Culture Vultures

Our program of new Adventure Activity Days for children took place last Saturday. The day - entitled “Egyptian Mummy Madness” - has been devised to teach youngsters all about falconry and birds of prey within an ANCIENT EGYPTIAN context.  


Clearly, raptors played a very significant role within the culture of Ancient Egypt, especially vultures & falcons - birds native to the region with which the Egyptians would have been familiar with on a day-to-day basis. With this in mind our group of young enthusiasts set out to examine just how important these birds were in relation to the religious and cultural beliefs of the anccient dynesties, beginning with the Legend of Horus, the famous Egyptian god with a man’s body and the head of a falcon.

Horus was the God of the Sky, bearing a name which literally translates as “The One Far Above”.  I can’t think of a creature more appropriate than the Falcon to embody this sentiment and clearly the ancient Egyptians thought so too - falcons are capable of flying higher than most other birds. On this basis it was believed Horus was physically able to get closer to the most important and powerful of all the Egyptian deities, Ra, the Sun God - and therefore became one of the most important Egyptian spirits.  

Horus was usually depicted as either a man with a falcon’s head or as a pure falcon, and as a consequence, Egyptians also firmly believed that their Pharaoh of the day (a divine king) was the earthly incarnation of the God of The Sky.

The ancient Egyptians had many different beliefs about Horus, the most common being that he was the son of Isis and Osiris, the Gods of Fertility. Legend has it that after Osiris was murdered by his brother Seth, Horus fought with Seth (his uncle) for the throne of Egypt.  During the course of their 80-year battle, Horus lost an eye but the Gods later collectively judged Horus to be the winner and restored his sight.  As a mark of respect and remembrance, Horus then offered the eye to the Gods in memory of his late father, Osiris.

After the battle, Horus was chosen to be the ruler of the world of the living, so becoming Pharaoh and vice-versa.  From that moment, the “Eye of Horus”, otherwise known as Udjat, was considered a very powerful symbol of life and protection in Ancient Egypt and is represented in iconology as the combination of a human eye and the cheek markings of a falcon.

In order for our young adventurers to see the close resemblance between the Udjat and these avian markings, we took a close look at two of the falcon species at S.O.S. with which the ancient Egyptians would have been very familiar. So Flint, our Lanner Falcon and Nell, our Saker Falcon stepped up for inspection of the dark streaks of feathers just beneath their eyes, called ‘Malar’ stripes. Rather like athletes putting blacking under their eyes to prevent glare (cricketers and American Footballers spring to mind), the biological theory is that these stripes prevent glare when flying directly towards the sun as the falcons prepare to ambush prey. The picture above shows a Lanner falcon with a red arrow marking the position of the Malar stripes.

As mentioned previously, Horus’ parents were called Osiris & Isis and here at S.O.S. we have a female Pharaoh’s Eagle Owl called - yes, you’ve guessed it - Isis. This species is also known as Savigny’s Eagle Owl or Desert Eagle Owl, the latter being particularly appropriate as it is found throughout North West Africa from Morocco to Egypt, across most of the Sahara, Sinai, Syria, Israel to Palestine and from Western Iraq to the East Arabian Peninsula - very dry stuff!  

The Pharaoh's Eagle Owl inhabits the rockier desert regions within its range, particularly the gorges, cliffs and rocky mountain slopes which provide the bird with good hunting opportunities and suitable nest sites.  It has also been said that these owls have been known to nest amongst Egypt's most famous (man-made) mountains, the Pyramids. I am afraid that I can neither confirm nor deny this fact, but nesting on a Pharaoh’s tomb would certainly explain how this bird got its more commonly used name!


All this led our Activity Adventure group on nicely to ancient Egyptian pictorial writing, or “hieroglyphics.”  How so? you say!  The answer is simple as the Owl is used in the hieroglyphic alphabet to represent the letter ‘M’.  I say that the answer is simple, but in fact it took several noted Egyptologists many years to decipher the hidden meaning of the hieroglyphs, with the code eventually being cracked in 1822 by Jean-François Champollion using the now famous Rosetta Stone to help with translation.


Studying this amazing alphabet inspired us to use dough to fashion some traditional Egyptian writing tablets of our own, onto which we inscribed our names in true hieroglypgical fashion.  This gave us the opportunity to take a look at Verdi’s operatic masterpiece AIDA, an Egyptian ‘soap’ on the grandest scale and for which a recent marketing campaign used hieroglyphics as part of its advertising campaign.  Still in creative mood, our group then carved a copy of the Pharaohs Eagle Owl, inspired by a photograph I took in the British Museum. Meanwhile one of our older adventurers made a Falcon pectoral - a piece of funeral jewellery.  


To round off this culturally stimulating day, we decided to have a look at the Egyptian Goddess Nekhbet, who was represented in the form of a vulture.  There are several vultures native to the Middle East, but the two we chose to study were the Griffon and Egyptian vulture.  

Due to her vulture form, Nekhbet was linked to the goddess Mut, the mother goddess and second wife of the ancient Egyptian god, Amen. Both Mut and Nekhbet were iconised as a particular type of vulture, the Griffon, usually associated with goddesses and royalty.

Due to vultures’ immense size, power and ability to soar high in the sky, they - like the falcons - were considered to be nearer to the Gods than mere mortals. Their wide wingspan was regarded as all-encompassing, providing both a gentle and protective covering to their infants whilst being forcefully capable of defending them.  So as well as being famed for her maternal instinct, in common with many Egyptian protective deities Nekhbet also had a fierce side, too - she was linked to war and combat and in many war scenes she is depicted hovering above the Pharaoh, protecting him from his enemies.

