Eco Hvar

Precious Birds: Saving Owls

The Scops Owl is a welcome visitor to Hvar Island every summer. Arriving between the middle of March or beginning of April its persistent single-note call is the hallmark of the warm season. 

Floof ready to fly... Floof ready to fly... Photo: Norman Woollons

Nature lovers on Hvar often go the extra mile to help creatures in need. In June 2024, when donkey saviour Jana Appleyard was told that a baby bird had fallen from its nest near one of the churches in Dol, she immediately went to the rescue. The tiny bundle of feathers was difficult to identify with certainty, but she suspected it was a Scops Owl, and this later proved to be true. Looking after such a frail, helpless little waif was sure to be challenging, with no guarantee that its life could be saved, but Jana rose to the occasion without hesitation.

Baby Floof, June 2024. Photo: Norman Woollons

The feathery bundle was given the name of Floof, and fed a baby diet of mice, ordered from the mainland and diced into tiny pieces for Floof's little beak. Jana's selfless diligent efforts were supported by Norman, also resident in Dol, who did some thorough research into Scops Owls and their needs, and reported on the baby and ts progress in his widely read blog 'Life in a Dol House'.

Baby Floof, happy in the hand. Photo: Norman Woollons

Floof thrived and quickly started to grow. This made it easier to identify the previously anonymous fluffy bundle of feathers with certainty as a Scops Owl. However, she or he? This question could not be solved, as it would require analysis of the bird's feathers - mission impossible on the island.

Floof, 6th July 2024. Photo: Norman Woollons

The experience of watching baby Floof grow and develop led Norman to the idea that it was the perfect opportunity to ring him/her in order to track his/her future movements, as Scops Owl migrations have not been fully investigated to date. However, organising the ring proved impossible, as the major bird  conservation organisations are based in northern Croatia, too far away to coordinate a ringing mission in mid-summer just for one little bird.

Floof, July 6th 2024. Photo: Norman Woollons

 By July 13th Floof was progressing extremely satisfactorily:

Floof growing up. Photo: Norman Woollons

 No longer a little waif fitting into the palm of a hand!

Measuring up. Photo: Norman Woollons

Although Floof was obviously comfortable being handled and living in human company, the instinct to explore the great world beyond and live a bird's life was obviously growing apace alongside Floof's physical development. Before the end of July 2024, Floof was ready to leave, after only a short apprenticeship experimenting with the art of flying. Having flown to freedom without hindrance, Floof came back to base for a 'flying visit', as if to say 'thanks for everything' and then disappeared off into the distance.

Floof, last picture before flying away. Photo: Norman Woollons

As Norman poignantly put it in his blog dated 13th July 2024: "Human summer visitors to the Mediterranean basin will have heard the almost electronic sounding calls of the Scops. However few will have seen one and fewer still will have had the privilege that I have had of having one like Floof on my hand. I have definitely been Floofed!" Looking back over her relationship with Floof, Jana movingly expressed the fondest emotions: "Ah, dear Floof! It all seems like a dream now! He used to come and have a nap with me and cuddle up. So sweet- I hope I see him again, it was such an amazing experience. Even getting up for his 3am feeds!"

It is also true that even at a remove, this exceptionally lovable bird captured the hearts of everyone who followed the story..

Floof's progress was recorded in some charming videos, courtesy of Hvar Digital / Norman Woollons:
 
