Tuesday 19th October 2010

Within todays blog we have uploaded a few images covering a lot of subjects that had a lot to do with todays work here at the Barn Owl Centre.

Lets start by an image showing a wild Barn Owl hunting & hovering for prey within rough grassland.

Today was quite an active day & very productive indeed especially with the new aviaries we are building. All timber framing including roof timbers are 99% complete, this means we will be soon putting on the plywood & the timber cladding. The weather has been perfect except for a brief shower at the end of the day. For information about our New Aviary area we are building, please go to the first page of the blog

In addition & now at the stage we are with the aviaries, we are now looking at bringing in the materials needed to create what we have called the Owl Garden, this is going to be a communal garden area to compliment the area in front of the bird aviaries, a great place for our visitors to relax & enjoy the birds in our care. The plans look great so more about this later when we start to capture some images showing its progress.

With regards to the Owl Nest Workshop, we now have a good quantity of Owl Boxes in stock together with some of our new Owl Manors close to completion, this means that the Owl Manors required for orders are on track & ready to go out to their different site locations next week, the landowners & of course the wild Barn Owls are going to love them.

Designed by the Barn Owl Centre & called the Owl Manor,   this is aimed to benefit wild Barn Owls with a more spacious Owl box where it outsizes any other Owl box on the market. Built like a Barn to offer Barn Owls a bigger home where a tree is not required, perfect to support field margins which are the Barn Owls favourite hunting grounds.

Here is one of our normal Owl Boxes for which we have over 1200 positioned on our own project sites & over 2500 sold UK wide, this Owl Box has been occupied by Barn Owls for a few years now. This has proven to be a very successful nest site, in time we expect the above Owl Manor will benefit Barn Owl too,  it's simple a huge Manor House built for the open countryside for Barn Owls

This is a young Barn Owl photographed hunting for small rodents such as the Short=tailed Vole.

Here is a wild Barn Owl that was found completely soaked through due to heavy rain. She was brought in, dried & re-released back to wild, prior to release we positioned a number of Owl boxes within the vicinity to help her. Now she can look at taking shelter when she needs to.

The office has been very busy too with lots of bookings being taken for our experiences including customers calling to order gift vouchers, lots of enquiries have also come in via the telephone where guidance is needed to help encourage localised Owl populations. With the dispersal of young Owls now getting in full swing, this is the time of year when our conservation work & the service we offer increases, if we can assist landowners & offer sound advice to help the Owls on their land, we will, Owl Conservation isn't really a difficult subject, its simply about getting the the fundamental aspects in place, which can offer Owls the stability they need to survive through the next 6 months, these are suitable habitat conditions, a healthy & accessible food supply & decent housing to help create a safe haven to roost.

At midday we only had a single person booked into one of our  Hawk & Owl Experiences, the experience even with a single person booked in, still went ahead because we feel it simply connects people to wildlife. All was enjoyed & to make it more special, Vince who manages the Centre took out his camera to capture some personal photos so they could be taken away with him, there is no charge for this service because Vince loves his photography plus the memory captured is more important. Below are some of the images captured during his experience.

Taken during today's Hawk & Owl Experience, An image can speak a thousand than words

Leighton the Buzzard also had a great time too

This was taken whilst we were out flying Turner the Eagle Owl who weighed in at 3lb 14ozs

A great Hawk & Owl Experience had by all

We do take bookings with or with Gift Vouchers, if you want to speak to us, call us on 01452 383999. We would love to share our experiences with you, we also cater for children from 4 years upwards including Birthday Parties.

The afternoon was more of an admin period with Becky getting on with lots of important things in the office. Juliette was sorting out the booking dates for forthcoming fundraising events & Carl our handyman/Bird Handler was de-weeding the area around the new aviaries. Vicky who is one our fundraising staff, helped out by re-labelling a vast amount of charity boxes ready for all the fundraising dates ahead. With a good supportive team of volunteers it looks like the rest of October & November is going to be a very busy for us especially with the diary looking busy with experiences.

Here is an image showing one of our team of volunteers out in the community raising support  & promoting the work of  our charity From left to right are Becky, Lauren & Jim.

The Centre birds are all doing well with them all in good shape & doing well in their training programs, now the cooler days are with us, training & flying will be stepped up, this is to benefit the birds fitness plus it will enable us to fly more birds with our visitors during their experiences.

