Very briefly....

Nice to hear from you Clara, how is everyone?

We saw all four of the cubs yesterday, three growing nicely and one a little smaller than the others but not significantly so. Their coats are still darkening and their eyes are still tight shut, they should open around Christmas Day. Zephyr is looking very well and so are the rest of the family despite the cold. Two of their older siblings, Tilly and Tiny, are especially attentive and seem to be giving their mum a good deal of support. This includes guard duty, but just because they can't leave the babies doesn't mean that they go hungry; no, their selfless parents, brother and sister bring food to them, usually before feeding themselves! A very caring sharing family. On occasion we have even seen them taking mouthfulls of water to each other and allowing a more senior member of the family to drink from their mouths.

Everyone else is fine and spending most of the time keeping themselves warm apart from Tino and Tamarisk who can't wait for their pond to freeze over so that they can smash the ice all over again- a game they don't ever tire of. Can't say I fancy the ice cold dip that they get when they suceed though.

Karulah, one of our Bengal Eagle Owls, is a very tame bird indeed. She was hatched in February 2007 and reared by her parents with four other owlets until she was four weeks old then one day when we went to check on their health she was the only one remaining. She was too small to have eaten all of her nest mates and we suspect one of her parents was the culprit. We took her home and hand reared her (see pictures). Our children, experienced owl rearers, took their fair share of feeding duties and still handle her regularly. One of their favourite games (before she could fly properly) was to come in from school, take off their socks and throw them across the floor for the owl to practice her pouncing technique! When she tired of that she game she would jump into the nearest lap, stick her head between your thighs and her bum in the air and have 40 winks! Not the behaviour you'd usually expect of a top predator.

Karulah underwent flying training and we free flew her for a couple of months until she developed some bad habits (like not coming down from rooftops and roosting in trees that were out of bounds). We stopped free flying her and she had about 2 months rest and we have begun to train her (from scratch) again. Hopefully she will have forgotten her bad behaviour and will do as she is told, time will tell.

By the way, the Bengal Eagle Owl hen has not returned to her eggs.