The Accipiter - On The Park May 2007

On the Park - June 2007

Love seems to be well and truly in the air at the Trust this year, with eggs and chicks popping up all over the place, and falconer Gary Benton appears to be turning a bit broody (well he is getting married this summer)…

Its baby season again!

The Hawk Conservancy has seen so many changes over the years. It’s constantly growing and growing in all areas of the park. There have been many recent changes with the arrival of new staff to the park creating some unfamiliar faces as you visit. The general running of a year at the park has many different chapters that we all look forward to in our own way, but one of my personal favourites is this time of year, ‘the baby season’.

We are now well into the breeding season, seeing signs of new pairings between the birds. So far it has been a very busy but successful spring. There are many of the regular breeding birds producing young yet again year after year, but we have also been successful in producing new breeding pairs, of which some have shown signs of getting together, although not quite getting it right first time. The season has also produced a few sad stories where young birds and eggs haven’t developed.

The maternity ward - two Hawk owls and a Milky eagle owl

One of the biggest successes this year has been in the owl world. There must be something in the air. We have bred all sorts including Great Grey Owls, Milky Eagle Owls, Rufus-legged, Malaysian Wood and even Hawk Owls just to mention a few. This has been a very pleasing time for us. Not just because it shows we are providing them with a good natural environment in which they are happy to breed, but also in respect of our new Woodland Owl demonstration.

As the 2007 season progresses we would like to introduce new faces and species into the team. For instance it will be great to fly some Hawk Owls in the woodland arena. They are a species not commonly seen in demonstrations for the main reason that they're not only hard to breed but even harder to hatch out in incubators and successfully hand-rear. This is the first year of us trying it. Our pair of hawk owls have bred for the last few years, successfully rearing two to four chicks a year, which have all in the past gone to other collections around the country for breeding programs. This year the pair produced eight eggs, which they probably do most years, but with the majority of owls it is very rare for all eggs to successfully hatch and for the chicks to survive.

Owls will lay one egg one day and then another the day after and so on but, unlike most of the other raptors, will immediately start to incubate the first day, resulting in size differences between the chicks. These differences are very apparent in a clutch of eight birds where a couple of the chicks will be over a week apart in size, which is a big difference considering most raptors are fully grown within twelve weeks of age. This pattern results in the larger chicks eating the smaller ones. Generally nature would just take its course but in captive conditions we can manipulate this by taking some of the clutch and artificially incubating them. We took four eggs this year, leaving them with four to rear themselves, which they are doing really well.

Weighing the Malaysian Wood Owl chick

One problem we knew we would encounter is that Hawk Owls are renowned for being difficult to hand rear. An incubation expert called Simon Brough who has worked with us many times in the past, said that he has very rarely seen Hawk Owls hand reared successfully. The odds are against us and unfortunately one of the four eggs didn’t hatch and one of the three remaining chicks died shortly after. Apparently they are very prone to gut infections which normally tip them over the edge. So far though the other two are making good progress and are reaching three weeks old now. I am looking forward to seeing this species fly in demos as they are so unlike any other owl in the air. Instead of the broad, rounded wings they have got slender more hawk like wings (hence the name really). They will look more like a Sparrowhawk than an owl, I think, which will be perfect for our new arena. Watch this space for progress of this over the next few months.

Other birds around the park have been active as well. The Caracaras are sat on eggs, which they haven’t done for four years or so now. Also the Griffon Vultures (Macauber and Kipling’s parents) laid one egg earlier in the year but unfortunately it wasn’t fertile, which was really sad as generally they are very successful. Harris Hawks and Lugger Falcons have also produced eggs this year.

Gary with a Tawny chick

The birds that are being hand-reared as you can imagine take a lot of looking after. Not only do they all need hand feeding four to five times a day, but they are continually being cleaned out and checked throughout the day. The babies all live in the incubation room in the hospital, where they are fed mainly by Mike and Kim throughout the day, while Jane feeds them last thing at night. One of our volunteers, Brenda also helps out with the rearing and feeding as lots of handling is a great way of getting them very used to humans. In fact I think she treats them like her own children. Every year she says it’s her last season for rearing as it’s quite a lot of work but she just can’t resist it when the first one hatches. It works well in other areas too as her husband Ivan comes and helps with the displays while Brenda is with her ‘children’. I think her particular favorite is the Malaysian Wood Owl as it’s the first time we have ever bred one. He or she is going to be a real handful I think. It’s just got that look in its eye.

Lastly, the other regular youngsters on the park are the baby Tawny Owls that get brought in every year from members of the public. So far we are at fifteen and the season is still young. It’s definitely going to be a busy year for Sam and the university students when the release program starts.

Some of the hopefuls for the rest of the year that have shown good signs of getting along are the Yellow-billed Kites, Gymnogenes, Red-backed Hawks and maybe even the new African White-backed Vultures, who have already settled in straight at home since they arrived at the start of the year. If nothing else happens this year I am sure next spring will produce yet again lots of different surprises. I can’t wait!

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