A Brief Summary of the History of Falconry

Falconry is defined as ‘the keeping and training of falcons or other birds of prey; the sport of hunting with such birds’. Falconry has a long history dating back to at least 1700BC where it’s believed to have originated in Central Asia. Originally Falconry was simply used as a way of putting food on the table but as it spread across the Middle East, East Asia and Europe it became popular with those within the aristocracy.

Within Europe, Falconry and the species flown became an indication of the persons status; one example of this is Henry VIII who was an avid falconer himself using a Gyrfalcon. The following is a list from ‘The Boke of St. Albans’ published 1486; showing which bird could be flown by each rank.

Emperor – Eagle or Vulture
King- Gyrfalcon
Prince – Peregrine Falcon
Duke – Falcon of the Rock (another name for Peregrine)
Knight – Saker or Sakeret
Squire – Lanner or Lanneret
Lady – Merlin
Youngman – Hobby
Yeoman – Goshawk
Priest – Sparrowhawk
Holy water Clerk – Musket (Male Sparrowhawk)
Knave/ Servant – Kestrel

The "Book of Saint Albans," is one of the earliest texts dedicated to falconry. It detailed the types of birds, methods of training, and ethical considerations of hunting. This era also saw the rise of various hunting festivals and competitions.

 

Falconry Across the World

In ancient Egypt, falcons were revered, often associated with the sun god Horus. The Egyptians trained birds such as the peregrine falcon and the hooded falcon for hunting, and their depictions in art emphasise the status of falconers in society.  

Falconry is also an icon of Arabian culture. The saker falcon used by Arabs for falconry is called by Arabs "Hur" which means ‘free bird’ and it has been used in falconry in the Arabian Peninsula since ancient times. Saker falcons are the national bird of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Yemen and have been integral to Arab heritage and culture for over 9,000 years.

Mongolian eagle hunting, or "berkutchi," is a traditional practice that dates back centuries in Mongolia, particularly among the nomadic Kazakh people in the Altai Mountains. This ancient form of hunting involves training golden eagles to capture prey, such as foxes and rabbits.

 

Modern Day Falconry

The invention of firearms in the 16th century led to a significant decline in the popularity of falconry as a primary means of hunting. As game became easier to kill with guns, the intricate skills of falconry began to fade into the background. However, the art never completely disappeared. It was preserved in certain cultures and eventually saw a revival in the 19th century.

This resurgence was fuelled by a growing interest in traditional practices and conservation. The establishment of falconry clubs and associations helped to revive techniques and promote ethical hunting practices. Today, falconry is recognised as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, celebrating its significance in various cultures around the world.

Falconry practices have evolved into the modern-day avian training techniques which we now use here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary. The focus has moved onto the ethics of training birds; giving the animals choice and control and training with positive reinforcement techniques.  

Red Squirrel Awareness Week

September has been a busy month for our red squirrels here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary. Our first three squirrels have settled in well, and are becoming bolder and more adventurous as the days go by. Its an absolute delight to see them busy caching their hazelnuts, and chasing each other across the top of their enclosure. The final two enclosures are near completion, and we will be working hard to get these ready for new furry occupants soon.

We started the month with some very generous donations from two garden centres - Katie’s Garden Plant Centre https://www.katiesgarden.co.uk, and Bypass Nurseries Garden Centre. https://bypassnurseries.co.uk. Thank you to these fantastic local businesses. Their donations will allow us to continue planting up our enclosures, and be able to offer seasonal browse to our squirrels.

On the 5th of September we attended the Red Squirrel Husbandry Workshop at Wildwood Devon. This was a chance to meet with other Red Squirrel keepers, and share ideas and expertise. We spent the day listening to different talks, and even had the chance to examine an old squirrel drey (the nest of a squirrel), and count the number of twigs taken to construct it- 477.

As we move into Autumn, we will be taking part in Red Squirrel Awareness Week from Monday, 30 September - Sunday, 06 October. Join us for daily talks at 12.30pm at our new squirrel enclosures, and learn all about these fascinating creatures.

Did you know?

The name Squirrel originates from Latin, meaning ‘little shadow tail’.

Squirrels are divided into three groups - ground squirrels, flying squirrels, and arboreal/tree squirrels. Red squirrels are tree squirrels.

Squirrels can hide thousands of individual food items throughout the year, and remember where most of these are hidden.

 

We will also be running a Name the Red Squirrels competition, and be looking for name suggestions to name our first three red squirrels, so please keep an eye on our socials. 

Come along this week and celebrate all things Red Squirrel with us. We will be running a themed trail, an activity and colouring table, and our Name the Red Squirrels competition.

✍️ 📷 Animal Keeper Luke

📷 Liam Austin

International Vulture Awareness Day 2024

A big thank you to everyone who donated and visited us during International Vulture Awareness Day this year; it made for an amazing weekend! IVAD is an important day to the team at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary; it puts a spotlight on the highly important yet misunderstood Vultures. Every year across the world hundreds of organisers and thousands of participants celebrate Vultures and give these under appreciated animals a voice and push for their conservation.

Education Station

Visitors had the opportunity to learn about Vultures and the Endangered Wildlife Trust at our Education Station; it was manned throughout the day by our incredible staff and volunteers. The table included feathers from our Vultures and weighted sacks so visitors could feel the weight of different Vulture species.

The definite highlight of the weekend was the Vultures appearances in the Flying Displays. There is no better way to inspire people to care about the conservation of Vultures than to see them in flight!

