Published by Cage & Aviary Birds,
February 2006.

REPUTATION means a lot in the world of bird of prey rescue and Angie and Rick Rooney enjoy a status that few others can match. The pair set up Colchester and District Ferret and Bird of Prey Rescue to take in and help injured birds of prey from their home county of Essex, but in fact they now find themselves dealing with birds from all over England, and even Wales.

"Because we do flying displays, we've become well known all over the country," Angie told Cage & Aviary Birds. "Unlike a lot of rescue centres, we've never had anything bad said about what we do and how we do it. We've been able to build up a good name for ourselves because we're good at what we do."

The result is that there's almost nowhere in England and Wales that they haven't had injured birds of prey sent to them from. And there's never a shortage of people who will help when a bird needs to be moved.

"We once got a call from Wales about a buzzard that had been shot," Angie said. "There was no way that we could get to the other side of the country quickly to help, but through a falconer we knew we were able to start a relay to get the bird brought over to Colchester.

"Thanks to people who are prepared to stick their necks out to help us, we are able to help birds from just about anywhere, and half the time the we don't even know the people who are willing to assist with transport," she added. "We really can't thank everyone enough for what they do for us."

Colchester and District Ferret and Bird of Prey Rescue began 16 years ago and has been at its present location, on the outskirts of Colchester, for five years.

"We moved here because of its rural location," Angie said. "We have lots of open space for flying our birds and for releasing recovered birds. And there's a nature reserve just three fields away that allows us to release birds that need special habitat."

The Rooney's back garden is home to a range of custom-built aviaries for both their flying birds and rescued birds and includes an isolation aviary. The aviaries have recently been upgraded to reduce the chance of the inhabitants coming into contact with wild birds that might be carrying avian flu.

There are also special heated mews houses where the flying display birds spend the night-time hours, having spent the day outside, flying or tethered to their blocks, which are moved around the lawn. The ferrets also have their own housing with areas to exercise and enclosed sleeping boxes.

Understandably security is tight, with movement-activated lighting and alarms to deter unwanted visitors. There are further facilities in the house, where the spare bedroom has been kitted out for use as a hospital or as an isolation unit.

The Rooneys are certainly kept busy, as well as looking after their own birds, they saw 86 birds and 120 ferrets pass through the centre in 2005. The high number of ferrets doesn't surprise Angie: "A lot of people with birds of prey also have ferrets that they use to flush out rabbits for hunting," she said. "It's been going on for years."

The birds, and ferrets, come from all sorts of sources. Angie and Rick are registered with the RSPCA and RSPB as a rescue centre and are also well known to local vets. And there are plenty of people, both locally and further afield, who get in touch because they know of the Rooneys through their flying displays.

The number of birds arriving at the rescue centre has increased steadily in recent years.

"We're not sure how much this is due to us being better known and how much of it is due to an increase of the number of birds in the wild," Angie said. The rescue centre keeps careful records and the most common species to pass through is the sparrow hawk, which makes up 45 per cent of the birds helped. Kestrels are the next most numerous, amounting to 20 per cent of the total. The rest include barn owls, tawny owls and little owls.

"About 90 per cent of the sparrow hawks we get in here are birds injured by flying into windows," Angie said. "The barn owls, however, tend to be captive birds that people no longer want."

A good example of the work the pair carry out was the rescue of 12 barn owls during the Christmas holidays.

"We got a call from the RSPCA alerting us to a group of wild barn owls that had been found in a shed," she said. "They weren't imprinted on humans and were as wild as could be. Both Rick and I ended up covered in scratches from catching them."

All the wild birds that the Rooneys handle are released as soon as possible after they come to the rescue centre. For a simple case of concussion, this may be as soon as two or three days, although for a broken wing it could take up to eight weeks for the birds to recover.

"If it is a particularly bad break, we will also get a second x-ray to make sure the bird is ready for release," Angie added.

The Rooneys are welcome of the support they have received from their local vet, Ben Bennett of Colne Valley Vets.

"He looks after us because of what we do and our job would be much harder without him," Angie said. "And without Ben's help, it would have been very difficult for us to make it through the Foot and Mouth outbreak, when our flying displays were cancelled and everything we did had to be paid for out of our own pockets."

If there's a problem Ben can't help with, the Rooneys turn to Swindon-based avian expert Neil Forbes.

"One good example of where Neil's advice was invaluable was when we had barn owls with blue beaks and blue feet," Angie said. "It turned out that they had salmonella poisoning which had been passed on by seagulls."

Looking after sick and injured birds is a constant learning experience for Rick and Angie, who also once had a problem with sparrow hawk recovery. "We were told by an old boy that we should give them extra calcium," Angie said. "We went from a 25 per cent recovery rate to 75 per cent recovery almost overnight." Every bird that the Rooneys treat is rung so that it can be tracked once it has been released.

"It's important that are able to keep an eye on our success rate," Angie said. "If the birds we were letting go were constantly coming back to us, or being found dead, we would know we were doing something wrong. Currently about 90 per cent do not come back."

Ringing is a pet subject of Angie, who believes that everyone should independently ring their birds.

"That way, whenever a bird is found the owner could be traced," she said. "There is no requirement to register Annex A birds, unlike the Schedule 4 species where changes of ownership have to be notified to Defra.

"This simple, and inexpensive, step would make it much easier to get birds back to their rightful owners."

ANGIE and Rick Rooney both have a long history with birds. Before setting up Colchester and District Ferret and Bird of Prey rescue, Angie worked with the RSPCA, where she was regularly called on to help with bird rescues, as well as snakes and spiders and bats.

Angie developed an interest in bird keeping and, after a visit to Stonham Barns, in Suffolk, to find out more about it, she took a husbandry course and bought a baby barn owl. Rick had also been involved with birds, with his father keeping finches, lovebirds and fancy canaries, and he had always wanted to get into falconry.

After taking courses at Eagle Heights, in Kent, he was able to fulfil his dream and now does flying displays with Angie throughout the summer.

"We're fully booked most weekends from March to September," Angie told Cage & Aviary Birds. "We go as far North as Crewe and into Wales in the West. We cover all the game fairs and countryman fairs up and down the country."

Angie said that they prove popular at flying displays because the birds Rick and her fly are unusual. They range from an African eagle owl to a Scops striated, which weighs only three-and-a-half ounces. Other species the Rooneys fly include perlins, Gyr merlins, Barbary falcons, a saker falcon and a white-faced Scops owl. All the display birds are captive-bred.

The money Rick and Angie make from their display work is used to fund their rescue work, and they both work as well. Angie works part-time and Rick is self-employed.

"We have to be flexible because you never know when you will get a call, and in the winter we have to be here early to take care of the birds before it gets dark," Angie said. "Bird of prey rescue work doesn't fit with a nine-to-five job."

The Rooneys have now set up a website to promote what they do and help raise money to pay for their work.

"The website will set out why we are here and what our aims are," Angie said, "and will also list the dates of upcoming shows. "We'll also be selling falconry equipment through the site. Rick does wood turning and we both make leather leashes, anklets and jessies in all different sizes."

Colchester and District Ferret and Bird of Prey Rescue can be contacted on 01206 549886 and the website is at: www.colchesteranddistrictbirdofpreyandferretrescue.co.uk