The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Starving barn owl back in the wild after care
Gamekeepers work round clock to help chick return to Angus moor
A starving young Angus barn owl has been nursed back to health.
The female bird has been released back into the wild on an Angus moor.
A little more than two months ago, gamekeepers at Millden were delighted to find four rare barn owl chicks nesting on the floor of a steading on the estate.
The owls – on the conservation amber list due to their fragile population – were ringed by Tay Ringing Group and their wing lengths and weights suggested decent survival chances.
However, the gamekeeping staff found one of the owlets sitting on a gate at night and after checking the bird’s condition, knew it was suffering in the wet weather. Seventy per cent of all barn owls that fledge in the UK die in the first year, starvation being the main cause.
Their feathers, although helping them to fly silently in pursuit of prey such as voles and mice, lack water resistance, leaving them susceptible to rain.
The gamekeepers took the failing youngster to Angus Falconry Services where it was identified as having minimal chance of surviving due to dehydration and lack of food.
The owl was placed in the warmth and darkness to keep it calm and was fed fluids throughout the night using a tube into the stomach. It was then moved on to more solid food before falconers were pleased to see it had taken a mouse that had been left in its enclosure.
Gamekeeper Jason Clamp, a member of Angus Glens Moorland Group, said: “It felt really skinny and it didn’t look well at all. We knew it needed help
We knew it needed help quickly or it would die
quickly or it would die.”
Steve Towell at Angus Falconry Services tended to the chick round the clock for days but said he did not hold out much hope initially. “The longer they are housed, they lose hunting fitness, which can be just as dangerous,” he said. gstrachan@thecourier.co.uk