Jack, Rose and Toto the Hooded Vultures

Why do Vultures need our protection? Vulture numbers are declining at an alarming rate with 70% of Vulture species already classified as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered; this makes Vultures one of the most threatened groups of birds in the world. Vultures face the challenges of habitat loss, poisonings and the illegal wildlife trade. Vultures are often poisoned by poachers who don’t want the circling Vultures to draw attention to them after they have poached a larger animal; for a while this is how the authorities would catch poachers in the act. The most recent mass poisoning event took place in 2022 and it claimed the lives of 108 Endangered Vultures.

The extinction of Vultures would not only impact them but it will also have a detrimental knock-on effect for the wider ecosystem. Vultures play a key part of nature’s cleanup crew; preserving the balance of the environment, disposing of carcasses and preventing the spread of disease.

This year for International Vulture Awareness Day, Suffolk Owl Sanctuary chose to raise money for the Endangered Wildlife Trust; they are the fantastic organisation who run the ‘Vultures for Africa’ programme. The EWT protects Vultures in so many ways including their Vulture Ambulance; it remains stationed within high-poisoning-risk areas and means that if a mass poisoning takes place they can respond quickly. The ambulance is equipped with everything needed to rapidly and successfully rescue, stabilise, treat and transport birds which have survived the poisoning; significantly increasing the number of birds which survive these catastrophic events. The EWT do incredible conservation work so please read more about what they do to help Vultures here: https://ewt.org.za/what-we-do/saving-species/vultures/

Vulture Ambulance

It’s equipped with everything needed to rescue, treat and transport Vultures which have been victims of a mass poisoning.

Grand Total

We are proud to announce that this year we were able to raise an amazing £865 for the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s ‘Vultures for Africa’ programme. Thank you to all the visitors, volunteers and staff who made this possible.

Winter guests released

For the past few years we have worked with Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue to provide a safe space for Hedgehogs in their care to spend the last few weeks of their rehabilitation process before release.

Over the past winter, we housed four Hedgehogs in our Hedgehog Hotel. These hogs had all been unable to reach the required weight to successfully hibernate through the colder winter months. In our care, they were provided with a supply of food and water, but also given the opportunity to display natural behaviours, such as nest building and foraging for insects in the outdoor runs.

With spring now firmly here (despite the weather!), these hedgehogs were collected by Paula, who carried out a final health check on them before arranging for them to be returned to their home territories.

We are proud to be able to support Suffolk Prickles and look forward to helping them with another group of Hedgehogs soon.

Why no Owls???

Towards the end of 2021, with Avian Influenza cases increasing around the UK, we heard a rumour of new guidelines regarding the care and welfare of birds of prey. Our own Avian Specialist Consultant Vet, Dr Elliott Simpson-Brown, MRCVS, was on the panel advising DEFRA on updating the best practice for collections that keep birds of prey. These included diet, accommodation, healthcare and training, with a much greater emphasis on reducing stress and improving bird wellbeing.

As a result of these upcoming changes, we built new aviaries to allow us to free-loft our Flying Team and reduce the use of tethering.

We also made the decision to stop transporting our birds for off-site visits. There were many reasons for this, including not wanting to tether birds into their travel boxes, not being able to control the environment we were taking the birds into, and with most of our School Owls nearing retirement, we didn’t see it as fair to train young birds for this practice.

Our Education Officer, Susan, set about developing new activities to ensure that schools could still book an engaging and interactive educational visit from our team. This included our popular Pellet Detectives session, Food Chains Game, Habitats Packing Activity and many more.

In 2021, our Education team made several local outreach visits with our birds, but this changed in January 2022.

Susan notes “between starting at SOS in 2020 and the end of 2021 when we stopped taking birds into schools, we obviously didn’t have that many bookings due to Covid. However, it has been really noticeable that the feedback we’ve received since then has helped to support the findings of several research papers into the use of Ambassador Animals for Conservation Education.”

The use of animals to aid and support education has long been considered the done thing, with Zoos expected to attend schools and community events with a small menagerie for students and visitors to enjoy meeting, stroking or holding. However, more collections have now moved away from using vertebrates (most commonly birds, mammals, reptiles) as ambassador animals, in line with increased awareness of animal welfare and wellbeing. With captive animals always in the spotlight from those who believe all animals should be free, we face higher scrutiny than ever. We have always put our birds first, but for the reasons stated above, we could not always guarantee that they would not face some stress or risks during these off site visits.

Our new outreach visits include interactive presentations, games and activities to help students learn.

Over the past few years, a number of studies have been carried out on the use of ambassador animals for education, and of most interest to Susan is that pupils retain information better when there isn’t an animal present. “When we used to visit schools with the birds, the feedback would be “the children loved seeing the owl”, whereas feedback now tends to concentrate on what activities the children did, or what facts they learned.”

Research into this is still very sparse, with very few studies concentrating on formal education (pre-booked workshops delivered to schools and groups) and utilising control groups. This is something that many agree needs to be addressed, and it is hoped that as a result of recent publications, it may lead to more research into this field.

If you are a student with an interest in carrying out research such as this, please contact our Education Team on education@owlhelp.org.uk



We would like to thank Tarryn Basden for supplying us with her Literature Review on this topic, which led us to the following references for further information:

Baird, B. A. (2018). Ambassador Animal Welfare: Using Behavioral and Physiological Indicators to Assess the Well-Being of Animals Used for Education Programs in Zoos [Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University]. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2427501023/abstract/2D47E9A606474E9APQ/1

Clifford-Clarke, M. M., Whitehouse-Tedd, K., & Ellis, C. F. (2021). Conservation Education Impacts of Animal Ambassadors in Zoos. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, 3(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/jzbg3010001

Mori, B. de, Ferrante, L., Florio, D., Macchi, E., Pollastri, I., & Normando, S. (2019). A Protocol for the Ethical Assessment of Wild Animal-Visitor Interactions (AVIP) Evaluating Animal Welfare, Education, and Conservation Outcomes. Animals: An Open Access Journal from MDPI, 9(8), E487. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani9080487

Moss, A., & Esson, M. (2013). The Educational Claims of Zoos: Where Do We Go from Here? Zoo Biology, 32(1), 13–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21025

Priestley, C., Jaensch, S., & McLeod, E. M. (2023). Evaluating the effectiveness of welfare-focused animal encounters to deliver education programs. International Zoo Educators Association Journal, 59, 69–76.