All these qualities inspired the imagination of the Ancient Egyptians. They adopted the vulture as a powerful symbol of maternalism, and so Nekhbet was worshipped as the protector of the king and the common man, revered as the Goddess of childbirth and esteemed as the Goddess of the Sun and the Moon. 

Due to her high ranking status, Nekhbet was also charged with holding the symbol of Eternity in her talons and in her honour, those on our Activity Adventure decided to re-create a piece of ancient Egyptian artwork based on many of the tomb paintings we had investigated as we uncovered her story.   

We hope she would have approved and possibly afford us some protection as we travel through life to our next Activity Adventure Day, which is called PIRATES of the SKIES and takes place on the 14th July 2007 here at SOS.  We hope to see you there! For more details, please follow this link.

Thunderbirds Are Go!

Our series of Adventure Activity Days for children continued here at SOS earlier this month and although entitled, “Thunderbirds ‘R’ Go!”, there wasn’t a Gerry Anderson-style marionette to be found anywhere!

The reason is that the birds in question related to a much older legend, that of the Thunderbird, the spiritual icon of many native cultures in the Americas long before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. However, it was Columbus who first referred to the peoples he found there as Indians, believing (incorrectly) that he had arrived in Asia, which the Spanish referred to as the ‘Indies’.

However, the Native American Indians were not a single race of people as many of the first Europeans thought. The incumbents were made up of many different tribes, each rich with its own individual cultural heritage, customs and traditions. But one particular myth appears to have bound all of these tribes together - the legend of the Thunderbird.

So why do we make a legend the subject for one of our popular activity days? The simple answer is that the “Thunderbird” was supposed to be a giant raptor, potentially the largest bird of prey that ever lived. It was reputed to have a wingspan equal to the length of two war canoes which, at sixty-three feet in length, gave a potential wingspan of 126 feet! The Thunderbird got its name because many of the Native American Indian tribes believed this bird caused fierce storms as it flew through the air, and that the noise we call ‘thunder’ was caused by the beating of those enormous wings!

Amongst other Thunderbird legends we uncovered are that they were invisible; were created by the Great Spirit to carry messages from one spirit to another; and had a hand in the creation of all the birds we have today. As author Richard L. Dieterle recounts:

“As the Thunderbirds traversed the heavens, they would occasionally lose a feather. From such feathers, the visible birds sprang into existence. From the large quill feathers of the Thunderbirds came the race of EAGLES; from other large feathers came the race of HAWKS and their kind; from small feathers came such birds as PARTRIDGES; from the down feathers came the small birds like ROBINS and PIGEONS; and from the mere fuzz of down feathers emerged the very smallest birds, such as the SPARROWS and the HUMMINGBIRDS! All birds therefore, are descended from the Thunderbirds.”

For this reason, Thunderbirds, Eagles and Feathers have become an integral part of Native American Indian Art, Culture & Custom.

We continued our day by having a look at some Thunderbird imagery to get a better idea of what we were talking about. A lot of associated pictures illustrate a large raptor with a ‘comb’ on its head. We found the only living raptor from the America’s that matches this description is the male Andean Condor, which has a fleshy or cartilaginous comb on its head and a wingspan of usually between nine and twelve feet.

Then we considered other aspects of the legend - or is it? Even as recently as 2002, people in Alaska reported sightings of an enormous raptor with a large wingspan. Sceptics stated that a bird of this size they saw could not have flown, but this is not completely outside the realms of possibility - we discovered that the prehistoric vulture-like Teratornis Incredibilis had a wingspan of around 16-24 feet and is widely believed to have been capable of flight.

And while we were on the subject, our ‘tribe’ verified that investigators think that Thunderbirds were associated with storms because they followed the drafts to stay in flight, not unlike a modern eagle the rides the air currents found in the mountains. Noted crypto-zoologist John Keel claims to have mapped several Thunderbird sightings and found that they correspond chronologically and geographically with storms moving across the United States. So perhaps there could be some truth in the legend after all!

Back down to earth, we decided to round off the activity day by creating some Indian feather-work of our own, inspired by all the wonderful things we had studied. We decided to try a spot of FEATHER WRAPPING and making DREAM-CATCHERS.

Feather wrapping and cutting was originally a method of communicating with onlookers; worn in the hair or as jewellery, the decoration would indicate a person’s tribe, clan or status. Native American tribes variously used to hang dream-catchers over the heads of sleeping children to filter dreams: the good dreams passed through the centre of the net into the mind of the sleeping person, whilst bad dreams got trapped in the web and perished in the light of the dawn.

So, all-in-all, a fascinating day with lots to discover and plenty to do. If you would like to take part in our next THUNDERBIRD ADVENTURE DAY watch this website for details of our schedule for 2008.

Owlery Explorations

The current academic year seems to be flying by all too fast and the recent half-term holiday meant that our latest Adventure Activity Day for children temporarily changed its timing from the regular Saturday slot to a more family-friendly Thursday.

Our latest adventure was about everything and anything to do with owls - a subject about which we definitely know something (though certainly not everything) about here at SOS! However, the increased use of the internet at home and in most modern schools meant that our young Adventurers where well primed on the subject even before they arrived!

The day began by discovering what our visitors thought they already knew about Owls, and a bewildering array of fact & fiction presented itself!

