Flight of the Bumblebee

Winter made it known it still wasn’t through with West Lothian today, as a braw wind brought wintry showers of rain, hail, sleet and scattered flurries of snow. The temperature hovered just a couple of degrees above freezing but that wind made the wind chill factor something wicked. I was really glad of our indoor display arena today!

As with most weekends, I made the most of the time the site is quiet to do some training with the birds we will be flying in our shows to the public. As usual some of the birds did well and others … well still have a long way to go.

Prince was first off the mark – he is still a very demanding little soul and he had to be first because he shouted loudest! I love seeing the little Ashy Faced Owl out in our arena. His colours blend so well with the wall that if he sits still you can miss him, but he rarely sits that still for very long! Today he was a little lighter when I weighed him. He flew pretty well today, not showing his bad habit of trying to land on my shoulder (or collide with my face!) like earlier in the week. He just needs a bit of consistency between now and opening the centre and he will be great in the shows.

Sarabi the Milky Eagle Owl (Sarah to her old pals of course) was also lighter on the scales than I’ve seen her so far; 1990 grams, but looked keen and intent rather than famished and desperate. We still don’t know the exact ideal weight for this owl as we have never flown this species before, so it’s still a bit of experimentation to get it right. At 1990 grams she flew up to the first perch without needing to be stepped back onto it. She flew to the centre perch as I was walking on down to the furthest perch, then came on when I placed food on the end perch for her. Back down the arena to the first post again and she flew the full length of the arena – having to swerve and pull in her wings a touch in order to get between those central perches, an amazing sight! I really hope she will fly in front of a crowd as I want everyone to share the thrill I have seeing this bird fly gracefully down the length of our display arena. 🙂

Okay things were just going far too well, something had to throw a spanner into the works. Kenya the White Faced Owl did just that.

Kenya is a very small owl but is full of character. Due to her size I have been more careful with her diet and so it has been taking a little longer to get her into the right mood for flying than some owls like Prince or Lofty the Barn Owl. Today she looked keen. She weighed in at a little over 200 grams so was still heavy, but as she was keen I thought I’d try to get one short hop out of her. This she did, although she first flew up onto the top of the Prep Room door that was just behind the first perch before coming down to my gloved hand. She looks great in flight too, the exact opposite from Sarabi; not just in size but in style. Kenya flutters quite moth-like I think, or maybe like a great big grey and white bumblebee! Both owls look great and I think it would make a nice contrast if they were to be in a show together (flown separately of course!). We have such a good size team of flying birds here that we could do themed shows if we wanted. In this case we could do a theme of Owls of Africa and show the wide range of size and character of these amazing creatures from that continent.

So, Kenya did her short flight from the top of the door. Great. Could she do just one more? She cast back to the perch and turned to face me. I offered a slightly larger piece of food, intending this to be her reward and end of her work. Kenya flew over but snatched the food and was away down the arena! Oops! She zoomed down the side in the shadows until she found our tall perch right at the other end of the arena. Up she went and sat there with her prize. I felt a moment of panic as she flew off but this was instinctive rather than anything else. We have an indoor arena for a reason – we can control the environment much more than if the display were outdoors in a field or somewhere. Kenya had nowhere to go to get lost, she was just inconveniently perched way higher than I could reach if I wanted to get her down! I didn’t of course, I played the waiting game instead. This is the game known to all falconers and people who fly any bird in a show. Sometimes the bird gets an idea of it’s own to sit up high with it’s stolen prize and just sit there until it is hungry and needs to come down. At least it wasn’t a castle roof like in my last job! I waited about ten minutes then offered an even bigger piece of food. Greed always wins with these birds and she zoomed down! This time the little terror tried the snatch and grab tactic but chose exactly the wrong way to make her escape – right up to the door in the Prep Room that leads back to her aviary! I got her up onto the glove – with her prize – and escorted her back to her aviary. She seemed very pleased with herself but when she sat on her perch in her pen she realised too late that she had lost most of the piece of food, it had fallen off during her flight! Back to the diet and back to the drawing board for me and Kenya. It was my fault really as she was just too heavy. As I say, when you are flying an unfamiliar bird it is often trial and error before you get it right. You just hope that the birds don’t run so many rings around you on the day of the show!

