Ringing a Tawny Owl Pulli (Chick) on 11 May 2017

I know that I am really lucky to live in a beautiful place near Chew Valley Lake, South of Bristol, surrounded by nature and wildlife and having parents that are so interested in birds and who have so much to teach me.

My Mum has a lot of passion but my Dad has trained himself in birds to a really high level. He has had a lot of commitment and patience to do that. He has also been putting a lot of time into his bird ringing skills. That means that even though I am a teenager and think I know best about most things, when it comes to birds, I listen when my Dad speaks (or almost always).

A few days ago Dad and I went to check out an owl nest box and found some pull (chicks) inside, which we took photos of. At first it was hard to make out what was inside, but then we realised it was a Tawny Owl pulli.

Last Thursday evening after school, we went back and I got to ring the pulley, my first owl ringed.

I was a little anxious about holding it because of it's sharp talons, but it was quite sleepy and so not a problem to hold or ring. OMG, what an amazing experience! How lucky am I? I feel really blessed.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Tawny Owl Pulli
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Tawny Owl Pulli
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol Ambassadors. She has also been listed with the singer-songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. She is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her third Camp Avalon camp in 2017. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.