Suffolk Owl Sanctuary - Stonham Barns - 19/12/2018

 

 

 

It was photography day, a time I take every so often to concentrate on developing my skills of capturing still images. This often entails going to a place where the birds are particularly photogenic and easy to capture.

 



This time I decided to have a go at photographing birds of prey at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary located at Stonham Barns in mid Suffolk.

Stonham Barns is a real hodge-podge of random shops all collected together in this farm complex, with the Owl Sanctuary the main centre.

There were to be no official displays today at the sanctuary. However they did release some of the birds to exercise them.

These pictures show a pair of RED KITES. They were released from their cage and were allowed to fly around for half an hour during which time they flew around the grounds and collected food from their exercisers.

There were two exercisers looking after the birds.

When the bird's exercise was up their cage was reopened and the birds were allowed to go back in on their own time. Its amazing they didn't just fly away.

After that I had a look around the sanctuary. It was small, with cages holding all manor of bird of prey and owls, including many familiar birds like the LITTLE and TAWNY OWLS, to the more exotic like the TURKEY VULTURE.

 

Although a lot of the birds are flown it does feel a shame that they are kept in cages. Some of the birds were ex-display birds living out their retirement there.

Whilst looking around I was told that a BALD EAGLE was to be exercised.

This was a great chance to see a species native to North America in flight in rural Suffolk.

The bird was released and it flew to a tree where it decided to stay for around ten minutes. However it did decide to fly and came over to sit on a nearby bird cage giving fantastic views.

Well, what can I say. I came with the intention of photographing birds, and I succeeded. I had some great photographic opportunities, especially of birds in flight, which are so hard to get. Whatever your view on caged animals, most of the birds do get exercised, to fly naturally.