Well after all that excitement it was about time to do the Meet the Keeper with an Owl encounter. I have been doing this at 12 o’clock each day of the school half term holiday this week, taking one of the owls out on my glove into Polkemmet Country Park for people to come along and meet. I do a little talk about the owl, about owls in general and about the Scottish Owl Centre and the exciting plans we have. I have had a different owl out almost every day this week. Today I chose one of the ‘difficult ones’. I chose Hudson the Great Horned Owl. If you have been following my blog you will know we have had a rocky relationship so far, me and Hudson. His species are well known for their aggression and he has been very pushy with me since we met just a couple of months ago. We have reached something of an agreement lately though, and today he was much more comfortable coming to me and sitting patiently as we went walkabout through the site and out to the park Reception. The weather was still really cold and unpleasant, so it wasn’t a suprise that hardly anyone came to the park today. In Reception we met just one father and son, then out in the car park we met a small group of golfers and walkers. What they lacked in number they made up for in enthusiasm though, surprised to see an owl out in their local park! With promises that they will bring their families, and to spread the word about the centre, they said they looked forward to the centre opening. So do I!

With the chill wind starting to get through even Hudson’s thick feathers we scurried back inside. With Hudson rewarded back in his aviary I made my rounds feeding the rest of the collection. I was pleased to see that our female Great Horned Owl – Hudson’s mother – has spent the whole day in the nest today. Interesting. I will look to see what she does the next day or two. She ‘might’ be thinking about laying eggs… 😉

Okay time to sign off so until tomorrow, gnite all! 🙂

Jump around

‘Owl School’ took up much of my day today. While the building work continued at a good pace I focused today on spending time with the imprinted owls that will be in the flying displays once the Scottish Owl Centre opens to the public.

The flying arena was quiet and empty today so it was a good opportunity to fly as many of the birds as I could. Some have been doing well with their training, others are just starting out. Prince the Ashy Faced Owl did better today than his last ‘lesson’, flying the length of the arena. Sarabi the Milky Eagle Owl continues to amaze me with her slow deliberate flight with huge wings. If she takes to working in front of the public she will really be a star! Broo the European Eagle Owl… well she is still sulking with me so we got no further today. She is likely to be well over her ‘flight weight’ still, and until she loses more weight she won’t budge. Hosking the Tawny Owl was my ‘newbie’ owl today. He has been dieting well and today was sitting at the front of his aviary watching intently as I passed by. Opening the door he flew onto my glove right away, a good sign! We went through to the ‘prep room’ where I placed him on the scales. I haven’t known Hosking very long and don’t know his ideal flight weight just yet, but today he weighed only a little more than the last male Tawny Owl that I flew in my last job. It shouldn’t take much longer for him to be ready to fly in the arena. I showed him round the indoor display arena for a short while today so he could get used to the place, then I fed him while he sat on my glove. Once back in his aviary I gave him more food as his reward for behaving so well. If only Broo could take notes, this is what she should be doing! I then summoned up my courage to face Hudson the Great Horned Owl again. He was a little ‘boisterous’ to begin with but once I had the jesses and leash attached and guided him through the door he was pretty steady. I took him for a walkabout and spent about an hour with him on the glove today, which was very good indeed. I’m not brave enough to try him free in the arena yet but we’re getting there 🙂

For today’s Meet the Keeper with an Owl encounter I took Oulu the Great Grey Owl. She has been on walkabout with me twice before, and her diet has been going slow but steady, so I hoped she would be a good model for the visitors today. Unfortunately there were so many new sights and sounds around the site today she was very jumpy. Out in front of the crowd she panicked a few times and I wondered whether I should apologise and take her away, but I knew that if she were really stressed she would be panting as well as trying to fly away. Hanging in there she did settle somewhat, and once everyone went their separate ways I walked her around Reception and through to the owl centre for a little longer. If she experiences this a little more each day she will grow used to it and be less panicky. There’s a lot of work to be done with Oulu, but hopefully she will begin her flying training in the arena next week.

Also next week, we will have a lot of building work going on. The ground work contractors will be in all week to lay the remaining paths and prepare for tree planting. They dropped off their mini-digger and dumper truck today to be ready to start early on Monday. So it will be a busy week all round next week!

Okay so that’s that for today, I’ll sign off. Til tomorrow, gnite all 🙂

Short-eared. Long stay.

Well today at the Scottish Owl Centre the sun was in shorter supply than yesterday and most of the day was drizzly. I didn’t mind this so much as at least it wasn’t so cold. Rain at the moment is my friend too. My old nemesis the hosepipes are still not repaired, so at least rain helps wash the aviaries a bit! I’m really hoping the plumbers are in tomorrow…

That’s how I start my day, or should start my day; making sure the owls are all okay, cleaning the aviaries, and making sure they all have fresh water. Not glamorous work but necessary, and funnily enough, satisfying once done and you see nice clean enclosures. Not today though, grrr.

