What sort of owl this might be ?

[jojo]

I suppose they are difficult to keep as pets or working animals? I would love to be able to train birds of prey.

The Eagle Owl is not particularly difficult to keep, but you need a licence to keep one. It is also advisable though to take a short course in care of these birds, they are not your ordinary pets and have particular needs, with food, supplements, care of talons and beaks, weighing regularly, maintenance & making of jessies, flying that sort of thing. Ours was rescued by the police from a house where he had been kept illegally in a back room for years by drug addicts :twak: :twak: . The poor thing did not even know how to fly when they delivered him to the bird of prey centre, he used to hop behind the trainer there. He had to be taught to fly and apparently took a long time to learn.

 

[spamel]

I saw a number of birds of prey at Oldcotes carboot sale. Don't worry, they weren't for sale! The guy rescues them, barn owls apparently fly over hedges between fields and stay close to them and then drop right down as they clear the hedge. Often though, there is a road on the other side of the hedge and many get killed or injured this way. He takes the injured owls in and cares for them. He also has rescued kestrels, one was injured and the other was also kept by druggies to try and hunt for food for them! I hope they enjoyed eating mice!

He also had a Harris Hawk, and he told me that of all the birds he had with him that day, the Harris was the only one he had that could be kept without a licence. Native BOP need to have a licence, but if you have a BOP from another country, you don't need one.

 

[SOAR]

I saw a number of birds of prey at Oldcotes carboot sale. Don't worry, they weren't for sale! The guy rescues them, barn owls apparently fly over hedges between fields and stay close to them and then drop right down as they clear the hedge. Often though, there is a road on the other side of the hedge and many get killed or injured this way. He takes the injured owls in and cares for them. He also has rescued kestrels, one was injured and the other was also kept by druggies to try and hunt for food for them! I hope they enjoyed eating mice!

He also had a Harris Hawk, and he told me that of all the birds he had with him that day, the Harris was the only one he had that could be kept without a licence. Native BOP need to have a licence, but if you have a BOP from another country, you don't need one.

Looks like I know what I want for Crimbo then....... A turkey vulture.

 

[JonnyP]

I lit up the one million candle torch .

Crikey, that must of used up a lot of matches.....

One of my favourite wildlife moments was watching 2 barn owls hunting in a field....
They are awsome....

 

[RobertRogers]

Up here in the Northern US we get the huge snowy owls that come down from the arctic in the winter

 

[RobertRogers]

Make for good eating (just kidding).

 

[SOAR]

Snowy owls are stunning birds you are very lucky.

Simon.

 

[big_swede]

I am affraid I don't know where you could get one in Sweden. There are breeders who sell them on the internet, I believe. We got ours from a bird of prey centre that had to close near us. My daughter used to first volunteer there then worked there for a while. When they had to close, we ended having Dutch.

[rant]
I got so inrigued by Dutch that I had a look around to see if it was possible to have an owl for pet or hunting comrade here. Well, maybe I'm naive but if one is allowed to have a nocturnal mammal predator (eg. a cat) one could have a nocturnal bird of prey. But as the swedish government, the current, and all before, are real pansies (rant) any form of falconry and raptor keeping is strictly forbidden. Has been so since the 60s. Because it was thought that poachers were stealing eggs and juveniles (yeah, wild caught birds are really easy to train aren't they?), and that this was causing the drop in raptor numbers. It later turned out to be DDT causing all the trouble, but since then the bird populations have recovered. But of course it's still illegal to keep birds of prey. I'm so angry right now, not just because of ths, but everything I like is either forbidden or frowned upon. I'm movin'!
[/rant]

 

[jojo]

[rant]
I got so inrigued by Dutch that I had a look around to see if it was possible to have an owl for pet or hunting comrade here. Well, maybe I'm naive but if one is allowed to have a nocturnal mammal predator (eg. a cat) one could have a nocturnal bird of prey. But as the swedish government, the current, and all before, are real pansies (rant) any form of falconry and raptor keeping is strictly forbidden. Has been so since the 60s. Because it was thought that poachers were stealing eggs and juveniles (yeah, wild caught birds are really easy to train aren't they?), and that this was causing the drop in raptor numbers. It later turned out to be DDT causing all the trouble, but since then the bird populations have recovered. But of course it's still illegal to keep birds of prey. I'm so angry right now, not just because of ths, but everything I like is either forbidden or frowned upon. I'm movin'!
[/rant]

Soorry to hear this Big Swede. I didn't have a clue. It sometimes seems it does not matter where you turn, whatever you want to do is, as you say, banned or frowned upon. I am also feeling really blooming fedup tonight. Not a big deal but I have read on Yahoo that the hose pipes ban laws are going to change, it will no longer be legal to fill your pond during "droughts". So what? most people would say, but I like our ponds, we've got two fairly small ones but they are full of wild life, newts, frogs, lots of different insects, dragonfly visit and lay eggs, lots of birds use it for bathing & drinking, even had a grass snake in them this year. Most "droughts" are made worse by mismanaging water companies. So I am just

Soorry to go off topic here. I am going to take some more pictures of Dutch in the next few days, the weather is horrid and gloomy and grey today (just like I am feeling) not good for pics.

We live not far from a nature reserve and there are some beautiful Barn Owls there too, I'll see if I can get some pics when I go there.

On a positive note, Big Swede, Sweden at least has more "wild land" than we have here, I believe, compared to us here, at least I hope so, mate.

 

[h2o]

probably an eagle owl ive spotted two once on my washing line they lived near cos u could hear em at night and my wife saw 1 pick up a cat ive seen 1 in scotland whilst camping.also i have a rhodesian ridgeback named dutch

 

[SOAR]

Rhodesian ridgeback, is that the breed of dog they hunt lions with?

 

[spamel]

I think I might have this wrong again, but is an owl not an actual bird of prey? Or is it not a raptor? Can't remember which, but it may be a way around the law for Big Swede. As for the hose pipe ban, set up a water butt at your gutters' down pipe and if your hose pipe was to accidentaly top that up, who would see?

 

[jojo]

I think I might have this wrong again, but is an owl not an actual bird of prey? Or is it not a raptor? Can't remember which, but it may be a way around the law for Big Swede. As for the hose pipe ban, set up a water butt at your gutters' down pipe and if your hose pipe was to accidentaly top that up, who would see?

Both terms are pretty much interchangeable, owl are (mainly) nocturnal hunters as opposed to the diurnal hunters, like kestrels and falcons and so on..

I found that definition:

A raptor is a bird of prey. The word raptor comes from the Latin root that means "to seize and carry away", and is assigned to any bird that kills with its feet. Hawks, eagles, falcons, osprey, and owls are all raptors.


As to the ponds, it is more the principle of it that fished me off! It does not happen very often to have a hose pipe ban, but if those darned water company put their customer first for a change instead of their huge profits and fixed their leaky pipes!!!!No doubt i'll work out a water butt

 

[jojo]

Here are a few pics of Dutch. He now has his full winter plumage.


I am not the best of photographer! His eyes are actually bright orange

His talons are about 30 mm long, you don't want to be a rabbit.

Ignoring us , he turned his head 180 degrees.

His wings span is about 5 feet, 1.50 m.

 

[SOAR]

He's a good looking bird, looks like he is going to be nice and warm with that winter plumage.

 

[wanderinstar]

H2O,
"ive spotted two once on my washing line " Really, I would have thought that to see one in the wild was rare, But 2 on your washing line ! !
Going on the size of there feet I would have thought they would need something about 2" dia. to enable them to grip onto. Surely on a washing line they would just swing upside down.