Merry Christmas

Hey Everyone,
Happy Christmas!!!

Hospital is coming on well.
It should be finished by end on January, well in time for the spring babies.
I am so excited, I can't tell you. Life will be so much easier.
Drawing close to the end of the year, We can sit back and say.....

We are truly knackered!


:0)


We hope you all have a lovely lovely Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year.

Keep an eye on us ready for the web cam in spring when the new babes start coming in....we might even do you a baby owl hatching again!

See you all soon,

Lots of love,

OwlMomma and Eaglebeard
XXXXXXXXXXX

Quiz cancelled

Quiz has had to be cancelled as there aren't enough teams...rather thought that would happen!

Hello

Hi everyone, thought I would give you an update as I haven't for a while.

Well the excitement is.....wait for it !!! we have started work on the hospital....YAAAAY!!!!

Frame for stud wall is up, floor has been concreted and a friend has donated her old kitchen units so if we keep on at this speed, it will be up and running by spring no bother. It is going to make a huge difference to our day to day lives as everything will be in one place, with a sink etc and all the gear put away in cupboards....so much better than splitting everything between the dining room and the caravan.

EB has been a star, spending most evenings and weekends re wiring the building and putting in extra sockets, lights etc.

Most of the youngsters are now outside in aviaries with a heat lamp at nights for a little while until they adjust to the temp.

We have also had to put one up for the small owls as they are suffering from the cold, two have had to go into the caravan with a heater a they were really struggling.

Micro has come into the house for the winter as he would be lonely outside. He is loving it and despite his cage being open all day, he spends most of his time in it watching tv! Every now and then he wanders through to say hello and spends more time in the living room in the evenings but then he takes himself off to bed.

I brought Marley Crow in last week too to get her tame as she is being rehomed after Christmas. I tried putting her in an aviary over the autumn to see if she would go wild but she is still far too tame to eb released so the decision was made to go the other way and rehome her as a pet.

One of our supporters has arranged a quiz night locally for us this Sunday but it doesn't look as if it is going to be too successful as there don't seem to be many takers but we will see.

Nothing much else happening, same old same old really, a few injuries in but thank goodness, the babies have stopped for a little while. Apart from the routine stuff, I am trying to get caught up on all the other jobs...finishing the web site and hopefully trying to do some fund raising ready for next year, if we get as big an increase in numbers next year as we did this, we are going to be struggling if we don't find some money somewhere. I think we also need to try and get a bit off time off too as we are both a bit worn out after such a busy year.

Everyone here is fine, all looking forward to some warmer weather I think. :)

Hi All

Nothing much to report. We have finished rat proofing the aviary block thank goodness.

Everyone is fine, just keeping on keeping on.

Had a little pigeon on last weekend with a badly broken wing. Really tame little fella we have called Bertie. He is due at the vet tomorrow to have the bottom part of the wing off so that he doesn't keep standing on it, then he will be a long termer.

All other babies growing well, five young pigeons still hanging around, in fact I have to put one to bed every night and then let him out again in the morning! Barmy little things.

Still got Andrew, Pete, the twins and Bertie in the dining room, I don't think this season is going to end somehow.

We have Magic the crow boarding at the moment, her mum and dad have gone on holiday, she comes each year for 3 weeks. We are going to try putting her with Hamish and Marley, at different times, to see if she gets on with either of them. If so, one can go home with her as she needs a pal.

Unfortunately, the one she seems to get on with really well is Micro. He is in the house for the winter now and they both come out to play in the lounge in the evening. He is not, I repeat, not going home with her so they can think again!

Crikey

That was a hard day! Spent the whole day rat proofing. EB laying concrete in the kitchen and safety corridor while I wired the bottoms of the aviaries. No-where near done but we may get some help from the probation service tomorrow and Tuesday which will be great. We are well knackered.

Hannah was in and helped me by doing the things I didn't have time for like cleaning out the chickens and ferrets and taking Georgie for a walk so that was good.

