2021 - A Year In Review

As we approach the end of 2021, we thought we should review some of the key stories from the past twelve months.

We are forever grateful to our supporters, both local and further afield, who have continued to support us throughout the past twelve months. By sponsoring our birds for yourselves, friends and family, making donations to our appeals, purchasing items from our Wishlist, nominating us for grants and awards, sharing our posts on social media and visiting us in person, you are the reason we can continue to do what we do, so THANK YOU!

January

We started the year in lockdown, due to the double whammy of Covid and Avian Influenza.

The hospital saw a few cases, including this Sparrowhawk who had flown into a window and was unable to stand. She had swelling on her spine, so the team fashioned a sling to support her body weight while she was given food and medication. After a week or two she was supporting herself and transferred into an aviary so we could monitor her for any long term damage. Once assessed by our vet, she was deemed ready for release again.

Sparrowhawk in a sling to support her weight

February

February started COLD and we had several Snow Days where staff and volunteers from further afield were unable to get in. Thankfully, some of our staff live locally and were able to attend to the needs of our birds, animals and care for our Raptor Hospital patients too.

Keeper Beckie trudging through the snow to look after the animals.

Keeper Nick clearing snow from the doorway to the Falconers Hut.

Ruby, our Rüppells Griffon Vulture not enjoying the snow!

We had an interesting story when a pair of Kestrels were found inside a holiday property over Valentines weekend. They must have gone down the chimney thinking it was a suitable place to build a nest, but ended up locked inside the bedroom until the owner found them. The birds, named Romeo and Juliet, were dehydrated, but otherwise in good condition and after a few days in the Hospital they were returned to the garden of the property, where a nestbox had been installed for them to use.

Romeo, the male Kestrel just before release

While we were in Lockdown, some of our staff took the opportunity to train as Dementia Friends, to better support any visitors who require some additional help.

Catherine, one of our Shop staff and Susan our Education Officer are now Dementia Friends

March

Two Barn Owls were released in March, following long stays in the Raptor Hospital. Sticky was found stuck to a glue trap, which damaged her feathers so much that she was with us for over 18 months while she replaced her plumage. Holewing spent 10 months with us after being found stuck on a barbed wire fence. The metal had punctured his wing and this took some time to repair, then regain muscle fitness. The two were paired together for release, as Holewing was an older bird and Sticky was a youngster. These two birds were the first to be ringed in recent years before their release. By ringing rehab birds, we have a chance of finding out if our releases are successful, as we hope that these birds will be found breeding in a nestbox somewhere local in future years.

Our Education Officer Susan (who is also a bird ringer) measuring the wing length of one of the Barn Owls while ringing.

March also saw the completion of our major winter building project, as our new breeding block was finished. This off show block of aviaries allows our birds some peace and quiet away from visitors. We also took advantage of us still being closed to work on some of the older aviaries. Mir, our Steppe Eagle, is an original resident, and her aviary was looking a bit tired, so she was temporarily relocated while we replaced the mesh and built up one side to provide her with a bit more shelter from the weather.

One of our original aviaries got a make over while we were closed to visitors.

To help furnish the new aviaries, we were delighted to receive some native trees and shrubs donated by Botanica Plant Nursery in Campsey Ashe and Sandy Lane Nursery in Wattisfield, as well as some cut timber from local tree surgeons, Special Branch Tree Services.

Rufus with Cecil our Spectacled Owl, inspecting one of the new donated trees.

Large trunks like this make perfect perches in our aviaries!

April

As Covid restrictions were lifted, the Hospital saw a massive increase in the number of birds brought in after vehicle collisions. This included a Kestrel, Tawny Owl, Little Owl and a couple of Barn Owls all within a few days of eachother. Interestingly, one of the Barn Owls was wearing a metal ring on his leg, which allowed us to find out where he’d come from. He’d been ringed as a chick in 2012 near Boxford, making him almost 9 years old, earning him the nickname “Grandad Owl”. Thankfully, these birds all recovered from their injuries and were released after a short stay in the Hospital.

One of the Tawny Owls with eye damage following a collision with a vehicle

We used the services of our specialist avian vet Dr Elliot Simpson from Aquila Veterinary Services to check that all of our Hospital Birds are in good health before release. In April, he performed surgery on a Kestrel which we named Cowlick, as she was found being licked by cows on the floor of a barn. Unfortunately, this bird had an infection in her foot, which didn’t clear up after medication so Elliott had to operate to remove the infected tissue. After a few weeks under observation, she was deemed fit for release and returned back to the farm where she had been found.

We were pleased to be allowed to reopen to visitors following months of lockdown. Our staff, volunteers and birds had certainly missed having visitors, and with the weather improving, our displays became the focus of our activities each day. For some of our younger birds, this was their first experience of having an audience!

Head Falconer Rufus with Boris, our Lockdown Ashy-faced Owl… he soon got used to having an audience and by the end of the summer was delighting our visitors with his flying!

May

May saw our Education Team return to face to face teaching, with several outreach visits to local schools and youth groups. Susan was ably assisted on these visits by Bethany as they delivered our All About Owls session, Pellet Detectives activity and read a number of popular owl-themed children’s books.

Susan and Bethany delivering a session to children at The Hive

Another visit from Dr Elliott Simpson, this time to treat a Buzzard which had a case of frounce, a yeast infection which causes difficulty swallowing.

Dr Elliott Simpson checking the condition of a Buzzard that was brought in with frounce.

June

In June, we were awarded the Learning Outside The Classroom Quality Badge, to recognise our commitment to providing a safe educational experience for schools and groups visiting us at the Centre.

