered on Thursday that our two female Ferruginous Pygmy Owls had six eggs between them, both sat in the same little nestbox. If only we had a male! We have the same situation with our Tawny Owls of course, with both girls sitting faithfully on four eggs each, squashed together in a nestbox built for one.

Our lone Southern Boobook Owl laid a second egg on Thursday, discarding it on the woodchip floor of her aviary. A more positive discovery was that our Little Owls are definitely nesting now, with the female sitting on five eggs. At least there is a pair of them, although they are unproven when it comes to breeding, so we can at least cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Even Oulu, our trained Great Grey Owl laid an egg yesterday! She’s been flying most days in our displays too! She has been heavier and in the mornings I have seen broody nesting behaviour from her, so I’m not so surprised that she is in condition and ready to breed. We will not fly her in shows now until we are sure she is not carrying any more eggs inside her. If she was, and they broke inside her, she could die of a condition known as egg peritonitis. Her egg, at this time of the year, has given me unexpected renewed hope that there may still be a breeding attempt from our pair of Great Greys in the collection.

At least all these eggs show that we have a lot of very healthy female owls in our collection.

I suppose if we were to look on the positive and hopeful side, there could still be time for a late breeding season this year. If we had a warm June through to late September that would give plenty of time for our owls to court, mate, incubate and raise owlets before winter comes. I don’t like looking on the gloomy side of things, and it has been disheartening lately seeing birds like our Northern Hawk Owls and Ural Owls breeding attempts result in infertile eggs. All we need is a good period of good weather…

Over in our display arena we have continued to train the smallest member of our team – smallest but not youngest. Poncho the Tropical Screech Owl has been flying really well these last few days. I still find it odd to see such a small owl flying around the arena but he acts like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Once he reached his ideal weight – just 100 grams! – and sat on the glove for half an hour or so, he figured it all out really quickly. Quicker than some of our larger owls!

Our youngest member of the team is doing well too. Sam the American Barn Owl already towers over little Poncho at just six weeks old. The owlet has been appearing in the displays this week and has begun to walk around, exploring. He or she (we won’t know which for at least another month or more) has been amusing us all with behaviour none of us have seen in an owlet before – snoring! The owlet seems to like standing with it’s chin resting on or against the top of the box and go to sleep. Then after a few minutes it begins to squeak. When I first heard it I thought there was something wrong with it, but it’s just sleeping! Maybe dreaming of mice?

Well I’ll sign off and get some sleep myself I think. No dreaming of mice though I hope! ‘Til next time then, gnite!

School Daze

We had our second school visit to the Scottish Owl Centre today. Getting the word out about the centre as an educational resource has been a high priority since opening day. Our first school visit was a few weeks ago and went so well I was really looking forward to the next one. Now we have two this week and more bookings are coming in daily.

Well to cut to the chase today’s visit went great. The school had travelled all the way from Edinburgh, and after an essential pit stop to the Park play area they came through to our flying display arena.

Our arena has enough seats for over two hundred people, so plenty of room for a school group and any day visitors that may wish to come along for the show too. We can theme our flying displays to whatever a school may want as they cover many topics in the school curriculum, and if a school is studying a particular topic in class then we can tailor our material to suit.

Today we started out with our baby, Sam the American Barn Owl. The children always love seeing a fluffy baby but it’s a great opportunity to learn about the life of an owl in the wild, how they live, nest, incubate and hatch the eggs, rear owlets, how long it takes for the owlets to grow up, when they get their feathers, how they learn to fly, how they learn to feed… all with a living (squeaking!) model there in front of them.

Next I flew Lofty, a three year old Barn Owl of the type you find out and around the UK, and in particular for these children, Scotland. The children here today had been reading ‘The owl who was afraid of the dark’ in class, so as I flew Lofty I asked them questions about the owls, to see what they had learned and remembered. Lofty himself was in a funny mood today, distracted by the strange pops and crackles coming from our speaker system today. We hope to have the problem fixed tomorrow but today it was a distraction we didn’t need. Having said that Lofty flew really well, choosing to fly lap after lap around the arena before landing on a perch at random. He didn’t go where I wanted him to go and when I wanted him to, but he looked fantastic all the same! I like to ask the group questions as I fly the birds, and enjoy seeing them think about what they are learning during the shows. My talk wasn’t quite as flowing or ordered as I’d like but it’ll get better each time.

