Independence

25th May
The last part of the barn owl story:

On the evening of 25th May the owls were not on top of the cage when I came to feed them. So I searched the garden and found them sitting together in the fork of a large tree. The older one was tenderly grooming the younger one. They would not come immediately for food but I left the food on the cage and when I checked some hours later they were there.
Unfortunately, by this time the cats had worked out the routine and knew that there was meat on top of the owl cage every evening, so they would lie in wait and then scare off the owls to get the meat. So I had to find another place to feed them. I put the food on top of the children’s climbing frame under a big tree, and they would come down to get it each evening.

After a few days the older owl stopped coming for food, so I assumed it had learnt how to hunt by itself. Then a few days later the younger one, which was looking much more grown up by now, also stopped coming for food.

I can only hope that it learnt how to find its own food and became independent, and that I helped it in that path to independence.

It was a joy and a great learning experience to look after this pair of barn owls. I watched them work their way to freedom and independence, and I hope that they are now happily living somewhere around my neighbourhood and doing their part to keep the rat population down.

Release

The continued story of two barn owls...

21st May
After a week of being in the cage, the older owl began to get restless, and since there was obviously nothing wrong with it and the baby could now look after itself, I decided to release it. I wanted to give it the option of coming back to the baby if it wanted to, so I just opened up the upper part of one side of the cage. It soon discovered the hole and was out exploring its new surroundings.

I left the cage open in case it wanted to return to the baby later.

But to my surprise, by morning the baby was gone too. I did not think it could fly so was at first worried that perhaps a cat had got in and eaten it. But there was no sign of feathers or a feast having taken place, so I hoped for the best, but worried the whole day about what would become of it, as it was still so young.

The next evening when I went out in the garden I was pleasantly surprised by a loud “shhhhhh, shhhhhh, shhhhhh”. I tracked it down and found the baby owl sitting on the top of a kind of stepladder, with the older owl perched just above it. I later found out it had got there by hopping up the steps, one at a time, as it could not yet fly. I still don’t know where it had spent the day.

For its own safety, I caught it again and put it back in the cage, leaving the older one out, as it seemed quite independent.

I put food in the cage for the baby, and later I found the bigger owl on top of the cage looking down at the baby and trying desperately to find the way in. I first thought it was worried about the baby and wanted to care for it. But it soon became obvious that its main interest was the meat I had put in the cage. So I opened up the netting at the top of the cage and closed the previous opening I had made at the side.

By morning the larger owl was gone again but the young one was still there. In the evening I put some meat in again. Soon the older owl was back, after the meat. The next morning I found the young owl sitting on top of the cage. It had found its way out the hole at the top. It stayed there all day. I decided to put food on top of the cage that night, and the older one was back again at the usual time.

I went on putting food out each night on top of the cage and both owls would be there, the young one remaining on the cage by day, the older one flying off somewhere and coming back each night.

The barn owls settle down

This is the continued story of two barn owls that I looked after in May this year.

I asked Lawrence, the young man who had brought the owls to me, to find me some rats to feed the owls, which I offered to pay for. Meanwhile I offered my two owls some chunks of beef steak, but they were still too scared to eat. The next day Lawrence turned up with some rats, so that evening I offered one to the owls.

That got them excited and the bigger grabbed the rat and had soon swallowed it whole. There was no sign of the smaller one eating for a few days. However, it did not die, so I assumed the older one was feeding it somehow. By this time I had decided that these may not have been mother and baby, not being that much different in size, but two siblings. I had read that barn owls start incubating their eggs one by one, as soon as they are laid, so the chicks hatch at different times and siblings in one nest may be of varying ages. Older siblings will often look after and actually feed the younger siblings.

The younger owl would call for food every night with a loud hissing or “shhhhhhhh” sound, repeated at frequent, regular intervals all night.

The older one did not do this, but when one got too close it would give a deep, puff-adder-type, guttural hiss in defence, at the same time, lowering its head and raising its wings to make it look bigger and scarier.

By day, the owls would snuggle up together on the shelf in their cage. Baby owl always looked rather sleepy.

Every night I would feed them on rats or chunks of beefsteak. After a few days the younger one started feeding itself.

A Pair of Barn Owls

This is the story of a pair of barn owls that I had the pleasure of looking after.