The care shown by Jana and Norman was rewarded with success which was enjoyed by the numerous well-wishers who followed Floof's story. Many people on Hvar, native islanders and incomers alike, care about the island's birds and wildlife and are concerned about the species losses which are becoming more evident year on year. Tragically, there are people on the island who have no respect or understanding for the island's natural riches. One example is the long-standing tradition of trapping song-birds during their autumn migration, in order to keep them for the rest of their miserable lives in tiny cages, singing their hearts out mourning for their lost freedom. The practice of trapping wildlife was outlawed some years ago, but some islanders still do it. One Saturday afternoon in November 2023,  tourists walking in the hills came across a little bird caught in a trap 
Caught in an illegal trap. Photo: private album
The helpless victim has been identified by experts as a Long-Eared Owl. One wing was injured, probably in its struggles to break free. The tourists contacted the police in Split, knowing that such a trap contravened European laws for the protection of wildlife. They also freed the bird. The Split police informed their colleagues on Hvar, who immediately went with the local vet to rescue the bird and remove the trap. Eco Hvar was told that the bird survived, but no further details of its fate were forthcoming.
Scops Owl, Dol 2017. Photo: Steve Jones
We are glad that more and more people are demonstrating love and care for the environment with its flora and fauna. Visiting and resident bird lovers follow the activities of the island's birds as a measure of the health of the island. When the Scops Owl departs as autumn looms, the haunting lower-pitched call of the Eagle Owl is one of the rare bird sounds breaking the silence of the night. We hope that Floof will be among the returnees next spring, maybe even visiting the kind friends who saved his/her life in Dol!
Scops Owl, Dol, 2017. Photo: Steve Jones
Note: we are grateful to Jana Appleyard and Norman Woollons for saving Floof, and to Steve Jones for helping to identify the bird caught in the illegal trap.
 
  © Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) 2024
back to top
You are here: Home Nature Watch Precious Birds: Saving Owls

Eco Environment News feeds

  • England wildlife watchdog ‘has stopped designating special sites for protection’

    Exclusive: Report finds Natural England has created no new SSSIs, which protect areas from development, since 2023

    The government’s wildlife watchdog for England is failing to save nature because it has stopped giving protection to rare wildlife and habitats, according to a new report.

    No new sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) have been designated by Natural England since 2023. SSSIs are nationally or internationally important places for rare wildlife and habitats. Without the designation, endangered species can be at risk of being lost to development.

    Continue reading...

  • On the trail with the hunters who believe shooting big game can save Africa’s wildlife

    One way to pay for wildlife conservation is to allow the rich to bag a few animals for high prices. But critics see this approach as an exercise in neocolonialism

    You can kill almost anything if you’re willing to pay. Big or small. Land, water or air. Ten a penny or one of the last of its kind. There’s nearly always a way, though it might not make you popular. The Niassa special reserve, a vast reservation larger than Switzerland, stretches for 190 miles along the northern rim of Mozambique, taking in 4.2m hectares of woodland and rivers. The reserve, one of the world’s largest protected areas, is home to elephants, leopards, hyenas, zebras and about 1,000 wild lions.

    That word, however: protected. It applies to some, but not all, of its animal inhabitants. Each year, a specific number are set aside for sacrifice, for the greater good. Not long ago,I joined an expedition in Niassa, with one of Africa’s top game-hunting companies.

    Continue reading...

  • Almost half of EU’s busiest flight routes are ‘hard or impossible’ to book on trains – report

    ‘Stone age’ system of booking cross-border rail tickets holding back climate action by consumers, says thinktank

    Europe’s “stone age” system of booking train tickets makes it needlessly difficult for travellers to avoid polluting flights, a report has found.

    Booking equivalent train tickets is “difficult or impossible” on almost half of the EU’s busiest international air routes, analysis from the Transport & Environment (T&E) thinktank shows.

    Continue reading...

  • Cattle breed whose ancestors lived with Celts added to priority at-risk list

    UK’s Rare Breeds Survival Trust says calf numbers of white park cattle last year were less than two-thirds of 2022 level

    An ancient breed of cattle whose ancestors are thought to have accompanied the Celts as they were pushed to Britain’s fringes by the Romans has been designated as urgently at risk by a UK conservation charity.

    Publishing its 2026 watchlist on Tuesday, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust moved white park cattle to its “priority” category as new calf numbers sank last year to less than two-thirds of their 2022 level.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: The most magical of frost-coated mornings | Mark Cocker

    Knotbury, Staffordshire: A truly special dawn, when last night’s ice lingered on everything, and I was joined by no fewer than six ring ouzels

    As I drove to this tiny moorland hamlet, the dawn sky looked so grey that I imagined it must have 100% cloud cover. Actually, there was none, and as the blue slowly crept in overhead, I could see that frost was everywhere.

    I also realised that there was no breeze and every sound seemed distilled, so I stopped by the first farm to record my blackbird. He has mastered the sweetest imitations of displaying golden plovers, but this was my first chance to capture them. And there he was, doing his plover notes, but throwing in snippets of curlew as extras, and when he stood in profile at the roof apex, singing, bill wide, throat feathers spiked against the heavens, I knew the morning would be magical.