We also took on two new Trainees, Dolly and Jade. They were both volunteers prior to gaining employment with us, and have become valuable members of the team, helping with all aspects of our work, including training birds, helping with the Raptor Hospital and school bookings. We also celebrated National Volunteers Week with social media posts about some of our Volunteers.

Volunteer Sarah raking the Meerkat enclosure, while they supervise!

The first batch of young Owls were released in June, as three Tawny Owls found separately were put into our hack pen near where one of them was found. Although initially reluctant to leave, by the morning all three had vacated but were seen in the area for a few weeks following their release.

The three Tawny Owlets when they first arrived

July

A different species of young Owl came to us in July, in the shape of Little Owls. Christian Bale, as he was named, had unfortunately got himself tangled up in baler twine around a bale of hay, and had been transported from the field to the farm yard before being found. Thankfully, there was no lasting damage and the next day two more were brought in, having been found abandoned locally and covered in fly eggs and maggots. Before the end of the week, a fourth Little Owl arrived, who was found out in the open, and we suspect that he was stolen from the nest by a stoat or weasel, who was disturbed and dropped him in the middle of the field. Once these babies had been assessed and we were sure they would all be ok, they were released locally in someone’s garden, where they could be provided with food for as long as was necessary for them to disperse.

Little Owlets in the Hack Pen ready for release

With the start of the Summer holidays, visitor numbers soared. We operated a pre-booking system to have some control on numbers and this was well received by visitors, some of whom were still understandably nervous about being out and about following months of isolation. Our Admin staff did a great job of dealing with the bookings and welcomed everyone to the Sanctuary with a big smile, even if they were hidden by masks. Our staff and volunteers outside worked hard to ensure that the whole Sanctuary was kept in tip-top condition and to remind visitors of the social distancing rules.

Incoming! Cecil our Spectacled Owl didn’t adhere to social distancing when flying low over the audience’s heads!

Rafiki, our African Spotted Eagle Owl, wowing the crowds during our popular flying displays

Jack/ Rose, one of our Hooded Vultures, demonstrating just how beautiful Vultures can be1

August

Our popular Photography days with wildlife photographer Paul Sawer ran throughout the summer, and were blessed with good weather.

As the good weather continued throughout the summer holidays, we introduced some new elements to our flying displays, including a Food Chain game which gets the whole audience participating, even if they don’t volunteer to go up the front!

Falconers Rob and Tim leading the audience in our Food Chain game.

Our Hack Pen has been put to good use this year, and in August it was relocated to another area to avoid over-populating the immediate area with released birds. The first residents at the new location was a group of four Tawny Owls, two adults who had been with us for some time and two juveniles who had been placed into the adults care to avoid imprinting. Before release, these birds were ringed so that we might hear where they end up if they are found at a later date.

Farmer Sam with his family and one of the Tawny Owls about to go into the Hack Pen.

September

The start of September saw the return of our British Sign Language Day. Whilst we always support those visitors who require additional support to enjoy a visit to us, on this day all of our talks and displays are accompanied by a BSL interpreter.

Natalie, our BSL interpreter, signing for the deaf visitors while Bramble flies past.

We had a number of patients in the Raptor Hospital in September, which required some specialist advice from Dr Elliott Simpson. This included a window collision Sparrowhawk which had concussion, a Little Owl with a mysterious infection and a young Kestrel which for some unknown reason, won’t fly!

Jess holding a Sparrowhawk in the Raptor Hospital while Dr Elliot Simpson gives it a check over.

September saw a number of Buzzards brought into the Hospital, which gave us an opportunity to do some ringing training before they were released.

Dr Hugh Hanmer from the British Trust for Ornithology taking some measurements from the Buzzard while it was being ringed under licence.

Trainee Jade assisted Education Officer Susan at an all day event in Bury St Edmunds. Public engagement is an important skill for trainees to learn and Jade was a natural at talking to all the young visitors to our stall and answering their questions about our birds.

Trainee Jade with Auckland, meeting young people at an event in Bury St Edmunds.

We also welcomed a team from AXA, who came in to help us for the day. They helped Gary, from our Maintenance team, rebuild the bird hide in the Woodland Walk.

The team from AXA with Gary, one of our Maintenance team, having completed their team building volunteer day.

October

In October, we celebrated World Postcard Day with our Meerkats, who received postcards from all around the world!

One of our Meerkats reading a postcard from the USA

Due to being over subscribed during the summer holidays, we ran some additional dates for our Young Falconers Course over the half term break.

Falconer Tim with Rio, our male Kestrel and one of the Young Falconers

Our Trainees were given the opportunity to deliver some of our displays, as visitor numbers were lower in the autumn months,

Trainee Dolly, working with Cecil while falconer Tim keeps an eye on things.

Our Education Officer spent a weekend attending the virtual International Zoo Educators Conference. This was a fantastic opportunity to learn from conservation educators from around the world about new methods of engaging learners and visitors with conservation messages.

An International delegation for the virtual conference

November

We had a surprise visit from our local Waitrose store, who donated some money to our Raptor Hospital.

(L-R) Jennie, our Fundraiser, Jenny from Waitrose Ipswich, Jess, who runs our Raptor Hospital, Lincoln, our Bald Eagle and Maz, our General Manager, accepting the donation from their “Give a Little Love” Campaign.

Jess was able to purchase a new microscope for the Raptor Hospital using donations from Shadwell Charities Committee and Animal Survival International. This has already been used to screen incoming patients for parasites such as worms, as well as diagnosing digestive issues, which has allowed us to treat them quicker.

Jess checking samples for parasites and abnormalities on our new microscope.

Following discussions, we were pleased to welcome some Conservation Kickstart trainees from the Museum of East Anglian Life for a visit to learn more about our work. This will hopefully lead to them supporting our Rescue and Rehab work by providing a supported hack release site within the grounds of the Museum in Stowmarket.

