Our first baby Little Owl of the season was a little less straight forward than usual.
Tangle the Little Owl
This very recently fledged Little Owl was brought in after being found in garden, tangled in some sort of threading. It took our team a while to remove the thread from the birds feet and from around the neck, but once removed, they were placed into one of our smaller hospital cages for observation.
The chick was also very thin, so enjoyed a few good meals of mouse, which the team were happy to provide.
A couple of days later, while doing a morning check, more thread was discovered, this time around the wing. However, the team were unable to see where the thread was coming from. With some careful investigation, we were shocked to discover that the thread appeared to be embedded in the wing! Dolly held the patient still while Matt gently pulled the thread out.
Unfortunately, with Little Owls frequently nesting in areas around humans, our litter often causes them issues. We suspect that the thread may have been used in the nest, and the chick must have gotten tangled up in it. As the bird grew, the thread got embedded in the skin, which if left would have caused an infection and almost certain death. After another thorough check for any more thread, an antiseptic was applied to the area to reduce the risk of infection.
The two pieces of thread removed from around the wing, about 1cm of the shorter piece was embedded in the skin!
This little Little Owl has been nicknamed Tangle by the team. They will join the two other Little Owlets that we have in at the moment and once they are all ready, they will be released at one of our hack sites together. All three were ringed in preparation for their release. This painless process involves attaching a small metal ring to the birds leg, with a unique alpha-numeric code. Should a ringed bird be found, it can be reported to the British Trust for Ornithology, who will send the finder and the original ringer a report of the details, such as location, date, condition etc.
Tangle being ringed as part of our post-release monitoring.