Signs of summer see the arrival of new feathered and furry faces

IT has, of course, been an unprecedented year, so now with this final owl diary it seems a good time to reflect and say thank you again.

When we had to close our doors back in March 2020 – that seems like a lifetime ago now – we, like everyone else, were extremely worried, and words and phrases such as social distancing and furlough were being used.

We faced one immediate issue and that was that we could not furlough the animals – the costs don’t really change open or closed – feed and veterinary bills remain the same and keep on coming in.

We did receive a small grant that all businesses were entitled to and, after a struggle, we finally accessed another Government grant, but this was many months into the pandemic, so up until that point it was the generosity of the public, our friends, supporters and loyal visitors that kept us going.

The level of support was unbelievable – from donations of money to donations of animal feed. We also set up an Amazon Wishlist, which was a huge success, and the response was extremely touching.

Of course as things went on we reopened, then closed, reopened and then closed again but now, hopefully, the end is in sight and it is helped by the fact that we are at last heading into the summer.

Baby Meerkat

With the changing seasons come new life and many of our birds are busy rearing families and a couple of weeks ago we received a big surprise when our meerkats had a baby. We had suspected the dominant female may be pregnant but thought we were some weeks away from a birth, so it took us slightly by surprise when she gave birth to a single baby – meerkats usually have litters of four to six babies so this singleton is unusual, but she is thriving and brings our meerkat mob up to nine members.

We are hoping for a busy summer season and look forward to welcoming visitors back and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support.

This past year has reminded us of another time we needed the public’s support and that was eight years ago when we suffered a devastating flood. Back then, just like with Covid, the public support we received was overwhelming and we always remember what one lady said to us, after we had mentioned how surprised we were at the level of support, she said: “Why are you surprised? Of course people were going to help, people love the owl centre. You are Redcar’s owl centre, you are our owl centre.”

Brighter days ahead

It was an extremely touching thing and is as true today as it was all those years ago, so to everyone who has supported us, thank you again.

Follow the owl centre at www.kirkleathamowlcentre.co.uk