Jess with Lincoln our Bald Eagle, talking to some of the trainees from the Museum

We started working on a new project for next year, with the help of local film-maker Paul Studdy. This will provide us with footage of our birds to use for educational sessions, social media and website posts as well as to share with a wider audience some of the amazing birds that we have here.

Bandit, one of our young Great Grey Owls being filmed for a new project.

We received a call from Marine Wildlife Rescue about a Short-eared Owl that had been found on a vessel working on an offshore wind farm. As a specialist Raptor Rescue Hospital, we were able to take it in for treatment and to assess the damage. After a short stay with us, it was given the all clear by Dr Elliot Simpson and ringed before being released back near the coast where it was found.

Short-eared Owls are not a very common species to have in rescue - this was only our second in 25 years!

December

Our Keepers attended a training day with Suffolk Prickles in preparation for our first guests at the Hedgehog Hotel this winter. The day involved learning how to handle hedgehogs and assess them for the various issues they might have. We are very much looking forward to supporting Suffolk Prickles by helping to look after hedgehogs which are not of sufficient weight to hibernate successfully. They will be provided with food and warmth throughout the winter with us, before being released in the Spring.

This Hedgehog will need to regrow it’s prickles before being released.

All year we have been plugging our Amazon Wishlist on social media. We have been so happy to receive items donated by our followers, and each item has been put to good use, whether that’s enrichment toys for the birds, gardening tools or supplies for our Raptor Hospital. Early December it felt a bit like Christmas had come early when we received a trail camera to help us monitor our birds behaviour when we’re not watching. Then a few days before Christmas, we received another selection of items for the Raptor Hospital, Hedgehog Hotel, tools for the falconers to use and a big box of chocolates (not on the list but very much appreciated!)

Christmas came early with all these WishList donations from supporters arriving one weekend.

Trainee Jade getting very excited about receiving some items from our Wish List!

A new home for Bumble

We have held Ural Owls for a number of years, and Bea and Bumble were some of our most popular non-display owls, due to them being sponsored by Suffolk Libraries.

Unfortunately, earlier this year, Bea died unexpectedly due to natural causes, leaving Bumble by himself for the first time in years. Although Owls in the wild are solitary, in captivity they can make close bonds with another owl when housed in the same aviary, and our falconers noticed that Bumble was a bit more withdrawn than normal following the sudden loss of Bea.

They started making enquiries at other collections for a female Ural Owl to keep Bumble company. Unfortunately, this species of Owl is not that common in captivity and there are only a handful of collections which house them.

We heard that Cotswold Falconry Centre have a mature female who they were keen to pair with a male and the opportunity was too good to miss! The female has laid eggs previously, but without a male to fertilise them, has not been able to rear her own chicks. However, she has often adopted other chicks and reared these through the fledging, so is proven to have the mothering instinct.

Towards the end of the year, Bumble was collected and made the trip to the South West of England. He has gone to live there on loan, and we are keeping everything crossed that he will get along with his new partner and that together they will produce chicks.

Although listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, Ural Owls face a number of threats similar to our native owls, mainly habitat loss and the associated competition for food and nesting sites with other apex predators such as Eagle Owls.

They have been successfully reintroduced into areas of their historic range, following local extinctions due to persecution and habitat loss. You can read more about this here.

We will keep you updated on how Bumble gets on at Cotswold Falconry Centre, and look forward to welcoming him back to Suffolk in the future.

Bumble has settled well into his new home.

Christmas delivery

As we approach Christmas, delivery drivers are working overtime to ensure that our gifts and groceries arrive in time for the big day.

Over the weekend, we received a call from a concerned Morrisons delivery driver, who had found a Barn Owl stuck inside the space of the green plastic casing above the cab of his van. Quite how the Owl found itself in this predicament is beyond us, but after carefully extracting the bird, it was brought to us for a check over.

The Owl was found in the plastic casing above the cab of the van - as you can see, not really a suitable place for an Owl to be!

Thankfully, there appear to be no broken bones, but it does have some soreness to a wing, for which it received some pain relief. Although the Owl wasn’t overly thin, it was very dehydrated, so we also gave it some rehydration solution. Within a few hours it was looking a bit perkier, and was feeding itself, so we are hopeful it will make a full recovery.

The Barn Owl has received some pain relief and will hopefully make a full recovery.

Something Prickly is coming soon...

Two of our keepers, Nick & Jennie spent a morning in early December at Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue at Stonham Aspal, to finish their Level One Hedgehog Care training, which was delayed due to the pandemic. 

The course entails learning about some basic ecology needs such as nests building, hedgehog activity during the year, what hedgehogs eat and 'normal' hedgehog behaviour. Under the watchful eye of Paula they mastered their Hog handling skills, from lively juveniles, up to some large adults. Paula also tested them on how to read a hog’s body language to determine its health issues and possible problems.

Hedgehog handling is a key part of the course

 They then helped the volunteer on duty with cleaning out the hog’s boxes, putting out food and water and the most important bit - weighing the hogs! It really highlighted the importance of the daily weight checks, as some had lost weight overnight and some had gained. This can be due to the weather conditions or a sign of getting better (if weight gained) after medication course has finished.

These young Hedgehoglets are tucking into their food after being rescued.

We will be working in partnership with Suffolk Prickles, with the Hedgehog Hotel at SOS being the last step of their recovery, offering both inside shelter and outside space to forage naturally as they rehabilitate before being released back into the wild on their home ranges where they were found if possible.

Our Hedgehog Hotel will soon have some guests.

