Tawny Owl

[Gardian]

When I surfaced yesterday morning, Mrs G said to me “You need to go out on to the pool terrace - there’s an owl out there.”

I went out there, and she not being completely daft, was right !   Somehow, it had got one of it’s feet trapped in a broken slab.  Some blood around, but superficial I think, and more a case of fatigue.

I gently moved the slab back: loads of wing flapping.  I reckon a good 1m wingspan at least.

It didn’t seem to want to move, so I left the bird to it’s own devices and quite honestly, I thought that it might die on the spot.  Happily wrong.

Ten minutes later, it was gone.  Really hope that it’s OK, but we’ll never know.

[anotherbanana]

Well done for leaving it to sort itself out; I wonder if it was chasing some small creature that slipped into the crack to escape, or maybe it was drunk!

[Lehaut]

Nice story. 

I heard a noise one night when I lived in Scotland.  The next morning, perfectly imprinted on one of the big windows was, in the dust,  the complete outline of an owl, wings outstretched   No sign of it in the garden.  Like you, I hoped it was alright. 

In our last house in Normandy, in the "arrow slit" window in the barn we had kestrels  (I think) who nested there for several years.  Took this picture of two of the three chicks fledgling as far as the hedge in the garden.  Sadly found one dead a couple of days later, not always a happy outcome.

[menthe]

We often find birds apparently moribund outside our house.

Unfortunately, we have a fully glassed veranda (not put in by us) where birds kill themselves flying into the glass.  We tried hanging up Cliff Richard CDs, as advised by Wooly years ago, but they continue to commit hari kiri.

Then I put up lace curtains with big holes, to preserve the views and hopefully to preserve bird life.  Alas the suicides continued.  Now I have alternating grey and beige close weave curtains and the deaths are greatly reduced.

But, what I was leading up to, is that we find that the birds are stunned and completely exhausted and that, if you put something light and warm round them, they often take off a little time later.  So it's always safer to assume that even a dead-looking bird might not be dead at all.  OH normally puts a piece of light cloth covering the body and keeps cats away.  That does the trick 9 times out of 10.