A Chimney Of Owls
Tawny owls are resilient birds, though sometimes their young need a helping hand to survive a first outing
Polly Pullar’s daring rescue of tawny owls that have a habit of getting stuck in stove pipes
TAWNY owls love chimneys, particularly those in disused buildings, because they make ideal maternity suites. Occasionally in early spring, I have calls about owls trapped in wood-burning stoves. Frantic scrabbling sounds, soft hoots or a talon poking down at the back of the stove reveal an owl in trouble. It’s not always easy to extricate them, and it usually means that firebricks have to come out, or stovepipes need to be dismantled.
If the incumbent has become plastered in sticky tar and soot during its incarceration, it will require shampoo. I have washed a few owls and sometimes need to give them the full salon treatment with a blow-dry. You’d be amazed how patient they are in the face of such indignity.
I brought hand-reared tawny owls to our small farm when I moved here 21 years ago, and they and their successors have nested close to the house ever since. They usually choose a disused chimney in the old bothy.
Although it’s a safe place, there are imminent hazards when it’s time to fledge, the first being that once out of the nest the owlets – known at this stage of their development as branchers – must traverse an open area of grass to reach the safety of the wood.
Sometimes we have to fetch a ladder and my partner, Iomhair, performs a heroic rescue. Other years, particularly after heavy summer deluges, the dogs alert us to bedraggled, lost owlets – soggy feather dusters cowering in our overgrown flowerbeds.
We made them a long pillar nest box to use instead. They did for a few years but inevitably returned to their favourite chimney.
I have been taking in injured and orphaned wildlife all my adult life. Tawnies are frequent inmates; their ability to survive despite the odds is extraordinary, and there can be no doubt that they are one of the birds
I love best.
Tawnies are one of few British birds that have adapted to living alongside people. How any wildlife manages to thrive in the chaos of our day-to-day lives is miraculous – we make existence for wildlife treacherous.
The ubiquitous tawny is found almost countrywide – in remote corners, as well as in the urban environment, in parks and green spaces. Oddly, however, it is absent from Ireland. Also nicknamed brown wood owl, it has two cryptic colour phases known as grey and rufus, with a broad palette of variation in between – russet, amber, bronze, tan and numerous shades of soft greys.
Most years, I receive orphan owlets and when I release them I continue to put out food for them nightly. You cannot hand-rear something then turf it out with no food supply until it establishes itself.
In early March 2019, during a week of savage gales with sting-laden sleet, we heard scuffling emanating from inside the stove. The bird guard on our sitting room chimney must have blown off, and something was stuck in the stove pipeline. Together Iomhair and I dismantled the pipe amid contortions and bad language and extricated a large owl.
There is no sexual dimorphism with tawny owls – although females are bigger than males, this is not a foolproof way of sexing unless you have several owls together. However, our bird is likely to be female. My guess is she went in the chimney to make a nest.
Now filthy and coated in tenacious tarry soot, I put her through a rigorous shampooing. Outside the temperatures were sub-zero, so despite ministrations with the hairdryer, I wait until evening when she is properly dry to release her. If she had already laid eggs on a ledge inside the chimney, they would have chilled.
We don’t dare to risk putting the chimney guard back up so the fire was out of action until later in the summer just in case she did have owlets. However, that year the pair was unsuccessful. Though barn owls may raise several broods in years of abundant food supply, tawny owls are different and won’t usually lay a second clutch.
Nature has been my panacea since I was a small child, and I am eternally grateful that this deep connection was forged so early.
In the recent difficult times, we have all needed the natural world more than ever. Limited in our travel, worried about the spread of Covid-19, and surrounded by political drama, it’s been a challenge not to sink into a decline.
We have truly appreciated the activity in our garden for it has provided a constant source of solace, joy and fascination as we have embroiled ourselves in the life
“Tawnies are one of the few British birds that people” have adapted to living alongside