Is a cull on European Eagle Owls in the UK imminent?

European Eagle Owl, Doina... yes Doina, not Ethel for a change :-)

There was a sudden uproar over the web this week with the leak of a possible cull of European Eagle Owls in the UK. It seems like DEFRA will be making a decision based on a health and safety report being carried out by FERA. It also seems like they have been trying to keep it on the quiet side, and with some investigating by several concerned owl supporters it looks like FERA have only consulted parties which would be in favor of a reduction of eagle owl numbers... maybe why it was all being done on the quiet side?

With the leak several owl experts and enthusiasts have been in contact with DEFRA, and everyone is awaiting the final verdict. It was suggested a decision was to be made by the end of this week, but with the leak and sudden concern over the internet I believe the decision may well be delayed.

Follow this link to find out all the details and keep up with the news first hand.

raptorpolitics.org.uk

- There has been no scientific evidence shown to prove that an eagle owl has killed a hen harrier

- There has been a record number of hen harriers at Bowland Forest, which is also home to 2 eagle owl pairs

- Eagle owl diet is mainly made up of rabbits, which do far more damage to the countryside than eagle owls

- Although many of these owls may well have been from a captive origin, a large number have now been bred in the UK and it is not impossible that some may have migrated over from mainland Europe

- After persecuting them to extinction before, are we really going to make the same mistake twice?


It seems the people against the Eagle Owl in the UK is due to its skills and expertise as a hunter/predator. What we must all remember though is that this is a natural way of life, even if the potential prey is something we like.

After being on the fence for some time, the RSPB made an announcement over the last couple of days saying they do not support a cull of Eagle Owls.

Only time will tell and it is in the hands of one man at DEFRA who will make the decision. Lets just hope he looks at all the facts based on actual scientific evidence, and listens not only to FERAs biased health and safety report but also those people who have worked closely with wild eagle owls over the last several years and their supporting groups.

Our 1st "Owl and Bird of Prey Photographic Day"

Our first "Owl and Bird of Prey" Photographic day will take place on Thursday the 11th of November, 2010. There are 10 places open and these will be filled on a first come first serve basis. Due to high demand for this new BWC venture I will ask anyone interested to attend the day to email us at info@britishwildlifecentre.co.uk with "Raptor day" as the subject and contact details so we can get back to you. The first 10 emails we receive by date and time of our inbox will be replied to to confirm a placement. If you don't receive a reply then I am afraid you will have to assume you were not in the first 10 emails. We will however attempt to reply to all emails.

The day will be priced at £75 per person

The day will start at 10am (arrival from 9.30am) with Tea/Coffee and induction. It will then be split into a morning and afternoon session with a break for lunch in between. The day will end at 4pm with a Heron feed allowing you to photograph our wild heron colony before leaving before 5pm.

Each session will comprise of up to 3 different birds. Each bird will be set up in natural looking settings for portrait shots. Some of the birds will be available for some action/flying photography work. Some "bird on prey" opportunities will be on offer to photo too.

The birds on duty will be the sole discretion of the BWC to be decided on the day. However if time permits extra birds may be added to the roster.

The event will be held at the BWC Nature Reserve. Base camp will be the Field Study Centre situated in our extra parking space. This holds all facilities that will be needed, but you are advised to bring a packed lunch as no access to the main Centre will be allowed.

I am sure it will be a great day, with lots of photo opportunities for all who come. The trial day was a huge success with a fun laid back feel but everyone went away with the photos they wanted. I hope to replicate this on all our future "Raptor" days.

Below are a few photos from a couple of members who came on the trial day just to wet your appetite.

Andy Critchfield of hardpointphotography.com

Andy Critchfield, hardpointphotography.com 

Andy Critchfield, hardpointphotography.com 

Andy Critchfield, hardpointphotography.com 

Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Mike Taylor of seeing.org.uk

 Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Our 1st "Owl and Bird of Prey Photographic Day"

Our first "Owl and Bird of Prey" Photographic day will take place on Thursday the 11th of November, 2010. There are 10 places open and these will be filled on a first come first serve basis. Due to high demand for this new BWC venture I will ask anyone interested to attend the day to email us at info@britishwildlifecentre.co.uk with "Raptor day" as the subject and contact details so we can get back to you. The first 10 emails we receive by date and time of our inbox will be replied to to confirm a placement. If you don't receive a reply then I am afraid you will have to assume you were not in the first 10 emails. We will however attempt to reply to all emails.

The day will start at 10am (arrival from 9.30am) with Tea/Coffee and induction. It will then be split into a morning and afternoon session with a break for lunch in between. The day will end at 4pm with a Heron feed allowing you to photograph our wild heron colony before leaving before 5pm.

Each session will comprise of up to 3 different birds. Each bird will be set up in natural looking settings for portrait shots. Some of the birds will be available for some action/flying photography work. Some "bird on prey" opportunities will be on offer to photo too.

The birds on duty will be the sole discretion of the BWC to be decided on the day. However if time permits extra birds may be added to the roster.

The event will be held at the BWC Nature Reserve. Base camp will be the Field Study Centre situated in our extra parking space. This holds all facilities that will be needed, but you are advised to bring a packed lunch as no access to the main Centre will be allowed.

I am sure it will be a great day, with lots of photo opportunities for all who come. The trial day was a huge success with a fun laid back feel but everyone went away with the photos they wanted. I hope to replicate this on all our future "Raptor" days.

Below are a few photos from a couple of members who came on the trial day just to wet your appetite.

