Our patients beginning to fly the nest

During the next two weeks, we are expecting to release the five t awny owlets that came to us in the spring. They are flying well, have lost their fluffy down and are looking extremely fit.

They have been in the Big Flight for some time to allow them to build strength and have space to fly and land safely on different surfaces.

An adult tawny owl will also be leaving after his complete recovery from a road accident.

We will still be caring for another adult tawny that was found at the side of the road some weeks ago. He still has sight problems. We had him vet checked and his eyes are working but it seems he has a problem with the nerves or even a brain injury that is preventing him from seeing properly.

We are using our normal procedure in such cases, and ‘giving him a little time’. He is eating well, and enjoying life in a smaller aviary. Now birds are leaving, he can go to a bigger one so that we can continue to monitor him.

There are two more tawny youngsters with us, they will also move up, possibly to the Big Flight, to build up a little more.

Our two barn owl youngsters are sharing an aviary and are fighting over who gets the prime site inside the box. Ian has made and put up another box today so they can have one each. They will be moving to the undercover aviary when the tawny owls go.

They will have much more space there. It’s just like musical chairs, the aviaries are in constant use.

Our next batch of eight mallard ducklings have developed their wings and are ready to go. They have been in the Big Pond with the cygnet and another mallard duckling that is a bit older.

All the mallards will go together to the river. Two smaller mallard ducklings will join the cygnet to allow their wings to grow and get used to deep water. The plan is to release these two ducklings with the cygnet later. That will just leave us with about 15 other ducklings that hopefully will go before the end of the month.

We are also releasing two more hoglets. They are the remaining two from a litter of four that came in some months ago. All four hogs have been microchipped. We hope that by microchipping all our young hogs before release, we will get information about them which may be useful in the future, like how well they survive in the wild and how far they travel.

We have four more young hogs that will be ready for their microchips in the next week or two. We have about 20 hedgehogs in at the moment. We hope to get a few more out before the cold weather starts.

The picture this week is a really stunning one taken by Jim Montana. He donated this picture ready-framed for us. The detail is amazing when seen full size. Thank you so much. We shall use this picture in our Christmas Raffle this year – it will make a lovely prize.

Jackie has asked me to thank everyone who supported us at Eyemouth Lifeboat Gala Day last Saturday, especially Alice who volunteered to do the day with her. Their stall was constantly busy and the tombola was sold out when we called in to see if they needed any help at 1.30pm. It was a very enjoyable day and they had lovely weather for it.