Smells Like Surgical Spirit

Quite an odd day at the Scottish Owl Centre today. Well, it’s not every day you take an adult male Snowy Owl to the local vets to have laser surgery (thankfully).

We’ve been monitoring the bird since the beginning of the year, and those who have followed this blog since January may remember the first time we called out the vet it was to look at the large swelling on the owl’s left wing. The diagnosis then was that this was a benign lump of fatty tissue, a xanthoma, and that the bird was not affected by its presence. In the last few weeks we have seen it become more prominent, possibly due to the hot weather. The bird was caught up at the weekend when we had a spot inspection by animal welfare inspectors and the decision was made to seek veterinary advice once again. (More on that inspection later).

Our local veterinary practice is very modern and well equipped and this morning a surgical laser was used to cut the lump off. The male Snowy is quite a calm bird once in the hand and so the vet decided that a local anaesthetic would be the best choice for the procedure. Once the area was frozen we all had to don protective goggles as the vet used the surgical laser to cut the tissue away. I won’t go into more gory detail but it was quite fascinating to observe. As fascinated as I was, after 45 minutes of this I was beginning to feel a bit hot and stuffy. I was wrapped up in four layers this morning, including waterproofs for the heavy rain, plus my ‘summer cold’ meant I could barely breathe. I thought I just needed to cool down but when the vet suggested I step outside for a moment I suddenly felt a bit wobbly! The cool air hit me and for one of the first times in my life I felt faint! I had to sit out the rest of the operation and hand over to Rod to handle the owl. Another 45 minutes later and the procedure was all done. I was disappointed not to have seen the whole thing through as I wasn’t squeamish about any of it, just overheated. The main thing though was that the Snowy Owl was sat up in his carry box looking a bit indignant about what had been done to him, but otherwise looked okay.

The prognosis from the vet was good. The lump had been an abscess and was removed quite easily. He felt that the bird could be observed for an hour or so then released into its aviary. Erring on caution we decided to keep the owl indoors overnight and see how it fares.

After a breath of fresh air and a trip back to the owl centre I was feeling more myself, a ‘medicinal’ ice cream later, and I felt fine – like I’d been the patient all along! Oh dear, never mind!

Back in the centre we did some checking on the nesting birds this afternoon. A few disappointments, a couple of surprises, some good news.

Our Little Owl female is still incubating 5 eggs, but they’re a little overdue now. The Mottled Owl has given up and thrown out a single infertile egg. The African Wood Owl had done the same. The White Faced Owl has thrown out an egg with a fully grown owlet inside but is still sitting on two eggs – fingers crossed one is fertile and she doesn’t throw it out too. Not a good start…

Better news came from the Tropical Screech Owl nestbox. I’d noted that the female hadn’t come out of the box since her last infertile eggs were removed, checking today we found she has ‘recycled’ and laid 3 more eggs. Fingers crossed that this clutch are fertile! One of our two female Ferruginous Pygmy Owls has laid another 3 eggs too, making 9 between the two girls – we need to get a male this year!

Best news still came from the Ashy Faced Owls, who are feeding at least one owlet! I got a glimpse of a small grey-white head yesterday while investigating owlet noises. Today we didn’t go in to look but watched as the male took all of the daily food delivery up to the box.

Ashy Faced Owlets would be fantastic for the centre’s first season in the new location. We’ll keep a close watch on them and hope they make it through to fledging safely.

I wrote up a list of nesting attempts made this year and came up with 15 species – not at all bad considering all the trauma and ordeal of moving to the new site. Even if we didn’t get any more owlets this year 15 species with eggs is a very respectable first season and gives us a lot of scope for next year. We’re not done with 2012 yet so let’s keep hoping for more fluffies this year!

Okay that’s my lot for tonight, I’m signing off and heading to bed. ‘til next time, goodnight.

Pole position

Well the heatwave seems to be over with us for the moment, and this morning there was a little moisture in the air. No rain though. Just as well really as we had another school visit booked for this morning.

This was our second school from the Edinburgh region, just a little way down the motorway really, and they easily arrived for ten o’clock. We’re starting to get into a pattern that suits most with the schools now, and began their visit with a short guided tour ‘Walk to the North Pole’. The children were primary 4 age and so were pretty clued up on the need for camouflage, food chains, and taking care of the environment topics. It was nice to get some thoughtful questions from the children and well thought out answers to my questions too.

Finishing at the ‘North Pole’ the children then had some time to explore the owl centre as they looked for the answers to ‘Professor Hoot’s Tough Test’ on the information boards and in our education zone. After all that running about and thinking they were ready for a sit down and so met up with us in our indoor display arena. We flew some of the trained owls for them with more good questions and answers throughout. We had some other visitors in at the same time and they seemed to enjoy the session as much as the children did.

