Juvenile Tawny Owls in pre-flight aviary

This last month has been another very busy one for the hospital staff and for those helping in the hospital as part of their work experience time while at the Hawk Conservancy Trust. We have seen numerous wild birds, while still also looking after sixteen young Tawny Owls in our rehabilitation aviary, prior to their release as part of an ongoing research project.

Cocktail the Peregrine

We are continuing to treat Mace, the Red-backed Hawk with the foot infection. She is on medication and is having her foot dressings changed regularly. We also have Cocktail, a Peregrine Falcon belonging to falconer Jimmy Robinson, in the hospital with an infection for which she is receiving medication and physiotherapy.

In addition to these adult birds, we have we have nine babies that were born at the Trust this year. They will continue to live on the park and will eventually be trained for demonstrations and experience days. These include Yellow-billed Kites, a Burrowing Owl, Hawk Owls, Harris’ Hawks and a Snowy Owl (the first to be born on the park for some years).

Of the wild birds brought into us for care and treatment, four are still patients with us and seven have successfully been released back into the wild. The details are as follows :-

• Four Tawny Owls, three of which had badly broken legs. One of these had been found stuck in the grill of a heavy lorry. It came to us via an RSPCA Officer. The other one had a serious throat and mouth infection known as Frounce, which is very contagious amongst birds. None of these conditions was treatable.
• Six Little Owls arrived on our doorstep in various states of health. Five were very thin and wet suffering from the results of the poor weather that has recently been experienced locally. They were juvenile so were not capable of looking after themselves very well. We fed them up and gave them several days of TLC. They were then released. One came in with a severe head injury and had to be euthanased.

• Sparrowhawk chick

  We also treated one Long Eared Owl with an eye injury which responded very well to treatment. We do not see them very often so it was very pleasing to be able to release it back into the wild when it was again fully fit.
• We have seen several Kestrels needing care and treatment, some of which unfortunately arrived with injuries or conditions that were untreatable. However one has been released and two are still receiving treatment. One arrived suffering very bad fly strike and was covered with flies, maggots and eggs. It was cleaned and dusted to prevent it developing further. It is now showing signs of recovering.
• We are currently treating two Sparrowhawks; one came to us via the RSPCA and the other is a baby that was found by a member of the public. .