Breeding?

Exciting times here at the S.O.C. Some of our owls are currently sitting on eggs! Owl breeding season is always an exciting time for staff and volunteers. Here is a list of owls who are currently sitting on eggs:

Ashy-faced owl
African Wood owl
Burrowing owl
Barred owl (hopefully!)
Northern Hawk owl
Tengmalm's owl
Tropical Screech owl
Ural owl

That's the list so far but we hope that soon many more will start laying eggs. Our Great Horned owls unfortunately failed at their first attempt this year, most likely because of the weather. Even though we provide as much food as the owls need if there is a period of bad weather they instinctively know that they may not be able to look after owlets and sometimes abandon the eggs and will wait for better weather before trying again. However it looks like the female is getting ready to lay more eggs already! Fingers and talons are crossed and we hope this year we have a very successful breeding season and have lots of fluffy owlets!

More of our Trained owls have returned to the flying displays and we are now introducing "themed flying displays"! these include: "Extreme owls", "Owls of Britain past, present and future" and "Owls of Africa" Come along to the centre to see a unique themed display!

We also have a new and exciting feature called "Lofty's Lodge" where you can learn to speak Barn owl and even crawl inside a Barn owl nest box and discover what's inside! (listen out for bluebottles, Barn owl nests are very smelly!)

I have also created a youtube channel where I will upload videos of our owls. Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf6y1oz8ob3OOCESq0Z8eew

The Centre is still developing and growing so come along and see hoots new!

Training

The past few days we have been focusing on getting more of our 'flying team' ready for displays. Our Eurasian eagle owl "Broo",Tawny owl "Hosking" and "Fetlar" the snowy owl flew in the arena today after having a long winter holiday! During the winter we feed the team up and let them have a well deserved rest. After this rest we have to slowly put them back onto their special flying 'diet'. We hope that within a week or two "Tiger" our Brown Wood owl and "Savanna" the African Spotted eagle owl will be ready to rejoin the flying team.

In other news the breeding season is almost upon us and our Great Horned owl female is showing signs of possibly laying eggs! This is a very exciting time and the staff cant wait to see little fluffy owlets once again. We have been observing our Siberian eagle owls for sometime now as they have displayed courtship behaviour such as hooting and making nest scrapes. We decided to set up an overnight camera and see what our owls were up to! We witnessed both male and female owls hooting and making nest scrapes and both  were observed checking out the nest box we built for them. The male seems very keen on having the eggs laid inside the box but the female appears to prefer the ground just outside the box, however we have seen the male calling from inside the box as if to say "look at this awesome nest I have found and prepared for you! isn't it just so cosy and inviting?" all these signs are very promising and we hope to have them breed this year. Last year our female laid eggs but sadly we discovered they were infertile. Hopefully the owls have had time to settle and will produce fertile eggs this year. When she laid eggs last year, the centre was still being constructed!

So many exciting things are happening so be sure to visit the centre soon and have your breath taken away by these magnificent birds!

opening time!

The owl centre has opened its doors to the public after being closed for winter. The first displays of the season went well despite us keepers being a bit nervous! well we have had a break after all!

We have been focusing on getting our flying team back into the routine of doing displays, so far our Barn owl "Lofty" and our Milky eagle owl "Sarabi" have been the stars of the show whilst the other birds continue training. We hope that within a week or two the other owls will be up to scratch and once again ready to take part in the displays! We have an extensive team and we are proud to be able to introduce people to many different species and talk about the myths,wonders and superstitions that surround them. I just love seeing peoples faces when they come up close and personal with something as large and imposing as a Eurasian eagle owl or something as small and dainty as a Tropical screech owl!

The weather has been unfortunately unforgiving recently but Saturday and Sunday were lovely, clear days, I think it was a sign! Today was however a horrible mixture of rain, sleet, snow and wind but some lovely people braved the harsh conditions to come and visit the owls. Thankfully our indoor flying arena means we can put on displays no matter what the weather. That means come rain, hail or snow we will always be there to put on a good show! So come along and get up close and personal with our owls and learn all about the wonders that surround these wonderful birds. Who knows? you may have a wing brush your head or a beak gently nibble your finger!