‘Owl School’ went reasonably well. Prince the Ashy Faced had two red cards for colliding with my head but then settled down and flew really well. Marks for improvisation when he flew toward the door back to his aviary after the food ran dry but that really wasn’t part of my plan today lol. Kenya, the little White Faced Owl was more inclined to come out of her aviary today, sat on the scales I saw she still weighs about the same as a small sponge pudding, so diet resumes for you young lady. She came walkabout with me though, which meant she was around for today’s Meet the Keeper with an Owl encounter (snazzy title I know). There were a lot of children today and Kenya was so good and well behaved she even let each child have a gentle stroke of the feathers on her back. She did well!

In the afternoon we had an appointment at the local vets. The Short-eared Owl that was donated to us by a member of the public last week needed to be checked out. During the time with us so far it has eaten well and perches up high with two (captive bred) Long-eared Owls that came in at the same time. When it perches though you can see it has a problem with it’s left wing; it doesn’t sit flush against the body like the right one does. The owl flies well in the aviary but we have no way of telling how well it would fly in the wild from that. Well I caught the bird up surprisingly easily and with no chasing about causing more stress.

In the vet surgery the owl was very calm – or terrified I guess – and lay on it’s back perfectly still as the vet inspected the outstretched wings. We often find this with wild owls, they will ‘play dead’ and lie on their backs and hope you will leave them alone. Today it was very handy. As it lay there I couldn’t help admire the beauty of this creature. If it was healthy enough I would dearly love to return it to the wild. That was not possible unfortunately. The vet quickly found the reason the left wing wouldn’t sit in it’s normal position against the body; there had been a break or fracture. He pointed out the swollen area where it had healed naturally but not set in the correct position. The bird could fly but it was unlikely that it would ever regain 100 % fitness. The vet decided that it would be kinder for the bird to live safely in captivity than to release it to a very uncertain fate. Short-eared Owls hunt on the wing you see, birds of open countryside, they chase and catch birds in the air, they chase young rabbits and sometimes hares, and often hover before pouncing into long grass for voles. The statistics say that birds of prey miss their target 8 times out of 10. That’s at 100 % fitness so what chance would this poor owl have?

Having decided that we would keep it in captivity with good quality of life, the vet then put a microchip into it’s breast muscle. This microchip serves two purposes; firstly it carries an individual number that identifies that bird against a computer record, showing that it was wild born but injured before taking into captivity. As a native species in the UK Short-eared Owls are protected by law, and to keep a wild bird captive would lead to prosecution. Again the bird was perfectly still as the vet injected the microchip, not even flinching. The microchip also gives off some biological information, and with the scanner we saw that it’s body temperature was 40.9 C. If that were a human that would be a fever!

We returned to the Owl Centre with ‘Brian’, or was it ‘Florence’? (The vet admissions form wanted to know the name of the pet!) Name or no name it is still a beautiful owl and we will take great care of it.

That about wrapped up my day, so I will wrap up this blog. Gnite all 🙂

Big plans and small packages

Note; due to technical problems (my computer keeps crashing!) my blog didn’t seem to post last night. Here’s what I could salvage;

Today I could definitely feel that Spring is on the way – I was down to just three layers! The sun shined almost all of the day making it very pleasant indeed. There may be another cold snap at the weekend but there’s definitely a feeling that we’re getting through Winter now.

There was also a sense that we’re ‘getting there’ with the building work at the Scottish Owl Centre. The joiners were quickly putting together the framework for the last few aviaries to be built – Tawny Owl, Barn Owl, and one for these little guys;

We’re hoping to have a pair of these tiny owls arrive at the centre at the end of the month. They are Ferruginous Pygmy Owls and one of the smallest in the world! (Ferruginous means ‘rust coloured’, and they have lovely reddish brown plumage) I have worked with these birds before (where I took this photo) and they are amazing little things. We are including them in the unique Realm of the Rainforest feature we are developing.

We have a date penciled in our diaries for when these and our other new birds will arrive and I’m really excited about seeing them all arrive. There are one or two surprises in store too, but I shall save them for when they arrive 😉

Right that’s all for this blog, nice short one for a change! Til tomorrow, gnite!

This Valentines Day, say it with chicken?

Valentines Day at the Scottish Owl Centre, and lurrve is in the air…

… for some of the owls at least!

