During this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Secret World Wildlife Rescue, a Somerset-based wildlife charity, received a pair of young little owls found in a very unusual place.
The first little owl chick was found under the Stage Left steps of the Pyramid Stage during Guns N’ Roses’ headline set on Saturday night. The finder named it ‘Axl’ (after the band’s vocalist Axl Rose) and initially took it to RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife near Taunton. It was transferred to SWWR shortly afterwards.
The following day, the charity received a call about another bird found in the same place, thought to be Axl’s sibling. Axl and Slash (named after Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist) were soon reunited and clearly pleased to see each.
Both Axl and Slash are now in an outside aviary at Secret World Wildlife Rescue and although a little camera shy are both doing well, no signs of them exhibiting their musical talent yet though!
It is amazing how wildlife seems to adapt to the huge disturbance that festivals bring to fields that are usually quiet. Obviously these two were deserted when the parents were unable to access them with so much going on. The one thing that is having a huge effect on wildlife is all the building work going on with the homes that we need. Even with the small amount of building work that we have had around our home means that we have not had our swallows for the third year running.
We really do need to try and make our gardens as wildlife friendly as we can. With people now using artificial grass and gardens changed into parking, there is a huge loss of insect life which in return affects our birds and mammals. There cannot be a better reward for taking on that responsibility than to see them sharing our world.
Come and find out how you can help wildlife by coming to our fun days on August 26th, 27th and 28th with all funds going to care for our wildlife casualties. Ring 01278 783250 for advice.