Hello!

Mmmmm, my favourite!

Yoohoo! I can fly again!!

Bummer, I'm being made to work for my supper!

You can't see me, I am a tree!

I'm about to go free!

What a handsome boy!

I received this Tawny Frogmouth Owl after had been handed to my local vets with an injured wing. No one was sure what had happened to Tawny as he was dropped off by some caring members of the public, and the story of his injuries wasn't told.

We suspected, however, that he had been rolled in a car collision. There were no breaks in his wing that we could feel, but there was considerable swelling and his wing was badly slumped. Unfortunately he couldn't support the weight, and the pain would have been quite bad, so we strapped it close to his body for just over one week so that it could be rested.

When we removed the strap his wing sat up nicely against his body and we moved him into the flight aviary. He still couldn't fly, however, and on closer inspection we noticed that there was still a small amount of swelling, so poor old Tawny was moved back into the hospital box so that he could rest the wing for a few more days.

Tawny was eating very well. He particularly liked his kangaroo meat mixed with Insectivore mix (a product made by Wombaroo, which is given to insect and meat eating birds and has all the nutrients and vitamins that is required for a healthy bird in care).

He also was offered rats for all that squishy mushy gutty goodness! Not something I enjoyed preparing for him though!

After a few days (we were like anxious parents!) we put Tawny back into the flight aviary, and hey presto - all was A-OK!

Yoohoo! He started flying, albeit slowly, but we knew that with a few more weeks of practice he would be able to be released back into the wild.

We made him fly up and down the aviary a few times every day so that he could improve the muscles and ligaments in the wing. And as you can see, we got some great photos in the process!

And then in late October we fed him a big meal of rat and then Todd got him out of the aviary and we said our goodbyes before letting him fly free.

For about 1/2 an hour he sat on the rock under our weeping cherry tree and looked rather handsome before flying high up in a tree to get his bearings. Then swiftly and oh so very quietly he flew off into the darkness.