Below is an image showing the range of birds we look after & support, many of them have been handed to us over the years as unwanted pets & unwanted birds from other Keepers & Centres.

To see more images of birds, please take a look at our Photo Gallery on the web site

Here is a QUICK LINK to start of our online Photo Gallery, we hope you enjoy the birds like we do

Thanks for taking the time to drop in to read our blog.

Sunday 17th October 2010

The day started very slow today as there were quite a few jobs that needed doing before we opened our doors for our first activity experience, this was at 12noon for our Hawk & Owl Flying Experience.

This went down really well with our visitors, first Leighton the Buzzard was flown, this enabled the visitors to fly from the gloved hand, a species that is now commonly seen, souring the skies of the English countryside.

After a short coffee break, all visitors & staff then ventured back down in the fields to fly 2 of our Eagle Owls, these were Kaln & Turner. With staff positioned at a good distance away from the visitors, Vince our main bird handler stayed with the visitors to fly these Eagle Owls to their gloved hands. Everyone loved the experience & they were all surprised on how heavy these birds are once they have landed. With a 5ft wing span & with those amazing orange eyes heading in your direction, you soon realise this is one serious Owl to be heading towards your gloved hand.

Kaln is a gentle giant

At 4pm, our Owl Flying Experience began & also with a new set of guests arriving to take part. Some were old faces on a returned visit & some were new faces which is also really nice too. With the weather still very pleasant, off we went to fly some of the Owls.

Whilst flying Luna the Barn Owl, all agreed to start with a brief photo session, at times, this is very helpful for the charity because now & again we do need fresh images showing what visitors do when they join us on one of our experiences. Once the quick photo session was over, flying the owls continued & without Vince's camera pointing their direction. The visitors enjoyed the experience & all left with the images you see below as a memory their day & of course of a thank you.  All had a great time flying the birds, which was Luna the Barn Owl & Turner the Eagle Owl, Turner at this time is now on his second flying session & poor Kaln did feel a bit left out by this but he is used to it.

Below are a number of images that were taken with our visitors kind permission, the Barn Owl being flown is Luna. we hope you like them.

Image taken during the 4pm Owl Flying Experience

Image taken during the 4pm Owl Flying Experience

Image taken during the 4pm Owl Flying Experience

Image taken during the 4pm Owl Flying Experience

Image taken during the 4pm Owl Flying Experience

Image taken during the 4pm Owl Flying Experience

With all the birds fed & watered, it's now time to prepare for the week ahead & the organising of what will be needed for the new aviaries this week.

This evening ended with Juliette getting Leighton back in from his outside aviary, because it was dark, within the hedgerow close to the aviary were 3 Badgers, all were munching on the Perry Pears, which have fallen from an ancient Pear Tree. With the badgers being completely unaware of Juliette, they continued to scoff the Pears whilst Juliette watched them whilst getting Leighton out of the aviary, she was amazed that they were just too busy to even notice her. Juliette came back in with a big grin on her face like a cheshire cat after encountering their eating behaviour.

Hopefully more news tomorrow.

Thanks for popping by to read todays blog.

Saturday 16th October 2010

The week has been quite a week with so much going on with the building of the new aviaries, all framework & roof timbers are very close to being finished, which is excellent news. Next week we should be starting on the timber cladding & if that goes well this will be followed by fixing plywood to the dividing walls & the roofs. For this we need to order in about 560 sheets of 8x4 plywood, this sort of quantity will give a sense of scale of the size of the aviary area we are building. More will follow as we complete the different stages & of course we will upload some images showing how the project is progressing.

To learn more about the development please visit our 1st blog page.

Friday evening (Yesterday), a wild Barn Owl was closely observed hunting down in our nature reserve, the staff that were still here, sat like quiet mice on a picnic table with their hot coffee's watching what looked to be a youngster, he or she was hunting the field margins alongside the inner hedgerows on the farm, the evening light was just enough to allow our eyes to follow the flight of the Barn Owl whilst it was searching for its prey, all this only lasted for about half an hour but still, what a great end to a Friday evening!

The week days have been relatively busy with our Hawk & Owl Experiences & Owl Flying Experiences.

Now back to today (Saturday).