The five newly free pigeons were very sweet, they hung around and all came on the patio scrounging when we had a coffee, then they persuaded me to go make them some baby food! Little darlings.

Cutsie new babies

Two baby pigeons came in yesterday, a guy cut a tree down and there was a nest with two kids in. Not harmed in any way, just little uns. Very sweet they are too. Nestled doen in a little box on a heat pad.

Released all the young pigeons yesterday too and they are all hanging out in the garden which is excellent as there is plenty of food there for them.

Everyone else is fine but we do have a bit of a problem.....RATS in the new aviary block. We built it on slabs thinking that would be enough. We didn't want to concrete the whole thing as we need drainage, the aviaries are hosed down daily. We are going to concrete the kitchen and the safety corridor which is where they are getting in we think and then we have to move all the gravel and wire the bottoms of the pens....right pain in the neck it is!

Still no sign of Meg :(

Bit Sad

Meggie seems to have gone:-(

The other day it was raining all day so I wasn't suprised not to see her nut yesterday there was no sign and nothing again today.......I hope she has just gone off and nothing bad has happened to her but I doubt it if I am honest, she was so clingy, I can't see her leaving just like that. Bit down in the dumps.

I had did have a chat with Chips the blackie on the bird table today, she has turned into a bloke!

Nothing in today

Phew....little hedge pig has gone to a hedgehog rescue place nearby...I very nearly kept her as she was adorable but I stuck to my guns :-(

Everyone else doing fine...Still feeding the juvenile pidgies!

And More!!!

You know what, I thought we were at the end of the season, no such luck lol, today's newcomers were a small dove who seems quite poorly and a baby hedgehog.

After removing a few ticks ugh, the hedgehog has had some milk and is snuggled down in his bed on a heat mat. He will be going to hedgehog rescue tomorrow as we are trying to avoid doing hedgehogs this year unless they get desperate in the vain hope that we might get a bit of time off to recharge batteries ready for next year. Cute little fella though !

New Pidge

Newbie called Pete came in this afternoon, little fella, just needs feeding up so he is in with Pumpkin and Andrew.

Thanks to Bill

Just wanted to say a big thank you to Bill and the Probation teams.

It has been a heavy duty year but we started out with loads of birds in temporary accomodation, we are ending the year with everyone in a proper aviary. It is fabulous and there is no way we could have done it without them.

Thank you Thank you Thank you :)

Morning all :-)

Hiya,

All well here, Tawny owl doing well, so are the little pigeon Pumpkin, Andrew and the other two little doves. The one with a broken leg is still strapped up but doing ok and starting to eat on his own.

Young pigeons are STILL begging to be fed.....I think they are going to keep begging forever! I have cut them down to one hand feed a day, daft little critters.

No Hannah this week as she is doing Uni stuff and since we are not busy, she is better doing that than coming here really.

Nothing exciting here at the moment, just trying to get everything tidy ready for winter and EB has been making a soakaway so we don't flood.

No work crews lately as they are busy with doing some schools stuff but once they come back, we are ready to start on the Hospital as I would like to get that done before spring.

Need to get some gravel as the aviary bottoms are a bit bare so there won't be much spare cash for Xmas this year.

We sat out yesterday evening after we had done and it was magical with all our released babies hanging out, Meggie was with me all day, sitting on my head and helping me weeding....makes it all worth it :-)

Morning all :-)

Two newbies in yesterday, a young dove that got separated from his parents and a this year's Tawny owl with an injured wing.

Both are doing well, both being hand fed at the moment.

Everyone else is doing well, Pumpkin and Andrew are great and the young pigeons are STILL begging to be fed despite the fact that they can eat perfectly well on their own.

Tash is getting really fed up of being shut in one room but she is due back at the vet next week so we will see what he says about letting her out and about...must get a carpet for the kitchen floor before then so she doesn't slip.

still thinking

Just been talking to the hospice again, they seem quite keen but I am thinking, since we don't have disabled accesses or loo's, it might be an idea for me to go to them, maybe take Georgie, they would only get to see one bird but it might be easier for them.