After Lofty came Broo the Eurasian Eagle Owl. If Lofty flew well, floating round and round like a big white moth, well Broo had the children laughing and squealing all at once as she charged about over their heads and from one end of the arena to the other. It’s always spectacular to see the largest species of owl fly so close and Broo puts on a great show.

After the display I took the group on a ‘Walk to the North Pole’ guided tour. It was more of a whistle stop tour as the kids hadn’t had lunch. We ended up at the Snowy Owls of course, and of course they were a big hit.

The rest of the day was quiet in comparison, but with more odd weather that was understandable too. Sunshine and snow are not expected companions for May, but as long as there is more of the sunshine than of the snow it’s not all bad. Prince and Sarabi flew in the afternoon flying display, and Sam made another appearance in the arena, this time taking a few more steps to investigate the nearest bench. Between myself and volunteers Karen and Mhairi we set out a ‘feed tag’ system around the centre this afternoon too. This will help new staff and volunteers know what food to put in each pen each day. Eventually it all becomes clear and the tags won’t be needed but to start out it can be bewildering trying to remember what to put into over sixty aviaries!

Well I think it’s time I went about finding some food for myself, so I’ll sign off and see you next time. ‘Til then, gnite!

A hop, a flap and a hoot

It’s been a good day to see progress from our owlets at the Scottish Owl Centre today.

Sam our five week old American Barn Owl made two more appearances at our ‘flying’ displays, to the delight of our audiences once more. Once s/he has been paraded for all to see close up, Sam is gently lifted out of the box and placed on the floor of the display arena. In the centre of the room, and centre of attention, the owlet is showing a growing skill for standing up and taking a few shaky steps. Last night in my living room I was astonished to find the owlet stood on the living room carpet looking very pleased with itself, having climbed through the hole at the front of the cardboard box! Each day now we will see a few more steps, then with growing confidence the young owl will be wandering around and exploring all over.

Out in the centre, the two Great Horned Owlets have made it through another night of awful weather. Wind and heavy rain persisted through most of yesterday and the night too. I was pleased to see both sunshine and healthy fluffy owlets this morning. Today the pair were doing their own exploring around their aviaries. By feeding time one was perched on the tree stump below their parents perch, and the second owlet stood on one of the rocks in the centre of the pen. As we stood admiring the owlet it launched into the air and flapped frantically. The flight was less than graceful but made it all the way across the pen to land, if land is the right word, on the tree stump with it’s sibling. There was a bit of a scramble as both owlets tried to balance and not fall off but they just about managed it. I made one last tour around the centre as I finished my day and passed by their aviary for another look. If I was surprised by that first flight you can imagine my delight as I saw one owlet perched high up with one of the parents! They sure are growing, and now they can start to fly they will be very entertaining to watch in their explorations! I hope they put on a good show for the school group visiting the centre tomorrow!

An update on our new African Spotted Eagle Owl. Having arrived the day before yesterday, she has settled in very well indeed. In her first night she ate three chicks, and three again the second night. Today I hooted at her and she responded. Now as each member of staff or volunteers goes past her we hoot and have a good ‘conversation’ with her. This afternoon we heard our male African Spotted, one of the pair along the African Avenue, joining in the hooting, then the male Siberian Eagle Owl joined in too! It’s nice to see not only that the new bird has settled okay, but that she has others to talk to (as well as the staff!)

Okay that’s it for today so until next time, gnite!

Dawn Chorus with a difference

This morning I found myself awake at 4 a.m. and unable to get back to sleep (that’s what I get for sleeping so much in my time off!). Lying in bed I enjoyed listening to one of the great wonders of the natural world; the Dawn Chorus – with a typically Scottish Owl Centre twist.