Arrival
On the 14th of May this year a young man called Lawrence, came to my house carrying a barn owl. He said he had found it sitting on the road about a kilometre away. It had seemed unable to fly and he was concerned that it would get run-over. He said he liked wild birds and wanted to save it. Someone told him I would look after it. Of course he also wanted money for it, which I declined on the grounds that it would cost me money to feed it, and it was not his to sell anyway. He reluctantly accepted. It appeared full-grown or nearly so, and we could not find any injuries or anything else wrong, but it seemed weak and reluctant to fly away. I guessed it was just in shock for some reason. I put it in a cage that I luckily had available, so that I could monitor it. Here it is, just after arrival.


About half an hour later, to my surprise, Lawrence returned with another owl. This time it was a young one, half covered in downy feathers. He said he had been heading back the same way and had found this one under a big tree by the side of the road, very close to where he had found the first owl. I guessed the first one might be the mother of this baby, which had fallen out of a nest in the tree. We could not take it back, as the mother, even if she was ok and was released, would probably reject it, so I said I would take it also and keep it until it was old enough to go free.

I put the two in the cage together. The young one looked terrified at first, but later it snuggled up against the older one and it was clear they knew each other. Here they are snuggling up together, baby rather dozy while his protector analyses the situation.


More in the next post.

Martin - rest in peace

Sadly, Martin the owl died last night. I have not been posting updates on this story for a while, so I thought I would tell you about his last days.

After my last post, when Martin was spitting out all the food I gave him, I decided to start feeding him liquid foods. I liquidised mincemeat and kapenta fish, which I then sieved and fed him through a syringe. Later I added raw egg to his diet. Liquidised mincemeat did not work very well, so I soon cut that out. I also continued him on antibiotic through his water for a week.

He appeared to improve slightly and was willingly taking the liquid food. Since the liquid food was largely water, I fed him three times a day to try and get enough food into him. But still he did not seem to put on weight. He never bathed, so was quite a sight, with dried raw egg all down his front, where he had dribbled. I had to give him a forced bath several times, but it was not very successful, and he never preened his feathers afterwards.

Martin appeared to do nothing but sit on his perch all day, staring into space. It was as if he had given up the will to live. But at the same time, was refusing to die. I expected him to drop dead at any time, but he did not, for a whole three weeks. Most of the birds I have kept have either died within the first few days or lived. Martin just kept stubbornly hanging on the edge.

I tried to give him more privacy in his cage, hanging curtains around it, to make him more comfortable, but he showed no sign of appreciation.

For a whole week I kept trying him on solid food, but every time he would spit it out. Eventually, on 21st October, he started accepting mashed kapenta, a good sign. But a few days later he began refusing to swallow solids, so we were back to liquids again. He appeared to be having some difficulty breathing at the same time as eating, as if he had a stuffy nose. I decided to start him on antibiotic again.

Yesterday I noticed he looked very poorly, was squinting up his eyes as if in pain, and looked much weaker than usual. He still took his syringes of food. But by evening he was so weak he could hardly stand up or keep his eyes open.

This morning I found him dead. He had hung on to life for a whole three weeks. I still do not know exactly what he died of, or why he survived for so long after his injury. But he was not a happy bird while in captivity and I am relieved that now he is at peace.

Martin not very well

Martin the owl has been with me for nine days now. He is still not feeding himself, so I have been hand-feeding him every evening. I have also put some anti-biotic in his drinking water and am giving him some with a syringe each day.

Most days he has swallowed the food when I put it in his mouth. But yesterday at feeding time he was not looking too good and just kept spitting it out. He also seemed quite weak. He may have picked up an infection from his wounds. I can not tell whether he is going to make it or not, but things do not look too good right now.

This morning I tried again and he managed to swallow some food, in small quantities at a time, and I gave him lots of water. But he looked tired and weak.

Martin the owl still alive

Six days after receiving Martin the spotted eagle owl, he is still alive and looking a lot better. He would not eat for two days, so I started force-feeding him every evening on kapenta (small fish) and mincemeat.

He is still very scarred of anything that moves, and starts panicking every time anyone comes near the cage. I have to grab him and hold him down, trying not to touch his injured wing, and keeping well away from the claws, which are vicious. Then I feed him with the other hand by forcing open his mouth and trying to avoid the sharp end!

Martin the spotted eagle owl

Martin is a spotted eagle owl, who was caught scaring chickens in someone's chicken house and shot with a catapult. He was brought to me last week, just after he was shot. His right wing is broken, and I don't yet know if he has any other serious injuries. Here he is in a basket the day I received him.

He was obviously in a lot of pain. My sister, who is a farmer, helped bandage up his wing. The break is in a position that would be very difficult to splint, so we decided just to restrict movement by bandaging the whole wing together with sticking plaster.

Here he is all bandaged up and not looking very happy.

I gave him water with a syringe and then put him in a cage that I have used for previous owls and other birds.