Spooner, S. L., Farnworth, M. J., Ward, S. J., & Whitehouse-Tedd, K. M. (2021). Conservation Education: Are Zoo Animals Effective Ambassadors and Is There Any Cost to Their Welfare? Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, 2(1), 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/jzbg2010004







British Science Week 2024

Most of our activity here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary is linked to science in some way. So we feel it’s important to be a part of British Science Week to encourage children (and adults) to consider Science as a viable career.

This year, our team worked with multiple groups to deliver a variety of sessions, really showcasing what we can offer!

Pellet Detectives as a lunchtime activity

On Friday 8th and Monday 11th, our Education Officer, Susan, delivered Virtual Sessions to Smithdon High School, Hertfordshire, and Kingsbrook Academy, Norfolk, on Careers in Conservation. These sessions were provided free of charge as part of our involvement with STEMpoint, who support schools to connect with STEM ambassadors to deliver engaging and interactive workshops for pupils. Susan provided the groups with an insight into the various roles available within an animal collection, some top tips on how to make a CV stand out, and a few alternative roles linked to our work.

On Tuesday, Susan attended the Royal Hospital School, Ipswich, to deliver a lunchtime Pellet Detectives session for their students. Over the course of 45 minutes, about 50 students came into the hall to find out more, with a number of them risking being late for afternoon registration due to their fascination by the activity.

On Wednesday, and in contrast to our Education themed activities this week, Susan delivered a talk about the work of Suffolk Owl Sanctuary to the Athenaeum Club in Bury St Edmunds. The group learnt more about our work, with particular focus on our Raptor Hospital and Nest Box project. Despite technical issues with the planned presentation, the group enjoyed the low-tech talk and the opportunity to handle some biofacts to illustrate some of the points. There was time for questions at the end, and the group are hoping to organise an in-person visit over the summer months.

Bandit gave plenty of close up flights

On Thursday, the Education Team ran multiple activities for Houldsworth Primary School, Newmarket. With such a large group visit, it was all hands on deck to help. Upon arrival, half of the group enjoyed a Guided Walk with Susan and Emily, while the other half joined Bee and work experience student Bella in SOS2 for Pellet Detectives. They came together for the Meerkat talk, then swapped, with Dolly joining Bella to run Pellet Detectives and Bee taking over from Emily on the guided walk. After lunch, the group watched a Flying Display, featuring Taz our Great Grey Owl, Lulu our Lanner Falcon and Kruger our MacKinders Eagle Owl. This visit was to enhance their learning All About Owls as part of reading Skellig in class.




And finally, on Friday Susan and Bella ran the final instalment of our Raptor Factors course for Home Ed families. The morning group enjoyed learning all about Raptor Rescue, including having a go at tracking down a captive bird that had “flown off” and “rescuing” an Owl that found itself in need of assistance. The afternoon group, having previously attended a Raptor Rescue session, got messy with making some Easter themed enrichment for our animals. We then delivered some pre-made enrichment to the Meerkats before watching Melvyn our Harris’s Hawk take to the skies. During the enrichment giving and flying display, the group were encouraged to make behavioural observations

Enrichment making allows for creative and messy fun!

The Education Team are preparing for a busy summer, with some new arrivals due soon which will allow new sessions to take place, covering different topics suitable for all ages and abilities.

Lizzy the Tangled Tawny Owl

Here at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, we are always ready to assist other wildlife rescuers who need our specialist skills, facilities and expertise to care for wild raptors. We recently received a call from Wildlife Rescue Service, who had a Tawny Owl in need of help.

The unfortunately Owl was found entangled in a discarded kite string high up in some trees on the grounds of St Elizabeth’s School. It was hanging by one wing and was clearly exhausted by the time the rescue team arrived. Jo and Phil had to quickly come up with a plan on how to reach and extract the Owl. Using a long cutting pole, they were able to cut the string from the trees, then carefully lower the owl to the ground via one of the branches, as the string was tightly wound around the Owls feet as well.



Lizzy was transported to us the next day and was immediately taken for an X-ray due to the droopy wing. Fortunately, no breaks were detected, so she was given pain relief for the soft tissue damage and placed in one of our smaller indoor cages for observations.

The team reported that she was very reluctant to eat, and had to assist feed twice daily to ensure that she didn’t lose condition. We hoped that moving Lizzy to an outdoor aviary after a few days may give her some confidence, as many birds find being indoors stressful. Whilst Lizzy showed that she was able to fly for short distances and reach some of the higher perches, she was still not able to feed herself, so has been brought back indoors so that we can more closely monitor her.



Update - following a check from our Avian Specialist Consultant Vet, Dr Elliott Simpson-Brown MRCVS has suggested that Lizzy just needs more time to recover from her ordeal, so for now she is recuperating under observation in our quiet area.



Volunteer Training

With everyone gearing up for hopefully another busy year, we offered some of our volunteer roles some training to help them support us.


Our Host Volunteers have been recruited to assist the Education Team with events and activities. They gathered for a full day of training, led by Education Officer Susan. The day started with a Guided Walk - this is something we already offer for pre-booked groups but Susan is keen to offer this during peak times for walk in visitors. A Guided Walk usually lasts about an hour, and can cover a specific topic, such as habitats, conservation or Owls. Alternatively, the Guide can ask the visitors which species they would like to learn more about. As such, it was important to cover all of our birds, so the training Guided Walk took about two and a half hours. During this time, Susan shared plenty of fun facts about the species we hold, the individual personalities of some of the birds and some personal stories. This combination seems to work well, and the volunteers received access to our species fact sheets at the end of the training so that they can go and do their own research.