Living next door to a collection of over eighty owls I do hear the occasional hoot in the night, but not all owls are night time birds. At 4 a.m. though it was a Robin that I heard singing first, then to be accompanied by a ‘beep beep beep beep beep beep beep’ from our Pearl Spotted Owlet. It made a strange counterpoint to the melody of the classic sound of the British countryside, this tiny African owl and the song of the Robin.

After a while the owl was replaced by a Swallow singing from outside my bedroom window, then a Blackcap from the other side of the house. These two birds have recently returned on migration from their wintering grounds, and a very welcome return it is too. The Swallows must find their return to Polkemmet Country Park a bit of a strange experience this year, as the place they nested last year is quite a bit different now.

The Scottish Owl Centre, newly relocated from Campbelltown in Kintyre, is housed within the old Walled Garden that once belonged to a great mansion house. The mansion is long demolished, but in recent years the Walled Garden has been used for storage for council equipment and assorted materials. Among the assortment of sheds and garages the Swallows made their homes annually, raised their young, then left them for warmer climes and a food supply in winter.

For the first day or two since returning this year the birds sat on the power lines and took some time getting used to the new scene. Gone are the places they nested, replaced now by aviaries full of owls and other new constructions. Ever resourceful, the Swallows are simply inspecting the facilities and picking out new nest sites among our Education zone and wild bird hide. There’s even a Pied Wagtail trying to nest in the chute in the children’s climbing frame! Good luck to that one!

So, as I start my day and wonder what kind of weather we will be subjected to today I will leave you with this question; when did you last listen to the dawn chorus?

Laters all.

Cold day in the sun

Well one thing you will never be when it comes to Scottish weather is bored. No two days the same. After the rain, today was lovely and sunny. That sun was hardly cracking the flags but it was very welcome all the same.

The sun had dried out our Great Horned Owlets too, making them look more like the fluffy toy owls sold in the shop than real ‘in the feather’ owls. I enjoy watching them explore their aviary, and as I did the ‘food run’ at the end of the day one of them was walking around while the other was climbing up onto a tree stump beneath the parent’s favourite perch. It’s a nice stage in their life as they are so inquisitive.

There has been no more sign of new hatchings around the centre, with the African Wood, Brown Wood, and African Spotted Eagle Owls all in their estimated period for hatching. I don’t blame the female owls for sitting tight on their nests though, with such changeable weather we’ve been having. Any owlets would need protecting from the elements, especially when so small. All we can do is hope for the best and put a little extra food in every day.

We had a new owl arrive today, hopefully to join our flying team. A friend of mine, Amy, needed to find a good home for her African Spotted Eagle Owl and asked if we could take the bird in. I met Amy when she did a placement at the World Owl Trust, where I worked as a keeper. Because she knew how I worked and looked after the birds, Amy knew that I would look after ‘Bramble’ well, as will all of us at the centre. After a little while to settle into her new home we will spend some time with the owl and get her used to being around us, then see if she will sit on a gloved hand, and so on. Sometimes owls moving to new homes can take a while to settle, but within a few minutes of stepping out of the travel box and into the newly prepared aviary Bramble was perched and standing on one leg – a sign that the bird is relaxed and comfortable. She hooted her farewells to Amy but they will meet again soon. Amy is very welcome to come and visit Bramble any time.

I rounded off my half day today with something a little different. There has been one last member of the established flying display team to join the ranks flying in the new centre, but he has finally reached his ‘flying weight’ and is ready for training. Poncho is the smallest trained owl I have ever seen – a Tropical Screech Owl – and prior to coming to work at the Scottish Owl Centre I would scarcely have believed such a wee thing could be trained. Poncho has always regarded me with suspicion since I moved here, eyeing me from the corner of his aviary and not budging. Now he flies to the front of his pen and to the glove quite readily – ‘food is the great motivator in life’ as we used to say in shows. For the last few days we have taken turns in encouraging Poncho to make short hops and flights to the glove within the aviary or ‘prep room’. Today I waited until closing time and took the step to enter the arena with him. I was surprised but he flew really well! He didn’t fly the full length but several halves were plenty. It is strange to see such a small owl flying in an arena but fascinating too. We’ll keep working with him each day to continue the training, then eventually he will be ready to meet the public!

