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The Web Site of Freelance Speaker and Owl Conservationist Ian McGuire Educating on the conservation of British owls Add your name to the Wild Owl mailing list

Sunday, December 11, 2011

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Harvest Mice Join the Wild Owl Educational Schools Team - April 2010
I have now acquired a small team of harvest mice who will accompany me during full day visits to schools and colleges.

This tiny little creatures are very tame and will be happy to come out to look at the children during my classroom sessions, whilst giving children a valuable opportunity not only to see a rare and tiny British small mammal, but also learn about the predator/prey associations. Harvest mice are on the owl’s menu where they occur!
Happily, these little gems will not be owl food and I hope to breed from them and eventually release them to a suitable local nature reserve, after advice from the local small mammal experts.
2011 Set to be a Busy Year
After an extremely busy autumn, resulting in 3 weeks of inevitable illness over Xmas, I am starting 2011 with some trepidation!

The Wild Owl diary is busy at the best of times, and new commitments this year mean that I am now tightly managing my availability to ensure that I can fit everything in!
Evening visits are now restricted to Monday - Thursday evenings only, and as I now have daytime working commitments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, schools will now have choice of Tuesday or Thursday visits. Regretfully this leaves no space to offer my services to clubs and groups that meet during the day or for weekend events.
I have produced new booking forms and a general information leaflet to give clearer details of my availability and background to my visiting services.
The Grief of Hitting an Owl in the Car
I regularly get e-mails from people that have found owls either injured or dead, and it is often a dsitressing experience. Here is an example of an e-mail I received in December 2010:
“Hello, I visited your web site today as I have hit a Tawny Owl in my car tonight and killed it.  i am gutted. My good lady and I love all manner of creatures and would not deliberately hurt anything for the world. It was a beautiful bird and died in my Ladys hands.

It appeared fully grown and fit and clean with no visible injuries. It was flying across the road at about five feet high at night in the dark and fled into the offside of my car. I intend to educate myself now on these gorgeous creatures and try to put something back for the species. We carried the bird as far as Highgate common, but once it expired we stopped and placed it in some ferns at the roadside. It was not wearing a ring. Thank you so much. Pete.”
This gentleman was obviously distressed at what is a common occurrence - accidental car strikes. Owls fly low and if one flies across your path when you are driving there is often not much one can do to avoid hitting the bird.
Despite the loss, it’s nice to know that people care!
I get many e-mails through the year about a wide variety of topics, ranging from dead owls in Austin, Texas USA to breeding owls in Somerset.
In March ‘11 I received an e-mail from a lady in Wales to say that she had been regularly watching a white owl fishing in the stream at the bottom of her garden. She thought it was a barn owl.
In fact, her owl is a tawny owl and this behaviour has been recorded on occasions. Tawnies are very versatile birds and will take advantage of any situation that offers a meal. This ladies stream is currently running clear and shallow, giving the owl an ideal opportunity to see and catch small fish at night. Hunting from an overhead branch, this bird has obviously become quite an expert and with excellent night vision, it must have no difficulty is seeing its prey - no doubt the kingfishers she also sees each day will be none too pleased their fish stocks are being depleted at night!
If I acquire a photograph, I will post it here :-)
A Fishing Tawny Owl
Honey the Harvest Mouse Dies - August 2011
After a short period of declining health, my female harvest mouse, Honey, has sadly died. Honey has accompanied me, with Mr Jingles her mate, to many schools over the past year and she won the hearts of lots of children as she was so tame, and very friendly. She has given birth to many babies over the past year, all of whome were released into the wild at Elm Farm in Compton Dando - they are her legacy.

Honey is now buried alongside a spiritual rowan tree in my wildlife garden with the bees, frogs and other wildlife - she will be very sadly missed. Mr Jingles will now remain on his own to live out his years.
Jaz Launches Her Own Facebook Page - August 2011
My tawny owl, Jaz, now has her own Facebook pages. With a selection of photograph albums, video and other features on her, fans of Jaz can now share a part of her life and make comments on her posts.
To ‘like’ her page, just go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jaz-the-Tawny-Owl/273375906012706
Jaz is the Yeo Valley Owl for 2011 - Oct 2011
If you watched the first X-factor live show in October 2011, you would have seen the first showing of the new Yeo Valley advert - and Jaz appears in the advert.
I am really chuffed to have been asked to supply an owl for this huge ad campaign and hope me and Jaz will get an opportunity to promote owl conservation with any press coverage we receive.