After lunch, Susan allowed the volunteers to take part in our popular Pellet Detectives activity. This is usually run as a table-top activity when we attend events out in the community. The volunteers delved in and became just as engrossed in this activity as the children who usually participate. Susan demonstrated how to use the guides to identify the type of bone found, as well as the species it came from. She also shared some top tips on answering likely questions, such as where to find pellets and how to emphasise that it isn’t poo!

The day ended with an ideas sharing discussion from the volunteers on other ways we can raise awareness about SOS, and fundraising ideas.


Our Owlreach Volunteers were also offered a couple of training sessions run by Susan and Dolly, who runs our Raptor Hospital. These sessions covered handling, transporting and releasing protocols, as well as guidance on how to minimise risks to volunteers and birds. Dolly gave a demonstration on how to safely capture and contain a bird of prey, pointing out that the feet are the biggest risk and that if you can get close enough to throw a towel over the bird, it needs help! We also emphasised that birds do not need to be given any food or water, as this can cause more harm than good if given the wrong thing. There was opportunity for the volunteers to ask questions, which did raise some interesting discussion regarding health concerns and safe retrieval of birds.

We have recently changed some of our guidelines so the sessions gave us an opportunity to update the volunteers with our new guidelines.

The session ended with a tour of our Raptor Hospital and Dolly was able to give an explanation on what goes on once a bird is brought in to us. Susan then briefly explained the importance of ringing birds, and how combining our Hospital work with nest box monitoring is proving successful by recapturing released birds in the boxes.



Double release marks historic moment

Over the Christmas period, we received a Barn Owl from a local estate, which was found unable to fly in a field. We arranged for X-rays, which revealed a broken wing. After consulting with our specialist Avian vet, Dr Elliott Simpson-Brown MRCVS, it was decided to give the bird time for the bone to heal. Broken wings can often be very difficult for us to treat, as when they heal they often form a callous over the broken bone, which can be detrimental to flight.

X-ray showing a clean break

After a few weeks, the Barn Owl was showing signs of having recovered, and was moved to a slightly larger aviary where she demonstrated her flying ability hadn’t been compromised. She was ringed before release by the team.

Dolly with the Barn Owl ready for release

As the estate was near where our Education Officer lives, Susan called the finder to let them know that the Owl was ready for release and invited them to come along and see the bird go. Susan was surprised (and very excited!) to then receive an invitation to see another release scheduled for the same day!

Upon arrival, there was a large crowd of people gathered in an enclosed area with a large pond. This was to be the new home for a family of five Beavers, who had been relocated from Scotland by the Beaver Trust. A historic moment, as these are believed to be the first Beavers in Suffolk for over 400 years! The group were released into the enclosure and the youngsters quickly went about exploring the area, much to the delight of the onlookers! The mother was reluctant to leave her travel box and seemed quite content snuggled in the straw.

With some difficulty, Susan dragged herself away from the Beaver pool to release the Barn Owl, followed by the majority of the crowd! The finder informed Susan that the owl had been found by her son in the field at the back of the barn, and this looked like the perfect meadow for the release to take place.

The Barn Owl had been reluctant to go in the box, so Susan was expecting her to fly out as soon as the lid was lifted, but as the Beavers had demonstrated, some animals aren’t too keen on freedom. With the box open, the Barn Owl was seen to be napping in the corner. Gentle tapping didn’t stir her, neither did tilting the box. Eventually, Susan had no option but to pick her up, and sensing a breeze under her wings, she took off and flew beautifully over her meadow, with plenty of ooooohhhs and aaaaahs from the crowd.

Barn Owl heading back across the meadow. Photo credit Stuart Atkins Photography

With both releases deemed successful, Susan managed to chat with the farmer about their conservation plans. We look forward to working with the estate to install nest boxes for owls and kestrels in the future.

The location of this release is not being made public knowledge at this time to allow the family to settle in.

All release photos (Beaver/ Barn Owl) taken by Stuart Atkins Photography.

Lincoln stays with his best friend

Our visitors have been asking what has happened to one of our most popular birds. Lincoln our Bald Eagle has spent the best part of the last twelve months on “holiday” with his best friend Rufus. Rufus was our Senior Falconer for a number of years and built up a strong relationship of trust with Lincoln. When Rufus left us in 2022 to pursue another career, Lincoln became depressed. This made him difficult and dangerous for staff to work with.

Early in 2023, an agreement was made that Rufus would take Lincoln for a period on temporary loan to get him back into condition for flying. Lincoln settled into life with Rufus very well, and was soon displaying behaviours that are known to show how relaxed and calm the bird is, that he had very rarely shown whilst at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary,

Staff had long suspected that Lincoln found living in a busy Centre quite stressful, and this holiday seemed to prove this. Over the summer, Lincoln moulted most of his feathers (a natural process, and only done when they feel safe), and since then Rufus has been working with him to slowly gain his confidence when flying.

Several members of our team have been out on separate occasions to see Lincoln and Rufus, and all have reported how much happier Lincoln is. As such, and with the agreement of our Manager and Trustees, we have made the decision to allow Rufus to keep Lincoln on a permanent basis.

This decision was not taken lightly, as we know how popular Lincoln was to all of our visitors, particularly those with a connection to the US. However, as a conservation charity, we must put the long-term welfare and wellbeing of our birds and animals first.

We hope that our supporters and visitors will understand our reasons for this.