One particular notion seemed to predominate, this being the idea that all owls are nocturnal. So with this in mind our group took a tour of the Centre to study the many amazing owl species housed at Stonham and dispel this and some of the other inaccurate facts that surround these beautiful birds! Once the major errors & rumours had been addressed and plenty of new facts learned, it was time to deal with the fiction - a fertile prospect, given the many owl myths and legends that can be found in all parts of the world!

Perhaps one of the most common misconceptions about owls is that they are supposed to be intelligent & wise. This arises from the legend that “Athene”, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom was reputed to have an owl as a companion.

In fact, none of her inherent wisdom appears to have been passed on to her feathered friends though as we found out, there is a very good reason for this lack of brain power!

The eyesight of an owl is so important to its livelihood in terms of locating & hunting its prey that its eyeballs take up a huge amount of space within its skull. This literally means there is very little room left for a brain! So whilst owls are undoubtedly beautiful creatures which are superbly adapted for their individual lifestyles, they are in fact not the most intelligent of raptors!

As well as examining the keen eyesight of the owl, we also went on to have a look at some of the other anatomical curiosities that they are particularly well known for. These included their ‘hearing’, their ‘silent flight’, and their ability to ‘create and cough-up owl pellets’ - a subject which, gruesome as it sounds, always fascinates children of all ages.

And talking of pellets (the undigested parts of an owls previous day’s meal), feeding habits and children, due to it being the breeding season our young adventurers also got the rare opportunity to see our baby Snowy Owl chicks being fed: as luck would have it, the first of a new clutch of eggs had hatched just a few days beforehand. At the time of writing we currently have five Snowy Owl chicks from our breeding pair, Norse & Snowdrop, and we are expecting the remaining eggs to hatch very soon - we will of course keep you posted!

Having spent lots of time learning about owls, it was then time to get on with the fun stuff, when everyone got seriously creative and a little bit messy! For this Activity Adventure I asked the children to create some owls of their own in clay, the idea being to incorporate as many of the physical features, characteristics and attributes of owls as they could possibly remember! A wonderful array of ceramic owl-ey creations emerged as a result and many thanks must go to Christopher Soule of the pottery based here at Stonham Barns, who kindly agreed to ‘fire’ our creations for us. Watch this space to see if our models survived the process!

Finally, we enjoyed a fantastic mask-making session where we let our imaginations run riot and launched many new species of owl onto an unsuspecting world, many of whom were so colourful that they would not have looked out of place at a Masquerade Ball.

If you would like to take part in our next OWLERY ADVENTURE DAY which takes place on 16th August 2007, e-mail me as per the address below to reserve your place!

Britsh Falconry Fair

The recent Bank Holiday weekend saw a very unique event in the UK Raptor calendar, one which most falconers and raptor enthusiasts look forward to with relish - “The British Falconry & Raptor Fair”, of which the 17th running took place at Chetwynd Park in Newport, Shropshire.

The show is the ultimate flagship event of its kind in the falconry world, with specialist exhibitors attending from all over the world The fair features continuous arena events on all aspects of falconry, plus major exhibitions by national countryside organisations such as the British Falconers Club, the Hawk Board and the Campaign for Falconry, and is also home to a fantastic Sporting and Wildlife Art Exhibition, which is well worth the visit.

Opening the event was Britain’s ‘First Lady of Falconry’, Jemima Parry-Jones. A woman who is no stranger to the event or to the British Falconry world, she was for many years the proprietor of the National Birds of Prey Centre in Gloucester until she left our shores in 2004 to pursue business interests in America. She has recently returned from the States and many agree that the British falconry scene will be all the better for it! In recognition, her friends and colleagues presented her with a beautiful crystal eagle which simply read, “Welcome back”, sentiments which we at S.O.S. are happy to endorse.

As well as the numerous flying displays given in the main arena at the Fair, there was a fantastic collection of raptors on the weathering grounds there. Each year this display gets more and more impressive as additional species are featured - my favourite was a beautiful PALE CHANTING GOSHAWK, a raptor which is native to Eastern and Southern Africa and is a species you don’t often see outside of zoo collections in this country. Thanks, by the way, to the Central Falconry & Raptor Club who managed the weatherings so ably and assisted visitors with information and the taking of photographs when required.

As well as the live raptors on view, there was also a wonderful collection of raptor images & sculptures to be seen in the Falconry and Wildlife Art Marquee. Organised annually by Chris Christoforu, it features a superb mix of established and up and coming artistic talent which this year included the work of a wonderful sculptor by the name of Bill Prickett. If you would like to know more about Bill’s work please go to www.billprickett.co.uk

Meanwhile, back in the main arena a selection of other highly visual entertainments took place, including the Knights of Arkley, a medieval performance troupe who recreated a wonderful Medieval Jousting Tournament and treated the crowd to a superb display of horsemanship and ancient fighting skills. For more information, visit www.knightsofarkley.com

Finally, a mention should be made of all the trade stands at the event offering a wide range of falconry equipment - the choice was endless, the selection of items mind-boggling - everything from hoods, bells & gloves through to incubators, imprint tanks and four wheel drive vehicles - and the opportunity to compare products, quality & prices just something you can’t do easily on the internet.

The British Falconry & Raptor Fair truly is a wonderful event and a fantastic day out for anyone interested in Birds of Prey and Falconry. It also provides a great opportunity to meet old friends, catch-up on the latest developments and make new friends and contacts (Grant and Ffyona Fergusson of Galloway Falconry - nice to meet you!) So, guys, see you all there - next year!

