Just a quick update for you all

We recently had a Barn Owl sitting on 5 eggs, which we thought was great.  Alas four of them were kicked out of the nest inside the aviary and didn’t make it.  However, about 4 weeks ago an egg was kicked out on it’s own around the time one of the volunteers was working in the area.  He saw the egg and it ‘chirped’ at him!

It’s really amazing, we haven’t had an owl chick hatch in about 4 years.

When he arrived with us he was eating about 2 ounces of food per 24 hours, in just four weeks he has quadrupled in size and is now eating 10 – 12 ounces of meat which includes bone and fur (they need this for development and growth)

We will keep you posted on progress but for now we just have a few photos to show you, sorry if they are a little blurry – we will get more up soon.

To say what a day would really be a understatement, I am talking about yesterday (Sunday 26th Feb) the display at Millbrook Shopping Centre in Bury. From the minute I walked in with Pauly (Female Barn Owl) on my shoulder and L.J. in her box 10.20am we never stopped until we where packing away at 4.30pm, and I would hope and prey that some people who where there are looking at this blog, THANK YOU.  The people of Bury  made us VERY welcome and made it a day to remember for a very long time.  Barn Owl Bill has now got faith back in human beings for being so generous and interested in meeting our birds. I hope we are able to return in the near future, so that you can see the birds we had that day, and with THANKS for the understanding and interest of the Management maybe bring a few more of our beautiful birds to show the people of Bury!.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for reading. As always the update is late as it has been a mad few months here at the sanctuary with the weather, displays, illness and the coming and going of helpers and help!.

The last update was May so as you can see, I have a lot to write so you can all catch up!!!

JUNE/JULY/AUGUST – Aviaries needed re-roofing due to rain and water damage, and the roof has been replaced slowly! Barn Owl Bill Charity will soon be getting a new website which will be funky and snazzy with all fingers crossed! Snoopy our male snowy owl unofrtunatley passed away afetr a routine operation to remove callouses and abcesses from his foot.
Maintenance has been a continued and ongoing struggle but we are finally getting finished with just several aviaries left to rebuild. the two chickens Harriet and Henrietta have a new nesting box which is off the ground to prevent vermin.
Rescues – as always plenty of birds and other wildlife needed our help! A great Crested Grebe with a fish hook in its beak, Heron with a broken wing that had to be euthanised, a sparrowhawk that flew into a window (now escaped!), a barn owl which has been released!

SEPTMEBER – there has been a proposal for some land to be given to barn owl bill sanctuary on  short term basis. this is still in debate as to go forward and build there as we would have to shut shop and take down what we build to mve elsewhere. We have some new volunteers from Leyland and Chorley volunteer group who help to give tasks to people with specials needs or cant for whatever reason get a job!
Re-roofing is under way ready for winter and felting the roofs has been underway! Maintenance is an on-going project for us all!!
Rescues – European Eagle Owl rescued from a cruel breeder, Burrowing owl with a very damaged leg but died on 6th septmeber! A barn owl that is still with us and a pidgeon that died. And last night we had a rescue rabbit brought t us as it was found wandering on the roads at 12am at night!

New Birds – 2 burrowing owls: 1 male – cackle and 1 female – Pingu and a Asian Wood Owl called Asia. She is a BEAUTIFUL girly but someone was cruel enough to burn her foot with a lighter just before we bought her!!!!

as always Thankyou for your support!

Best wishes, untill next time!
Bye bye from me and everyione at the sanctuary and HOOT from our feathered friends!

Laura-Jayne, Volunteer for Barn Owl Bill Registered charity

hi people as to the enquirey about help we are trying to set up paypal account for payment going into as soon as that is done it will make things better thank you for all enquiries (i am rubbish at spelling)

Hello all.

New update, a little late as usual!

As ever we have been busy with the rebuilding of our aviaries and shifting the birds into their housing facilities.We have two new aviaries up and running with birds happily settling in.

Its been hectic here as usual with feeding our 90 + hungry mouths (or should I say .. Beaks!?) as well as the cleaning and general maintenace of our birds.

We have had lots of new rescues over the course of the past two months and theses include: A tawny owl that had a broken pelvis and left leg and therefore had to humanely euthanised due to the severity of its injuries, a brown hen that was found wandering on a main road near the sanctuary (she is called henrietta and is very prone to wandering so shes been grounded!), a tawny owl with a severe fungal infection in its mouth and throat and had to be put to sleep, another tawny owl with  a badly damaged wing which had to be amputated and she is doing fine and living with 5 other birds, myself and bill were called to rescue a female tawny owl that was stuck up a chimney. she turned out to be fit and healthy and she was re-released later that same day. earlier this month we were gifted with a Tropical Screech owl and a female Bengal eagle owl – both are fine. a tawny owl with a damaged wing was rescued but died at the vets clinic. Two weeks ago we rescued a female tawny owl from beacon country park in lancashire. She was tangled up in kite string, so we brought her hoem to recover and she was doing fine, and suddenly on saturday morning (21/02/2009) she sadly passed away for reasons unknown.  And last but not least, a couple from Skelmerdale were moving home and could no longer keep their male European eagle owl and so asked if we could take him. His name was Portfield (!?) but we have renamed him Rocky and he is a bonny lad who is settling in well and is quite a softie at heart!