If there is any doubt remaining, please read this from Rufus:




Lincoln looking majestic as ever

“Lincoln is very special to me, I'm completely obsessed with him! When I decided to move on from the owl sanctuary after five years of working very closely with him it left a very large eagle sized hole and I missed him terribly. Birds pick people, unlike dogs who generally will like anyone who's kind to them, the more intelligent bird species find something in an individual and develop a preference. Particularly eagles especially if they are imprinted (human raised) like Lincoln. I'm in no way suggesting there are any emotions there for Lincoln but more a bond of respect and trust we built up over a number of years as I worked obsessively to improve his daily life, particularly the way in which he was flown. From an arena bird where he would fly low across the ground (or stomping around!) to learning how to soar and fly like his wild cousins. This new routine vastly improved his outlook and quality of life and some of his less appealing traits softened over time as he was truly able to express himself in a positive way.

When I received a call suggesting to have Lincoln at home on trial to help to improve his welfare as he appeared to be regressing, there was no question I wanted to help. I've worked with a vast array of spectacular bird species in my career but none of them come close to my relationship with Lincoln. There's something about him that "speaks" to me and I only ever want the best for him. We all had concerns about the impact that such a big change could have on him as he often doesn't react well to change! To help smooth the transition work began to ramp up his box training. Lincoln was occasionally boxed but he certainly wasn't used to travelling in vehicles so lots of time and effort was put into preparing him for this.

Once he was home and began to settle in, we were all taken aback at how well he was taking to his new life in the country! He seemed so much more relaxed, he would spend significant time sunbathing (something we rarely saw before). Previously Lincoln would often be on edge and reactive, it was well known he was highly strung and dominant and needed very careful handling but at home he was calm and quiet and interestingly needing a lot less food to maintain his condition which reinforces that he was less stressed and happier.

Work continued with his box training and we began the short journey to his new flying ground which incredibly he took in his stride. His new flying ground is many acres of open, beautiful Suffolk countryside with arable fields managed for conservation with some mixed woodland and views over a valley. Soon enough he began to fly free and found his favourite standing dead tree that he spends time resting in and surveying. He's very relaxed up there which is great to see. However, a couple of weeks into flying he launched into what I now refer to as a 'mega moult'! Seemingly over-night he dropped so many primary feathers he made himself virtually flightless! He had a gap of three missing feathers on one wing leaving me no choice but to give him some time off in his new aviary for a moult. The next four months saw him virtually explode! Replacing his entire tail, most of his primary feathers and endless body feathers too. This mega moult again appeared to reinforce how he feels about his new home.

Lincoln could barely fly during his “mega moult”

Lincoln is now free flying again, several days a week and he's doing incredibly well. He's taking on large exploratory flights over several fields, something he wouldn't do previously, and he's now starting to show promise in making the effort to gain height now that he's becoming fitter. Everything is looking good for some proper thermalling flights when the spring/summer warmth returns which is very exciting! When he's not flying, he's free lofted in his aviary and if he's having an off day and doesn't want to come out, he doesn't.

Lincoln's future is bright! He's a different bird with an exciting outlook. The plan is to continue to encourage proper soaring/thermalling flights over the Suffolk countryside and further unlock his potential. I turn 40 this year and receiving the offer to make the situation with Lincoln permanent was the best gift I could ever receive! As much as I dared to dream privately I didn't think it would ever become a permanent thing and as surreal as it is to have a bald eagle in the garden it most definitely feels right, for us both. It's not a decision either party took lightly but one that was so clearly in Lincoln’s best interests. We're both on our way to middle age now and all I want is to enjoy being with my most favourite bird. The commitment to Lincoln is huge but he encourages me to strike a better work/life balance and as my work is very flexible, I can make the time to fly him on days when the conditions are right. I feel very lucky. Onwards and upwards from here!”




Mary the Buzzard

As 2023 was drawing to a close, we received a call about a bird that needed our help.

This Buzzard was involved in a head on collision with a car. The person who hit her immediately called us and was asked to bring her in.

Upon arrival, she was covered in blood and we were concerned for a major break. However, after cleaning her up a bit, it became clear that the blood was coming from her beak. Unfortunately, the impact of the collision has snapped the tip of her beak, which is made of keratin (the same as our finger nails). It is very similar to dogs nails, with a “quick” a short distance from the tip to provide a blood supply to give it strength. As anyone has cut their dogs nails too short will know, if the quick is cut, it will bleed profusely! Thankfully, there is a magical medical solution to this and the team were quick to administer potassium permanganate to help clot the blood.

The team checked her over for other injuries but found none, so she was moved to a quiet cage in our Intensive Care Room and given pain relief. For the first few days, she needed assistance eating small pieces of cut up mouse, as the tip of her beak was clearly very painful, despite the pain relief. In order to avoid any risk of further injury during this procedure, the team wrapped her up in a towel. On her first day, a blue towel was produced, and she was nicknamed Mary.

Mary being held securely for assisted feeding while her beak is still painful.

After a few days, she still seemed reluctant to eat by herself, so Mary was moved to one of our outdoor aviaries where she’d have less disturbance. Staff tried her with whole mice, which she was unable to eat, so continued providing chopped up mouse every day.

After a few weeks in our care, she is making slow progress, but is now managing to eat slightly larger pieces of meat (half a mouse rather than a quarter!). The tip of a birds beak is incredibly sensitive, so we hope that given time it will heal and regrow naturally, without too much interference from us.

Piper the Tawny Owl

Unlike other jobs, our staff are always ready to help a bird in need out of normal working hours.


Here’s an interesting case that we have recently been looking after. Special thanks to Mike for sending us a detailed account of the rescue, and to our Manager Maz, who took care of the Owl overnight before bringing it in to the Hospital for further treatment.