The afternoon was quieter, not just because the school children had left to go back to school! We had a steady flow of visitors and Poncho the Tropical Screech Owl made an appearance in one of the afternoon shows. The contrast between this tiny owl and then Hudson the Great Horned Owl was quite something and the audiences were fascinated. It’s nice to have Poncho in the team now and he is proving to be a pretty steady and good natured owl, happy to be in the shows and to have his photo taken with the public.

We usually feed the collection in the afternoon and while volunteers Karen and George were taking the feed buckets around today I heard a familiar sound coming from the Ashy Faced Owl aviary. Were my ears deceiving me, or was that the sound of an owlet? Hmm. Well with a few people to act as witness we were pretty sure we did indeed hear the tell-tale hissing made by babies of the Barn Owl family to which the Ashy Faced belong. The male had taken food straight up to the nest the second it hit the floor of the aviary and passed it to his mate. She began to rip it up into pieces small enough for tiny beaks to swallow, and this was when we were hearing the owlet noises.

I’m hesitant to get too excited about the prospect of owlets here after such a run of bad luck so far this season. This pair have been reliable breeders in previous years though, so should be steady enough to keep looking after their young. The Ashy Faced Owl is probably the most endangered owl in collections in the UK so this makes them the main target species for us to breed. I’ll keep my excitement reigned in for a day or two as I don’t want to be disappointed with such an important species for the centre.

I’ll leave you tonight with a up to date picture of our two Great Horned Owlets, taken this afternoon with my shiny new camera. Enjoy, and good night!

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!

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!

The Circle

The long Bank Holiday weekend, or almost a week really, has been quite a busy one at the Scottish Owl Centre. Numbers of visitors have been good and comments left in our visitors book have all been really complimentary about the centre and flying demonstrations.

As I’ve said in previous blog entries not everything can be positive and happy every day when working with animals. I’m sad to say that our elderly Long-eared Owl that we have been taking extra care of for the last couple of weeks passed away this morning. While she has been stable for the last few days her condition was not going to improve. The thought was that she had a stroke or tumour that led to loss of muscle control and mobility. We felt that the best option for her that would prevent suffering was for the vet to put her to sleep. The thing to remember is that she had lived a much longer life than if she were in the wild, maybe as much as a decade longer, and that she had the best quality of life that anyone could provide.

This is of course what we want for all of the birds in our care, a good long life in the best quality of life we can provide for them. Whilst aware of three or four of the owls with health conditions that we monitor, it is always a blessing that the vast majority of the collection is in fine health and clearly happy as we have so many either sitting on eggs or rearing offspring. Having a nearby veterinary surgery that we can call upon the services of at short notice is reassuring, but preventative rather than curative is always what we aim for.

On a day tinged with sadness at the passing of one of our collection there is also comfort to be found in caring for a new life. Our four week old American Barn Owl, tentatively named ‘Sam’ at the moment, grows daily and made his or her second appearance in a public ‘flying’ display today. It is too early to tell if the owlet is male or female. He or she is a sweet little thing, quite calm and curious about the world. The audience in the display were curious and amazed to see what a baby owl looks like too. Growing up in the public gaze and with multiple carers will help this little one become well accustomed to being around people, hopefully make it a happy and steady bird when it comes to being handled by staff and volunteers, and when flying in our displays.

American Barn Owls are beautiful birds. I have had the fortune to work with them before but never any trained for flying displays. I can’t help but wonder what our little one will look like when it has it’s full set of adult feathers!

Well that’s me done for this blog, time to sign off. Hopefully back on tomorrow, so see you then, gnite.

Seasons Greetings

Bank holiday weekends always bring us a mixed bag of weather. Today started out cool, became warmer, then late afternoon it snowed for a few minutes. Snowed! In May! I had read a news headline over breakfast that said the weekend daytime temperature would be colder than Christmas Day but I didn’t really believe it; then it snowed! Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes and within the hour there was blue sky and sunshine but it goes to show that the weather is just bizarre lately.

Talking about the weather is a British past time of course, but it matters more if you happen to work outdoors all day and your work involves looking after animals or birds outdoors all day too. I don’t know what our Great Horned Owlets thought of the wintry stuff falling from the sky today but at least they are covered in thick downy feathers. The second owlet jumped ship and left the nest overnight, joining the older one at ground level to explore the aviary. For most of the day the younger, smaller owlet sat as near to it’s parents perch as it could but by the afternoon it had wandered up to the rocky outcrop where the first owlet has taken up residence. I can hardly believe how ‘perfect’ they look sitting among the rocks – like we deliberately placed them as ornaments!

The Bank Holiday weather is set to turn to rain again over the next couple of days so we’ll be checking that the owlets are able to keep sheltered when we make our rounds first thing in the morning.

