There was an unusual visitor over the holidays when an injured barn owl was able to fly around Baytree Garden Centre as it recovered.
The Owl Centre team, based at Baytree, took it in on Christmas Eve, but due to Avian Flu restrictions, it couldn’t be placed with the other birds.
So it moved into the home of Mark Birdsall and Louise Ellis, who run the centre and whose house is at Baytree.
They nursed it back to health, making sure it could fly again by letting it fly around the closed garden centre.
“Normally with bird rescues we’d just contact Wild Things Rescue and leave it to them,” said Mark. “But the lady found it at 2am on Christmas Eve in the Deepings.
“The RSPCA weren’t interested and nobody was picking up the phone.
“It was clear it had been clipped by a car and didn’t have too bad injuries, so we knew with a bit of rest and food it would be OK.
“We kept flying it in the centre to see if it was fit to return to the wild.
“On Boxing Day it could only get about a metre off the group, but after two or three days it was much better.
“When it was ready we gave it back to the lady who brought it in and she released it where it was found.
“Apparently a male was seen nearby, so hopefully they’re now reunited.”
Mark says its utility costs for the centre are set to more than treble in just a few months. It will be offering discounts of 23 per cent off bookings for the first few months of the year in a bid to attract more visitors.
“We’re conscious the bill increase comes in March which is baby season and when we’ll have the incubators on to keep the new borns warm,” he continued. “We were meant to be completely closed in January for maintenance, but we may open at weekends just to get some income in.
“With the rises in VAT and minimum wages it’s going to have quite a big effect.
“We reached the threshold to pay VAT last year, so which has had an affect on the income.
“It’s tight for everyone at the minute, so hopefully by offering the discounts on booking it will attract a few more through the doors.”
There is another source of income, by order of the popular TV show Peaky Blinders.
The Owl Centre’s raven Doodles featured in the show’s finale and has more filming work lined up in February.