Andy Critchfield of hardpointphotography.com

Andy Critchfield, hardpointphotography.com 

Andy Critchfield, hardpointphotography.com 

Andy Critchfield, hardpointphotography.com 

Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Mike Taylor of seeing.org.uk

 Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Mike Taylor, seeing.org.uk

Owl and Raptor Photography "Trial" Day

As many of you know, I have been looking to add specific "Bird" photography days here at the Centre. Well, after lots of planning and thinking I decided to run a trial day this past Monday to test out a few things and work out what is achievable on one of these days.

I invited along a few regular photographers to the Centre, who have shown us much support over the past several years, to get their valued input and advice. Also invited where Wildarena for their professional input and to see the potential from a workshop group point of view. Oh yeah, and our resident crazy bird lady, senior keeper Katie, tagged along too :-)

Needless to say it was a huge success, with the help of the photographers I now know what we can do and how to do it on official "Owl and Raptor Photographic Days" at the BWC.

Workshops have already begun to start booking in days, and we too will be holding our own photographic bird days in 2011. Watch this space and our BWC website to see listings of the dates when they are launched later in the year.

In the mean time, I will be running a single "Owl and Raptor Photographic Day" this year sometime in early November. This will be a fully priced and scheduled day, allowing you to get some amazing photos, but also allowing me to fine tune the last few things before our 2011 dates go ahead. The date for this will be announced next week and will have 10 spaces available on a first come first serve basis. The day and what you can expect from one of our "Owl and Raptor Photographic Days" next year will be reported along side this announcement.

In the meantime, thanks go out to Mike Taylor, Terry Longley, Gary K Mann, Andy Crtichfield and David & Janet from Wildarena for all their help on Monday. Below are a few of my pics, and I will post a few of theirs next week to show you all the potential of this exciting new venture!

Summer Photo Competition Winner

Congratulations to Karen Jones for winning the Summer photo competition. The turn out for this one far exceeded the Spring competition, and overall I would suggest the standard was higher. Once again the keepers picked their favourites, from which world renowned wildlife photographer Heather Angel judged the winner.

Heather always seems to like movement in her photos, so it was no surprise to see that her shortlist of 3 showed some action. It was a difficult choice, and Heather wanted to list the two runner ups as special commendations (shown below) but ultimately chose the photo above of our roe fawn leaping from cover as her favourite.

Heather liked the way the photo showed some movement, the fawn coming out from the long grass. She liked the way it looked as if it could of been a shot from the wild, and particularly liked the lighting in the photo, the way it had the soft back light coming around the fawns head highlighting it.

Congratulations again to Karen Jones for winning. You can see more of her work on her flickr site linked here.


Special commendations were awarded to

"No you back down" Sean Cameron

"Ooh, that's sharp" Richard Corbett

BWC Summer photo competition

So the Summer photographic competition has ended, the entries have been seen and judged by professional wildlife photographer Heather Angel. But before I announce the winner, I thought I would show of some of my favorites from the over 100 entries we received.

Above is a beautiful portrait of one of our orphaned badger cubs, taken by "nitram0864" via flickr. As well as straight portraits we also got a nice mix of interaction with animals and keepers and even a few arty shots as well.

The most popular animals this competition were the Red Squirrel, maybe influenced by the Spring photo winner, and unsurprisingly our wildcat kittens which have seen many photographers camped out by their enclosure over the Summer weeks.

Wildcat kitten "Really wild" taken by "Scrappergill" via flickr

Eddie our albino squirrel taken by "Shaftinaction" via flickr, I liked seeing some of the less popular animals crop up in this Summers competition.

"Roe fawn leaping into cover" taken by "KarenJ2000" via flickr

Strix and Aluco taken by "Jaydonluck" via flickr

"No you back down" taken by "Sean Cameron" 

"Caught in the light" taken by "Martha Stevenson" via flickr

"Ooh, that's sharp" taken by "Rich3591" via flickr

"I think you are gorgeous" taken by "Linda Fenner"

If there was a competition for best caption, then I think this one would have taken it!

"No photos please" taken by "Peter Hedger" via flickr

It was a difficult choice for Heather, but she chose an overall winner and 2 special commendations. I will announce the winner and launch the Winter competition on Monday.

Archimedes debut flight

Archimedes, our new long-eared owl chick, took his first flight in front of the public this past weekend. Having been part of a static display on a few occasions over the Summer, we thought we would start him earning his keep as a member of our flying team.

Behind closed doors he has been progressing very quickly and extremely well. Saturday was his debut, keeping him on the training line (creance), he successfully completed his display. Therefore it was straight off with the creance the following day, and Sunday showed him off for the first time flying free!

Long-eared owls are one of the least known of the 7 British owls, and rarely seen in captivity as well as the wild. We are therefore very lucky to have a friendly flying long-eared owl. Already he is a huge success with the photographers that frequent here as not many places can offer one as a photographic subject. The fact that he is flying now is an added bonus.

Be sure to check out our owl display at 4.00pm every weekend till we close at the end of October, and you may well get to see Archimedes in all his splendor!

2010's Otter Cub update

Stirling and Thistle's cubs are doing extremely well. All three are now regularly seen out and about in the afternoons, and have even started to take to the water (well... be dragged in by mum).

After a very busy Summer for us we are back to looking after schools and photographers, however we are still open at the weekends to the general public until the end of October. Please do come and see our new otter cubs venturing out of the holt while you still can. Come the Spring they will no longer look like cubs!