 Strange items will start appearing on our Amazon wish list soon, and will be shared with Suffolk Prickles also a registered charity so we can help each other to help more Hogs!

Volunteering as a student

Many of our volunteers here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary are young people looking to gain practical skills and experience to enhance their CVs for the world of work. Animal care is a highly competitive field and jobs are often over-applied for, so having voluntary experience can sometimes help move you nearer the top of the pile. Here’s what one of our Volunteers and Work Experience students, Izzy, had to say.

I am a third-year undergraduate student studying for a BSc Ecology & Wildlife Conservation degree at the University of Reading.

I’ve been a volunteer at SOS for over a year, so when the opportunity arose to do a credited work placement for university, I knew SOS would be the perfect place to undertake this. I thoroughly enjoy volunteering at SOS and strongly believe in the ethos of the setting – wildlife education and direct conservation through the rehabilitation.

Izzy has worked with many of our birds, including our young Ashy-faced Owls

Day to day tasks include feed preparation and distribution, aviary/enclosure cleaning and general site maintenance. There’s a lot of cleaning involved in animal husbandry to keep the animals happy and healthy, but this is one of my favourite jobs as I wholeheartedly believe I am at my happiest in the outdoors when covered in mud, rain, or animal poo! If you are willing get stuck in with the “less glamourous” jobs, then I absolutely recommend volunteering because you more than get out what you put in.

Some of the highlights of my placement have included provisioning enrichment devices, working with critically endangered species, and assisting in the raptor hospital. I developed my animal handling skills in the raptor hospital through safe capture, restraint, and transport of birds. It is an absolute privilege to be able to be able to assist with the care and rehabilitation of sick and injured raptors, knowing that so many are released back into the wild, directly contributing to East Anglia’s populations of wild raptors.

Izzy got to help with some of the Raptor Hospital procedures, including holding birds while they received medication

Creating enrichment for the animals was fun, but quite the challenge! The animals are so intelligent, it certainly makes coming up with new ideas a challenge. Nonetheless, Fred the caracara seemed to particularly enjoy his ‘kerplunk’ style enrichment! I’ve also really enjoyed working on enriching target training exercises with Diamond the silver fox.

Fred with his Kerplunk game

I’ve loved working with the critically endangered vultures: Ruby the Rüppells Griffon Vulture and Jack and Rose the Hooded Vultures. These species are very misunderstood and widely persecuted in the wild, so it has been very important to me to know I am playing a part in their education and conservation.

Alongside typical animal husbandry duties I have greatly improved more specialised skills, such as changing the birds’ equipment, attaching telemetry devices, assisting with the training of the centre birds, and helping with the daily weigh round. I have enjoyed accompanying the trainee falconers on weigh rounds because it’s great opportunity to assess the birds individual characters, behaviours, health, and how that influences diet and nutrition.

Izzy with one of our Harris Hawks

I have been able to develop animal husbandry skills across a wide range of taxa, including birds of prey, small mammals such as foxes and meerkats, and invertebrates.

I’ve also developed communication and public engagement skills by assisting at meerkat talks - and by jumping around as a grasshopper during food chain demonstrations over summer! Communication and education play a vital role in conservation, so it was a pleasure to be given these opportunities and responsibilities.

Izzy with her presentation about her work placement with us

As much as I adore all the animals, one of the main reasons I love volunteering at SOS is because of the dedication and kindness of the staff; the passion they have for their work and their dedication to my learning has played an invaluable part in my skill development. Working at SOS has enabled me to forge a pathway between my conservation studies and the working world, thoroughly preparing me for my career beyond university.

We are delighted that Izzy also chose to do her dissertation on our Raptor Hospital, and spent part of her summer digitising all of our hospital records, going back over 10 years! This will make it so much easier for future studies to look at patterns and trends in our intakes.

We look forward to sharing the results of her study with you next year, as it is still a work-in-progress.

Ringed and ready for release

With a number of Raptor Hospital patients due for release around the same time, we took the opportunity to invite Dr Hugh Hanmer from the British Trust for Ornithology to come and continue training Jess on how to ring birds. All of these birds were checked and given the all clear by our specialist vet Dr Elliot Simpson prior to being booked for release.

The first bird to be ringed was a Little Owl, which was found beside a road locally. When it arrived it was a very healthy weight of just over 200g, meaning that this was a female (as male Birds of Prey are smaller than females). Having spent some time in one of our outdoor aviaries to monitor for any injuries, we were pleased to find nothing wrong with her.

Jess ringing the Little Owl

Little Owls always appear to be scowling, and this one was no exception. Having said that, she was very well behaved during the ringing process.

The second bird to be ringed was the Kestrel found at a local Tesco. This bird also had no injuries and showed the typical feisty attitude of these mini predators when being ringed.

Jess with the Tesco Kestrel

Lastly, two Barn Owls were ringed together. One of these was picked up on a dual carriageway locally, while the other was found in a recent barn conversion. Both had minor injuries which were treated upon arrival and had made a full recovery. Interestingly, both these Owls were juvenile (hatched this year) females, but had very different plumage.

The two Barn Owls in one of our outdoor aviaries before being rung.

Dr Hugh Hanmer from the British Trust for Ornithology with Jess, studying the feathers on the Barn Owl to determine her age.

All four of these birds are booked for release this week, and we’ll post any footage or updates on our social media channels.

An uncommon patient

At the end of November, we received a call from Marine and Wildlife Rescue , asking if we could take in a Short-eared Owl that they had picked up.

This unfortunate Owl was on its migration from further north (possibly Russia or Scandinavia), where the temperatures have already caused thick snow falls, when it was found entangled in the cables of a wind farm maintenance vessel, off the coast of Felixstowe.

