News
Update 30th August 2005
Dear all,
Every year we get some unlucky Owlets coming to us for rearing
and release back to the wild. Ordinarily I do like to get them straight
back to where they were found, in other words back with their parents.
But in the case of the 2 Owlets from South Gloucester, their nestbox
was destroyed and even though two Hawk and Owl Trust members tried
to re-unite them with their parents, it sadly did not work.
When they came to me they were still very young, with eyes not
opened and with their egg tooth in place. So my first "Note
from the field" is taken from monitoring the release of these
2 owlets, the release of two Tawny owlets and 1 injured, now fully
recovered adult Tawny owl.
The Tawnies are doing very well, the picture was taken last night
(29th August 2005), its very grainy (1600 iso) as it's almost full
darkness, but clearly shows one of the owlets returning for food.
Both owlets are returning for food. They have set themselves up
in a small copse close to the release aviary, which is where the
bulk of the mature trees are. They start to move well into dusk/almost
dark and will fly across open areas from the tree cover, but really
do hug the scrub as they fly from copse to aviary.
The adult Tawny Owl is still around and can be seen post hunting,
near the boundary (as observed last night), it's the 2 owlets however
which have taken up a strong home range around the immediate release
site.
They are all now calling (including the adult) which interestingly
started around one week after release, which means they've settled
and are going through the process of establishing what other owls
are around. In fact the nearest wild tawnies are about 2-3 km away
and don't approach this area, so they will not come across real
aggression until they distribute.
I will produce a full report at the end of the monitoring, which
will also include the rearing process, timing of release and other
factors, such as habitat selection and food supply. I will pdf this
report for this website. Hope you are all well and hope you enjoy
this update on our re-hab efforts.
Chris Sperring
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