Suffolk County Council lend a hand

We were very grateful for some extra help recently from ten employees of Suffolk County Council, who participated in a Employment Supported Volunteering Day with us.

The group was split into two groups of 5 to work in different areas of the Sanctuary.

One group was tasked with moving sand from our compound and layering it between the Owl Barn building, which houses our shop and main office area, and the feed hut and Raptor Hospital. This will improve access to this area for our maintenance staff, who have been improving the drainage from these buildings.

The second group was tasked with dismantling our old Rat and Bug enclosures at SOS2. This area has been ear-marked for improvement for a while, but required some extra help for it to be achieved.

Both groups worked really well all morning, and after lunch they came together to finish clearing away the area at SOS2.

Volunteer Coordinator Beckie says “They were a tremendous help and allowed us to complete some tasks which we would have struggled to achieve by ourselves.”

We are able to support local businesses and organisations with Employment Supported Volunteering Days, so if you’d like to organise a team building day with us, please contact Beckie on beckie@owlbarn.co.uk

Woodland Walk gets a makeover

Our Woodland Walk has been left to go wild over the past few years, and whilst it may have been a perfect place for wildlife, it has started to look a bit neglected.

With Suffolk Rural Solutions help, we’re hoping to redesign this area to make it suitable for wildlife and visitors, with educational stations to learn more about the plants and animals to be found there.

The orchard of wild fruit trees have been tidied, clearing away some of the ivy and dead wood. After just two days of work, the light levels on the ground were astonishing, and the whole area was now open and welcoming. The dead wood will be used to create some wildlife homes underneath the trees.

The area nearest the current Meerkat Kastle will be turned into a riot of colour as our Butterfly and Bee Garden. This will be planted with colourful, richly scented flowers that are fantastic for pollinators. The other areas around the trees will be planted with woodland glade flowers, and next winter we plan on planting lots of native bulbs to create a springtime treat for visitors to this area.

The small wildlife pond will also be worked on, creating a marshy area to encourage more amphibians and invertebrates to the area.



We will continue to work on this area throughout the year, so visitors can look forward to seeing the seasonal changes with every trip to us.

Sighted Guide Training COMPLETED

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we are always looking for ways to improve our facilities and make them accessible for all.

For visitors with a visual impairment who might use a Guide Dog, we have strict rules in place to protect the welfare of our birds, many of whom get stressed when they have encountered dogs previously. With increasing support for the Guide Dogs UK Open Doors campaign, highlighting that it is an illegal offence to refuse admission to a person with a Guide Dog, we have taken action to enable us to support service users with a sight loss.

In the UK, over 2 million people are living with sight loss, and of these, 340,000 are registered as blind or partially sighted

The team learning about sight loss

Tim and Tyne from Guide Dogs UK recently attended the Sanctuary to deliver their Sighted Guide training to 14 members of staff and volunteers. The session included information about the services that Guide Dogs UK provide, some statistics about the numbers of people living with sight loss and what that means to them, as well as practical guidance on how to Sighted Guide someone.

Only 1% of people with sight loss have a Guide Dog

It was incredibly useful as the staff and volunteers came together to highlight potential areas of difficulty for people with visual impairments, such as navigating our paths, using the signage and finding seating on our flying ground. These will all be looked at in the near future to investigate any improvements we can easily make to make life easier for the growing number of people with sight loss in the UK.

By 2050, it is expected that the number of people with sight loss in the UK will be 4 million

Using special goggles, staff and volunteers could experience what different types of sight loss would “look” like to them.

In the meantime, if you, or someone you know, would like to book a visit to Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, please rest assured that our team are now equipped to be able to Sighted Guide you and help you enjoy a fun day out at our attraction.

“I can’t wait to put what we’ve learnt today into practice!”
— Izzy

Animal Adventurers comes to Suffolk

Just before Christmas, we welcomed Mat Richards to our team on temporary secondment.

Mat has over 20 years of experience working in Zoological collections around the UK as an animal trainer. He specialises in big cats, marine mammals and, his first love, birds of prey! He recently started a YouTube channel called Animal Adventurers, travelling the world in search of wild animals to share with his followers back home via the power of the internet!

Mat has already visited some amazing places and seen some amazing wildlife, but wanted to return to his roots and spend some time recording where it all started, with falconry and training birds.

We are pleased to have Mat join us and in the short time he has been with us he has already developed new training methods for some of our more difficult characters to work with. All the birds we fly during our displays are hand reared, which makes them much easier to work with. However, just like other animals (humans included), they go through a rebellious teenage stage, which can last a few months or years depending on the bird! This makes them very difficult, and sometimes dangerous to work with, and unfortunately training often gets put on hold while the hormones sort themselves out, leading to a loss of trust and respect by both the bird and handlers.

Mat has been working with Rocky, our Turkey Vulture, Ozzie our Laughing Kookaburra and our Ravens Charles and Rey, all of whom have developed some bad habits which makes them unsuitable for displays. Once Mat has worked out what makes each bird tick, he will bring in the rest of our team so that they can build up their confidence working with these birds again, using positive re-enforcement to reward the behaviours we want the birds to display.

While he is with us, Mat will also be helping to create some new content for our social media channels and website, which we can’t wait to share with you all.

If you’d like to find out more about Animal Adventurers, you can subscribe to the YouTube channel.


A busy year for the Education Team

With Covid restrictions lifting and teachers eager to bring back normality to their classes, this year was the busiest so far since Suffolk Owl Sanctuary hired a dedicated Education Officer. Susan has thoroughly enjoyed working with Bethany, Dolly, Izzy, Jade and the rest of the team to bring fun learning sessions and activities to a wider audience this year.

The year started with a visit by Susan and Dolly to our friends at The Hive to deliver a session for a local SEN school who were looking for places to locate nestboxes. They delivered a fun session around the campfire talking about the different owls in the area and what each species needs, then explored the site and helped them choose suitable locations for their home made boxes.