Okay time to sign off. Til tomorrow, gnite!

Dreich and Drookit

It’s been a very wet day today, hence the title (wet, dismal and drenched). Light rain that lasted all day meant a quiet day as far as visitors goes but there are always things to do when looking after a collection of over eighty owls.

Since my last blog I checked on a couple of the nest boxes to see what was going on. Firstly I found that the Tropical Screech Owls still have three eggs. I had estimated they were due to hatch anytime in the week from the 3^rd of the month. That’s only a guess though as I don’t know exactly when the first egg was laid. There is still time for them to hatch so fingers remain crossed. Secondly, I checked the Little Owls as there has only been one out in the aviary for a few days now. I found that the female was sitting tight on an egg. This species lays between 3 – 6 eggs usually a couple of days apart, so I may have interrupted her. Thankfully she was sitting so tight that she didn’t even get up and leave the nest box while I peeked through the inspection hatch in the side. They are secretive little things these Little Owls so it is good to know that she isn’t just hiding away whenever someone passes by, but is actually laying eggs.

Today was the date I roughly estimated for the hatching of the African Wood Owls over in the Rainforest Realm exhibit. In the pen opposite, the Brown Wood Owls are also due to hatch eggs from tomorrow. Also tomorrow, the African Spotted Eagle Owls may hatch. All guesswork again, and any or all of them could hatch anytime in the next week or so, hopefully.

The word on the grapevine says that owl breeders around the UK are finding a lot of infertile eggs, or single owlets instead of large broods. Most are putting this down to a late cold snap. As we had a brief burst of snow here in West Lothian just a few days ago I have to wonder just how late this cold snap here is going to last!

The owlets we do have this year; two Great Horned Owls, have had a very damp day indeed. Having been out of the nest a couple of days this is their first experience of rainfall, and they didn’t really know what to do. Instead of seeking shelter in the corners of the pen they have remained sitting on the rocks in the centre of the aviary. The rain has caused something of a dramatic transformation of these owlets. Yesterday they were round fluffy balls of down feather, today they look much more grown up despite being so wet. The down is still there, but yesterday it was covering the growing adult feathers. Now the down is wet those feathers show through.

I was quite worried about the owlets and how wet they would get, but going in the pen to move them wasn’t much of an option. If we went inside that aviary the parents would most definitely attack! They have a reputation for being the most aggressive owls in the world, and it’s a reputation well earned! The owlets are big now and in the wild would have a high chance of experiencing just this sort of weather when leaving the nest. Other than their head feathers looking soaked they looked pretty good. Those adult feathers are more water resistant than the fluffy down. We’ll keep an eye on them.

Despite the rain we still had a productive day. A group from West Lothian Council came along to discuss how they could help with marketing, and working on a national press release announcing the opening of the new site of the Scottish Owl Centre. We put on a flying display in our indoor arena – no fear of rain stopping our shows! – and our newest member of the display team made an appearance again. ‘Sam’ the American Barn Owl, at just five weeks old, is getting more steady on his or her long legs every day. Today those legs took the owlet for it’s very first walk about the arena. Not very far admittedly but you have to take these things literally one step at a time!

We also had some useful bird handling practice, with further training for new keeper Lauren, and volunteers Steph and Kirsty.  Lauren flew Kenya the White Faced Owl in the arena, and she did really well for her first time. We discovered that Poncho, our trained Tropical Screech Owl, is now at his ideal flying weight. Curious as to whether he would remember what to do in order to get food, Kirsty offered a piece of chicken on a glove about a foot from the scales where he perched. With no hesitation he jumped over and ate the food. He repeated this a few times and seemed pretty happy to sit on the glove. He is the last of the team from the original Scottish Owl Centre to reach this stage of training, and from here we can see about introducing him to the flying arena. It will be interesting to see how he does, interesting and fun!

Well I’ll have to wait to see that another day as I’m on my day off tomorrow. I’ll be back in on Saturday so will bring you another blog update. ‘Til then, good night!