Owls in a flap as flu bugs attack
It's not just humans who get struck down by the common cold. Volunteers in the Black Country are preparing to help birds of prey feeling under the weather to get back in the air.
Quarry Bank-based Midlands Birds of Prey Rescue Centre is appealing for people to be on the lookout for sick barn owls. Chris Jones and Pete Collins, who run the centre, have already had one 13-year-old male owl suffering from a cold.
They fear there could be more brought in during the coming weeks because of a virus, and have asked asking anyone who finds a barn owl to can contact them.
All the sick birds need to feel better again is a warm bed, a bit of TLC as well as a course of antibiotics.
A sick owl will often look lost and vulnerable. It is unusual for an owl to be on the ground so this is a sign that it is injured or unwell.
But while the centre wants people to take barn owls to the centre they are appealing for people who find tawny owl chicks to leave them alone.
Mr Jones explained that tawny owls left the nest before they could fly and spent the first few weeks of life in the branches of trees. But he said the chicks often fell from the branches.
"People think they're injured and they're not. If they're not seriously injured people are putting them in even more danger by picking them up and bringing them in.
"They should put them back under the nearest tree."
The barn owl has a white heart-shaped face and brown/grey feathers. A tawny owl is smaller, about the size of a pigeon, and has a ring of dark feathers around its face.
Earlier this month, they were called out to rescue a tawny owl after it flew down the chimney of a clubhouse in South Staffordshire.
It ended up perched in a Christmas tree in Enville Golf Club, at Enville Common, and rescuers were able to catch him.
To report an injured bird of prey, call 07980 288452.