Dinosaur Discovery

Today saw the third instalment of out New Activity Adventure Days for youngsters here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary.

It was a day full of fascinating facts, looking at all the latest scientific discoveries and in particular examining the many links between dinosaurs and birds - specifically birds of prey, which we in the bird world refer to as RAPTORS.

Raptors in a dinosaur-related context are something many children are familiar with today, thanks in part to Steven Spielberg and his hugely successful Jurassic Park movies; and in fact, starting our day discussing these films provided the perfect spring-board from which to launch the eager young minds on our course to investigating all things dinosaur!  

Velociraptors are the infamous dinosaurs from the Speilberg films that every child seems familiar with.  In their day (83-70 million years ago) velociraptors were ferocious bipedal carnivores with long, stiffened tails and enlarged, sickle-shaped claws on each hind foot, with which they are thought to have killed their prey. This, believe it or not, is how raptors are still defined today - the word ‘raptor’ comes from the Latin word ‘rapere’, which means to seize. That particular dinosaur and all its modern day raptor relatives seize and kill their prey using their feet, or to use the correct terminology, their talons! 

So we began our activity day by investigating all the physical similarities between birds of prey and dinosaurs and took an in-depth look at fossils to discover how they are formed. From this we began to understand what fossils can tell us about animal life on the planet millions of years ago, using as an example the fossil of the famous Archaeopteryx that is regarded as the first true bird. From there we peered further back in time at fossils of a new four-winged dinosaur discovered in 2003 which pre-dates the archaeopteryx.

We discussed how dinosaurs gradually evolved over time, and how scientists have now discovered a primitive form of feather on some fossil specimens.  Called ‘protofeathers’, they look remarkably similar to the the down feathers you get on new born raptor chicks and to demonstrate, we drafted in Baloo (our six week old Bengal Eagle Owl chick) to show the children exactly what ‘protofeathers’ may have looked like.

During the day many interesting questions were raised and we looked at lots of different sources of evidence and scientific theory to undercover the truth.  The one thing that everybody now seems to agree upon - whether they be top ranking scientists or primary school age children - is that dinosaurs did almost certainly evolve into birds!

Finally, to celebrate everything we had learnt during the course of the day, we enjoyed plenty of arts, crafts and games to round off the day - you can see some of the dinosaurs we sculpted from paper & painted in the picture above.

If you would like to take part in our next FREE Activity Adventure Day, see all the dates & details by clicking here, or contact me soon to reserve your place!

Nice Day at The Farm

Today proved to be a busy day for two of the staff (and several of the owls) from the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary when we were invited to attend the “Schools Farm Fair 2007” at the Suffolk Showground on the outskirts of Ipswich.  

Now in its seventh year, this worthwhile annual event is attended by over 3,500 primary school children and teachers from all over the region. The one-day educational show enables them to connect with how their food is produced and to give them an understanding of farming and its relationship with the management of the countryside.

As S.O.S. is a centre dedicated to the rehabilitation of the region’s wild raptors - which is a form of countryside management - the event gave local school children the opportunity to meet some of our residents and being the breeding time of year it is, we were able to take several baby owls to the event. This proved to be a big hit!

The event was incredibly well attended and from the moment the show opened our booth inside a giant marquee - which was filled with all manner of other farmyard animals and wildlife - was surrounded by herds of enthusiastic youngsters.

It was very nice to see some friendly faces from the many schools children we have previously visited as part of our education program, including all our friends from Leiston Primary School who revisited our stand many times during the day!  

The concept of the School Farm Fair was created by the Suffolk Agricultural Association in 2001 and other agricultural associations have followed suit to develop similar events around the Country.
The day also included demonstrations such as 'The Farming Year' featuring an impressive range of farm machinery in action, a farrier at work, a sheepdog display and gun dog races. 

In addition, over 50 commercial and voluntary organisations provide interactive displays to demonstrate the great diversity of farming and countryside activities in the region. Pupils also had the chance to take a tour of the conservation area and ancient woodland trail at the show-ground, where they could see practical conservation in action for themselves.

For the benefit of others involved in the education process, here are a few of the comments from teachers who attended the event:

"This was a day full of rich experiences for the children, particularly those involving contact with animals. There was always someone to ask and all adults were very friendly, knowledgeable and patient".

"The children had a really great day and the visit provided an excellent stimulus for creative follow-up work on our return to school"

"The event provided the opportunity for our children to see farming in action. The children are still keen to tell me things that they enjoyed that day as we continue our science growing project".

"A wonderful day! Long may such an initiative which relies on the hard work of so many contributors be available to our school-aged children".

If you would like any more information about the event past, present & future, visit www.suffolkshow.co.uk for details.

Is it a bird? Is it a Plane?

This week we thought we would tell you about the wildlife rehabilitation work of some of our friends and fellow organisations within the East Anglian region.


As a regular reader of this blog, you may know that here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary we specialise in the rescue, care and rehabilitation of wild UK native birds of prey, many of whom benefit from the respite afforded by our specialist Raptor Hospital which is funded by the generosity of you S.O.S. supporters.


We have many species brought into us each year and if you look back through our diary archive you will see that there are several stories relating to the rehabilitation work of the past few months.


However, having a reputation for wildlife rescue means that just occasionally we get animals brought into us that we either know nothing about, or are not equipped, to deal with -  our field of expertise is very much restricted to Birds of Prey! So what do we do when we don’t know what to do ourselves?


