We were called about one Little Owl that was found on the ground unable to fly, which is not unusual and follows their natural fledging pattern - however this particular one was weak and there was little evidence over a few days of parents, so he was picked up and brought to us for care . No longer than 24 hours later a second appeared in a similar condition so we can assume there was some potential predation of the nest due to the lack of adults being around.
Luckily the site is located on a huge estate and there were plenty of places these two could be released back into, so after a week of rest and recuperation (and a feed up!) these two were returned to their home in a hack pen to be supported over the coming weeks. Although we mostly look for rural and remote locations for our hack sites, Little Owls are well adapted for living near people, and often nest in walls and roof spaces of buildings. We tucked their hack pen in between some buildings to keep it sheltered but with an open flight path to fields for them to access for hunting when released.