“Our student like practical challenges, so being told what makes a good Owl box location by type of Owl meant they could work as a team to scout out good locations”
— Priory School

Pellet Detectives remains the most popular session

We then welcomed several local Schools for visits to the Sanctuary, where they enjoyed Guided Walks to learn more about our birds (who were unable to fly due to local Avian Influenza cases). Jess and Jade helped answer questions from Suffolk New College students, who visited to learn more about enclosure design as part of their course. We also delivered a Virtual Session to a group of high school children, remotely supervising their Pellet Detectives session and going into some details about Adaptations.


”All was very good and informative. Nicely spaced out activities and displays” - Suffolk New College


”Everyone found the Pellet Detectives fascinating! Susan was fantastic and we all had a wonderful day! Thank you! - Bealings School



Nick receiving a donation from the Stowmarket Lions

During half term, we attended the West Suffolk Home Education Fair in Bury St Edmunds and after the break we ran a Science Week workshop at Thurston Library. We were invited to talk to Stowmarket Lions and Keeper Nick was able to step in due to illness and delivered a presentation about our work. We welcomed a few primary schools for visits during this time, as well as organising a fun day learning more about our work for the ZEST group, young people supported by St Elizabeth Hospice, and the Tribase Home Education Group who returned to become Pellet Detectives once again.

“Overall presentation was very good and the speaker was very engaging. Evening enjoyed by all members of our group.” - Stowmarket Lions

Our stall all set up and ready to go at the Otley Campus Spring Fair

Over the Easter holidays, we attended our first large event of the year at Suffolk New College Otley Campus Spring Fair. The day was a huge success with over 1000 visitors in attendance. We laid out some Pellet Detectives trays as well as some other biofacts for visitors to learn more about. The Pellets were a big hit, with some families staying for well over half an hour to rummage through and find the bones. It was very pleasing to see families from this event visiting the Sanctuary over the Easter holidays.


The calm before the schools arrived at the Suffolk Schools Farm and Country Fair

After Easter, we had a number of schools visit us, delivered a few talks to local community groups and had an overseas Virtual Session to a school in Guernsey. At the end of April, Susan and Dolly attended our biggest event of the year, the Suffolk Schools Farm and Country Fair. This event hasn’t run since 2019 so neither knew quite what to expect. What followed was an intense day trying to engage the 3500 KS2 level students who attended. We had Pellet Detectives and Food Chain bracelets as activities, and our stall was swamped for most of the day. We handed out VIP passes to all the supervising teachers to hand out to their pupils, and had a good return rate on these over the summer holidays.

May and June were the busiest months for our Education Team. Between them, they worked with 15 different groups and attended 2 events.

“From a teacher point of view, it was brilliant to be on a trip that was organised so well. Each part of the day was well planned and it meant I could also enjoy the day alongside the children without having to worry about where we were going next or trying to find our way round.” - Morland C of E Primary School Robin Class

“The children really enjoyed walking around the sanctuary looking at all of the birds. They enjoyed learning new facts. All the children are very excited to visit the sanctuary again and have been talking about it every day since our visit.” Morland C of E Primary School Owl Class

Our involvement with the St Elizabeth Hospice Big Hoot Trail in Ipswich led to us being asked to attend the launch event in Christchurch Park, with volunteers Jan, Sophie and Jenny manning a stall at our Big Hoot, Owl See You In My Dreams, in the town centre. As a result of this, we welcomed Botesdale Brownies, Debenham Guides and Stowmarket Brownies to the Sanctuary so that they could complete their Big Hoot badges, and both Susan and Bethany were presented with a badge of their own.

“I liked seeing all the different types of Barn Owl & learning about them; I didn’t realise there was more than one type!” - Guide Alice

Susan attended Gainsborough Library over the summer holidays to run some Pellet Detectives sessions for their kids club.

Over the summer holidays, we welcomed the Royal Owners Club and SWAGS for guided walks around the Sanctuary. We ran fun learning sessions at Newmarket and Gainsborough libraries, as well as supporting Get Suffolk Reading with several local events around Stowmarket and Debenham.

“All of the children (and most of the parents) enjoyed dissecting the Owl Pellets!” - Gainsborough Library



Fairstead House from Newmarket visited us on a cold but sunny day in November

The autumn saw us attend our third large event of the year at Helmingham Hall. Volunteer Sarah helped Susan with a joint stall for Suffolk Owl Sanctuary and Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue, helping to raise awareness and funds for these two charities. We also attended a second Home Education Fair and delivered two talks to community groups in the region. We had a few groups visit us on site, but a number of schools requested outreach visits this term. These had unfortunately dropped off since we adopted new guidelines about not transporting birds off site in the interests of their welfare, as recommended by Avian experts. Izzy delivered a morning of learning for students from Suffolk New College and answered their questions about careers in animal care and how we run our Raptor Hospital.


”Susan was very efficient, spoke well and a good evening was had by all” - Levington Gardening Club






The last visit of the year was to Lakenheath Elementary School, where we delivered two sessions on Adaptations and one on History of Falconry. It was great to engage with the group of American students and staff at the school and teach them some of the commonly used terms that are derived from Falconry.

“The kids loved learning about Falconry and the different terminology, comparing US to UK English. The whole experience was brilliant!” - Lakenheath Elementary School






In addition to our booked groups, Susan and Bethany, supported by our other staff, have delivered courses and sessions for Home Educating families on site throughout the year.

Homework for the Home Education group has resulted in some very creative pieces this year.

Bethany has particularly enjoyed leading most of the Pellet Detectives sessions this year, and witnessing the “eww” turning into excitement as they start discovering what the Owls have been eating.

Dolly has enjoyed introducing some of our flying team to guests during our popular experiences and courses, teaching them all about the birds and inspiring a passion for nature.

Susan has enjoyed attending events in the community, raising awareness about our work and having meaningful conversations with members of the public about Owl conservation, monitoring and rescue.

Although overall the number of bookings was down compared to 2021, our involvement with some large events meant that we engaged with over twice as many people in 2022! As schools returned to “normal” learning again, we’ve seen an increase in in-person bookings. Our Virtual bookings are still going to be available for groups who can’t visit us in person, and offer good value for money for those struggling with costs. We knew that our decision to stop taking birds offsite (for their health and welfare) would impact on our outreach programme, so this has been developed to include more interactive elements which appear to have gone down well with the bookings received so far.

