The Accipiter - Hospital Update June 2005

Hospital Update - June 2005

A monthly look at the comings and goings in our Hilary Smith Bird of Prey Hospital by volunteer Michael Wallis.

These are two Tawny Owl Babies who have been brought in to the hospital by members of the public. They had fallen out of their nests, which unfortunately were too high up to be reached for them to be put back.

The bigger chick arrived in late March, too early for any of our own foster owls to be nesting, so had to be hand reared to start with. The second chick arrived on 14th April and also had to be hand reared in the beginning. We were able to foster them out once some of our foster owls had laid eggs. Once they are fully grown, they will be released back into the wild as part of our monitored release scheme.

The bigger owl was found in Savernake forest near Marlborough and the small one near South End Village, Reading.

We now have 15 young Tawny Owl chicks in the park, all brought in by members of the public. They are being bought up by our very good foster mum owls. These include the Great Greys, Malaysian, Woodfords, Rufus-thighed, White-faced Scops, Ural and the Boobok. All the young ones are doing well.

A Red kite was brought into us from Ashampstead in Berkshire on the 28th March, unable to fly. He was very dishevelled with poor feather quality and many damaged and discoloured feathers.

In the pre-release aviary, he did not want to fly and spent most of his time sitting on his feeding tray. He was taken to our Vet, John Chitty, who x-rayed him and took a blood test. The results were inconclusive and no reason was forthcoming as to why the bird was unwell.

It was decided to let him take his time to see how he might recover, so it was agreed that he should share an aviary with Hemingway. He is now beginning to look better and is making good progress. He will be released back into the wild once he is returned to full fitness.

Late breaking news - it did go in with Hemingway for a while, and although it was feeding and flying, it did not appear to be improving in health. It has since been reassessed with some further tests, and it was diagnosed as having a blood infection. It was moved into the rehab aviary to aid giving it antibiotics, and is now being fed up to increase its body weight. It will be kept in the rehab aviary for some time to allow it to molt through before it is eventually released back into the wild.

Three baby Great Grey Owls hatched on the 12th, 15th and 18th May from eggs laid by our captive bird. It took about 38 hours for the chicks to hatch from the time that they started to pip. They are being currently hand reared while in an incubator. It is intended to return two of the chicks back to Mum in the aviary when they are older for her to feed and bring up. The third chick will remain in the hospital being hand reared as it is to go to another collection when fully grown. They will be fully grown at about 14 - 16 weeks.

A male White Tailed Sea Eagle has had a short visit in the hospital rehab aviary while being checked out. It is on permanent breeding loan from a collection in Liberec in the Czech Republic. (It was originally in Kiev Zoo). It is a disabled bird and has been introduced to our existing Sea Eagle in the open aviary. The two birds are getting on well together. Both birds are making good use of their open space and can often be seen at the front of the aviary.