The answer is to call in another expert, and we usually turn to our good friend Alec Suttenwood who runs the local organisation Ipswich Wildlife Care & Rescue for advice. He is very knowledgeable about the care & conservation of our UK native wildlife species and every now and then will pop in to see us at Stonham to tell us about his latest endeavours. This sometimes allows us to meet his fellow passengers on the day, who very often tend to be of the four-legged variety.


This week when he came in he told us about the badger cub featured in our picture. Both he & his sibling were recently spotted near a local main road by a member of the public. At the scene, Alec found that the mother (or “sow” as she should be correctly called) had sadly been the victim of a road traffic accident. Alec’s first course of action was to take the two cubs - brother and sister - to a vet, where it was discovered that whilst the sister had survived the incident unharmed, the male was less fortunate and had received two broken legs. Thankfully the vet was able to treat the fractures successfully and shortly after entrusted the pair back to Alec.


(Incidentally, the title of this story - Brock ‘n’ Bones - is inspired by the fact that Brock is the traditional Anglo Saxon / Old English name for the Badger.)

The rest of the story is a happy one. After a few weeks the orphans were fit enough to be transferred to another organisation, Wildlife Aid, run by Simon Cowell (no relation) down in Leatherhead, Surrey, which specialises in badger care and rehabilitation.  

Wildlife Aid takes in badgers from all over the country and very carefully constructs new family groups from them, as badgers naturally naturally in family groups in the wild.  Once the new family bonds have been established, the badgers are then released into man-made sets in remote areas where they won’t be disturbed by man or be in danger from road traffic. 

We’re pleased to report that the brother and sister pair in this story have now been successfully released back into the wild at a man-made set down in Devon.

Alec’s wildlife care & rescue service is run entirely at his own expense and it really is wonderful to be associated with people who do such dedicated work. So if you come across an injured wild animal, that you think may need assistance then do not hesitate to contact him at the address below.

IPSWICH WILDLIFE CARE & RESCUE
The Bullpen
Belstead Hall Farm
Belstead
Ipswich

Easter Fun

The recent Bank Holiday proved to be a fabulous weekend here at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary!
The flying season officially began on the 31st March, and we couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 2007 season. Lots of people came to see us, taking advantage of the fine, warm weather which also provided us with perfect flying conditions for the three flying demonstrations that we staged each day of the holiday.

The flying team (both birds and falconers!) did themselves proud, with the birds executing many spectacular manoeuvres above the heads of the crowd.  One bird who flew particularly well was our young Snowy Owl, Loki, who wowed the crowds as he went - and then he WENT (literally), flying off over the golf course to delight some surprised golfers with an impromptu display before returning to us an hour or so later!  

Easter weekend saw the successful launch of our new entertainment for children, the “SOS SAFARI”. Just like a real Safari, the aim is to provide a special interactive project which ensures that all our young visitors get as much out of their day as possible by coming to know the many different birds of prey we have at the Centre. Equipped with their free copy of the special Safaris guide book, children are able to wend their way around the centre completing a series of fun tasks including some bird spotting, completing a rubber stamp collection, beak identification, untangling a maze and doing a spot of free-form drawing as they go. 

To celebrate the occasion we also had our EASTER EGG fact boards dotted around the centre, giving visitors many unusual and fascinating facts about the Easter tradition.  (So if you are ever in a situation where you might need to ‘phone-a-friend’ to complete a quiz on the subject, just give us a call!)
And of course we topped off the event with our popular EASTER EGG HUNT, for which we hid lots of decorated eggs around the centre for the children to find and exchange for chocolate ones.  All-in-all it really was a fantastic weekend of family fun and a good time was had by all - we hope that all those who joined us had a wonderful time.

For those of you that didn’t manage to visit us over the Easter break, do remember that there will be other Bank Holidays throughout in year - with other events and activities laid on for all the family!  Please check out our Events page for details.

And lastly, don’t forget our FREE KIDS Activity Adventures. The next one is all about DINOSAURS and will take place on Saturday 28th April 2007.  Places on our Activity Adventures are FREE but please remember you must book in advance to ensure your place!  If you would like to find out about our other Activity Days,please click here for more information!

Schools Out

Today saw the start of our “Activity Adventures” for youngsters here at SOS!

This new series of discovery days will be running throughout the year from Easter to September and have been specifically devised to appeal to youngsters aged 6-12. Admission to each is completely free, the only pre-requisite being that all participants must book their places in advance, either by e-mailing info@owl-help.org.uk or telephoning us on 01449 711425.

Each Activity Day uses our new purpose-built classroom as its base, and many thanks must go to all those who have made the building and the equipping of it possible through their generous donations; and to Dick, Jamie and all those involved for giving up their time to compete the construction.

Our first Activity Adventure was entitled “FASCINATING FALCONRY” and the purpose was a basic introduction to this unique, engrossing and ancient art form.

To begin the day, the group of enthusiastic young visitors were shown how and why falconry came into being, from the training of birds of prey to bring down quarry for food through to its sporting heritage and on to contemporary flying in front of the public as part of modern-day programmes that bring conservation issues to the attention of public in an informative and entertaining way.

Then we took an in-depth, behind-the-scenes tour around the centre, learned many fascinating raptor facts (including a bit of Latin!) and discovered how to tell the difference between the various raptor species with regard to their size, shape, colouring and sex.