Some of the young couples have been mentioned in my blog before; the Great Horned Owls that hoot through the night, the Siberian Eagle Owls, the Tropical Screech Owls, all have been hooting and calling for some time now. Last month the female Siberian Eagle Owl laid two eggs – she didn’t sit on them and they weren’t fertile, but it was a promising start as the pair had only been together around 5 months. The male is still hooting from evening to dawn and takes her gifts of food. I have been noticing something strange in their aviary the last few days and today came to a theory about what is going on…

Our aviaries are brand new, obviously, and so far haven’t had much in the way of plants put in them. One or two do have small leylandii conifer trees planted in them, and the Siberian Eagle Owl pen is one of them. As you can see from the photo here this tree does not look happy! Looking closer you can see the bark has been ‘nibbled’ and a lot of bits of branches and leaves have been pulled off. Is the female getting broody? Is she pulling at nesting material? Most owls don’t make nests, just use someone elses old one, but what other reason could there be? Maybe it isn’t her, maybe it is the male? Say it with flowers, or say it with chewed up bits of leylandii tree? A mystery!

Well that’s something I’ll have to keep watching and wondering, but what about new romance? Well we have that too.

Our pair of Snowy Owls have bred in the past and have been one of the most easily settled in the new location for the Scottish Owl Centre. The male in particular seems to really enjoy sitting on the huge rocks quite close to the front of the aviary, where he often catches a bit of sun. Well today sunbathing wasn’t the only thing on his mind. Food is another of his most favourite things in the whole world, so for him to offer some to his mate shows true adoration! With Snowy Owls it isn’t just a case of ‘hoot hoot here have some food’, no, he has a very special dance.

It does look bizarre to you and me, but he picks up some food in his bill and shuffles about making very odd noises, more like a pig than a bird! His body crouched low to the ground and his wings held up half open from his body, he sways his head left and right. He does look very silly! At the moment she seems to agree, not being impressed one bit. Keep in there lad, even Romeo didn’t win fair Juliet in one day!

I will of course keep you updated on how our hopeful romances progress – hopefully we will see some more eggs soon!

Not all of our owls are in pairs. Some are single birds. We’re trying our best to find them a partner and some have already been located. In a few weeks we will have new birds arriving at the Centre. A mate for our Spectacled Owl, a mate for our Striped Owl, one for our African Wood Owl, all arriving before we open to the public. There are a few owls that we still haven’t found a pair for yet. So it’s a bit of Lonely Hearts for our hopeful singles.

And then of course there is Sarabi the Milky Eagle Owl. Although not technically looking for a male Milky Eagle Owl as she is an imprint, and doesn’t know she is an owl. She has been feeling a little broody lately. She sang to me while I was fitting a catch to the back of the door of her aviary today. Thanks Sarabi, lovely voice!

And with that I think I’d better sign off before it gets too silly round here! Gnite all!

Nice to Meet you

As usual I had quite a busy day.

Starting out bright and early I managed to encourage one of the hosepipes to work in the trained owl section, so I set about cleaning. After a good while without a water supply it will take me some time (and a lot of elbow grease!) to get the centre back up to acceptable standard. It took me most of the morning just to do one section. Word from the plumbers is ‘Thursday at the latest’ so I’ll just have to cross my fingers for the rest of the repairs and be patient.

Milder weather continues in West Lothian and this helped not just me but all of the guys working on building the new aviaries. Much of the work now is on the framework of the British Owl section, having set out the frames for the tropical Realm of the Rainforest area last week. They aim to get at least all this part of the build done by the end of this week, ready for the ground work contractors to come in next week and lay the remaining paths and dig holes for trees.

With the building nearing completion there is more thought going into the planting in and around the aviaries, paths and centre in general. Today we started to plan the slight alterations we want to make to the Long-eared Owl aviary. Now we have a Short-eared Owl too we aim to put them together in one enclosure. The Short-eared, or Shorty to his friends, came from the wild so is quite a nervous bird. His damaged wing will never fully heal so he will never be fit enough to survive in the wild unfortunately, but we will take good care of him (or her!) at the Scottish Owl Centre. Putting it in with the Long-eared will help to keep it calm and provide company as well. As I mentioned in another blog, these birds are from open countryside, and we discussed today how we can landscape and plant the long aviary to show a range of open, moorland-like habitat along to the tree line where the Long-eared are found. When the ground workers dig the holes for tree planting the excess soil dug will go towards landscaping a raised area of the Long and Short-eared enclosure.  ‘Shorty’ will quite likely perch up with the other birds but we aim to lay out the enclosure to give whatever options will make it comfortable.

Today’s Meet the Keeper with an Owl session at midday was pretty busy today! I had a somewhat grumpy Prince, the Ashy Faced Owl, with me today. It was nice to see so many people who had come especially to see (the owl!) and quite a crowd formed in the courtyard by the park Reception and cafe. My talk was a bit rough and ready as it’s been a while since I last gave a talk to more than a few people together, but I enjoyed it and it was good practice for when we open. I also got to learn a couple more new words of Scots to add to my growing vocabulary! One of my reasons for doing the Meet’n’greet was to give people an opportunity to not just see one of the owls that are moving into the new centre, but to hear about the exciting plans that we have for the site. Everyone I’ve met so far has been very pleased to hear about the new venture and say they will come back once we’re open to the public. I think we could be very busy indeed, which is excellent!

