Training

The past few days we have been focusing on getting more of our 'flying team' ready for displays. Our Eurasian eagle owl "Broo",Tawny owl "Hosking" and "Fetlar" the snowy owl flew in the arena today after having a long winter holiday! During the winter we feed the team up and let them have a well deserved rest. After this rest we have to slowly put them back onto their special flying 'diet'. We hope that within a week or two "Tiger" our Brown Wood owl and "Savanna" the African Spotted eagle owl will be ready to rejoin the flying team.

In other news the breeding season is almost upon us and our Great Horned owl female is showing signs of possibly laying eggs! This is a very exciting time and the staff cant wait to see little fluffy owlets once again. We have been observing our Siberian eagle owls for sometime now as they have displayed courtship behaviour such as hooting and making nest scrapes. We decided to set up an overnight camera and see what our owls were up to! We witnessed both male and female owls hooting and making nest scrapes and both  were observed checking out the nest box we built for them. The male seems very keen on having the eggs laid inside the box but the female appears to prefer the ground just outside the box, however we have seen the male calling from inside the box as if to say "look at this awesome nest I have found and prepared for you! isn't it just so cosy and inviting?" all these signs are very promising and we hope to have them breed this year. Last year our female laid eggs but sadly we discovered they were infertile. Hopefully the owls have had time to settle and will produce fertile eggs this year. When she laid eggs last year, the centre was still being constructed!

So many exciting things are happening so be sure to visit the centre soon and have your breath taken away by these magnificent birds!