This was followed by an ‘arts & crafts’ session in which the youngsters were asked to design and classify their own imaginary bird of prey - a session which proved to be great fun and required large amounts paper, paints, scissors and glue! Among the results were a Rainbow Barn Owl which hunts Gingerbread-men, and a Purple-Footed Owl who has a highly specialized diet and only feeds on Purple-Footed Mice!

Then we watched a flying demonstration - favourite moment, watching the Saker Falcon dramatically follow the lure ably swung by one of our falconers, Matt; witnessed the feeding of our newest arrival to SOS - a 21 day old Bengal Eagle Owl chick named BALOO - and ended the day with a fast-paced & exhausting game of “Predator Vs. Prey” through our children’s maze.

Our next Activity Adventure will be on the 12th April, and once again ALL are welcome! For more details of this and all the events through the summer, please click here.

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing many of you throughout the summer here at The Suffolk Owl Sanctuary!

Good Luck WILL Rub Off

In the immortal words of that kosher Cockney, Dick van Dyke as he chirruped his way through “Mary Poppins”

Chim-chiminey, Chim-chiminey, Chim-chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when,I shake 'ands with you
Or blow me a kiss and that's lucky too!

Well, that was almost the case for one sorry looking Tawny Owl who found its way to us this week.

The bird was brought into the centre late in the afternoon, due to the fact that the owl had spent an undetermined amount of time in a chimney!

The people who brought it in were clearly considerate and very concerned for the bird’s welfare. They had practically had to have their entire chimney dismantled in order to rescue the owl and after that costly business, then drove all the way too SOS in order to get the bird rehabilitated.

When we first opened the cardboard box in which it arrived (our prescribed method of moving injured birds - safe, dark, warm and not so large as to allow the contents to flap its wings and damage itself further), we thought we had discovered a completely new species of owl - the SUFFOLK SOOTY. As we now know, it was simply a Tawny Owl covered in black soot!

We instantly set about cleaning the owl as best we could, starting with eyes, throat and visible airways: the eyes in particular had to be rinsed very carefully to remove the grime, but as soon as we did this, the bird instantly perked up! In the process of cleaning, the resultant copious clouds of soot surrounding the bird made us all cough - definitely not a nice substance to breath into your lungs regardless of what species you are!

After the big clean up, we placed the bird into a hospital compartment overnight to recuperate quietly from its ordeal. But sadly, I have to report that our sooty efforts came to nought - we cannot always work miracles and the owl died the following day.

There could have been several reasons for this - first & foremost because owls are particularly fragile creatures and highly susceptible to shock, which can lead to death.
However, we suspect that in this case the most likely cause was that the bird certainly ingested a large amount of soot in an attempt to free itself from the chimney or clean itself on its way into us.

Whilst on this occasion we were unable to help, we do of course stand by our commitment at S.O.S. to help care for and rehabilitate injured wildlife wherever possible. But as they say, you can’t win ‘em all!

Leiston Green - Recycling Team!

Today was a very interesting day for me as I made an educational visit to Leiston Primary School here in Suffolk.

The day began with over 250 children and staff all seated in the school hall eagerly awaiting the arrival of our feathered education team. On this occasion I took LUNA the Barn Owl, MARA, one of our White Faced Scops Owls, and BRAMBLE, a male Common Kestrel. (He doesn’t like to brag about it but he is the very same Bramble who appeared on the Royal Mail stamps a couple of years ago... but that’s another story!)

Anyways, I was first introduced to the school by the headmaster, in English. But he then informed me that Spanish was a favoured language within school and so went on (I have it on good authority) to introduce me in Spanish, too!

Although my Spanish is neither as good nor as fluent as many of the schoolchildren. I did manage to say HOLA! (hello, in Spanish) - and received a warm HOLA in response from the children. This set me up nicely for what turned out to be a very inspiring day!

So, why was so it inspiring? Well, because many of the children had done vast amounts of research before my arrival: it was truly wonderful to see just how interested these children were in birds of prey and the environment.

Many of the children were confidently able to tell me many facts about OWLS, before I had a chance to inform them - which I have to say, made a refreshing change. Full credit must go to the wonderful teaching staff (in particular Mrs. Frances Hitchcock) who are evidently fundamental to the enthusiastic research process of the youngsters.

After the main display in front of the whole school (in which LUNA showed exceptional skill at sitting on a curtain rail), I then gave an individual demonstration to each class, followed by a question-and-answer session. This set the pattern for the remainder of the day.

However, lunchtime proved to be an equally interesting experience for me. Firstly, Jamie Oliver's recipes made an appearance and very tasty they were too (it’s many years since I last had a school dinner - my, how they’ve changed) and secondly, I was introduced to Leiston Primary School’s GREEN team!

As you can see from the photograph above, the children at the school are very passionate about the environment, and in - their own time - go round to each classroom during their lunch hour to recycle all their waste paper. They even have special badges that say “Green Team - Operator No.1/2/3” etc.

As an Education Officer that tries to educate & inform people of all ages about the need for environmental concern, I found the efforts of these primary school children truly inspiring!

So, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK - Leiston Primary. I hope that the many other schools who read this blog will follow your wonderful and inspiring example, you should be very PROUD of yourselves!

Spar Attraction

Please meet a new addition to the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary raptor collection- a male Sparrowhawk, for whom we have yet to find a name.

The MUSKET (for that is the correct way to refer to a male Sparrowhawk) came to us in a rather unusual way. 

