Saturday, December 20, 2008

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.