I’ll be out at midday each day of the school holidays this week, taking a different bird each day. I still want to take Kenya the White Faced Owl out so maybe it will be her turn tomorrow?

Til then, gnite!

Bath Day for Dylan

While most of England shivers through the ice and snow it has been mild here in central Scotland today. Hopefully it will last this next week too.

With the rise in temperatures it has still taken until today for the ground and ice in the owls water dishes to thaw out. This made today – bath day!

During periods of freezing weather owls forego the bathing that they like and need to keep their feathers in good condition. Who can blame them? I certainly wouldn’t want to spend the whole day wet and cold in sub zero conditions! When the thaw comes the birds make the most of it. As I did my morning rounds to check on them all I saw that a good few of them had already taken the plunge. Female Indian Scops, male Ural Owl, female Great Grey Owl, even Tiger the Brown Wood Owl in our display team were all soggy and sitting with wings dripping in the weak morning sun. This was good to see. Unfortunately the one owl that I really wanted to see bathing was still perched up in the corner of his aviary looking decidedly dirty – Dylan the Barn Owl!

 I mentioned in my blog last week or so that he had a dirty face. For some reason since moving to the new site from the original Scottish Owl Centre in Campbelltown, Dylan has decided not to bathe. As I say I can’t blame him while the weather has been so cold for so long, but I have been growing concerned that not only is his face covered in dried food remains, he isn’t washing his ‘underparts’ shall we say. He does not seem ill and is certainly eating well, and will even fly in the arena with no hesitation, but he just won’t wash. Today I decided to take matters into my own hands – literally.

I’m sure many of you will have read about wildlife rescuers who have bathed oil covered sea birds or swans etc. In my last post I and my colleagues had to bathe owls that had fallen down chimneys or had sat in dirty nestboxes etc, but we had the benefit of facilities to do so. Here at the building site of the new Scottish Owl Centre, at the moment I don’t have water plumbed in to the ‘prep room’ – don’t even have working hosepipes until the plumbers come back to fix them this week! So how on earth do I bathe Dylan? Well what would he be bathing in if he did do it himself? His water dish. With a sigh I resolved myself to the task. Calling him down to my glove, I took hold of his jesses and dunked him in the water! It is only deep enough to call it ‘paddling’ really but it got him wet at least. Holding him in with one hand I used my other hand to try to clean off the dirt around his legs and tail, then to soften the dried food on his face. He wasn’t pleased as you can imagine! Having said that he could have been worse, he is a good natured owl. I felt so mean doing this to him. Mean old nasty me. I told myself that tough love was still love and did my best to clean him up. I didn’t get everything off but it was a good start. I left him standing in the water while I brought his food – this time de-yolked, as it is the yolk that has been drying on his face. He soon got over his sulk at being stood in water and pounced on the food. Later in the day I passed by and saw him sat on a rock drying out. Maybe now he’s been in the bath he will do it himself again now? If not I can see some more ‘tough love’ in his future!

Well now I was nice and covered in as much mess as Dylan was, it was time to train the display birds. Time for Owl School.

As always there were successes and … well not so successes. Prince was over his ideal weight and managed no more than two short flights for me. Kenya was still not intereseted, and even Sarabi the Milky Eagle Owl was less interested today. She did two or three flights the full length of the arena though so all was not lost. She also came out with me to do todays Meet the Keeper out in Polkemmet Country Park. Thanks again to Walter and Susan who came along for a second day! Sarabi did very well out and about again. She seems unconcerned by cars passing by, but still panics when she sees dogs. She didn’t mind a group of adult cyclists too much, but was freaked out by a child on a bicycle! Oh well never mind!

Todays surprise guests in the second training session this afternoon were Bruce the Boobook Owl, who did three short flights to my glove in the arena, and Lofty the Barn Owl. Now Lofty had been out yesterday but did not fly. Today he weighed 10 grams less and seemed a little more interested in flying. As Dylan had been so good flying in the arena a couple of weeks ago I thought Lofty would ‘just work’ once he hit the right weight. I thought wrong! Lofty decided he was going to make the rules up today and I would just have to like it. Instead of flying to my glove, Lofty went exploring…

Well I suppose if any owl was going to discover the tall perch in the darkened corner it was going to be a Barn Owl! He then flew two complete circuits of the arena before finding some other dark place to perch; the top of the door into what will be our ‘dark room’. Unrepentant at giving me the run around Lofty refused to come down off the door until offered a large enough piece of chicken. Lofty the Bad Boy!