We are already taking bookings for the first half of 2023, which bodes well for the future. There are some new developments happening on site which will help enhance the visit for schools, and the team will be introducing some exciting new learning sessions and materials for in person sessions after Easter.

4 metal rings

Sorry, we couldn’t quite make it to five!

Just before Christmas we invited Dr Hugh Hanmer from the British Trust for Ornithology to ring our Raptor Hospital patients before their release.


Hugh supervised Jess ringing Buddy the Buzzard, and three Tawny Owls, named Cinders, Snowball and Wotsit. They were also able to age the birds, and took biometric measurements to try and determine their sex. All of the birds on this occasion were in the overlap between males and females, so were left unsexed. If they are caught again in the future, it may be possible to sex them during the breeding season.

Hugh checking Buddy’s wing for any signs of moult

Buddy the Buzzard was aged as a first year bird, meaning “he” hatched in 2022. We had already guessed this due to his apparent inexperience observed by the college staff before he was caught. However, age can be determined by looking at the plumage and moult patterns in the wings. It takes a bit of practice to get your eye in on what to look for, but with experience, the same criteria can be used across many raptor species.
Buddy has been eating well since arriving with us, but is being screened for gastro-intestinal parasites or infection as he’s displaying some symptoms which we want to check out and treat before release.

Spot the odd one out!

Cinders the Tawny Owl was found in a log burner and has been with us recovering from a damaged tail and foot injury. Owls replace just a few flight feathers each year. Due to the uniformity of the rest of the wing, with one obvious feather replacement (see the marker in the image above), we could safely age Cinders as a second year bird, hatched in 2021.

Cinders has been moved to one of our hack pens to build up fitness before release.

Using specialist equipment to safely attach the rings to the birds legs is a painless process.

Snowball may look older, but was aged as a first year bird.

Despite the slightly grizzled look of Snowball, “he” was aged as a bird of the year so hatched in 2022. All his flight feathers are uniform and the markings line up - in an older bird the feathers will have grown in different conditions each year so any markings are less likely to line up so neatly.

Wotsit being very calm during the process of being ringed and measured.

Wotsit the ginger Tawny Owl was also aged as a first year bird.

Ringing birds is the process whereby a small metal ring with a unique alpha-numeric code is attached to the birds leg. This is the equivalent to us wearing a bracelet or watch, so does not impact on the day to day lives of the birds once released. Should a bird be found with a ring (caught by another ringer, or found injured or dead), the finder can report it to the relevant scheme (in the UK, run by the British Trust for Ornithology) and find out more details about where the bird has come from, how old it is and any changes it its condition.

Cinders set for release

At the end of November we received a Tawny Owl who had been found stuck in a log burning stove. Cinders had flown down the freshly cleaned chimney and got himself stuck. Whilst he was fortunate it was a clean chimney and therefore didn’t have too much soot on his feathers, we discovered that he had sustained some damage to his feet and tail which needed to heal before being released.
He did really well in our Hospital aviaries, but we wanted to make sure he was ready, so just before Christmas he was moved to one of our local Hack Pens where he can build up muscle and hunting skills before his release. We have installed a camera trap to help monitor him and hope to open the door over the coming weeks.

Using camera traps in our hack pens allows us to remotely monitor the birds and see natural behaviours such as hunting for wild rodents that make their way into the pens (something the birds wouldn’t do if we were standing outside peering in). They are also crucial so we can check that the birds are able to move around in the larger space without any issues following their admission to the Raptor Hospital. After the pen is opened, the cameras can also be used to monitor if the birds are returning to their safe place for food or shelter, which often leads to interactions with other local wildlife. This means we know when the birds have dispersed and we can plan for the next occupants to move in.

With generous donations last year enabling us to build more hack pens, we are a bit short on devices to monitor all of our release sites. If you would like to help, we have a camera trap on our Wishlist. Alternatively, we will also accept Amazon gift cards/ vouchers of any value, which can be used to purchase this equipment (as we appreciate they are quite expensive to buy outright)

2022 - A Year in Review

As 2022 draws to a close, the team reflect on some of the highlights and challenges over the past 12 months.

January

We started the year with work continuing on our new block of aviaries for our Flying Team. In January, we were fortunate to have some help from some Kickstart Volunteers from the Museum of East Anglian Rural Life (now the Food Museum). The young people did a fantastic job moving the gravel into the aviaries ready for the new inhabitants to move in.

Kickstart Volunteers helped us move a mountain of gravel into the new aviaries

January also saw a number of starving Buzzards being brought into our Raptor Hospital. Most were young birds who had clearly struggled to find enough food over the colder months. All were provided with a safe place to rest and plenty of food to put on weight. They were also ringed before their release, which helps us to monitor what happens to birds after they have been released

One of the Buzzards we had in our Raptor Hospital

February

In February we announced our chosen Artist for our involvement with the St Elizabeth Hospice Big Hoot Trail. Amy Bourbon’s design “Owl See You In My Dreams” was selected from almost 100 designs to represent us as part of the free art trail which ran throughout the summer holidays around Ipswich.

Amy Bourbon was selected as our artist for the Big Hoot Trail

We also welcomed our first guests in our Hedgehog Hotel, thanks to our partnership with Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue. Most of our first guests were youngsters from the previous year who had been too small to hibernate. They were given access to the outdoor runs to learn how to be wild hedgehogs before being collected for release near where they had been found.

Our first prickly guests in the Hedgehog Hotel

Susan attended the West Suffolk Home Education Fair in Bury St Edmunds and spoke with lots of new families about our Home Ed courses.

March

With the Pond Block finished and our Flying Team moved in, it was time to get them used to the new routine of flying out of hatches to join in with the Flying Displays.

Woody testing out her entrance onto the Flying Ground from the new Aviary block

For World Book Day we joined with Get Suffolk Reading to hide some free books for our visitors to enjoy.

