On the Park - July 2007

Night Nurse?

Regular readers will be aware that we run a Bird of Prey Hospital at the Trust. This caters for injured raptors brought in from the wild. It is also used for any birds on the park that fall ill and acts as the first home for hand reared baby raptors.

Very young Hawk Owl chick in baby incubator

The hospital is not only open during the working hours of the park; it has to be accessible during the night as well. Fortunately we do not have too many casualties brought in between 5:30pm and 8:30am, but there are usually a couple a month, and at certain times of the year this can increase dramatically. We have just had a busy spell with young birds, which people have found during the day, and it also gets busy when the clocks go back, when we have quite a few road casualties, usually Tawny or Barn Owls.

Not quite so young Hawk Owl chick

Someone has to be on hand to admit these cases, to give emergency first aid and to contact, or take them to the vet, if their injuries are life threatening. I am lucky enough to have a lovely flat over the hospital building, and one of the conditions of living here is that I act as a ‘night nurse’ to any birds brought in overnight.

Young Malay Wood Owl (now named Gucci)

Mostly it is simply a case of checking them over and putting them in a warm, quiet bay, to get over the shock, which is the biggest killer of injured raptors. If a bird has been injured for some time and is very low in condition, it may require fluids, which can be administered orally. In severe cases the vet may need to give fluids intravenously. Normally after a quiet night they are ready to eat and for the majority of birds this is all the care they require. A minor injury to a wing, damaged feathers, or simply lack of food, can make a bird weak enough to be approached and picked up by a rescuer. In these cases a bird just needs enough time in the hospital to put on weight, rest the injury, or to moult/grow new feathers. Other injuries require medical intervention and these birds will be taken to, or seen by a vet within 48 hours and usually the following day. These cases may require medicines and physiotherapy to help their recovery.

Occasionally a very sick bird may require checking on at night. If it is one of the well beloved park birds, this is normally followed by a round of phone calls to other members of staff to say all is well and it is not unusual to find Ashley our C.E.O. also checking on the patient.

Jane feeding Milky Eagle owl chick

There are also some more fun aspects of the night shift. We have been hand rearing several baby owls this year, which are destined to become stars of future displays. Like all babies they require a lot of care in the early stages. It seems to be a constant round of cleaning and feeding them, just like human babies! At first we fed them four times a day and the final feed of the day was at 10:30pm. Every evening would see me spooning bits of chicken into several hungry mouths. It was great fun but quite time consuming and I was very grateful to have some help in the first weeks, from Cedric, one of my fellow falconers and Ludovic, who is here on work experience for six months. As the babies got bigger, feeding them became easier and eventually I was doing the night feed on my own. They are now all old enough to be on one or two feeds a day, So it’s about a month since I last staggered down the stairs at 10:30pm. It is a bit like the first day of school. Part of you misses them, but another part is glad to have a bit more free time!

Brenda preparing food

The job of feeding the babies would have been a whole lot harder, if it hadn’t been for Brenda, one of our band of loyal volunteers. She kindly came in everyday to chop up endless bits of chick for the baby owls to eat. This has to be carefully prepared and weighed and takes ages to do. I was very glad to come down to ready made dishes of food to give to the youngsters. Brenda also helped to feed the babies during the day and would quite happily have come in at night as well, but we thought that she deserved some time at home with the family.

We have recently taken on some new members of falconry staff and there has been a switch around in the section allocation to allow them to have responsibility for a section of their own. Paul has taken over my old section, while I in turn have taken over the Bird of Prey Hospital from Mike, who has moved onto another section. This actually works out really well and gives continuity of care. I no longer have to leave notes for Mike about night time admissions and it also makes passing relevant information to the vet easier. I am looking forward to the new challenges involved with running the hospital and working alongside regular hospital volunteer, Mike Wallis.