The Owl appears to have tried landing on the cable, but got it’s wing stuck in the oil.

Upon arrival back on land, Dan from Marine and Wildlife Rescue, checked the bird and found no injuries but it was covered in oil from the rigging. When it arrived at our Raptor Hospital, our team carefully washed the affected wing and put the Owl into one of our isolation cages to monitor. There appeared to be no ill effects from its accident and on his regular visit, our specialist vet Dr Elliot Simpson gave the bird a clean bill of health.

Upon arrival, the Owl was not impressed at having to have a bath!

We were thankful to not have to keep it for much longer, as this bird was determined to continue it’s migration and clearly did not take to being held captive, even if for a short time for it’s own good.

We arranged for Dan to collect the Owl to release it on a Suffolk Wildlife Trust Reserve near the coast where it was hopefully heading before its accident. Prior to it being released, we were also able to ask Dr Hugh Hanmer from the British Trust for Ornithology to come and ring the bird. As Short-eared Owls are nomadic and actually go places, it was important to contribute towards the little data there is on them, in the hope that this Owl may be caught by another ringer elsewhere.

During the ringing process, Hugh was able to determine that this was an adult female, so we hope that she will return to her breeding grounds next year and raise more of these beautiful birds.

Before release, the Owl was ringed by a licenced ringer, in the hope that we may find out where it goes.

Barn Conversion dangers

Our favourite Owl is well known for using old farm buildings to nest and roost in, hence why they are called Barn Owls! However, as these buildings have become redundant to agricultural uses, they are often sold off and converted to new homes or businesses. We recently had an interesting case brought into the Hospital, which carries a bit of advice to it’s tale.

We received a call from someone who had found a Barn Owl flying around inside their house. They were able to catch it, put it in a box and bring it to us for assessment, where we discovered it had injuries suggesting it had flown into things in an enclosed space. Upon further discussions with the finder, it turns out that their home was a recent barn conversion, and that prior to them carrying out the work to make the building weathertight, it was a known Barn Owl breeding site.

Barn Owls are a Schedule 1 protected species, which means that their nests are legally protected from disturbance, during the breeding season. Although their breeding season can start as early as March and go through to September or October, during the colder months, Barn Owls will often roost in the same area, sometimes even using the next boxes to shelter from bad weather or stash food for a rainy night.

This Barn Owl had found it’s way into the building via a hole which had been left to install a vent, but then found itself unable to get out.

This Barn Owl was named “Wobbles” as it was a bit disorientated upon arrival. It had sustained some feather damage and some bruising to it’s wing tips, which we were able to give some pain relief for. After a couple of days in our small cages, it was moved to one of our larger aviaries, where it has more space to fly around. Unfortunately, it is still a bit reluctant to fly, so will be under observation for another week before it’s assessed again for release.

We would like to share some advice to anyone converting an old building which may have Barn Owls or other wildlife using the building. Please consider giving them an alternative space, either within or attached to the existing building, or very close by. We can offer free advice on where to locate nestboxes for Birds of Prey if you’re unsure where to begin.

The finder asked us for advice and is now building some nest boxes to provide Wobbles with a safer place to roost before it is released back in the area.

Wurzel Buzzard

Sometimes, birds come in to our Hospital with such a back story, that we have to publish it.

Wurzel was brought in by a local farmer, who saw her get spat out the chute of the combine harvester! Fortunately, the blades weren’t operating at the time, but how she found herself inside the machinery, we have no idea!

Buzzards will often spend time on the ground “grubbing”, which is hunting for worms and other insects. With the relatively mild weather (up until last week) this has been perfect for species which feed on insects, and at certain times of year, insects can make up a large proportion of a Buzzards diet.

However, combine harvesters aren’t known for being particularly speedy, and Buzzards are usually quite quick to get out of the way of large, noisy, scary machinery bearing down on them.

We think that Wurzel may have been in the field grubbing because of another issues, which meant she was unable to get out of the way of the combine before she got caught up. Upon admission, she was showing a tilt to her head, which we think may be a neck injury sustained in the accident. She was in reasonable body weight, but had an interesting lesion in her mouth. Initially, this was thought to be frounce, a yeast infection which causes swelling to the throat and tongue, making it painful for the bird to eat. However, following a visit from our vet Dr Elliott Simpson, it was discovered to be an……. infection. Elliott removed some of the infected tissue to send for analysis and prescribed antibiotics to hopefully clear it up.

We are unsure on the long-term prognosis on this bird, as she still has a pronounced tilt, which we hope will improve given time and rest.

Unexpected item in the bagging area

With the recent stormy weather, many people have been reporting birds in unexpected places.

Last week we received a call from our local vets, asking if we had space for a Kestrel. This bird had been found in one of the metal cages that milk cartons are transported in, round the back of a local Tesco store.

It was taken to the vets, who couldn’t find any obvious injuries, but with Storm Arwen due, it was decided to keep the Kestrel in for a few days to improve it’s chances of surviving.

Now that the weather has settled a bit, we hope to release this Kestrel later this week in a more natural habitat, where there will be plenty of prey for it to hunt and areas to shelter from any future storms.

Joe Volunteer

Volunteers come to us from all walks of life and we are pleased to allow individuals the opportunity to spend time helping us out, in return for learning new skills and knowledge.

Joe joined us a couple of months ago, and volunteers once a week with his support worker Chip. Joe is autistic, and struggles with social situations. However, he loves animals and this really shows in his work.

At home, Joe has a menagerie of animals himself, including snakes, insects and a dog. He has joked about opening up a Zoo himself one day! He enjoys spending time working with our Keepers on the Mammals, and has a soft spot for the Meerkats. Joe is a dab hand at poo picking and spot cleaning the enclosures, and is meticulous with his raking, despite the Meerkats doing their best to make a mess!