    Continue reading...

  • Cocaine pollution in rivers and lakes may disrupt behaviour of salmon, study finds

    Fish swam further and dispersed more widely after exposure to environmental levels of drug and main metabolite

    Traces of cocaine that pollute rivers and lakes may accumulate in the brains of salmon and disrupt their behaviour, according to researchers who warn of unknown consequences for fish populations.

    Juvenile Atlantic salmon that were artificially exposed to the drug and its main breakdown product swam further and dispersed more widely across a lake, suggesting the substances can affect where the fish go, what they eat and how vulnerable they are to predators.

    Continue reading...

  • Woman who won legal case over greenhouse emissions awarded top environmental prize

    Sarah Finch is among six recipients of the Goldman Environmental prize, awarded to honour grassroots activists around the world

    The woman whose campaigning set a legal precedent in the UK that stopped thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions has been awarded one of the world’s most prestigious environmental prizes alongside five other women from around the globe.

    A supreme court ruling in a case brought by Sarah Finch has been cited in decisions against new oil concessions in the North Sea, the UK’s first new deep coalmine for 30 years and even plans for new large-scale factory farms.

    Iroro Tanshi, a Nigerian conservation ecologist who launched a successful, community-led campaign to protect endangered bats from human induced wildfires;

    Borim Kim, a South Korean activist who won the continent’s first successful youth-led climate litigation, finding her government’s climate policy to be in violation of the rights of future generations;

    Alannah Acaq Hurley, a leader of the Yup’ik Indigenous people led a campaign that stopped what would have been the continent’s largest open-pit mine, in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region;

    Yuvelis Morales Blanco, a youth activist who mobilised others in her Afro-descendant community in Puerto Wilches against two drilling projects, preventing the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia;

    Theonila Roka Matbob, of Papua New Guinea, whose campaign forced Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, to sign an agreement to address devastation caused by its Panguna mine.

    Continue reading...

  • One Japanese town sorts waste into 40 different categories. How does Australia’s recycling compare?

    Kerbside wheelie bins have been used in Australia since the 1980s but the recycling rate is stuck at 44%. Will another recycling bin make a difference?

    There’s no garbage truck in Kamikatsu.

    Instead, the Japanese town’s 1,400 residents take their waste to the local recycling centre, or “Gomi station”, and sort it themselves into more than 40 different categories.

    Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

    Continue reading...

  • Fuel eating microbes, chemicals and fire: the race to discover new ways to contain Arctic oil spills

    As the rising number of vessels in the icy waters increases the risk of environmental disaster, scientists are scrambling to find potential solutions

    Last winter, inside the subarctic Churchill Marine Observatory in Canada, scientists embarked on an experiment they hoped would result in a gamechanging remedy for polluted Arctic waters. They released130 litres of diesel into an ice-covered pool filled with raw seawater pumped in from Hudson Bayand added oil-eating microbes. The technique had been used successfully during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the scientists wanted to see if they could break down oil in colder waters.

    The microbes were sluggish in response and the population showed little change after the first three weeks, says Eric Collins, a microbiologist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, who led the project. But that did not last. “When we went back eight weeks later, we saw that there was a big change,” Collins says. “One particular bacterium grew to a very high abundance in the tanks and it was clear that it was feeding on the oil.” But two months is too long to wait should an oil spill occur. Time is of the essence.

    Continue reading...

  • From a Surrey oil well to the supreme court: how an activist changed UK climate law

    Sarah Finch’s fight against drilling led to a landmark ruling on fossil fuel emissions – and a leading environmental prize

    It started with a notice in the local newspaper and ended with winning one of the world’s most prestigious environmental prizes. In 2010, Sarah Finch was flicking through the local planning notices when one caught her eye: a proposal to drill for oil at Horse Hill in Surrey, just outside Crawley, over the border in West Sussex, 6 miles (10km) from her home.

    Surrey is not the kind of place one expects to find the oil industry. It’s a county of little villages, farms, woods and commuter railway stations. Its semi-rural landscape stretches off towards the horizon in a typically English green patchwork. It is difficult to envision it littered with nodding donkey pumpjacks and gas flares.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.