When a bird comes into our hospital, we always hope to release them back into the wild as soon as possible, providing they are fit and healthy enough to survive. However, for two Barn Owls, they have spent a significant part of their lives in our hospital due to coming into contact with man made threats.
Sticky came to us in September 2019 having been found stuck in a glue trap. Despite our best efforts to minimise the damage, the glue took several days of delicate washing to come free from the feathers, by which time it had already caused irreparable damage to those primary feathers. All birds can moult their feathers if they get worn or damaged, and in raptors this usually takes 2-3 months for them to replace 2-4 feathers (they won’t replace all their feathers at once as this would make it impossible for them to fly and find food in the wild).
Falconers have learnt ways to encourage a bird to moult, and these methods were used with Sticky. However, she wanted to do things in her own time and, as she would in the wild, she grew out her feathers 3 or 4 at a time.
Holewing was found in May 2020 having been caught up in barbed wire. We recently shared another blog about fatal fences. Holewing was so named because of the hole in his wing, which our consulting vet, Elliot, did a marvellous job of patching up. Because of the damage, we knew that Holewing would need more time in our hospital than most birds, so we decided to put him in a large aviary with Sticky.
These two become companions over the past few months. We were pleased to see the hole disappear in Holewing’s wing and Sticky moulted the last of her damaged feathers.
We intended on releasing them via our Hack Pen, which was completed in October last year, but given the length of time they had been with us, we didn’t want to rush this process. We had a few other birds that we felt would benefit from a period in the hack pen before release, so Sticky and Holewing stayed with us over the winter. Then at the end of January, just as we were planning on putting them out, we were hit by that snow, and if there’s one thing that knocks Barn Owls, it’s snow!
Holewing on the left and Sticky on the right, both ready for release.
Having waited until early spring, we hope that the weather will not cause any issues for the Barn Owls when they are released. In preparation for this, Sticky became the first rehab Barn Owl to be ringed for a number of years, as Holewing already had a ring on! This means we were able to find out exactly when and where he was ringed - in a nest box east of Thetford in 2014 as a chick!
Sticky being given a unique metal ring.
Ringing wild birds is useful as it helps scientists see why populations change over time, track migratory birds which may be caught on either their breeding or wintering grounds here or abroad and also gives an idea on the general health of birds. Barn Owls are routinely ringed as chicks in nest boxes by licensed volunteers, as Holewing demonstrates.
Susan is a bird ringer, so was able to assist with taking biometrics of the birds. Here she is measuring Holewing’s wing length.
By ringing our rehab birds, we hope to discover where our birds disperse to after release. We are keeping everything crossed that they may be subsequently found breeding in one of the many Barn Owl nest boxes found in the area as part of the scheme we run in conjunction with volunteers from the Thornham Owl Trust and is funded by the generous donations of S.O.S. supporters.. We will share any ringing recoveries here on our blog, so watch this space!
Sticky, showing off all her new feathers which she’s grown while in our aviaries.
For more information about bird ringing, please visit the British Trust for Ornithology website:
www.bto.org