*Sigh* Well you can’t win them all. Today I wasn’t winning any! Tomorrow as they say, is another day though.

I’ll leave you with a photo. I had some luck getting some nice pics of a couple of the owls this afternoon. Here’s a pic of the male Great Horned Owl (yes, Hudson’s father).

Til tomorrow, gnite!

The Long and the Short of it.

My work today was mostly taken up with training the display birds. As it is quieter at the weekends (most of the workmen and electrician are off of course) I try to make the most of these days to fly the birds in the indoor arena.

The owl I started with today is another ‘new’ one – new working with me at least. We are fortunate to have a diverse range of owls for our displays, from the tiny Tropical Screech Owl to the huge European Eagle Owl, but today I wanted to work with one of the two Barn Owls.

This chap is Lofty, a Common Barn Owl. This is the one found in the UK, although the Barn Owl family is found in many parts of the world. Lofty is in really good condition at the moment, fantastic honey colour speckled with grey to the feathers from the back of his head down his back and wings to his short tail, and his front a pure white.

Lofty weighed in at 319 grams today, which is around his ideal flight weight – the weight the owl would hunt at in the wild, because its belly is empty! I had high hopes for him to fly in the arena as he was at the right weight. This was our first day working though so even if he did one short hop to my glove it would be a good start. Lofty has only been inside the arena once before, so today he just wanted to get a good look around. He was hungry, but was more interested in his surroundings. Perhaps he needs to lose just a little more. That’s alright. Once he did a hop to me for a piece of food I quit while I was ahead. As I have done with the other birds I have been training, I took Lofty out for a walkabout. I have started to do a ‘Meet the keeper, with an owl’ encounter each day through the Feb school half term, and figured this would be a good way to combine my work training him, getting him used to sitting on the glove and working with me.

We had some interested people come to meet us, and Lofty behaved very well. After a while of course he became restless so we wandered back to his aviary where he received his main meal for the day. A good first day.

Prince the Ashy Faced was next, and today was not his best day. Now he’s flown in the arena a few times he is getting the hang of it all. This also meant he started showing one of his old bad habits from last year – flying to land on my shoulder (or face!). This isn’t on, and at one point I stopped and turned before he was ready and got a face full of feathers. I was lucky he didn’t draw blood as he tried to land. This behaviour will have to be discouraged of course, but I’m told he eventually figured out he wasn’t allowed to do that after some training. Apart from that he flew very well. It was really only the first few flights that he made his mistake. Once he had some food in his belly he calmed down and flew to perches or glove just as I wanted. Very good but more work needed.

Third up was Sarabi (or Sarah to her old friends, of which there must be a few as she is around 17 years old!). I still can’t get over how long her wingspan is. They are called Giant Eagle Owls in Africa, but we call them either Verreux’s or Milky Eagle Owls. When she flies the full length of our flying arena you really get why they earn the name ‘giant’ that’s for sure! Today she flew more lengths and with less hesitation than her last ‘lesson’ and really took my breath away. I hope she can keep this up!

So, with owl school done for the day I went to check in on the Great Grey Owls that moved into their new enclosure yesterday. They were fine. I was pleased to see the male perched high up. He is still sitting at the opposite end from the female but they are both looking content with their new aviary. Happy with that, I went around the corner to see the newest owls to the Scottish Owl Centre.

Last night we had a delivery of Long-eared Owls, Little Owls and a Short-eared Owl. They are all looking in good condition and healthy. The one obvious exception to having full health is the Short-eared. The story of this bird is quite a sad one that I’m afraid is heard all too often in the UK. This was a wild bird that was injured. When it sits on the perch in the aviary you can see that the left wing does not sit flush with the body the way the right wing does.  Short-eared Owls are long-winged hunters of open countryside. In the winter they hunt the coasts, marshes and estuaries. In the spring they then return to their breeding grounds high in the hills, mountains and moors. Most of the Short-eared Owls breeding in the UK actually breed in Scotland. Hunting in open places sometimes brings them into collision with traffic, fences or power lines sadly. Once a bird of prey breaks or fractures a wing it almost never returns to 100 % fitness or mobility. At most 70 %. Of course out in the wild you need to be fit to survive. 70% is just not enough. So this bird would not survive if returned to the wild. A real shame. Here at the Scottish Owl Centre we aim to give the bird the best quality of life that we can. The last set of aviaries to be built – next week – is the British Owls section. As we have an aviary dedicated to Long-eared Owls in that section we can now alter the design to accommodate the Short-eared Owl as well. These birds spend much of their resting lives sitting on the ground, so we will make sure the enclosure has places for that as well as the option to perch along with the Long-eared Owls. They are all lovely birds and we want to make them as comfortable as possible.