The stormy weather caused some disruption for wild birds and we received a couple of patients into the Hospital who had sustained injuries after being caught out in the winds. The Kestrel with the broken wing was kept in for a few weeks while his wing healed and he was released back to the farm where he was found.

This Kestrel was injured during the storms, but after a few weeks in our Raptor Hospital, it made a full recovery

Keeper Nick delivered a talk to Stowmarket Lions about our work.

April

We welcomed the Ipswich office of Hurren and Hope in April, who came along to help us for a day of making aviary improvements. They helped to repaint some of the aviaries at SOS2 ready for our peak season.

A group of volunteers repainted some of our aviaries

Just as we were preparing for the Easter Holidays, with all the birds and staff ready to start the Flying Displays again, we received a notifications about a local case of Avian Influenza. This meant that we had to keep our birds grounded to protect them from this deadly disease, and as such, delay the start of our flying season. This was a devastating blow as we had been hoping to start the season on a high with a busy Easter, following two years of challenges due to Covid. However, the new aviary block proved to be invaluable during this time, as it meant we were able to continue flying some of the birds undercover in the corridor area, so they didn’t lose too much in condition.

The falconers also used this time to make some educational behind-the-scenes videos showing the routine of working with the birds and some of the novel enrichment we provided for them. These videos were really well received, especially amongst others in the zoo industry and we received many requests for advice from collections from around the world.

During the Easter Holidays we welcomed Oona the Owl and Ursula from Suffolk Libraries for a storytelling session for visitors.

We were invited to have a stall at the Forum cinema in Thetford alongside the screening of the latest Fantastic Beasts film. Susan was happy to attend and spoke to a number of people about our new Owlreach Volunteer Scheme.

Susan also attended the Spring Open Day at Suffolk Rural College Otley campus. The event was very well attended and Susan spoke to numerous families about what we can offer. Some example activities were available for visitors to have a go at, with the Pellet Detectives activity proving extremely popular - several young visitors spent over half an hour rummaging through to find some bones.

In April, we said a sad goodbye to Darwin, our Chaco Owl. Darwin was a popular bird used for school visits who was enjoying his retirement. Unfortunately his health deteriorated over a number of weeks and despite the best efforts by our team and our consultant vet Dr Elliott Simpson-Brown, we decided not to prolong his suffering.

At the end of the month Susan and Dolly attended the Suffolk Schools Farm and Country Fair. Over 4000 school children from across Suffolk descended on Trinity Park, Ipswich for a fun filled day learning all about country life.

May

In May we highlighted the positive results of our Trainees Dolly and Jade training Fred, one of our Crested Caracaras.

As Bird Flu restrictions eased and our Raptor Hospital reopened, we were inundated with birds needing our help. In just the first week of reopening we received a Long-eared Owlet, Little Owlet, several Tawny owlets and two Kestrels! Later in May, we also helped a Tawny Owl who had got stuck in some garden netting and went on several rescue missions to pick up more Tawny Owlets who had been found in unsafe situations. Many of these pick ups were made by our new team of Owlreach Volunteers.
One of the Tawny Owlets produced a huge pellet upon arrival, so Dolly investigated what it had been eating before needing help. With guidance from Susan, who has dissected countless pellets over the years, they found remains of beetles, shrew and interestingly mole!

A huge pellet produced by a small Owl revealed what mum had been feeding before it needed some help from us

We had a call about an Owl stuck in a pylon, but upon closer investigation, it turned out to be a bird scaring device.

June

In June we welcomed Debenham Guides for a visit and helped them gain their Big Hoot Badge with some fun educational sessions.

Debenham Guides enjoying a flying display

Over the half term we celebrated the Platinum Jubilee and visitors were able to decorate a crown and complete a Royal Trail.

Izzy joined the team as our new Trainee in June. Izzy had been volunteering with us during her degree and did her dissertation on data from our Raptor Hospital.

A team of volunteers from AXA XL Insurance came to help us on a very sunny day. They repainted one of our large aviaries, and got the first coat done in a day, which was a fantastic effort from all involved.

We also heard that we had won the Dobbies Living in the Community Fund, so made plans to replant some areas around the Sanctuary, focussing on the Sensory Garden and Woodland Walk.

Keeper Jennie visited Jayjay at Dobbies Woodbridge to choose some plants for our Sensory Garden

We celebrated the efforts of our Volunteers in June.

We welcomed a new member to the flying team in June. Max the Northern Hawk Owl spent the summer getting used to the sights and sounds of the Sanctuary, while adding his own distinctive call to the mix.

Max, our new Northern Hawk Owl

Susan attended the launch event of the Big Hoot Trail in Christchurch Park. As part of the event our volunteers Jan and Sophie were stationed at our Hoot in Ipswich Town Centre with some activity sheets and information for participants of the Hoot Hike to collect.

July

July was a super busy month for our Raptor Hospital, with lots of intakes and releases. We also took in some birds from other rescues who were struggling to find spaces to release them. Working with South Essex Wildlife Hospital to release some Tawny Owlets and Spirit of the Wild to rehabilitate a young Kestrel and Little Owl helps build relationships and can be mutually beneficial, as we never know when we might need assistance ourselves.

A young Kestrel which was found in need of help

Thanks to funding from charitable trusts, we were able to build several new hack pens this summer to assist with the release of birds. This month included two Barn Owlets, two Little Owlets and nine Tawny Owlets who were all ringed before release.

One of our new Hack Pens this year

The dry weather and extreme heat caused problems for some birds, and the young Little Owls we had in this month were all found to have been eating insects, which are not particularly nutritional for a growing owl!

We also embarked on a multiple bird rescue mission locally after a group of young Kestrels were found outside a local chip shop. Jess was able to capture two of the three and brought them into our care until they were well enough to be released somewhere more appropriate.

These two Kestrels were rescued locally

July also saw a ringing recovery from a Buzzard found as a road casualty last month on a local road. The female Buzzard had mild concussion when she was picked up by Dr Hugh Hanmer, who was on his way to the Sanctuary to ring some birds before release. After a few days to recover, she was released in a field about a mile away from where she had been found. Unfortunately, a week later several staff saw a dead Buzzard exactly where she had originally been picked up on their way to work. Jess was able to pull over and check and confirmed that it was our female from her ring number.

