Out with Nick D on Sunday evening, we took a walk up Blake Dean where we came across a Tawny Owl apparently asleep on a dry stone wall. So asleep in fact that Nick had passed within 2 metres of the bird. Whilst I quietly rigged my video camera, Nick started to take some photos.
This shouldn't happen, Tawny Owls don't just nod off and allow you to get this close. Then Nick says "It's dead, it's been shot. Someone's stuck it on the wall." "No, it's not," I replied, "I just saw it move". "No, it's dead. It's covered in flies, look." at which point he clapped his hands and the bird showed no response to the noises that we were making. As I approached the bird, it suddenly sprang to life. It tried to fly but struggled to get airborn and fell through a gap in the wire fence, disappearing into the ravine below. Nick clambered onto the wall to see if he could see anything, but it was clear that we were going to need some assistance in rescuing the bird.
This is a dead zone for mobile phones so we drove away to a site where we could get a signal. As the birds injuries suggested that it may have been shot, we reported the incident to the police who then passed us on to the RSPCA. They said that they would send a field officer if one was available.
In the interim, we recruited some help from Andy H, and returned to the site with torches. Sadly we were not able to find the bird that evening.
Monday, I took the day off work and returned to the site with Tim W. In a 4 hour search, we managed to find two dead Tawny chicks, some droppings and a pellet...but no injured adult. One of the chicks looked like it had died recently but had no visible trauma signs. The other chick had been eaten away, only legs and wings remaining. After collecting these remains we headed back to the cars.
As look would have it, we heard Blackbirds and Wrens making a din in the bottom of the ravine further down stream. Looking over the wall, Tim spotted the bird perched on a fallen tree trunk. The bird was covered in flies and in a very sorry condition, so Tim went down into the ravine and recovered the bird. It was then taken to a vets where it was examined but, sadly, had to be euthanised.
X-rays were taken to ascertain the cause of the trauma. No pellets could be found, and the nature of the birds injuries suggest that it had flown into a wire fence or power cable.
It's difficult to say how long it had been in this condition, but one has to assume quite some time, with the chicks probably starving in the interim. There was no sign, or sound, of any other adult in the area.
A big thank you to all involved. Whilst we may not have been able to save this bird, at least it's suffering was curtailed.
We felt that it was also important to get a proper diagnosis and X-rays to rule out any possibility of foul play or human interference.
Photos - Nick D
1 comment:
Well done to you all for the effort you put into recovering this bird. Its a shame the bird had to be put down but at least there is some relief that it had not been shot!
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