Birthday Dreams Come True!

In summer 2022 we read the entire series of Harry Potter as a family and watched each movie as we finished the corresponding book.  The girls LOVED this series, and I’m pretty sure it’s still their favourite book series to date.  A particular favourite of Katia’s was Hedwig.  She has since gotten a stuffed Hedwig and lots of other owl stuff.  Her love of owls has grown steadily and they are her favourite animal in the world.  Emmeline doesn’t have the same extreme love as Katia, but she does really love owls, as well.  For many months now, the girls have said for their birthday, they’d love nothing more than to see, hold, and pet real-life owls, especially a snowy owl.

I had heard there might be an owl experience similar to what they asked for in Scotland, and we will be in Edinburgh on their birthday.  But I never got around to looking up the details.  And now I don’t need to.  I was talking with Cori, one of the owners here at Shepherd’s Rest, and telling her about this.  And as fate would have it, she knows someone less than an hour away who runs a bird sanctuary and has tons of owls!  She was kind enough to set up a visit, and their family came with us, as well.

We went to Cortijo Buho one week before the girls’ birthday.  Matilda met us and brought us into her spectacular home.  Which was no small feat, as she has a turkey, chickens, tons of cats and dogs all running around and our children wanted to stop and smother each and every one of them with love along the way!

Once we finally managed to wrangle them away from the various animals, we stepped into her gorgeous 11th-century cave house.  There are tons of cave houses in this area, and we’ve been very curious to see what they look like.  Hers had a slightly different and higher roof shape to it, as hers was originally a salt storage facility rather than originally intended as a home.  It was beautiful, and I could definitely see myself living in one of these places!  She told us that cave houses in this area pretty much always stay a comfortable 21°C year-round, though they may drop down to 18-19°C in the winter when it’s very cold outside.  I can see why caves would have made such popular housing choices back in the day when managing the heat without the assistance of air conditioning.  We have no air conditioning at Shepherd’s Rest, and we have been really, really struggling with the heat this month.

We sat in her dining room with a cup of tea, meeting the first little blind owl, Lucy, and learning all about her home, what she does, and about Lucy herself.  She’s had Lucy for 7 years, and oh my she was such a little cutie!  Perfectly content to sit on each of our hands and be pet and showered with affection.  What Matilda does is amazing!  She takes in birds of all types, rehabilitates them as best as possible, and releases them back into the wild.  Those who are too disabled or otherwise unsuitable to be released, she keeps and cares for at her property.  She works hard to respect the intrinsic wildness of the various creatures that come into her care.  Last year, she had 168 birds come in, and she was able to release 166 of them.  She’s hoping to have one additional little owl ready to be released this coming spring.

After we left her house, we stopped to meet the meerkats.  One little guy had no tail, because rather than being carried around by the scruff, his first-time parents picked him up by the tail, ripping it off.  The girls thought these little guys were so cute and were ready to try to pet them.  But after hearing they could and would bite off a child’s fingers in a matter of seconds if they put their hands in the enclosure, they wisely decided not to try it!

The rest of our experience was all about owls, owls, and more owls!  This included a snowy owl, which the girls were allowed to pet but not hold.  Katia was over the moon about this, though we definitely had some tears and sadness, as well.  She had really wanted to bring her stuffed Hedwig with her to see a real snowy owl, as well, but was told she could not bring it out from the car as it would scare the owls.  We made sure to show Hedwig all the photos of the real snowy owl once we got back to the car!

We got to see everything from small owls to large owls.  Daytime hunters, dusk and dawn hunters, and nighttime hunters.  We had always heard and assumed that owls are nocturnal and hunt at night, but apparently, that’s not even close to reality.  Most owls are daytime hunters.  You can tell which type of hunter they are by their eyes.  Owls with coloured eyes hunt in the daytime, dark blue and grey eyes are dusk and dawn hunters, and pure black eyes are nighttime hunters.

Some of the owls we met, the girls could only see.  Some they could hold, though one could not be pet while holding it.  Some they could not hold but could pet.  We had an extremely nervous parenting moment as we let Emmeline hold a white barn owl on her gloved hand.  She had to keep her arm in a specific position and not move it at all.  She was warned that if she moved her arm at all, the owl would climb her arm and that its sharp talons meant that she would be in hospital with stitches.  She was brave and excited and really wanted to hold the owl, so we trusted that Matilda knew it would be safe and that Emmeline would follow the rules.  Which she did, perfectly, and all was fine.  Mom and Dad were able to let out a breath of relief!

Unfortunately, this owl was getting a little flustered and didn’t want to be held again by anyone else, so Katia didn’t get to hold her.  But, there was another little white barn owl, though it was technically brown, which Matilda brought out instead for Katia to hold.  It turns out that this owl is extremely rare and one of only five in the world!  There’s 1 in Australia, 1 in France, and 2 in the UK.  Apparently, when they are born brown in the wild, the parents think it’s a cuck (a baby left there by a different bird) and kill it.  The five alive today were all born in captivity, which is why they survived.  As Matilda was taking the owl from Katia, it lost a feather, which apparently is not normal.  So now the girls get to keep a very rare owl memento to bring home.  We have it gently wrapped up to keep it safe and plan to put it in a frame and hang it on our wall at home when we return.

We learned that this bird sanctuary is not allowed to be considered a charity, as you need 5 people to get that designation.  And despite her efforts, it’s hard to find volunteers as many are too scared of the various larger birds she gets.  But that doesn’t stop her from loving and caring for these birds.  She is not an official tourist attraction or open to the public but does allow small groups to book free private visits to meet and learn about the various birds for educational purposes. 

We have always been experience people rather than gift-giving people.  We did buy small keychains she makes for each of them to remember the occasion. We spoke with the girls on our drive home from there, and they instantly loved the idea of us making a donation to her as the remainder of their birthday gift since the experience itself was free.  Which we did.  And now, all the little owls at the property will be eating for a week, thanks to their generous hearts.

Matilda is a fabulous woman.  Raised around birds and a falconer since a child, she has an immense amount of knowledge and love for these creatures.  She is fully ticketed as a falconer, with most of her formal training in Oman.  The birds were clearly well-loved and loved her well in return.  It was a 2.5-hour experience the girls (and us!) will never forget!