He was brought into us with a large and slightly infected wound to his right wing. As you might know, the name Sparrowhawk implies that this particular species of raptor feeds primarily on sparrows and other small woodland birds, so his ability to catch prey in flight and sso urvive would have been severely compromised with such a level of wing damage.  

But the unusual thing about this particular bird was that it appeared to be completely tame - we would normally expect a wild bird like this to be highly nervous, agitated, and petrified of people. (If not handled carefully, it is not uncommon for human intervention - albeit well-meaning - to put birds of this type under so much stress that they can die of shock!) 

However, this fellow seemed to be very comfortable as our falconers examined him and not in the slightest bit bothered by the attention he received.  

The most likely explanation behind his injury was that he is a captive escapee and as such, had severely struggled to fend for itself himself the wild and damaged himself in the process. When we took it to our specialist raptor vet to get the wing injury treated, he also concluded that this is undoubtedly NOT a wild bird.

As captive bred raptors have very poor natural instincts, principally because they are constantly fed by humans from the day they hatch, to hack this young man back to wild would probably result in its demise. He will have no real perception of what his natural prey should be, neither any understanding of the natural predators that would want to prey on him.

True, eventually hunger will force a raptor to try and hunt for itself but their success rate is invariably low.  More often than not, escapees like this one become injured because they are unaware of the many things that can cause them harm in the wild.  

So, for the time being at least, this little Musket will remain in our charge. Whether he regains full use of his wing remains to be seen but as he is one of our native species and due to his incredibly tame nature, we are seeking the right clearances to house him on display at the Sanctuary so that all may appreciate this bright-eyed raptor at close quarters.

Little Pussy Willow

As most of our readers are aware - our beloved Barn Owl “Willow” sadly passed away last December (2006).

He was a well known and much loved member of the SOS team. We have done our best to inform as many of those who kindly adopted Willow as possible of his demise, but if you failed to receive notification, please accept out sincerest apologies.

As a result of the high numbers of enquiries we received about Willow’s death, we thought it fitting to erect some form of memorial to him as a mutual token of respect to a wonderful bird that had a special place in the hearts of so many people.

We felt that perhaps a living memorial would be the most fitting tribute and so there was only one logical choice - a dwarf Pussy Willow tree. This has now been planted at the Sanctuary and we have had a commemorative plaque put alongside so that all are reminded just how special he was!

What made him so? Well, he was born on the 11th May 1999, bred here at the Centre, and was hand reared by one of our original falconers, Gary Butcher. Willow just happened to hatch on Gary’s birthday and so a bond between them was instantly formed.

Gary was originally convinced that Willow was a girl and regularly referred to him as “my little girl”. The debate continued for sometime until some kindly visitors to SOS offered to pay the cost of a DNA test to determine ‘her’ true sex. And as we now know, the results confirmed that ‘she’ was in fact a ‘he’ - which just goes to show that we don’t always get it right when it comes to determining the sex of birds!

Besides being truly wonderful in appearance and beautiful in flight, Willow was also well know for his ability to hunt for himself - a rather unusual trait for a hand-reared owl. But the ‘wild-flower meadow’ at the back of the flying ground provided an ideal hunting ground for him, the tall wild grasses the perfect spot for hunting voles - a favourite delicacy of all Barn Owls!

Willow’s unbroken voleing record was the catching of not one but two wild voles during a single public demonstration one summer. Although this feat was not an intentional part of the display, it did admirably demonstrate the way in which Barn Owls hunt in the wild for the benefit of our visitors.

But life goes on and so do the needs of the Centre, so for those of you that wish to continue to support us by adopting a Barn Owl at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, please click here to adopt COBWEB, who has taken over the gauntlet (literally) from Willow - and will be seen daily in our flying demonstrations from the 31st March 2007. Your continued generosity will be much appreciated by all.

Flights of Urban Fancy

A major part of our brief at SOS is connected with education - during the course of the year we welcome many thousands of visitors to Stonham, and of course we visit (and are visited by) a variety of schools and other local youth groups eager to learn more about owls and their way of life.

To be properly prepared, we have to do a fair bit of research on our subject and this takes many forms, including books, the internet and learning from the good old-fashioned experience of others. But this week our research took an unusual turn, when we visited an exhibition in London dedicated to anything and everything to do with OWLS.

The exhibition was organised in conjunction with the World Owl Trust, a charity based in Cumbria whose work involves owl conservation and rehabilitation on a national & global scale and to whom a percentage of profits from the sales of paintings at the exhibition were donated. It was a truly fascinating and inspiring experience!

For a variety of reasons, Owls have excited and inspired artists through the ages but this exhibition, entitled “HOO WOT”, brought together the work of contemporary artists from all over the world. It included the work of 36 painters, street artists, sculptors, fashion designers and many more from incredibly diverse backgrounds and cultures, all involved in producing their own unique visions of the Owl.

The most interesting aspect of the show for me was, by far, the number of urban street artists - or GRAF (grafitti) artists as they are known - that have been inspired by the beauty of Owls to create some unusual and imaginative artworks.

The way these artists have combined their own individual street styles with the overall imagery of the owls was well worth seeing! A good example of this fusion of URBAN street culture and RURAL wildlife can be seen in the image at the top of this story featuring a Barn Owl with its wings made up of graffiti-style lettering, created by a Graf artist named Dvate, and by the owl with its wing-feather pattern made up of skulls featured below...

Apart from being visually interesting, these pieces of artwork reinforced our belief that inner-city kids and urban street artists can be just as passionate and concerned about the environment as those of us that work directly with wildlife on a day-to-day basis. This exhibition gave us at S.O.S. many leads and ideas as to how we can connect with a young, contemporary audience who might otherwise appear disinterested.