New Project planned

We had an idea !!

Recently, you may remember, we had a little lad Ben who has severe mobility and sensory problems over for a couple of hours to meet the birds and pet Georgie, Micro etc. He seemed to love every minute which is where the cunning plan comes in.

We have been in touch with a local children's hospice and invited them to bring along children to the haven to have a bit of one to one time with the birds, spending time with Georgie etc. That is part one of the plan...part two is to set up web cams on the various birds that they have spent time with so that they can watch them online, more interesting when they sort of "know" the birds concerned personally. Then they can maybe keep in touch and we can keep them posted on what everyone is doing via the blog.

What do you think guys? good idea?

To make it work, I have to try and scrounge a new pc from some company or other as ours is a bit cronky and keeps shutting down if we try to strem for long periods (I am on it...Dell, Sony, Packard Bell etc look out, I am on the scrounge and heading your way!)

It's raining

Ugh, hate winter...the only benefit of it is that things slow down a bit...good job or we might well fall off our perches :-)

Thanks Eaglebeard :~)

For looking after me while my back has been bad, poor EB has been working all day then fetching and carrying for me when he gets home....thanks love x

New Pidge

Another newbie in today, an adult which isn't flying although there doesn't appear anything wrong. The gentleman who brought it in thinks it may just be stunned having flown into a window. He will be on cage rest for a couple of days then we will give him a test flight.

Pumpkin and Andrew are still in the dining room and doing really well. Both are really friendly little chaps.

The five pigeons little ones are still begging for food...amazing, they are well big enough to eat on their own, they are so sweet though, twice over the last couple of days, one has escaped from the hacking pen when I have been going in to feed them, a different one each time....next morning, there they are, sitting jiggling their wings at me, waiting to be fed so they have been popped back into the aviary, it is so lovely that they come back to see me, one was even up at the house yesterday morning, waiting for me to come out!

Meggie is still there, flying to me every morning and coming with me to fill p the wild bird food dish, she is a poppet.

Once more, I am just about out of action, I have put my back out..it was an owl that did it! We put newspaper on the feeding tables in the owls, we use a whole paper and take off a sheet each day. I changed the paper in the Europeans on Sunday, putting a full paper in as usual. Millie decided that it would be great fun to shred the whole paper into tiny pieces and scatter them all over the aviary. It took me ages, going round, crouched down picking up all the bits, went to stand up and my back just went...I am in agony!

In a way, it may be for the best as it is forcing me to take it easy without actually being ill. It feels really strange, sitting doing nothing apart from hobbling about with my stick, I am used to it when my hips are bad but this is different again. Hopefully, I will be better in a couple of days.

Tash's leg is healing nicely but she is getting very bored poor love...two invalids together!

Hannah was in on Sunday and took a load of pics so I will upload them for you all to see how everyone is doing.

Hello

Hiya,

still fairly quiet here. "Pumpkin" is doing really well and is now starting to gape for his food. Andrew has been gaping for a couple of days and is still sdorable. Both are in the dining room with Sid and Toto...oh and Tash who is confined to one room.

She is doing really well considering how big the operations was but I think she is getting a bit bored poor little lovie.

Some good news, we were sitting out on the patio last night and we heard Treacle the tawny. We are positive it was her even though we couldn't actually see her. She came over and had a chat with Gulliver in the aviary. Still no sign of Dumpling but we put food out for all the wild owls so he may just be taking food from there.

Little pigeons are STILL begging to be fed even though they are feeding themselves.

Every one else is fine and I have found the camera battery charger so I will take some pics.

Meggie is still coming to me in the garden and Pickle and Podge are hanging around as well as the muskateers, blackies atc. Quite a hive of activity.

Camera battery dead

and I have had a tidy up so I can't find the charger and the spare!!!!!

As soon as said items are located, I will post some new pics....the turkeys are fab!