Although most of our volunteers join us to help with the birds, we say that they have to earn their time flying the birds, and Joe was fortunate to get his first flying experience with Auckland last week. Auckland is one of our star birds during displays, as her small size means she will frequently fly between visitors and even sit beside them on the benches.

We are not currently doing displays, but visitors are welcome to watch us exercising our birds, and quite a crowd gathered while Joe and Chip were flying Auckland with our trainee Dolly and experienced volunteer Jan. Both the guys did really well with an audience and are looking forward to their next flying opportunity.

Big thanks to Waitrose Ipswich!

We had a lovely surprise visit from Jenny, a member of the Community Matters Team at Waitrose Ipswich this morning.

Many retail outlets have a charity token box in store, where customers can vote for their favourite charity every quarter to receive a donation from the business. Due to the pandemic, most have had to stop this scheme. Waitrose instead asked colleagues to nominate charities according to the sector in which they work as part of this year's "Give a Little Love Campaign.

Jenny nominated us in the Conservation and Animal Welfare category, and was delighted to present us with a cheque for £333!

General Manager Maz says “We were very grateful for the unexpected donation and it will be used towards our Hack Pen Project.”

Hack Pens are used to rehabilitate wild birds before they are released back into the wild, following a stay at our Raptor Hospital. They are located in suitable habitats and allow the birds more space to build up fitness and to get used to the sights and sounds of the local environment. We monitor the Hack Pens using remote cameras to assess when is the best time to open the door and release the birds. We continue to feed the birds at the site until they stop visiting.

Following higher demand for our Hack Pen this year, we are hoping to construct a few more over the winter months which will allow us to have several release pens available for wild birds next year.

(L-R) Jennie, Keeper and Fundraiser, Jenny from Waitrose Ipswich, Jess, Falconer, Lincoln our Bald Eagle and Maz, General Manager.

New microscope for the Raptor Hospital

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we are always looking for new ways that we can improve our service for the wild birds of prey who are brought into our Raptor Hospital. We have recently acquired a new digital microscope which will allow us to screen samples on site, rather than having to send them off to our local vets. This not only saves us a considerable amount of money, but time, as we appreciate that local vets are very busy helping domestic animals.

Jess, using the new microscope to screen a faecal sample for parasites.

Jess, who runs our Raptor Hospital says:
Having this diagnostic facility means we can triage new patients in the hospital much more thoroughly before administering treatment, and also offer our centre birds regular health checks and triage any new health issues that arise without a wait time. Working alongside Elliot for diagnosis means we can treat issues like parasite burdens and intestinal issues much sooner than if we were to rely on an off-site diagnostic service. In many cases the speed of diagnosis means treatment is much more thorough and successful. It also means we can gather more specific documentation of the health of local wild bird populations too, and the frequency of parasitic and bacterial loads that we see arriving at the centre (and also treat accordingly)

Image taken from the microscope of worm eggs identified in a faecal sample taken from a recent admission.

We are very grateful to Shadwell Charities Committee and Animal Survival International for their kind donations which have enabled us to purchase this equipment from Iolight microscopes and to Elliott Simpson for his continued support in all veterinary matters.

A fond farewell to two volunteers

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we have a team of volunteers who help our falconers and keepers carry out their day to day duties looking after the birds and animals, engaging with visitors and making sure that the Centre is maintained to a high standard.

We have recently said goodbye to two volunteers who have made a big difference since starting with us.

Rosemary Gethin started volunteering with us in March. She soon learnt how to clean out aviaries and prepare food for the birds alongside the gardening and maintenance tasks. Rosemary was particularly keen to provide enrichment for our birds, and spent time working with other volunteers and our trainees to come up with new challenges. Rosemary has now moved away from the area and will be missed.

PJ Harris joined us in April, to complement his university degree by learning practical skills in animal care and management. Always happy to muck in, PJ was a valuable member of our team. He has decided to leave us to concentrate on his studies, but we look forward to welcoming him back outside of term-time.

Volunteer co-ordinator Beckie says “We couldn’t do the work we do if it wasn’t for all of our volunteers. They give their time freely to help our charity and we hope that they gain skills, experience and friends while with us.”

For more information about our volunteer scheme, please click here.

A word with our Trainees

Jade attended the Home Education Fair in Bury St Edmunds to help raise our profile.

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we like to give young people an opportunity to learn about our work through our Trainee scheme. Every year, we hire a trainee and give them a paid role where they receive on the job training, learning about the varied roles we have here.

General Manager Maz says: “During the course of the year and when space and finances allow, we will seek to add young trainees to the staff on a temporary secondment as it gives them an insight into the realities of working with wildlife. This helps clarify their ambitions as to which area they would like to work in - zoos, veterinary, research, education etc…”

Earlier this year, we interviewed several potential candidates, all of whom were existing volunteers or work experience students. Each had their own merits and the final decision was very hard. In the end, we decided to offer the role part time to two of the candidates.

Dolly had finished her degree in Zoo Biology at Nottingham Trent University and become a volunteer with us while looking for a job. Jade was just finishing her Animal Care course at West Suffolk College Otley campus and had been a work experience student with us for a few months.

Although the girls already knew our routine here from their voluntary work, it was a big step up in their learning and level of responsibility. After guidance from the falconers, they took the lead on working with some of our birds who had not had much socialisation previously. Fred, one of our Crested Caracaras has particularly come out of his shell and loves his enrichment days provided by Dolly, Jade and the volunteers.

They’ve helped with putting together our feed rounds, making sure enough food was taken out the day before to defrost. They also worked out food quantities for each bird, based on their weight in the morning, which the girls took the lead on monitoring.