“It was about 1 -2am in the morning when my wife was woken by , she said a scratching noise in the chimney, like all good husbands I assured her that it was probably mice in the roof and go back to sleep.

Some 5 – 6 days later with the cold snap upon us we decided to light the wood burner, When lighting we always put in paper and a small amount of sticks to make sure the flue is clear.  The flue was blocked as the smoke poured out and quickly extinguished itself, We have a soot door for cleaning the flue on the outside of the bungalow, so armed with my sweeps brushes decided to check the flue out. The soot door is situated about 600mm above the wood burner. No obstruction was found as I pushed the brush up the flue, therefore the logic being it was between the door and the wood burner itself. Just a rod was used and when a metallic clunk was heard I knew I had reached the wood burner. There appeared to be no blockage in the flue, Back inside to the wood burner itself. I removed the baffle plate to access the flue with a torch peered into the flue, my heart sank, there was a “ dead “ bird blocking the flue with plumage that I recognised as that of a Tawny owl. Armed with my wife’s marigolds I stretched in to drag the body out as I gripped it I felt a sharp pain in my hand, this “ dead “ bird had pecked me and ruined managements marigolds. At this moment the panic set in, if I tried to pull her through this opening, I would be sure to kill her. The only way to get her out was too rip out the burner and flue.

While I’m doing this, now with the help of my daughter and her partner, my wife contacted the owl sanctuary to be told that if we can get to Ipswich with the bird they would try and help.. With the bird still in the pipe, which stopped her flapping about, we raced off to Ipswich, where we were met by Maz.

Within moments the bird was out and being washed to remove the soot, the care and confidence with which the bird was handled was amazing, my be this is where Maz’s name came from. The bird was skinny bearing in mind it had been in there 5 – 6 days, but as luck would have it mice were being thawed as we arrived. Some things we all keep in the fridge just in case !

Don’t try this at home!

It is amazing the guilt we feel for what we did to Fleur, the nearest name my wife could find to flue We are now sporting a brand new bird proof terminal on the chimney and installing owl boxes around the garden so she has some where to live when she returns.

Thank you Maz and no doubt your long suffering husband”

The team nicknamed the Owl Piper, and are pleased to report she is doing well. Due to the length of time she was stuck in the flue, she was very thin and required a special solution to give her an energy boost. Maz did a fantastic job removing the soot from Piper’s feathers, but some had gone in her eyes, so the team have been treating her with special eye drops. These are doing their job and she is looking much better. We hope that Piper will be ready for release over the next week or so, and are very grateful to Mike and his family for providing her with an alternative place to roost!

Piper is receiving treatment for a sore eye, but this is improving every day.

Hospital updates

We’ve had a busy couple of months in the Hospital, so here are some of the birds that we’ve had in towards the end of the year. Check out our social media channels to see further updates.

Bo Jangles the Sparrowhawk

This young female Sparrowhawk was brought in with a bacterial growth in her mouth, She was in poor condition, suggesting that she had been unable to hunt after leaving her natal territory. After a course of treatment, the team decided that she was unlikely to survive if released immediately, so opted to “man” her, then train her to fly and eventually hunt before giving her freedom. Mat took on the challenge and was impressed with her feisty spirit. She has now been “in training” for a couple of months and doing very well, so Mat hopes to test her flying ability outside over the next few weeks. She has been fitted with breakaway equipment, so that if she does decide to fly off, the equipment will drop from her legs after a short time and pose no danger of entanglement.

Mat with Bo Jangles after her “ordeal” of being ringed.

In preparation for her first outdoor flights, Mat asked Dr Hugh Hanmer from the BTO if she could be ringed. Hugh has been supervising the ringing of our Hospital birds by our team, and Susan was fortunate to have the opportunity.

“I’ve ringed a few Sparrowhawks over the years, but it’s a bit different when they’re wearing equipment! We’ve had to make sure that the ring doesn’t interfere with the equipment, and that the equipment doesn’t rub against the ring. She was a very well behaved Sparrowhawk, although did protest vocally at having her wing measured.

Blinky Tawny Owl

Blinky was feeling a bit sorry for himself when he first arrived.

This young Tawny Owl was brought in having been found in a carpark. He had an eye injury and his left wing was also causing some concern. He’d also, somehow, managed to damage most of his tail feathers! Nicknamed Blinky by the journalist who was visiting at the time to do a piece about our work, he has made slow progress. His eye recovered fairly quickly, but his wing took a lot longer to heal itself due to it being soft tissue damage. He has now received a new tail and been moved to a larger aviary so that the team can monitor his flight and fitness in preparation for release.

Marsh Barn Owl

A sore wing for this Barn Owl

This Barn Owl was found unable to fly by a member of the public. There was no damage, so we administered pain relief and kept him in a quiet aviary for him to recover. Thankfully, it seems to have been bruising, as he was soon doing laps of his small aviary. In order to test his flight properly, we moved him into one of our larger aviaries and installed a camera trap to monitor his progress. He did really well, so was ringed before being released in December.


Pumpkin Spice Tawny Owl

This Tawny Owl was found entangled in netting and had sustained a broken toe. We administered pain relief and opted to monitor the healing. This proved successful and after a few weeks the bird was using the foot to pounce on food and carry it off to a higher perch. This bird was released just before Christmas near where he was found.


Barn Owls hack

We’ve had three late Barn Owlets this year, who have been released locally via one of our hack pens. Due to their young age and inexperience, we will continue to supplementary feed them throughout the winter. The farm where they have been released has a number of Barn Owl boxes nearby, and it’s hoped that they will disperse from the hack pen to take up permanent residence as pest control. Indeed, through our monitoring with trail cameras, we know that these birds are capable of hunting, as they frequently return to the empty feeding post with prey items.

