Wing and a Prayer Wild Bird and Owl Haven is a privately run bird and owl rescue centre, based in Stratton Strawless, just outside Norwich. It funded entirely by donations from the public and is staffed by volunteers. With the exception of our annual Open Day, we are not open to the public, as the aim is to provide a quiet haven for the birds. Each year, we take in hundreds of birds, some injured, some sick, some just tiny nestlings. All are cared for until such time as they are ready for release back to the wild.

Haven Birds need a New Wing!! The Haven is soon to be undergoing a re-vamp. As more and more people become aware of us, more and more birds are brought in. By way of example, last year at this time we had taken in 23 birds, this year it is 64 – I will leave it to those of you with a head for numbers to work out the percentage increase! Consequently, the hospital is no longer large enough to house the birds and the growing number of volunteers who come in to help. Grants have been applied for, and everything is crossed that we do indeed get financial help with the building costs. However, as most of the Haven has so far been built with re-cycled materials, and this is very much part of our ethic, we do intend to build much of the new hospital wing with more of the same.

The new wing will include a larger hospital area, freeing up the old part to be used as an intensive care and isolation block. All of this of course takes time and money, and in the meantime the daily routine of looking after and taking in more birds carries on. Just today 3 birds were taken in, a cockerel which had been abandoned and taken to a vet, a tawny owl which had been hit by a car and a blackbird which appears to have been caught up in some garden netting. Some birds, like the cockerel, only stay at the Haven for a short time, until a home can be found for them or they can be released back into the wild, others may stay for a few months until they are rehabilitated. Every effort is made to return birds to a place near to where they were found.

Not all birds leave the Haven though and we have many ‘stayers’. Tarot the Jackdaw was brought in with his sibling as featherless chicks the summer before last. Both were hand reared and became real characters around the hospital, sitting on heads and backs as we worked and attacking anything glittering that we were wearing. When the time came for them to be released, Tarot’s sibling, Hoodwink, took off, never to be seen again. Tarot however decided he knew where he was better off and stayed around the Haven. He would disappear at night time and come back every morning to play in the hospital. For various reason’s the decision was made to re-home him and he was given to a Haven Supporter to house with his other corvid some 14 miles away. Eventually, he was released into their garden. That, we thought was that, until the next day when Tarot turned up knocking on the hospital window! We were all amazed. He’s still about and will come to an arm at the click of a finger. Watch this space for updates.

Tom the white Rhea came to us a couple of years ago as a rescue. As bird welfare is central to what we do, it was decided last year to buy two females as company for him. The two females arrived as very young birds and have had to be housed away from Tom for obvious reasons. All 3 Rheas were a great draw at our first ever Open Day last year and the Guess The Rheas Names game went down well. The girls were ultimately called Willow and Wisp and just as their names suggest, they are both tall and elegant. They are still not ready to go in with Tom, that may be next year, but these things take time and by having a little patience, hopefully it will all work well in the end.

We will be taking some of the birds out ‘on tour’ again this year. This is something we started at the end part of last year and proved to be good fundraisers. Last year Lotto the Little Owl was taken out mostly. Lotto started life as Lottie, but it has since been discovered that he is in fact a boy so we’ve had to change his name! Lotto came in almost completely blind having come off worse against a car. He regained his sight in his right eye, but his left eye, although much improved, is not fully functional, something which can be seen from looking at him. As such, he is a stayer at the Haven.

Lotto this year will be joined by Havoc the beautiful male kestrel. Havoc came in with a damaged eye and it is thought that he was actually hand reared as he has never shown any fear of humans and happily sits on an arm. His damaged eye will not allow him to hunt for himself and will indeed make him vulnerable to others. That along with the fact that he quite happily flies about the hospital with pigeons and doves oblivious to the fact that he is the predator and they are the prey, make him unreleasable.

Lucy the barn owl is another rescue who has been at the Haven a couple of years. She has spent a lot of that time out in an aviary, but she was unpredictable and violent when anyone entered the aviary and yet on the glove she is a pussycat! So, very recently she has been spending much of her days in the hospital watching the antics of the other birds and volunteers and is a different bird, happy and content. She is an unusual owl as she doesn’t have the spotty breast that female barn owls normally have. Also, the disk of her face should be slightly darker underneath, whereas, as you can see from the picture, Lucy’s isn’t. Still, many of the birds we have at the Haven are ‘different’ in one way or another! You have to learn to expect the unexpected and it helps to be a little crazy yourself! The rewards however are fantastic.

So all these birds you will be able to meet over the coming months at various events around the County. Keep reading to find out more. They will be accompanying us on fundraisers at places such as the Castle Mall, Pets at Home Sprowston and the Fairhaven “Green Day”. Watch our web site for details of these events in addition to our Annual Open day, planned for early August.

And for more of the day to day antics, why not follow us on www.facebook.com/wingandaprayerhaven and/or @WAAPHaven.Twitter.com, or give us a look at www.wingandaprayerhaven.org.uk.