Jade learning about training young falcons

Starting in June, Dolly and Jade embraced working with all our baby birds, and as the birds grew their flight feathers and began their training to join our flying team, the girls were a big part of getting the babies used to different people flying them. They have worked with our Great Grey Owls Smokey and Bandit, MacKinders Eagle Owls Kali and Kruger, Twiglet the Long-eared Owl, Plop the Barn Owl and Ember the Black Barn Owl.

The girls enjoyed working with the birds during the displays, and helped by releasing birds from their aviaries or boxes and flying the birds amongst the crowds. However, we waited until after the summer holidays to ask them to take on a presenting role, both for the flying displays and our popular Meerkat talks. With support from staff, the girls did their homework and have now delivered several talks about a variety of our birds.

Dolly introducing Boris to young audience members

Quote from Dolly

Dolly presenting part of our flying display with Cecil

I applied for the role to expand my experience & knowledge of bird handling, training, behaviour and health, and have really enjoyed starting to deliver talks in the shows - even though it was scary to begin with! My highlight so far is the work we’ve achieved with Fred the Crested Caracara; he’s sitting on the glove now and loves his training routine & enrichment, whereas he was nervous of us just going in his aviary to begin with. I find it really special that we’ve been able to build relationships with the birds, and see them trusting us. It enables us to share them and engage with guests in displays which I find really rewarding. I’m learning more every day from the falconers and love every minute working with the birds.

Quote from Jade

Jade with Dereck the Harris Hawk

I applied for the position to extend my knowledge of falconry and how to train birds of prey. I have learnt that when it comes to training these amazing creatures it's nowhere near as easy as some people think. The amount of time, patience and dedication that is needed to have these birds respect you is crazy. It's a very delicate process which can help the birds choose their path. It is very rewarding when it all falls into place after all the hard work and the long hours of relationship building. The best part is something that me and Dolly have achieved which is that we have turned around Fred the Crested Caracara’s life completely. He seems so much happier and more confident to be around people and will progress so much more as time goes on for him.

Working with Fred our Crested Caracara has been a highlight for Dolly and Jade.

Barn Owl dilemma

Around this time every year we see an influx of Barn Owls brought into our Raptor Hospital. Many of these are young birds, who have just left their natal territories and are having to learn how to survive without the help of mum and dad.

This young owl came in starving and in poor condition.

As the weather gets colder and more unsettled, these birds may struggle to hunt successfully each night, as Barn Owls are very sensitive to wet and windy conditions. Weighing less than a kilogram (bag if sugar), Barn Owls will be buffetted around by wind and inexperienced (and hungry) birds may sustain injuries as they get thrown into buildings, trees and other landmarks.

This Barn Owl was found near a road with awing injury.

Another factor is that with the clocks going back this weekend, Barn Owls are now more likely to come into contact with vehicles during morning and evening rush-hour. If you are driving in an area with fields and hedges near the road, please slow down for wildlife. Many of the birds that come in having been found on the roadside have not actually made contact with cars or vans, but have been hampered by the tail wind, which can cause them to become disorientated and crash into the ground, sometimes into the path of traffic.

Bird bones are hollow to allow them to fly, but this means they are quite fragile, sometimes resulting in broken bones.

If you find a sick or injured bird of prey, cover it in a towel, blanket or jumper and put it into a well ventilated box which won’t cramp the bird., then call us or take it to your nearest vets. Vets are obliged to treat wildlife for free and will pass them on to wildlife rescues and rehabilitation centres such as us when they are in recovery.

Changes to the Wise Owl Roadshow

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we always put the welfare of our birds first and are proud to receive all the excellent comments and feedback from visitors saying how well looked after our birds are.

We have been working with specialist vet Elliott Simpson for a couple of years now. He not only helps to look after all of our resident birds when they require some veterinary treatment, but is also our referral specialist for any hospital cases which require a bit more avian knowledge.

As a leading avian veterinarian, Elliott was part of a working group which recently put together a Best Practice Guide for keeping Birds of Prey. In addition to feeding and housing guidelines, there is a section on handling, in particular tethering of birds.

Visitors to Suffolk Owl Sanctuary will have noticed that our weatherings have been looking a bit empty over the past couple of years. This is where traditionally all of the birds that fly during our displays would be tethered during the daytime. Each bird would have its own area to protect it from the elements, a perch to sit on and a bath to bathe in if desired. The birds would be picked up and relocated for flying displays or exercise, then returned to their perches. At the end of the day, the birds would be moved into our Mews room, which is fitted with a variety of large and roomy night boxes, where the birds are untethered overnight.

Modern practice is now moving away from this, and as such, we started free lofting many of our birds. This means that birds will live permanently inside an aviary, apart from when they are being flown. It is believed that this allows the birds to demonstrate more natural behaviours, and to have a choice as to where it sits. It also allows us to create new and interesting aviaries, with enrichment in the form of natural logs for perching at different levels and planting, which is not possible in the weatherings.

Over the winter, we will be building a new block of aviaries for the remaining display birds to move into. This will be fitted with windows and hatches for the birds to fly in and out of when it’s their time to take part in displays, something which our Owls have already mastered.

Following the move away from tethering birds at the centre, questions were raised about tethering birds and taking birds off site. Although we no longer take our birds to country shows or fairs, our Wise Owl Roadshow has always been popular with schools, youth groups and care homes who find it difficult to organise a trip to visit us.

The birds chosen for these outreach trips were specially selected because of their calm demeanours. All of these birds are hand reared, so are used to people and being handled, and our staff were trained on how to manage the birds while off site.

However, in order for us to maintain our standards of bird welfare, we have taken the difficult decision to stop taking our birds off site, as of January 2022.

