Searching for a green gift for someone special in your life who loves owls? For Valentine’s Day? A birthday? An anniversary? Easter? Mother’s Day? Father’s Day? Or to mark another occasion?
A Hawk and Owl Trust ‘Adopt a Box’ is an ideal present for anyone who cares about wildlife and the environment.
"Nestbox adoption makes a superb present for anyone – of any age – who loves owls," points out television wildlife presenter Chris Packham, the Hawk and Owl Trust’s President. "What’s more, anyone adopting a box, for themselves or as a gift for a friend or relation, is supporting our vital conservation, research and education work for owls and other birds of prey in the wild."
Just say what the gift is for, and the Trust will do its best to match the occasion. In the true spirit of St Valentine’s Day, for example, the Trust offers to keep the Adopt a Box present anonymous when it sends a special Valentine card and gift adoption pack on your behalf.
The Hawk and Owl Trust is a national charity that works to conserve wild birds of prey and their habitats. A key part of its conservation work over the past 20 years has been putting up nestboxes
– in areas where there is plenty of prey – to compensate for the increasing loss of traditional nest sites.
Says Chris: "I never to cease to marvel at barn owls, and nestboxes really are important to their survival in this country. At the last count there were only about 4,000 pairs in the whole of Britain, and we think that four in every five of them depend on boxes for breeding. This is because so many old hollow trees have been felled and farm buildings converted for housing."
Putting up large wooden nestboxes, which for barn owls are about the size of an old-fashioned tea chest, is carried out by trained fieldworkers. Specially licensed conservationists then check the nestboxes during the breeding season which means that the Trust can give adopters a national overview and also let them know what has happened in their adopted box. Although the nestboxes are designed specifically for barn owls, tawny owls and little owls or kestrels, other fascinating species may also take up residence – and hearing about what’s been happening in your box is part of the fun of the present.
An Adopt a Box subscription costs £18 a year. Sign up online — www.hawkandowl.org — or call 0844 984 2824. Adoption forms, including details of gift adoption, are also available from: Adopt a Box, Hawk and Owl Trust, PO Box 400, Bishop’s Lydeard,
Taunton TA4 3WH(please enclose a stamped addressed envelope),
email: enquiries@hawkandowl.org. If you want your Valentine gift to be anonymous, please make that clear on your application form.
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Press enquiries only: Barbara Hall, tel: 020 8858 4154
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Images available on request.
2. The Hawk and Owl Trust
Founded in 1969 to help save the peregrine, the Hawk and Owl Trust is a national charity which now works for the conservation and appreciation of all wild birds of prey and their habitats – both in its own nature reserves and in partnership with others. Working with other organisations, farmers, foresters and landowners, the Trust researches, restores and manages nesting, roosting and feeding habitats and encourages greater understanding and appreciation of these very special birds.
3. Adopting a nestbox
Adopt a Box subscribers can choose to adopt nestboxes in one of seven regions of Britain. Because it is essential the birds are not disturbed when rearing their young, the Hawk and Owl Trust cannot tell adopters exactly where their adopted nestboxes are. All birds of prey are protected by law and barn owls have additional protection.
