Hawk Conservancy Latest

Lots of exciting things have been happening at the Trust since we last wrote.  From new birds on our summer display teams, to lots of babies in our Bird of Prey Hospital and unusual visitors arriving injured seeking medical attention, to name a few!

This time of year is just getting to the end of the baby season with birds of prey, and at the moment resident in the baby rearing room we have a young Black Kite and a young Yellow-billed Black Kite, both of which we hope to train and be able to fly with our main team of Kites in our Valley of the Eagles display.

Some of you may have saw a piece on Spring Watch a couple of months ago about a Honey Buzzard that was found in the solent, brought to us at the Trust and released back into Wales, where there is a known Honey Buzzard population.  This bird caused great excitement amongst most of the falconers at the trust as they are quite rare and unusual birds, many of us having never seen one before!!

So while the weathers still nice, come along and see for yourself!

Speak soon

Kath

update

in the aviary is a Ferruginous Hawk which isnt a wild bird but i a bird which is staying at the hawk conservancy. They are native to north america and is the largest of the buzzards. and hunt things such as rabbits also snakes and lizzards.

Spring Update!!

Hi All!

             Sorry it has been so log since we last wrote a blog.  Lot of things have been happening at the trust now that it is open 7 days a week again.  The majority of our new birds that we were training in the winter closed season have now joined our flying team and show excellant promise for the rest of the year.

             The peregrine falcon that was in our webcam rehqab avairy has now been moved to another avairy to maintain its fitness. You may have notice a Barn Owl temporily staying in the rehab avairy, this has now been moved to an avairy on park and will now stay as one of our own trust birds.

            Elsewhere in the hospital we also have another Barn Owl, a Tawny Owl and two Buzzards, that are being cared for before their release back into the wild.

            Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we write again!

Kath

Happy New Year!

Hi All,

             I hope everyone had a good christmas and New Year?! And now for us it’s almost that time of year again, where we need to start thinking about re-opening to the public full time.  Now the count is on and the work never ceases. 

             In our  re-hab avairy at the moment we have one of our long-term patients.  It is a young female Peregrine falcon that sustained a broken shoulder on right wing, back  in June last year.  She has been put back in this larger avairy to rebuild her flight muscles, until she is well enough to be released.

             Don’t forget that we will be open 7 days a week from February 14th, so come along and see for yourself whats happening.

   Kath.

Recent Update

Hi All,

          Sorry we avn’t updated our blog recently, both Simon and I have been really busy at the trust recently, what with the Winter season bringing lots of new changes to the Park.

          So this is a quick update of what has been happening in our Bird of Prey Hospital.  You may have noticed our Tawny Owls were moved last week to a new avairy and in their place is an injured Buzzard.  This bird is an adult male and was brought to us by the RSPCA last week, he had difficulty moving his legs, but fortunately he is on the mend and due to be collected and released later today.

         Hopefully it won’t be too long before we write again.

         Kath

just to keep everyone updated the peregrine has been moved to another aviary and now there are some long term rehab patients. they are tawny owls and they are just maulting new feathers through before they shall be released

New Bird in Rehab Avairy

   The bird in this aviary is a juvenile female peregrine that was brought to us in June this year.  She had fallen from the nest and sustained a broken right shoulder.

   This is now healed and she has been put into this large pre-release avairy so that she can exercise and get fit.  As she was too young to have learnt to fly and hunt before she was injured, she will need to be taught how to do this.  When her wing is completely sound she will be worked to a lure and once she learns to chase and catch this, we will take her to a suitable area and make sure that she can catch her own food, before she is released.  Before returning to the wild she will be fitted with a radio transmitter which will enable us to monitor her progress.

   Keep checking our website for more updates.

   Kath

update

just an up date all the tawny owl have gone now and so the aviary is empty at the moment and is being cleaned ready for the next birds to be placed into the aviary. 5 of the owls are now in an aviary in a select location as part of the conservation project and all the other have been released to the wild

Tawny Owls Release

The plan for this year’s juvenile Tawny Owls is a bit different from past years.  In recent years we have put radio transmitters on the birds and then let them go in different locations, tracking their progress and monitoring how far they travel from their release site, this is what’s known as a “hard release”.

The plan this year is to release all the birds except 5, as a hard release.  The chosen 5 will be put into a smaller avairy in a chosen location where they can get used to their surroundings, whilst still having food put daily into their avairy.  The plan is to then open the door and let them go, whilst still putting food in the avairy so that they can return and feed if they wish.  This is known as a “soft release”, or hacking back. 

A specialized ‘counter’ is mounted on either side of the door, so that each time a bird comes back to the avairy it is counted.  This hopefully will provide the trust with valuable insight into the owls habits and behaviour.

The Tawny Owls should be released in a few weeks, so keep tracking their progress via the webcam!

Kathy

hi

hi just some information on the juvenile tawny owls in the rehab aviary we have about 15 tawney owls at the moment all starting to look like adults. There diet at the park is mainly mice and chicks. and will all be released in about september time and monitored after their release.

Speak soon

simon