Screenshot of one of the released Barn Owls bringing food back to the hack pen.


Tawny Owls hack

Over the autumn period, we had two Tawny Owls brought in, both with severe head trauma as a result of RTA’s. Once they had recovered they were placed in an outdoor aviary so that we could assess their fitness. With them both being young birds (hatched in 2023), we opted to put them into a hack pen together, so that they could build up fitness before release, and hopefully learn how to hunt. They were moved to a hack pen in a suitable location where we know there are plenty of rodents.

Two Tawnies settling in well to life in the woods

Barn Owl break

This Barn Owl came in over the Christmas period with an injured wing. X-rays confirmed a break but after consulting with our vets, we’ve opted to let it self heal. This bird is proving to be a fighter though, and is a bit of an escape artist, having got past the team twice when they opened the rehab cage door to put food in!

And the last bird of the year is a……

Barn Owl

This Barn Owl was found on a local estate in poor condition. They were picked up by our team and found to be starving, likely due to the bad weather preventing successful hunting. We administered a special liquid diet to slowly get them going again. After a few days of care, this Owl is now self feeding and will soon be ready for release.

What a year for learning...

As the year draws to a close, our Education Officer wraps up what has been a very busy year for the team!

Some of our staff with their Sighted Guide certificates.

The start of the year is always a little quiet for education bookings, but a steady stream of out visits to local primary schools and talks to local and not-so-local groups kept us going, alongside our Home Education programme. We had the opportunity to undertake some staff training, with most staff gaining Level 1 Sighted Guide Training from Guide Dogs for the Blind, and all staff completing their First Aid Training by ProTraining.

Susan is a STEM Ambassador, and this gave her the opportunity to reach out to over 500 pupils across the East of England as part of their Science Week activities in March. She helped to judge their “Create-A-Bird” competition, and was impressed by the creative and imaginative ways that the students were inspired by the natural world to create a new type of bird!

Billy Jr also attended the CLOtC conference

Also in March, Susan and Bee attended the Learning Outside the Classroom Conference, hosted by West Midlands Safari Park. The day was full of inspirational talks and workshops relating to LOtC, and offered great networking opportunities with others working in conservation education.












A Royal Visit

April saw Susan, Bee and volunteer Debbie make the trip to Trinity Park for the Suffolk Agricultural Association Suffolk Schools Farm and Country Fair. This year was a bit special, as HRH the Duchess of Edinburgh was visiting the event, and we were honoured to have the opportunity to talk to her about our work.

Once Easter was out of the way, bookings started flooding in for the summer term, not only for in visits but also for events and more talks! Over a 10 day period in June, we had six primary school visits, a local event and a standing room only talk to a local group!

Guided walks continue to be a main element of school visits

At the same time as our peak season for school visits, Susan and Bee were studying online for a Level 3 certificate in Understanding Autism. This will assist with future educational provision as they now have a better understanding of the needs and requirements of individuals with Autism and how we can adapt to support them on a visit.

Our flying display is the highlight of every school visit

Thanks to our new Volunteer Host role, we have been able to attend more local community events to raise awareness about our work and fundraise to support our Raptor Hospital. We attended several events over the summer holidays, including supporting the Family Fun Days run by Suffolk County Council, running free Pellet Detective activities for families. We also supported the Field Studies Council Flatford Mill BioBlitz. Unfortunately, the day was a bit of a wash out and very few visitors made the journey to help record species on the site, but the combined Bat and Owl walk in the evening was well attended (even if we didn’t find any owls!)

A sunny event at Helmingham Hall - not all of our events were so lucky weather wise!

With the arrival of autumn, we hosted our first Careers Event. The day was a success with visitors of all ages having the opportunity to speak to various people from local organisations about their work, and to listen to our staff talk about their own career paths. The take home message was definitely don’t give up, but also don’t be afraid to follow an alternative path, even if it’s just temporary.

Suffolk Wildlife Crime Unit set up a Crime Scene to get people talking

We don’t just work with schools, and this year welcomed Ipswich Guides and most of the Suffolk Squirrels for visits and activities at SOS, as well as visiting Debenham Scouts to share our work.

Suffolk Squirrels took over SOS for the day

We have continued to visit local care homes, giving residents a chance to find out more about our birds, handle some biofacts and share their own stories about owls or birds of prey. We also arranged visits to SOS for two local Stroke groups, who enjoyed seeing our flying display and learning more about their favourite birds.

Towards the end of the year, we had a visit from a group of Vet Nurse students, who were given a special behind the scenes tour of our Raptor Hospital by Dolly, and learnt about training, enrichment and welfare of our captive collection from Izzy. This is something we are passionate about and hope to reach more students, particularly those in the veterinary field, in 2024, to inspire the next generation of conservationists and wildlife vets.

Education Officer Susan says “What a year it’s been! Since starting at SOS in 2020, this year has finally felt a bit more like “normal” times pre-pandemic. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with so many schools and groups this year, including some new ones. The kids have been great, and I love inspiring them about the natural world, and seeing the work they do back at school after they visit! We’ve trialled new Home Ed sessions which proved to be very popular and are exploring how these can be adapted for school groups next year, as well as improving our accessibility and inclusivity of all activities we offer. I couldn’t do it without the team though, including the volunteers, who have stepped in to help with some of our larger group visits and events this year!”