Checking the ring number confirmed that the Buzzard found dead on a local road had been released nearby

We had to close for a few days during the extreme heat wave and vastly reduced the time that our birds and staff were exposed to direct sun.

Mir enjoyed sitting in the sun

August

August was a quieter month in the Raptor Hospital, which was just as well because we were getting ready for the summer holidays!

We celebrated the Commonwealth Games with some sporty enrichment for our birds and animals.

The Meerkats climbed the podium to celebrate the Commonwealth Games

While the falconers and keepers did a fantastic job educating our visitors with our flying displays, Susan attended several local community events to raise awareness about what we do, as well as delivering talks and sessions to Libraries, community groups and becoming involved with Get Suffolk Reading events.

Bramble wowed visitors throughout the summer

The extreme heat continued to cause havoc and we had to cancel flying displays and courses for several days during the summer holidays

With the summer almost at an end, Susan and her partner Hugh, plus their two collies, completed the Hoot Hike in Ipswich. This sponsored walk of over 8km (because they made some detours to see additional Hoots not on the trail) took them through the streets and parks of Ipswich, and Susan managed to raise £150 for St Elizabeth Hospice.

Susan with her collies visited 42 of the 50 Hoots as part of the Hoot Hike sponsored walk.

September

September started with International Vulture Awareness Day. This year, Susan ran a fundraiser to raise much needed financial support for Kartong Bird Observatory in The Gambia, who are monitoring critically endangered Hooded Vultures in the region. With support from the team, who got crafty and made some fabulous Vulture themed prizes, the draw raised £90.

Jack and Rose with one of the prizes in our Vulture Day Raffle

The following weekend we hosted another successful British Sign Language Day with our friend Natalie. We welcomed over 40 deaf visitors and their families for this special day.

Unfortunately, Avian Influenza returned to the area and we took the difficult decision to stop our flying displays at the end of September, rather than at the end of October as usual.

October

October saw more local cases of Bird Flu, which meant that we had to temporarily close our Raptor Hospital to new admissions for a short time.

We cleared our back row of weatherings to open up this area. Eventually we plan on building new aviaries here, but for now it’s been planed with a wildflower mix which will encourage pollinators next spring and summer.

Jay and volunteer Phil dismantling the old weatherings

Suffolk Rural College sent a team of students to complete a Work Skills Placement with us throughout October. The group helped with a number of different tasks, including gardening and weeding, moving woodchips to the Woodland Walk pathways and clearing the area of the old weatherings.

Student volunteers clearing vegetation

Our animals and birds enjoyed some Halloween themed enrichment over the half term break.

Our Vultures enjoyed disembowelling Frankenstein

Our Big Hoot raised £1,800 for St Elizabeth Hospice in their Auction, helping to raise a total of £163,590!

November

Thanks to a new marquee to allow us to assess incoming patients without taking them into the Hospital, we were able to reopen our Hospital and saw a number of interesting cases. A young Kestrel was found caught up in some decorations in a local community woodland. He was also covered in ticks, which unfortunately gave him an infection. After a short stay to make sure there was no lasting damage, he was released back where he was found.

The young Kestrel had an infection from a tick bite which needed treatment before release

We also had a number of pale or silver coloured Tawny Owls admitted. We usually get the gingery brown variety so it’s been unusual to get quite a few around the same time.

We were grateful to Babergh Council for lending us a hand to do some work on the old fox enclosure in preparation for new arrivals. They removed all of the bark and slate chippings so that a new substrate could be laid, and repainted the indoor area.

Our Keepers Beckie, Jennie and Nick and falconer Dolly attended an Animal Training workshop run by Shaping Behaviour and hosted by Banham Zoo. The workshop was interactive and informative and gave out staff plenty of ideas for training methods to use on our own birds and animals.

Our Keepers attended an Animal Training workshop

Susan attended the first Suffolk Coast conference since 2019 and had an informative day learning more about the tourism industry in Suffolk.

Towards the end of the month we had our first Chimney rescue of the year. A Tawny Owl fell down the flue of a log burning stove, but thankfully the chimney had recently been cleaned so the bird wasn’t too sooty. After a short stay in the Hospital it was returned to the garden and released.

Cinders the Tawny Owl was found in a log burner

December

As the cold weather hit, a number of birds were brought into the Hospital, including a couple of young Buzzards that were found starving and struggling to fly.

Jess and Jay spent a few days re-establishing our nestbox project. They visited as many as they could to see how many are still standing or need some maintenance before the next breeding season.

Jay inspecting one of the Owl nest boxes

Throughout December we welcomed a temporary team member in the form of Joiz the Helpful Elf. Joiz spent the month helping with a number of tasks, including some maintenance and admin work, as well as helping with our Hedgehogs, Raptor Hospital and making enrichment for the animals and birds.

Joiz was right at home in the cold weather!

Behind the Scenes with Joiz

Any of our followers on social media may have been wondering as to the recruitment of our latest team member, Joiz, the helpful Elf.

Jade with Joiz having some fun in the Discovery Centre

Joiz is an amalgamation of Jade, Dolly and Izzy’s names, our newest members of staff, and the brains behind the operation. With support from Susan, who runs our social media channels, and the rest of the team, they provided a selection of fun photos and short videos to be posted across our social media channels.

Whilst we wanted to make this a bit of fun for our followers, we were careful to abide by new social media guidelines by Wildlife Rescue and Rehab experts which might encourage members of the public to interact with wild animals in inappropriate ways. As such, Joiz spent most of the month helping with admin, maintenance or general centre tasks, although they did get to help with making enrichment too!

Joiz was tasked by Father Christmas to make a list of the Naughty and Nice birds, animals, staff, volunteers and visitors who they encountered this month. Here is their list:

NAUGHTY
Rocky - for sneaking up behind Joiz after being given some enrichment
Stanley - for attacking another elf who was visiting Joiz for a few days.