Right well that’s enough for today. So much for this being a short blog huh? Oh well, gnite all!

Movers and shakers

It’s a long Blog today so you may need to make a coffee or something before settling down for a read (or scoot down to look at the photos!)  🙂

It was a testing day for me today. Quite frustrating at times, quite an adrenaline rush at other times, but at the end of the day it all worked out well.

The last day of the working week saw the joiners complete work on three more aviaries. The Great Grey Owl, Milky Eagle Owl and MacInders Eagle Owl enclosures all had their roof altered for better strength against strong winds (not that they had any problem so far, but thinking for the future…). With the mesh on the sides, tree perches dug in, gravel spread and raked across the floor, and a nestbox fitted in the MacInders pen, they are structurally complete. Of course they still need branch perches and plants added, and they need owls too!

We have a MacInders Eagle Owl already on site, just waiting in temporary accommodation until the proper aviary is complete. We have a pair of Milky Eagle Owls – fingers crossed – arriving from another collection in two to three weeks. We do also have a pair of Great Grey Owls on site, again in temporary accommodation, and they have been keen to get to somewhere more roomy for a while now. I have been just as keen to move them too. It is quite frustrating to have birds in the wrong places, sometimes places that are difficult for me to keep clean and tidy if the owl is large and the pen is small. Today was a good day from this respect as today we could move the Great Grey Owls into their newly completed home…

Before I could do that though I had to do some training with the owls for the flying displays. I had planned to fly Prince the Ashy Faced, Sarabi the Milky Eagle Owl and to spend time ‘manning’ Kenya the White Faced Owl. This plan did not work out. Kenya still needs to lose some weight to be interested in leaving her aviary, and while I was trying to encourage her, it disturbed her next door neighbours. In the next pen is a pair of rare Black-banded Owls, temporarily until their pen in the Rainforest Realm is built. They are quite nervous birds in an enclosed space and as they flew and bashed themselves around I was worried they would hurt or injure themselves. I backed out of Kenya’s aviary and let them calm down. They weren’t hurt, but I had to shelve my plan for Kenya. Oh well, on to Prince. He is in the pen on the other side of Kenya and is always keen to get out of there! He is a very nosy bird and also very demanding that he has a lot of attention. Once out and in the big wide world though he becomes very quiet and well behaved – just a brat when he’s at home! He is a great bird though and I love working with him, even if he can be frustrating at times.

Today was one of those times. I was pleased to see his weight has stayed at the level I wanted, the level where he is keen to fly, so I took him into the arena. He has flown in there a good number of times now, and on a couple of occasions with two or three people as an audience. I thought he would be okay with the electrician still working away in the arena today… I thought wrong. Maybe he just doesn’t like the electrician but he didn’t budge from his perch while the poor guy was trying to do his job. I got Prince to fly short distances to me if I stood so that he couldn’t see the workman, but only twice. So that was another plan I had to shelve! Well if he won’t fly he will at least sit quiet if we go for a walkabout, so I took him out into Polkemmet Country Park to see if there was anyone around that might like to meet him.

Nobody this way….

….nobody that way…

It was a quiet day at Polkemmet Country Park!

Scrap another plan!

 

<Musical interlude (not my video I might add! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6lNuNI7uQM >

So what do you do when all your plans for the day go out the window? Make up new plans!

My idea once Prince was returned to his aviary was to try to work with one of the other ‘difficult’ ones in the display team. I have mentioned Broo the European Eagle Owl before in my blog. We have been slowly building up trust to work together, but only in her pen. When I tried to put a leash on her she went berzerk and threw herself to the floor like a child having a temper tantrum! Not good at all! Well today it seems she still hadn’t forgiven me for that last misdemeanor. The largest species of owl in the world, with the largest stubborn streak, and the longest memory for people they don’t want to work with! I left her pen without feeding her the treats I had prepared for her. *Sigh*

Okay time for something ‘out of the box’. I had the food, I had the eagle glove, I had the large set of jesses and leash… Time to work with Hudson the Great Horned Owl.

Another one I have mentioned before, Hudson is quite the pushy individual. As I only met him a couple of months ago he has tried to intimidate and bully me into just dropping the food and running for my life whenever I have been near his pen. We have had some successes since those days though. Today I knew he was well enough fed to not be that interested in attacking on sight (so I hoped!) so I carefully entered his pen. He flew up to the post I pointed to with no problem, flew over to my glove for food reasonably well… next I had to attach leather jesses to his anklets…. Well having this notorioulsy aggressive owl so close to my face as I reached around and under him to fit the jesses really got my adrenaline pumping I can tell you! He fidgeted a little but I got the task done without losing any fingers. A metal swivel and leash were fitted to the jesses and still no damage done… okay… let’s go for a walkabout!