The Barn Owl Bill charity committee have decided upon having a volunteers committee once a month alongside the charity committee to enable our young volunteers to express their views and ideas acroos to the main committee. This hasnt come in to action yet and is currently being worked. Its a great idea to include th younger volunteers at the sancturary and gives us a greater range of idead and views on what can be done to better the life for our birds!!

Untill next time… Take care and thankyou for your continued support.
Bye from everyone at the sancturary and Hoot from all the birds.

Laura-Jayne (Volunteer for Barn Owl Bill)

Hello all,
Hope you had a good christmas and new year.
Heres the 2009 update of whats been going on at the sanctuary!
We have been working like busy bees getting the old aviaries knocked down and rebulit using donated wood and roofing materials. And of course due to the ‘wonderful’ british weather, we have had lots of set-backs but we are slowly getting through them all. We have 13 new aviaries up and running including one for an elderly disabled Barn owl called Jill. All thanks to Bish (Mark Bishop) who as put in many hours of hard work no matter what the weather!!
We have had few rescues over the course of christmas and new year – a robin in supermarket which was a immediate re-release, a seagull from Hutton which unfortunatley had to humanely euthanised, we have a female kestrel who was rescued from walmer bridge who has been brought back from the brink of death and is in a pre-release avairy and flying well and eating lots of mice! She is ready for release as of next week after a check up from our dedicated vet called Kim from Glassbrooks Vets4Pets in Leyland!!
we have had a rescue female tawny owl from Euxton. Unfortunately her wing was too badly damaged to be repaired so it has been amputated and she is being rehabiliated to be used as a breeding female in which young will be released to sustain the species in the wild.
The last rescue was a very bad tempered female European eagle owl who had escpaed from her home. After a short chase which included climbing a roof (not done by Bill), Bill anticipated the best time to jump on it and try to grab its jesses but missed…. therefore sealing the fate of his lower arms to the birds talons! her talons were sunk into Bills arms for 45 mins! Ow!
We also have a rescued Red-tailed Common Boa Constricter. He is called Monty! Hes a bonny lad who is steadliy gaining weight and length through proper and adequate nutrition! Monty is also learning to trust people again! Bill is planning to build a large vivarium for Monty in which he can climb and move around happily as he is an Arboreal (up in the trees) snake species.
Today, we recieved a donation of some plastic sheeting for aviary roofs, kindly given to us by Apeks Marine Equuipment where a voluteers father works. This will a great help in completiion of our re-building project.
SUCCESS! We have successful achieved registered chairty status!! And if anybody from the UK would like to make a donation through Gift Aid (this would mean the sanctuary recieves an extra 28% of whatever is donated!), you can by contacting Bill – www.barnowlbill.co.uk
Bill would like to apologise for the late update but its been organised chaos (usual) down at the sanctuary!
Untill next time.. take care everyone and happy new year!!
by Laura-Jayne (Volunteer for Barn owl Bill!)

Adopt Boo

Boo is a female Boobook who is hard to handle as she was bred in captivity but reared by her parents. It has taken a lot of effort and patience from our volunteers to stop her biting and familiarise her with being handled. She is now calm enough to be handled by new volunteers.

Since you last heard from us at the sanctuary, we have sadly lost the Barn Owl that we rescued, as the strain of her injury was too much for her and in the end she gave up the fight. On a happier note we have been called out 3 times to rescue Tawny owls. Of the 3 that we have rescued 2 can definately be re-released, one of which will be going tonight and the other hopefully after Christmas. The third will become one of our resident owls as it has a damaged left eye and so could not survive in the wild. Also our baby Barn Owl Angel has also made her debut on her first display and proved to be a firm favourite with the general public. The family dog, Tyto, has now recovered from his operation and is back to his happy, bouncy self.

We would also like to say a huge “Thank you” to CA Hanson of Preston as without their help, repairing and organising our a donation of a hot pressure washer for the Sanctuary, we would struggle to keep our aviaries sterile and clean. Once again “Thank You”! Other than that life at the sanctuary has been as normal as it gets, which isn’t saying much….

Until the next update, Have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Tammy