NICE
Auckland - for being a good listener when someone needs someone to talk to
Jay - for fixing the broken sink in the feed kitchen, and generally being a super helpful person to have around


We hope that all of our followers have enjoyed Joiz’s adventures this year, and look forward to welcoming them back next year,

Vet Visit

We recently had a visit from our Consultant Vet Dr Elliott Simpson-Brown, who came to have a look at some of our captive birds as well as to sign off some of our Raptor Hospital patients, who were ready for release.

Phyllis is anaesthetised so that x-rays can be taken of her injured foot.

Of the captive birds, Elliott was required to examine Phyllis the Spectacled Owl. We recently noticed that she was uncomfortable using one of her feet so Elliott was able to anaesthetise her to take some x-rays in order to assess the cause of the problem. Birds in captivity generally outlive their wild cousins by a considerable margin, and with Phyllis being an older bird, we were concerned she might have arthritis. In the wild, this would cause a long and painful death as the bird wouldn’t be able to hunt as successfully, but in captivity we can detect the problem before it becomes too severe and start treatment to halt its progression.

While Phyllis was under anaesthetic, we took the opportunity to cope her beak. This is a common procedure required by captive birds, whereby their beak overgrows and needs filing down so that they can still feed. In the wild, birds will do this naturally by rubbing their beaks on rocks or hard woods. This procedure is similar to us filing our nails, but birds generally don’t enjoy it much, hence using the opportunity while she wasn’t aware of what was going on.

Using an electric Dremel file to cope the beak is much easier when the bird is sedated.

Elliott was also asked to investigate a favourite amongst staff, Bob the Kestrel, aka Can’t Fly, Won’t Fly. Bob was brought into the Raptor Hospital last year as a young bird after being found in a field. Although there were no obvious injuries, he was unable to fly. Under normal circumstances, this would unfortunately lead to the bird being euthanised, as it is deemed unfair to keep a wild bird captive if it can’t exhibit natural behaviours. However, there was something about Bob that made us think he was worth persevering with, so we applied to DEFRA for a licence to keep him as a wild disabled bird. Over the next 12 months, Bob gained confidence working with our team and he went from needing a climbing frame to reach his perches, to flying the full length of our flying arena! Everything was going really well and everyone was very pleased with his progress. Then we had local cases of Avian Influenza and were forced to stop flying our birds outdoors. We took the opportunity to give all our birds a rest so that they could moult their feathers, so Bob was moved to one of our off-show aviaries. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, when he had finished moulting, he was just as reluctant to fly as he had been when he first arrived.

Elliott had initially assessed Bob, and has given him several checks over the time he’s been with us, but we have been unable to pinpoint the cause of the issue. On his most recent visit, Elliott x-rayed Bob so we could see if there were any changes in his joints from his last check.

Bob being anaesthetised for his x-rays.

As a result of this visit, Phyllis was booked in for a CT scan so that we can determine the best course of action in her treatment. Both birds received some pain relief to help them with their ailments and will be monitored closely over the coming weeks to see if things improve.

When birds get worms

“The early bird catches the worm” as the saying goes. Well, the wriggly (earth)worm you find in your flower bed might be a tasty snack for a hungry Blackbird, but that’s not the sort of worms we’re talking about here.

Worms are parasites. Most spend their lives inside the digestive tracts of their hosts, only emerging to the outside world as eggs or larva which soon locate a new host. Pet owners know that checking your pets for worms and treating them when required helps to keep their pets safe, but not many know that some types of worms can also jump across species, so worms carried by dogs can cause blindness in humans.

Wild animals don’t have the advantages of regular check-ups or medication to treat parasites, but providing the animal is healthy, a small parasite burden shouldn’t cause them any issues. However, if the animal is injured or ill by another cause then parasites can amplify any weakness.

At the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary Raptor Hospital, Jess is keen to screen all incoming patients for parasites so that we can treat them with medication if required. The risk of cross-contamination and spreading parasites between birds is low due to the high standard of cleanliness observed in the Hospital, including staff wearing disposable PPE for handling birds, thoroughly cleaning down all surfaces between patients and any soiled materials being washed at a high temperature or incinerated.

After receiving funding last year to purchase a microscope unit for the Raptor Hospital, Jess has been checking fecal (poo) samples from most of the birds we’ve had in this year. Thankfully, most of the samples are devoid of any nasty surprises and can concentrate on getting better without requiring additional medication. However, sometimes Jess will find something of interest, and she frequently films it to share over a coffee break with colleagues and volunteers!

Here one of her most recent findings:

This Sparrowhawk had some oral lesions which required further investigation.

A Sparrowhawk was brought in following a window collision. During the initial assessment, Jess discovered it had some oral lesions which required further investigation. Jess took a scraping from the lesion and could already see something of interest. Under the microscope she discovered a large Gapeworm, which was wriggling around and shedding its eggs onto the slide.

This gapeworm was found carrying a large number of eggs (shown by the blue dots). These eggs are shed as the worm moves around and can be inadvertently ingested by other animals.


Please note - Earthworms are not parasites! They are really useful invertebrates which help to create and aerate your soils, ultimately helping the plants grow!

Home Education Courses

In 2021, our Education Officer came up with the suggestion to run special sessions open to Home Educating families. One year on, with 4 courses, 9 stand-alone sessions and having connected with 60 participants (plus siblings and parents!), Susan and Bethany reflect on how they’ve gone and look forward to new activities planned for next year, and beyond.

We were blown away by the initial interest in our first All About Owls course, held as a 6 session weekly course for KS1, KS2 and KS3/4 level. Each course was fully booked! This first course was comprised of the most popular topics chosen by Education groups, namely Food Chains, Pellet Detectives, Habitats, Nocturnal Animals and Supersenses, Conservation, with a Presentations/ Celebration event at the end, where all the participants were invited to deliver a presentation on what they had learnt over the course.

”Thank you for being very clear and understandable so my son was able to take things in a lot easier”

Participants gave a presentation to the group sharing some of the facts they had learnt during the All About Owls course.

As the initial course had been so popular, in January we launched Wise Owls, a continuation course for those who had completed All About Owls, covering Adaptations, Life Cycles, Flight, Rescue and Art, all suggestions from the group following our feedback survey.