The weather was very pleasant & we had some great visitors booked in for one of our Hawk & Owl Experiences, this took place between 12noon & 2pm. With the sun shining, we went out & had a great time, all birds that were flown, simply worked with the group to perfection, these were Leighton the Buzzard & Kaln the Eagle Owl, below are a couple of pictures that were taken, with our visitors permission.

An experience with Leighton the Buzzard.

An experience with Leighton the Buzzard.

Our Owl Box workshop was also flat out today with more nest boxes being made for new orders that are coming in. It is always pleasing to see the landowners support their localised Owl populations with Owl Boxes. Nest box orders do come from places UK wide, this is mainly through our web site & of course from word & mouth. With the winter soon arriving, getting an Owl box positioned will help provide a much needed shelter for this years Owlets searching for new grounds to survive the winter.

This is one of our boxes that is used annually with great success.

Todays fundraising event went ahead today with both Lauren & Vikki taking out with them, Luna the Barn Owl & Willow the Little Owl, the event was at Regency Arcade in Cheltenham, this is a place we have been going for years & the support given to us is just outstanding, a big thank you to Regency Arcade & the shoppers who go out of their way to meet our fundraising team, your support as always been important to our charity.

Thank you for taking the time to stop to read our blog.

Tuesday 12th October 2010

Work is still progressing on the new aviaries today with more roof timbers being added, further updates will be posted at a later date as we progress with this exciting project. More about the aviaries can be found on yesterdays post.

In the office there has been loads going on, the phone has been quite busy with future bookings, two of our volunteers, Jim & Becky have had the task of re-designing the display boards for fundraising events, these need to be ready for Saturday, in time for our visit to Regency Arcade in Cheltenham.

Becky with Luna the Barn Owl & Jim with Kaln the Eagle Owl

Today we had an Owl Flying Experience taking place, the guests on the experience had a great time & so did the Owls who they flew, these were Luna the Barn Owl & Turner the Eagle Owl. Turner, whilst out had an episode with a pair of crows who simply wanted to annoy him, this is something he is very used to, but now they quickly give up because he shows no interest in their antics to wind him up, still funny to watch though.

Barn Owl in flight, what a beautiful creature to be able to work with, amazing birds!

Also there was an un-educated Wood Pigeon that ignorantly landed on a post Turner was quickly heading towards, being unaware of this, a sudden look on the pigeons face turner to fright, his eyes appeared the same size as the Eagle Owls, he did get out of the way very quickly, very funny to watch.

The wildife on the farm was very active today, this included the local Buzzards & a the pair of Ravens. A local female Kestrel was actively hovering over around the farm, searching for prey with many successful stoops being made into the grasslands to catch Short-tailed Voles.

Flying Eagles Owls our way is simply breathtaking

In the Owl Box Workshop, Warren was busy building up our stock supply of Owl Boxes ready for the months ahead. in addition he was finishing off 4 Owl Manors, which need to be ready for our Conservation Team next week as this is when we aim to get them delivered & installed.

Here is an Owl Manor positioned in the countryside to support Barn Owls

All in all, a productive day.

Welcome to our blog

Being new to blogging, we will do our best to keep our readers updated on what goes on at the Centre & also what results we achieve when out and about in the countryside at project sites supporting Barn Owls & other species of Owls & Birds of Prey.

News will also be about the captive bred birds we work with & support, wild rescues that come in & returned back to the wild, our bird of prey experiences, fundraising events and not forgetting the development updates showing how we are progressing with the new Centre.

Starting from today, this was a typical Monday with loads of exciting things being organised for the weeks ahead, more about this later.

On the development front, our new bird aviaries, which will be replacing our present aviaries are coming on brilliantly, this is very exciting because the birds will have new aviaries to move into, hopefully for Christmas. The frame work of all aviaries are now up and the roof timbers are now being fixed in place, following on from this is the timber cladding being fixed on the walls & the dividing partitions. More will follow as we progress towards completion.

Aerial View taken 11th November 2010

Image taken 11th November 2010

Netheridge Farm 2008, prior to moving in

Above is an animated video showing the proposed development plan of our new Barn Owl Centre & below is the new aviaries being built, the new aviaries were

kindly funded by Gloucestershire Environmental Trust.

Please note that the Centre at the moment is very operational with all building work taking place behind the scenes.

New Aviaries - Image taken Monday 11th October 2010

This image simply shows the scale of Barn Owl Centre major project, lots to do! Any financial support is welcome.

Signing off for now

Barn Owl Centre