Time flies here at the sanctuary with, it always seems, so much to do and so little time to do it. Last Friday, amongst other things falconers Andy and Maz were out in the spring sunshine flying two of the aerial demonstration team and it was fantastic to see the birds using their newly grown feathers and enjoying the feel of the wind beneath their wings. (I’m sure there’s a song in there somewhere!)
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Then at the weekend we held a special event to celebrate Mothers Day, and invited Mums to come and have their photograph taken with one of our Owls. Over 40 mums accepted the invitation and went away with an unusual photograph with which to commemorate the day.
Mums of all ages visited us for a special Mother’s Day photo opportunity
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As always, bird welfare is never far from the hearts of all at the sanctuary and just recently, we were contacted by the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust who told us about a wild, male buzzard who had been found in a very poor state. It was clear that he had a badly damaged wing that needed immediate attention and further investigation showed that the secondary feathers on the damaged wing had been very badly smashed.
A buzzard like this will soon arrive to take up residence at S.O.S.
For a while it was touch and go for the poor chap but modern medicine can work miracles however and incredibly, the buzzard not only recovered but also regained 85% of his power of flight. But although this is pretty fantastic, and although rehabilitated animals should ideally always be returned to their natural environment whenever possible, there are always going to be cases where this is just not in the animal’s best interests. The ‘wild’ can be a pretty tough place and even with 85% flight and in this case the buzzard would struggle to survive.
So this is where we at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary come in: a couple of CWT liaison officers came to visit us at the sanctuary, are happy that we can provide the ideal home for the disabled buzzard and we are now looking forward to our new arrival. We’ll let you know how he settles in.
There is, however, a slight twist to this story. For a ‘wild’ bird, this buzzard is apparently remarkably tame, which begs the question… was he a ‘wild’ buzzard to begin with?
You may remember that, last year, some misguided members of the public broke into the sanctuary and attempted to set a number of the birds free. We stressed then that any captive-reared creatures are simply not equipped to survive in the wild. If our new buzzard was reared in captivity and then misguidedly ‘set free’, then his current plight just serves to prove the point!
But we can assure anyone who is at all concerned that he will have the very best of care and a safe, comfortable environment here with us for the rest of his natural life. Why not come and see for yourself!