“My son loved getting involved and thoroughly enjoyed the course, even mum learnt new things. Thank you.”

The Rescue session involves some team work

After Easter, we expected to be busy with school groups, so proposed random stand-alone sessions, some of which would cover topics from our existing courses, and some of which would be new. New sessions included a trial relaxed session, aimed at families with children who were severely autistic and might not cope in a group environment, as well as several messy enrichment making sessions, where participants could make puzzle feeders for our birds and animals using cardboard boxes and papier mache. The best bit of these sessions was definitely giving the creations to the animals, as seen with the Meerkats below.

”What made it a success for my son was the combination of material he found really interesting with a no pressure approach.”

This September we launched a new All About Owls course, which has again proved to be very popular at the KS1 and KS2 level. Following feedback from our online surveys (sent to everyone on our Home Education mailing list), and with increasing costs of living, we decided to run this course as 4 sessions monthly-ish, avoiding half term and most of December due to seasonal commitments from all concerned. As such, there was optional homework for participants to complete after each session, including writing a short story or comic about an adventure in a habitat covered in session 1, creating an information poster about one of the species of Owls we have and designing an enclosure for any of the species we have. Those who completed it were given the chance to show and tell everyone at the next session, with some amazing pieces of work being created!

Some fabulous information posters about some of our Owls.

A mini Meerkat Kastle, complete with indoor and outdoor areas, climbing structures and ball pit, created as homework for the most recent All About Owls Course.

For those who had completed previous sessions, we also launched World Explorers, a 2-hour session aimed at KS2 level. Participants learn about the habitats, wildlife, geography and cultures around the world, focussing on a different continent each session. These sessions also allow for some time outdoors to see our beautiful birds that come from the relevant area.

”My son loved it! Pitched just right for him!”

Bethany commented that the best bit for her has seen the development of the participants, who arrive not knowing much but leave with loads of knowledge. Susan agrees, “We started these sessions to share knowledge with Home Educating families, but they’ve become a little support bubble, as the kids make friends and grow in confidence.”

”My son absolutely loved the sessions, he was so nervous to start with after having a terrible time at school but the staff were so engaging and he learnt so much. He even made a friend! He’s desperate to do more sessions. And now the owl sanctuary is his favourite place… ever!! Thank you.”

Next year we will be running another All About Owls course alongside a Wise Owls course at KS1 and KS2 level. Our World Explorer sessions will also be continuing, visiting new continents and visiting some we’ve already looked at, but in more detail. We will be running stand-alone sessions for KS3/4 level, including a brand new activity that Home Educating families will try out before anyone else! If successful, it will be offered to schools and groups after Easter, and might even become an activity that visitors can book during our peak season.

”Honestly don’t think it can improve just different topics so we can keep booking”

Buddy the Buzzard

This Common Buzzard had been witnessed spending a lot of time on the ground over the past few weeks by grounds keepers at a Framlingham college. They called us for some advice but this behaviour is not overly unusual for buzzards, who will spend time “grubbing” for worms and other invertebrates. However, Buddy as he was named by the staff at the college, recently stopped being able to get off the ground, and with the temperature dropping, they became more concerned about him so called us again.

To make sure it was safe to intervene, we asked the staff to send us a video of Buddy to rule out any suspicious Avian Influenza symptoms. As he had been around for a long while it was assumed the flightless behaviour was due to weakness rather than disease. The video above is what was sent to us, and we were happy to take Buddy into our care, as it shows an alert Buzzard who is unable to fly.

Upon arrival, Buddy was triaged by our team and they confirmed that he was very weak but had no symptoms of Avian Influenza. He was taken into our Raptor Hospital where we found he was also suffering from a minor infestation of worms (found on a fecal smear done by Jess at the centre). This would also contribute to weight loss, so Buddy is now being treated for this parasite burden.

Buddy is enjoying some TLC in our Raptor Hospital

After a day in our indoor aviary, Buddy was moved to one of our larger outdoor aviaries, where he is already showing that he can move around. We will continue to monitor him to make sure there are no underlying injuries and make sure that he gets plenty of food to put on weight before hopefully being released soon.


Buddy enjoyed his meal of Rabbit.

Update: After a couple of days in the outdoor aviary, Jess decided to try Buddy with some wild-type rabbit. This is bought in frozen from our food suppliers Kiezebrink for the purpose of rehabilitating birds back into the wild. The law in the UK does not allow the feeding of live vertebrates, so wherever possible we feed wild type natural prey such as mice, rabbits, partridge etc, which can be defrosted and fed whole, as they would in the wild.

When Jess entered the aviary, Buddy was instantly interested in what she had, and before she had time to leave after placing the rabbit on a log, Buddy had jumped down and was feeding. This is a great sign that he knows what sort of food he should be eating, and we hope that his appetite remains good so that he can be released soon.

Keepers attend Animal Training Workshop

While our birds are having a well deserved rest over the winter months, Keepers Beckie, Jennie and Nick, as well as falconer Dolly attended an informative Animal Training workshop to further their understanding on the principles used when working with animals.

Photo by Shaping Behaviour

Jennie said “The one day course was fascinating and opened my eyes to different types of positive reinforcement training for animals/birds. Very informative watching live training demos and interactive learning that was great fun. overall a very positive day learning new skills and meeting like minded people.”


Dolly expanded “We had an informative talk on cooperative care; training voluntary behaviours which can assist in an animals everyday care and husbandry in order to improve their welfare. For example, training an animal to present part of their body for health checks or injections, rather than have to catch them up involuntarily which could potentially cause them stress or harm.”

A highlight of the day for all was watching some live animal training demonstrations; one showed progression in training of a Blue & Gold Macaw to tilt his head and receive an eye drop. Another demonstrated a completed behaviour of a pair of Galahs lapping the indoor arena, with a breakdown and demonstration of how this behaviour was trained.

Some interactive training games among the group highlighted some of the challenges faced when training an animal (or group of animals!) and how they can be managed & overcome. These also enabled our team to meet, learn from, and share ideas with animal keepers & trainers from other collections across the country.

