Tawny Owl arrives from Hopton, Nr. Diss, after being caught in Electric Fencing …
Telephone call last evening from Sue and David who had found an adult Tawny Owl caught up in their electric fencing which, luckily, was not switched on. This is the type used to keep poultry or sheep out of an area and is a mesh rather than a single strand. They had put it in their garden to keep their dogs off their newly planted vegetable patch. The Tawny had gone through the mesh and was caught in the mesh by his head, body and wings and would never have managed to extricate himself. Sue and David cut a large circular patch of the mesh so they could remove it without damaging the owl. Once they got all the mesh off him, they contacted me and, as I was about to start feeding rounds with my current birds, very kindly brought Hopton over to me. He did not look to be a “very happy bunny” so checked him over quickly so he could then rest in the cage.
Sue and David mentioned that there were flies all around him when they found him, which was a good heads up as the eggs were not visible until you went carefully through the feathers on the head and chest. Hydrated, medicated and fed him and then started the marathon “fly strike seek and search” challenge. He ate very well and has a very good swallow reflex but there were hundreds of fly eggs. Combed them all out and then combed again. Spent over an hour doing this so, hopefully, have removed them all from Hopton. Delighted to see Hopton up on the perch this morning and no sign of any other fly eggs. He ate a hearty breakfast and is currently resting in his cage. Will keep checking for fly eggs as they are persistent little critters and also caught a couple of flat flies (the absolute bane of my life…hate ’em!). As they have lots of owls on their site, Sue and David have promised to remove the electric fencing mesh and come up with another idea for protecting their veg patch. Fingers crossed we can get this little fellow right and returned back to the wild where he belongs…
UPDATE : Sadly Hopton passed away this morning. Fly high little one…
