25 members were present.
The meeting was mainly devoted to a presentation about owls by Jim Slaney of the Greenwood Owl Rescue Centre. He had come with his wife Pat, bringing not only a display board of photographs, but two tame owls, a Tawny and a Barn owl, who sat quietly on their perches and allowed themselves to be stroked at the end.
The Centre looks after birds that have been in accidents, returning them into the wild if possible, but retaining those that have to be nursed for a while or are born in the Centre and hence unable to fend for themselves. There are currently 10 residents.
There are 133 owl species in the world, 6 in the UK: The Barn, the Tawny, the Little, the Long and the Short-eared and the Snowy. Barn owls live close to human habitation; 4000 breeding pairs were reported in1997-9. Tawny owls live in trees, with 75000 pairs reported.
Owls are nocturnal. They are colour blind, but have acute hearing and eye sight. Their head can cover almost 360 degrees. They eat small mammals, rats, mice and voles. In the wild they can live 4-5 years, in captivity 35 years.
At the end of a most informative and ente1iaining talk Jim and Pat Slaney were warmly applauded and thanked.
Other business
Watering rota. Walter asked for volunteers to water the two maple trees that had been planted in the Bramcote Walled Garden for the Jubilee. A rota has been drawn up and volunteers will find it enclosed with this summary. However, since the meeting Broxtowe Borough Council have notified us that there are problems about reconnecting the water supply to the garden and they will provide emergency watering until the problems have been solved. The rota is therefore temporarily suspended. Volunteers will be contacted when the rota is to come into force; they will be asked to help in the week they have signed up for.
Meetings. There will be no meetings in July and August, but members may wish to come together socially and informally at 7.30 in the Rose Grower on the first Monday of these two months. The next meeting will be on Monday, 2nd September.
Work programme. Details of the work programme have been circulated by Geoff. Fewkes. They are in brief: Sunday 30th June - Bracken bashing Sunday 28th July - Nettle and Rosebay removal Sunday 11th August - Second (and hopefully final) bracken bashing. Meet at 10.30 on top of Sandy Lane
"Bird Box Newsletter" is circulated with this summary
The Friends are always looking for extra pairs of hands to help out or to simply support their work, so...
- to find out when the next work session will take place, click here, or
- to find out about becoming a member please contact us here, or
- to discover what goes into managing the sites click here.