The flying displays today went well again, with good numbers of visitors making up the audiences for three shows. Hudson the Great Horned Owl made his second appearance with an audience today and flew more confidently again. Once in the right frame of mind to fly he is definitely a no nonsense kind of fella, as one or two members of the audience found as he clipped them on the back of the head with a wing tip on his way past them! It can be a bit of a surprise if you are the recipient of a wing on the back of the head but thankfully everyone so far has found it to be part of the thrill of the displays. Hudson has no intention of harming anyone, and it is only his wing tip he clips you around the ear with but I keep one eye on what he is up to all the time!

Our American Barn Owl made his or her debut appearance today, joining Hudson and Prince the Ashy Faced Owl in an all ‘Americas’ themed display. Of course the owlet is too young to fly – only four weeks old! – but was paraded around the audience like royalty by Lauren. The little owlet seemed to enjoy seeing all the new people and things and was very popular too.

I’ll sign off tonight with another pic of the little one. See you tomorrow, gnite!

Out and about

A busy day at the Scottish Owl Centre, thanks to some decent weather and a Bank Holiday weekend. The morning started off cold, with ice in some of the water dishes in the owl aviaries, then by the afternoon the sun was breaking through and bringing very welcome warmth. It’s still hard to believe that this is May with weather like this, unseasonably cold, and I hope we get more ‘normal’ weather soon. Until then we all have to make the most of the bit of sunshine when we get it. This afternoon was pleasant enough for even our male Milky Eagle Owl to spend a little quality time sunbathing on the ground in his aviary. One of our Great Horned Owlets chose last night to leave the nest so spent the day exploring their aviary at ground level. In the afternoon warmth the little adventurer was enjoying the sunshine while disguised as one of the rocks in the centre of the pen.

 

The ongoing saga of our elderly Long-eared Owl continues, and she is still eating well. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she is improving but today she seemed to have a good day, making some effort to preen herself and moving around her outdoor area a little. She made her way over to sit in the sunshine this afternoon, just as many other owls did likewise in their aviaries. This gave her some semblance of a normal quality of life. We are still making daily decisions about her but as long as she continues to have days as good as this we will keep helping her do so.

We had good numbers of visitors to the centre today and our flying displays were popular. In the third show I decided to fly Hudson the Great Horned Owl (elder brother of the little adventurer pictured above). One of the last of the team to join the regular flying displays, he has taken the longest to get into the right mood and weight to fly, and the longest to adjust to the new microphone system in the display arena. Unlike the single speaker system he grew up with, the new one has ‘surround sound’ with a speaker in the corners of the room. This has confused and distracted a few of the owls that use their hearing to locate the presenter in a show, and Hudson has been quite bewildered by it. Gradually through training sessions he has learned to ‘ignore the voices’ and watch for where I go and where I place the all-important piece of food! Today he left the gates a little flustered but pulled himself together and flew really well for me. He hardly hesitated flying from one perch to another and even anticipated my destination and headed over to the high perch as I stepped up to it one time. As I have never flown a Great Horned Owl before I haven’t got a good flowing talk put together for Hudson yet. I was a bit distracted by watching him fly too, so my content was a bit lacking. For those of you who have followed my blog over the months you will know I’ve come a long way since my arrival and my personal fear of these owls with such a formidable reputation. For me to fly Hudson at all is quite an achievement I guess, and I’m quite proud of myself overcoming this personal hurdle. We’ve both come a long way together really. Hudson today showed no aggression during the flying display. He was just nervous about the audience at first but then all business like and flew well. With a few more shows both he and I will become a well-tuned machine I hope!

The other two birds I flew in that show were Prince the Ashy Faced and Tiger the Brown Wood Owl, and Prince was on form as he always is these days – a little star! Tiger on the other hand, well we have a different kind of working relationship. She does her own thing and I have to try to keep up! I lost my train of thought while flying her today – the first time I’ve actually had to stop and say to the audience that I forgot what I was on about since coming to the Scottish Owl Centre! I said it with a laugh though, and everyone laughed along. These things happen and I always prefer to laugh them off rather than get more flustered. These flying displays are supposed to be a fun thing rather than serious and sombre so if I slip up I make a joke out of it. The Train of Thought had left the station today! Tiger had the last laugh though and snatched her last reward piece of food from my hand and flew off at the end of the show. Fair play Tiger, you win this time!

Last item in tonight’s blog; our American Barn Owlet has had quite a chilled day but seems happy and settled. At around four weeks old a hard day’s work entails quite a lot of sleeping, eating, sleeping some more etc. Tomorrow may be a bigger day even than today; our little owlet may make it’s Flying Display debut!

Well I think it’s time I got some of that sleeping done myself so I’ll sign off.

Hopefully I’ll be back blogging again tomorrow night so until then, gnite.