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