We are back at Kirkleatham Owl Centre, giving you a behind the scenes tour. Read about the birds, watch their progress in training, and get up close and personal with other residents, including the meerkat and porcupine families. This week, we take a look at some birds in rehab.

Rehabilitation work with sick and injured wild birds of prey is an important part of our work here at the owl centre and in a “normal” year we treat many many birds.
This year things have been a little different of course and during lockdown we took in very few injured birds, but the last couple of weeks have been much busier.

See the owl released into the wild here:

In the last few weeks, we have taken into our care three kestrels, two barn owls, a sparrowhawk and a tawny owl.

This time of the year is often busy with caring for juvenile birds. The juveniles have left their parents and familiar territory and are moving around to find a territory and a mate of their own, so it is quite common that many get into difficulty. Some struggle to master the art of hunting for themselves and being self sufficient, having relied on parent birds until now, and are found underweight and weak.

The Northern Echo: A young barn owl brought to the centre for rehabilitationA young barn owl brought to the centre for rehabilitation


Others end up injured – collisions with cars being the most common cause.
Of the seven birds brought to us in the past two weeks, five were successfully rehabilitated and released back to the wild. Sadly, one young kestrel and the sparrowhawk had injuries too severe and had to be put down.

The Northern Echo: The herring gull came to the centre after swallowing fishing line. The gull didn’t survive this brush with waste left by humansThe herring gull came to the centre after swallowing fishing line. The gull didn’t survive this brush with waste left by humans

We also had a couple of other injured birds brought to us – a blackbird and a herring gull. We usually only treat birds of prey, but no one else was available, so we stepped in, although sadly neither of them made it.

The blackbird was found caught in a tree hanging by discarded twine, its leg severed. The poor gull was also a victim of discarded human waste – this time a fishing line – it had swallowed a hook (maybe attached to a fish), along with the line.

The Northern Echo: Young kestrel on his way to be releasedYoung kestrel on his way to be released

We rescued it from the garden of an elderly couple, but sadly the hook had done such damage the bird had to be put to sleep – a stark reminder of the damage human litter can cause.

On a happier note the two barn owls, two kestrels and the tawny owl all made full recoveries and returned to the wild.

We filmed the tawny owl’s release – he didn’t hang around.