Avian trainer, presenter and rehabilitator Izzy says “It has been a delight helping to educate such a diverse range of students and individuals this year. We have had some wonderful school visits – it is so inspiring to see such enthusiastic and conscientious young people – our scientists of the future, engage with our feathered friends and staff alike. It’s been an absolute joy running some of the enrichment workshops and school tours, not to mention a privilege to educate those who visit the centre as individuals, friends, or families every day. I attended my first care home visit this year, it was wonderful being able to bring props and talk to residents, hopefully bringing stories of our animals to life for those who cannot access the centre in person. “

Bird trainer Jade says “I really enjoyed helping with school visits this year, particularly sharing our birds with groups on guided walks. I also helped to run some of our Minibeast sessions, and it was really encouraging to see the kids getting involved and being brave enough to touch the inverts. They were very enthusiastic and asked lots of questions, which showed that they were taking everything in and keen to learn more!”

Centre Manager Maz says “I would like to say, I think Susan and Bethany have done a wonderful job this year along with the whole team including our wonderful volunteers who we could not do without. It has been lovely to see so many schools and groups visit us. The team have received wonderful feedback and to know our work is making an impact is very rewarding for everyone here at SOS.”

We have plenty of plans for 2024, and welcome any feedback from groups, visitors or followers on social media regarding what we offer educationally, so please do get in touch if you have anything to say.

“The children found the guided walk really interesting. The facts were great and they were pitched at the right level for the children. The meerkat talk had lots of information as well and the children enjoyed spending time looking at them. The food chain activity was practical and engaging which helped the children understand a tricky concept.
Thank you for a very engaging and informative visit.”
— Crawford Primary School



24 hours later...

Last week we received a call from a local vets. They had received a Buzzard that was hit by a car and needed a rehabilitation facility for it to go to. We were pleased to step in and arranged for them to drop the bird off.

Upon admission to us, it was evident that the bird had a severe head trauma, with the right eye completely hidden under swelling. The vets had prescribed a course of antibiotics and we applied special drops which help with eye injuries.

Within 24 hours, the right eye was almost back to normal, with only a slight swelling still visible. The bird was very perky and devoured all the food it was presented with! We nicknamed him Mucky due to his ability to get food EVERYWHERE - on his face, feet, wing feathers, tail, and all over the Hospital cage!

A big positive for us was that a few days after it was taken to the vets, the vet nurse student who helped with the initial admission was visiting us as part of their course. We gave them a behind the scenes tour of the hospital and allowed them to peek into the cage containing this Buzzard. They announced “that must be a different bird, the one we had looked like it had lost an eye!” - just goes to show how quickly birds can sometimes recover with the correct treatment!

Unfortunately, the bird had an added complication in that the accident had caused several of his primaries (main flight feathers) to become damaged and break. We tested his ability to get around in one of our outdoor aviaries and he really struggled to get up to the perches, spending most of the day on the ground. Birds of prey will only regrow 2-4 feathers a year, so we didn’t want to have to keep him long term, as he was very keen to go.

The team used a falconry technique called imping to replace the broken feathers with undamaged feathers. These were either moulted by our own birds or removed from hospital birds that have unfortunately passed away. We always try and keep any suitable feathers for just such an occasion.

This process involves cutting the damaged feather just above the broken tip of the shaft, and lining this up with the replacement feather, which is neatly trimmed to fill the gap. A solid rod (usually a thin slither of wood similar to a cocktail stick) is then inserted which sits partially in the old feather and gives something to attach the new feather to. A small amount of adhesive is used to fix the new feather in place.

Usually this process is very straight forward, but the Buzzard managed to dislodge two of the replacement feathers once he was placed into an aviary to test his flight. He will have these replaced again before release.

Chimney Tawny

It’s the time of year when we get a number of calls about Owls falling down or getting stuck in chimneys!

Sooty looking a bit sorry for himself upon arrival

Sooty was found having fallen down a chimney. The finder was able to get him in a box so that he could be brought to us for assessment. He was covered head to toe in black soot, which needed to be gently washed off to avoid causing any issues to his eyes, breathing or digestive systems.

Owls are not waterproof, so bath-time can be a little difficult

Manager Maz was prepared with an apron, but even this wasn’t enough to protect her from getting covered in blackened water as Sooty objected to being bathed. Owls are not waterproof, so it isn’t natural for them to particularly enjoy getting wet, and Sooty definitely didn’t approve!

The Owl doth protest!

Over the course of 24 hours, Sooty received a couple of baths in warm water and mild soap to get rid of as much soot as possible. Each time we allow the Owl to dry off fully to reassess the need for another bath. Once he was mostly Tawny Owl coloured again, he was moved to one of our outdoor aviaries so that we could assess if there were any further complications. Thankfully, he was absolutely fine.

Looking a bit more like a Tawny Owl now.

A tiny amount of soot still on his toes, but this will come off after a couple of days.

The home-owners had installed a mesh cover over their chimney, following our advice, to prevent other wildlife from investigating as a potential roost site, so we arranged for him to be released in the garden where he was found. As soon as he was released, he flew into the trees and started calling, and immediately received a response from a female Tawny Owl, who we’ve all named “Sweep”.

Group volunteers lend a hand

We’ve recently welcomed a couple of groups of volunteers from different businesses, who have come to lend a hand carrying out some tasks for us.

The National Grid came with a team who had travelled from all across the country to spend the day clearing our old Meerkat enclosure of substrate. Despite the overcast weather, the hard labour of shovelling damp sand and wheeling it to be used for ongoing building work meant that many of them were in t-shirts before too long!




A group from Sizewell C chose a cool but sunny day to come and give us some help. Between them they moved two big piles of cut logs to our pond area, ready to be installed as a new pathway at the back of the pond. They also helped to move gravel from our compound to improve the drainage in areas around the centre. Olga said “a big thank you from our team who had an enjoyable day at the Sanctuary last week.”

Without their help, these tasks would have taken our small team a number of days to complete, in between doing their day to day jobs looking after our birds and animals. We’d like to say a MASSIVE thank you to the local groups and businesses who continue to support us throughout the year by donating their time to help us out!