Perhaps if we can all remain as passionate, focussed and committed about the environmental issues that have concerned and inspired these artists, there just might be a chance that we can save and preserve our native wildlife and the environment in which it lives for future generations, and encourage them to be equally inspired!

The Hoo-Wot! exhibition will shortly be moving to Hastings and is well worth a visit - if you would like more details then please email Ben at hoowot@gmail for information.



Easter Eggs? Maybe Baby!

This week included what proved to be an exceptionally long day for two of the SOS staff and an attractive Bengal Eagle Owl.

Why? Because the staff started the day in East Anglia and the Owl started the day in Ashston-under-Lyme, near Manchester!

The private owner of the Bengal, no longer being in a position to give the bird the daily care and attention it needed, wanted it to go to a Centre where it could be taken care of properly. As a result we were contacted to see if there was any chance we could re-home the bird.

Now, as a rule we usually have to turn down requests of this nature because our main aim in life is the care, conservation and rehabilitation of the British native species in the wild.

But by coincidence, as readers of this blog may know we lost the male Bengal Eagle Owl from our display team earlier in the year due to old age. So when we discovered that the owl being offered was not only the right species and the right sex to provide companionship for our remaining female, Bagheera; and he was also the correct age for breeding - we took up the offer.

The owl in question is a three year old male Bengal Eagle Owl (alternatively known as an Indian or Rock Eagle Owl, originally the species is a native of the Indian sub-continent). He will go under the formal name of Shere Khan, to complement the name of his new lady friend. In this way, both are named after two characters from the famous Jungle Book story by Rudyard Kipling, later made into a popular film by Disney. However, he will affectionately be known as SOX, as that is the name he arrived with! (For more about Shere Khan & the Jungle Book stories, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shere_Khan )

As you can see from the picture, SOX is a prime example of the species, with an imposing stature, characteristic honey colourings, a strong set of talons, visible ear tufts and those unmistakable orange irises (or irides for all you Countdown & Scrabble fans).

So together with my colleague Maz (now Mrs Maz, as she has just got married), I travelled all the way up to Manchester to collect SOX for his relocation to the scenic Suffolk countryside. It was a long and tiring journey by road, taking 10 hours in total for the round road trip. We set off well before first light in order to return the owl to its new home before dusk.

Altogether it was a 438 miles door-to-door journey, but despite it SOX arrived none the worse for wear. After a night’s rest, he was introduced to his new partner for the first time. After a brief squabble - more often the case when new birds are introduced to each other - they have settled down together and we are hopeful that ‘family life’ may begin as quickly as possible.

But there are no guarantees! So for further news, keeping checking this blog and we will give you an update as soon as there is any news! With any luck, we may receive something slightly more exciting than a Cadbury’s Creme Eggs this Easter!

Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Tailmounts

In our last story we reported how three of our over-wintered birds had been brought out of their aviaries in preparation for the summer flying season.

In this story we will be focusing on one of them - Flint, our male Lanner falcon. Or to give him his correct title, Flint the Lanneret.

(In falconry terms, it is only the female of the species that is referred to as a Falcon. Likewise when referring to Peregrines, for example, the male of the species is always referred to as a Tiercel and a male Sparrowhawk is always referred to as a Musket - from which the gun took its name, when firearms replaced falcons as means of providing food for the table.)

At one time, Flint was one of the most popular and spectacular members of the SOS flying demonstration team. However, two years ago he was retired, when we thought it best he become part of our Lanner falcon breeding program.

Sadly, Flint’s breeding partner Gem passed away a fortnight ago. This was a great loss to us as the pair successfully reared young last year: after an examination by out specialist vet Roger, Gem was found to have died from natural causes.

Unfortunately, as we have now entered the breeding season, we faced an LLD (Lonely Lanner Dilemma) as we were unable to find Flint a mate through our breeding contacts. That said, even if we had, it would be unlikely that the new pair would have bonded enough to breed this season.

So the decision was made to bring Flint out of retirement and return him to our flying team. This presented a much better option for him as opposed to being left alone in an aviary, especially as - based on past experience - Flint loves to fly! As you will see if you are able to visit us during the summer months, Flint’s spectacular stoops to the lure are some something to behold!

So, as Julie reported in our story last week about Flying Weights, Flint transferred from the aviary to the weatherings at a weight of 1lb 6oz. Today he weighed in at 1lb 2oz and within within the next day or two he will be at the correct flying weight to begin his re-training for summer demonstration work.

But before he can take to the skies he needed to be fitted with a Tail Mount, which is a job we tackled today. A Tail Mount is a small device attached to the two central deck feathers of the tail tail (which can be seen in the inset photo above). The mount is placed at the base of the tail, where it won’t interfere with the birds flight in any way.

What is the purpose of a Tail Mount? Well, the mount provides a platform for a Bell and a Telemetry Clip. The Bell helps us to locate birds by sound over short distances, if they happen to fly out of sight. Telemetry is a form of radio tracking used to locate birds over longer distances, and the Telemetry Clip simply an anchor for the radio transmitter attached to the bird. As a delicate and expensive piece of electronics, this lightweight piece of equipment is only placed on the bird for the duration of each flight, after which it is removed.

So now, with all fixtures and fittings in place, it won’t be too long before Flint takes to the open skies again for the first time in two years, when he will join his son Lock as part of the SOS demonstration team.