As you can see from the picture here, Hudson was not impressed with the big wide world. Being the Big Fish in a small pond is great, but when the pond becomes an ocean… Like a sulky child he refused to stand up properly on my arm for most of the time we were slowly walking around the centre. When we passed the aviary with his parents inside he did stand up – only to flinch as his father launched at the mesh right at us! No happy family reunion – just as in the wild, the parents drive the offspring away from the nest. It is coming up to breeding time for our Great Horned Owls, and the male was not tolerating an intruder to his territory – even if it was his son! We moved on.

All in all Hudson did very well on our travels. We met a few walkers and families, he panicked when he met a dog, but this was to be expected on his first trip exploring the Park with me. I was relieved to put him back in his aviary (and give him his food reward) but only once the door was closed did I realise how fast my heart had been beating! I think we both did well today!

So as I wrap this blog up all that remains for me to say is that the Great Grey Owls moved into their proper aviary with no hitch at all. At the very end of my day I moved them in and stood back to see how they settled. They went to opposite ends of the aviary from each other! The male seems quite out of condition, no doubt due to being in a small pen for the past couple of months. Now he has a lot more space he can get more exercise and fitness back. He did have one moment of panic as he spotted his new neighbours – the Siberian Eagle Owls – but soon realised they were in a separate pen across the path. As I left them they were shaking their feathers and starting to preen. I was pleased and relieved and it was a good result to end my day on.

So until tomorrow, I’m signing off. Gnite all 🙂

Slippery When Wet

Another good day of progress at the Scottish Owl Centre today!

As the forecasted ‘freezing rain’ didn’t arrive – at least where we are – and it seemed to be the ordinary kind falling, it meant the morning started off just a little damp but a lot milder than the last two days. Good news when you work outdoors all day! If only the ice hadn’t turned to mud instead…we were slipping about all day one way or another. 😉

The work on ‘Phase Two’ aviaries has really come on in the last few days but today I got a real idea of the shape and size of the enclosures. As you can see from the pictures, the area that just last week was a forest of bare upright poles set into the ground in some complex pattern is now filled with the frames and roofing of four aviaries in the Rain Forest Realm and the photographic area is now roofed too. The Little Owl aviary is there now as well and waiting for the door and mesh. Next to that pen I could see today how long the aviary will be for the Long-eared Owls too. A nice length will be good for the birds that hunt in forest clearings and along hedgerows when out in the wild.

Aviary size is something that is very important of course, to the owl, to the visitor and to the keepers and those looking after these birds in captivity. Ideally you want a large space for the birds, but the danger there is that if the aviary is too big and made of solid mesh walls and roof then the bird may injure itself if panicked into flying into it at speed. At the new site for the Scottish Owl Centre we have some of the largest aviaries I’ve ever seen for owls in the UK – for species like the Siberian Eagle Owls, Great Horned Owls, Ural Owls and the Snowy Owls – tall and long and giving plenty of space to fly. They are not too large though, just a good size for these birds.

Speaking of size… the best thing of the day for me today was seeing the HUGE wingspan of the Milky Eagle Owl in flight! This of course was Sarabi, or Sarah to her old friends, one of our ‘imprint’ birds that are trained to take part in public flying demonstrations. If you’ve been reading any of my previous blog entries you probably know that she has been doing very well in her training so far. Starting with short hops from perch to glove for food in her aviary, she then did so well sitting on the glove that we could go for walkabouts around the park and into Reception, where she met some of the local people who come to Polkemmet Country Park either to play golf, walk the dog, walk themselves, or to visit the cafe (it’s the awesome cupcakes I tell you!). You may have read in my blog that Sarabi has started to fly free in the Indoor Display Arena. On two occasions now she has made two flights covering half the distance of the arena. I have been so surprised each time! Well today we took Flying Lessons to another couple of levels. Today she weighed in at 2017 grams and was much more interested in food and her surroundings. Setting her on a middle perch I called her to fly half the length of the room – like the last two times. No problem. Then I placed her on the perch at one end of the arena and walked right the way down to the other end. With little hesitation she flew, and wow! She flew slow and quite low but I was really taken with her wings, so long! She looked fantastic and flew the whole length two more times before I gave her a short flight and her reward. As we stood amazed we reckoned this was probably the furthest this owl has flown in a long long time. We are really pleased to be able to give her this space and this chance to show off. If she can keep this up she will be a real star in our shows! Fingers crossed for her then 🙂

And that’s my lot for today so I’ll sign out. Take care all, gnite 🙂