We understand that this is likely to be an unpopular decision to many of our long standing supporters, particularly schools and care homes. We hope that you will all understand our reasons why, and that you can help as we raise awareness for the plight of bird welfare. Many of our supporters already understand why we don’t allow visitors to stroke our birds (due to our skin having oils which can damage their feathers).

We will use the time up to the end of the year to rebrand our outreach visits, as we hope to still be able to educate, engage and inspire people of all ages to care for Bird of Prey and the world they live in.

If you have any questions regarding this, please direct them to info@owl-help.org.uk

Kestrels set for release

These two have been long term rehabilitation cases. The youngest came to us as a pre-fledgling that was found in a field, presumably taken by a predator then dropped. Unfortunately, due to its age, it was becoming quite tame to people so was housed with another older male kestrel that came to us with a broken beak.

During the time the beak was healing the company of another kestrel took the youngsters focus away from us and thankfully started to wild up again.

The downside to long term rehabilitation cases is that the birds can lose fitness which is not conducive to a successful release - and often get accustomed to pre-laid food.

So these two were taken to one of our dedicated wild release hack sites where they can experience the sights and sounds of the area of release, whilst also seeing and potentially catching wild prey whilst in situ. The hack pens are supplied with food for a number of weeks leading up to release but are designed to allow for small rodents to enter and exit. This should hopefully start encouraging hunting behaviour or at least peak the birds interests.

Once opened we will continue to provide food at the pen until we are sure that food is being left, or the visits are becoming less regular. Over this time we also limit the amount of food left to encourage natural foraging instead of reliance. Cameras are set up to monitor these sites over this period.

Stretching their wings in the hack pen.

New intakes for the hospital

Here’s some of the most recent patients to spend some time at our Raptor Hospital.

TAWNY OWL

This female Tawny Owl was found bewildered in a woodland where the finders were working - although a bit underweight there was no obvious cause for concern however she was brought to us for observation. After a few days it was evident she was suffering a potential injury to her wing, as she was showing signs of being limp on one side (which she hid very well to begin with!) This really shows the importance of a period of monitoring as these birds instinctively are very good at hiding acute injuries. Now it has been observed she has started a course of medication to ease the symptoms and hopefully get her back to health.

GOLF COURSE KESTREL

This kestrel was found in the middle of a golf course, unable to fly. The condition of the bird was confusing, as it carried a fair bit of body fat and very little muscle - this is usually conducive with an aviary environment which could point to a previous rehabilitation stint this bird may have had. Upon further investigation it was found to also have a slightly swollen head which would indicate some kind of trauma - however in this instance road or impact trauma were ruled out based on where it was found. Possibly it was attacked by a corvid of some sort. After a brief course of medication it was deemed fit to be monitored in an aviary where it can regain it's strength and hopefully build up some muscle condition before release.

BARN OWL

This gorgeous boy was brought to us after being found on the ground in a field absolutely exhausted. When he arrived, we found he was carrying a BTO ring. His records indicated he was rung in 2019 as a nestling near Capel St Mary, Suffolk. He was luckily suffering nothing other than exhaustion from hunger and potentially recent cold weather so has benefitted from a short 'hotel SOS' stay with plenty of meals served fresh!

VET VISIT

On his most recent visit, our specialist vet Elliot checked all our current hospital birds including our golf course kestrel for signs of more acute illness, and signed off others to be released. These visits are not just for our hospital however, whilst here Elliot will be taken around to our resident flying team and aviary birds for a quick assessments, and any concerns raised whilst here are addressed. Many older birds will suffer minor health issues (as we all do!) that simply need careful monitoring and occasional intervention and having this professional support is vital for the health and wellbeing of our residents.

Derek the Harris’s Hawk getting his check up by Elliott. This is important with our older birds so that we can spot any issues and treat them quickly before they become serious.

International Conservation Education Conference

Last weekend, our Education Officer Susan “attended” the International Conservation Education Conference, run jointly by the International Zoo Educators Association and the European Association for Zoos and Aquariums.

Usually this bi-annual conference takes place at a collection somewhere around the globe, rotating across the continents every time. But with travel still restricted in many countries, the decision was made for this years conference to go virtual. 294 delegates from 55 countries joined in over the course of the weekend!

Hosted by Zoo Wroclaw and Afrykarium in Poland, with support from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the event started at 7am UK time on Friday and finished at 5.30pm on Sunday! Thankfully, the whole event was recorded, so participants were able to get on with work, life and catch up on sleep if required!

The theme of this years conference was Building Conservation Education Success and featured 65 talks, workshops and presentations on a variety of topics.

Covid was a big feature of many of the sessions, particularly how collections adapted from teaching in person to teaching virtually, something we have already embraced, but are always keen to learn how to improve our offer. In particular, using more interactive technology through quizzes, virtual reality and props to really keep the audience engaged.

Not all the presentations were by current educators, with several students presenting their research on nature connections, diversity and learning context modelling. Some of these studies will be influencing our work going forwards and it was refreshing to see studies being done looking at the evaluation of learning (both formal and informal) in collections.

Susan said “I’ve always loved finding out what other collections are doing and sharing ideas on how to improve our work. Although our work focusses on birds of prey, I particularly enjoyed finding out about the use of smell libraries at a Russian collection working with bears, community engagement projects from an aquarium in Ireland and nature pre-school from a Zoo in the USA. It was also great to reconnect with fellow Educators in the UK, and I hope to visit some collections in person over the coming months to see for myself the amazing work that we are all doing for conservation education.”

Just like an in-person conference, the social events were very popular! To end the conference there was a jungle themed party, where everyone was invited to dress up!