Dolly concluded “I left the workshop with plenty of ideas of behaviours to begin training our birds and animals, and new training techniques to try, in order to achieve them.”

We would like to express our thanks to Banham Zoo for hosting this informative day and to Nicky Plaskitt of Shaping Behaviour for sharing her knowledge and experience with everyone.

We look forward to sharing any training progress with our followers in due course.

Chimney Sweeps

We received a call from a concerned member of the public who had found a disorientated Tawny Owl inside their log burning stove.

When he arrived, we were surprised by how clean Cinders was. Having dealt with many Owls whom have fallen down chimneys over the years, they usually come in blackened with soot and require several careful washes to restore their feathers to their true colour without causing any damage. As Owls are not waterproof, this is usually done over several days, and we must monitor them carefully in case they have ingested any soot while preening.

Thankfully, the house owners had recently had their chimney cleaned, so there was very little sooty residue to be found on his feathers. Upon closer inspection, Jess was amazed at the curliness of his facial feathers, with a likeness to a feather duster!

We don’t recommend using Tawny Owls as feather dusters.

Cinders will be monitored for a few days before being released back near where he came from.

Babergh Council lend a hand

We recently welcomed a team from Babergh Council to take part in a group volunteer day. We're grateful for their continued support after they generously contributed towards our Raptor Hospital Appeal a few years ago.

The team from Babergh Council

With some new additions to our animal collection due in the near future, we made use of the extra pairs of hands to clear out the old fox enclosure and make it ready for the new residents.

Hard at work. The first task was to clear all the substrate from the enclosure

The indoor area gets a fresh lick of paint

The first task was to clear out all of the slate and bark chippings from the base of the enclosure. This required quite a bit of teamwork, with the group splitting into teams of shovellers and pushers. Once the enclosure was empty, they got to work painting the indoor area and scrubbing down the outdoor area.

Volunteer Co-ordinator Beckie said “We are so grateful to the group from Babergh Council for coming in to help us with this big task! It would have taken our small team of volunteers several days to complete the work, but they managed to get it all done in just a few hours!”

The old fox enclosure will soon be home to some very exciting and exotic looking mammals as we diversify our collection. We’re sure they will be a hit with all our visitors, and hope to be able to offer more hands on experiences in due course once they’ve settled in.

Students learn new skills

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we always have jobs needing to be done. When the local Suffolk Rural College approached us to ask if we could take a group of students for one day a week for 6 weeks of their work skills placement, it was perfect timing.

The group helped us with a number of outdoor tasks such as gardening and weeding, clearing paths and areas around some of the enclosures, moving our mountain of bark chippings to improve the paths in the Woodland Walk and removing gravel and sand from the old weatherings once they had been demolished.

Volunteer Coordinator Beckie said “this group worked really hard every day they were in and completed all the tasks asked of them. Without their help, some of these tasks might still not have been completed, so it’s helped us get ahead on the gardening and maintenance jobs this winter!”

Group Supervisor Leann Ling said “Thanks so much for having us, I hope it helped as we really developed a number of skills working at the Sanctuary.”

Silver Owls

We’ve had some interesting colour morphs of Tawny Owls into our Raptor Hospital recently. These birds arrived just before we introduced our new triage protocols for dealing with Raptor Hospital intakes, to protect our staff, volunteers and current birds from the increasing risk of Avian Influenza locally.

Most Tawny Owls we see are gingery brown.

Tawny Owls are usually described as a mottled brown colour, with most of the birds we see being more gingery, possibly due to the prevalence of broadleaved woodlands locally. However, over the past few weeks we’ve had two silvery Tawny Owls admitted, which is quite unusual.

“Jaws” is a beautiful example of a silver morph Tawny Owl


This beautiful silver Tawny Owl came to us after being found beside a road being attacked by crows. She has been aptly named 'Jaws' for the incredible force with which she bites (as felt by the Hospital team!) Sadly she was suffering from impact trauma, which can manifest in neurological symptoms, possibly explaining her jaw clamping ability! Thankfully, after a few days of care she began feeding herself and her symptoms lessened. She was moved to one of our covered outdoor aviaries so we could monitor her for any other injuries, but things are looking good and we hope she will be fit for release soon.

Jaws checking out her new temporary home in our covered outdoor aviaries.

The second silver Tawny Owl was brought in by a member of the public who clipped him with her car. He took quite a knock to the head and presented with a swollen and bloody eye. He was kept quiet for a few days and given eye drops to help sooth his eye. We are continuing to monitor him as severe eye damage like his can take a long time to heal, and could impact on his survival after release. His condition hasn’t worsened so we hope that he is now stable and will slowly start to improve with continued care and treatment.

A second silver Tawny Owl

Caught up Kestrel

Over the Halloween weekend, we received a call about a Kestrel that had been found in trouble. Using our new triage protocols to protect our staff, volunteers and birds against the high risk of Avian Influenza, we deemed this bird safe to be brought in.

Any hanging fabric in the natural environment can be a hazard for wildlife.

The finders found him caught up in an old rope swing in nearby woods and immediately brought it to us for assessment. Jess checked him over for injuries, which he thankfully doesn’t appear to have. However, he was covered in ticks! These small parasites are often found on our pets, and can spread disease so it’s important that we try to remove them from any patients we take in.

Ticks can be really small before they start feeding on their host’s blood.

Jess was able to remove 7 ticks before placing him into one of our isolation cages for monitoring. Overnight he managed to eat a small amount unaided, which is always a good sign.

The following few days saw Jess remove over 20 ticks from this Kestrel, who has been nicknamed Tick. We will continue to monitor him for any further parasites before moving him to one of our covered aviaries to assess his flight. He’s showing no signs of injury though, so all being well we’ll be granted permission to release him near where he was found soon.

Tick feeling a little worse for wear

UPDATE:

Unfortunately Tick developed an infection from all the ticks on his face, so required extra medication to clear that up. However, he bounced back and after his course of treatment was finished he was ready for release.

The original finders came and collected him and released him in the grassy area outside the woodland, where he flew off strongly before landing on some play equipment to survey the scene before moving into the trees.