Suffolk Owl Sanctuary

---

Mary sent us a lovely postcard of an owl, which has been kept at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary the other day, and it made us interested in visiting there.

We decided to go to Suffolk Owl Sanctuary near Stowmarket on Monday, 13 September. John & Mary had told me that there are several types of owls, kites, hawls, and other animals looked after in the Sanctuary. The falcons reminded of me the portrait of the grandson of Sir Ralph Sadleir in Sutton House and the story of Sir Ralph Sadleir's final tasks. I told them while John was driving to the destination that Ralph Sadleir loved falcon and hawk hunting and took Mary Queen of Scots to the hunting while he was keeping her as a gaoler in Tutbury Castele in Staffordshire, but his manner greatly displeased the Queen Elizabeth I, and he later had to try Mary for treason as a judge and witness her being beheaded, and then he died a few months later.

There were numerous types of shops, e.g. toy shop, barber, furniture shop, and boutique shop around the entrance of Suffolk Owl Sanctuary.

John & Mary kindly treated us to explore the Sanctuary. As anticipated, we saw a number of different types of owls, falcons, kites, and hawks, most of which were widely awake and active, and they seemed to be pleased to have photos taken of themselves.

A little butterfly garden did not only provide an aromatic scent and scenery but also attracted colouful butterflies and bumble bees.

We went to the woodland, and found the cages for chipmunks and squirrels. They were very quick and swift, thus is made us it difficult to take photos of them.

The highlight of Suffolk Owl Sanctuary was the performance, which was started after 12:30. The first performers were female and male red kites. Their initial and candid performance, i.e. physically falling out each other, even made trouble for the keepers and surprised the audience. Nevertheless, they seemed to be confident and happy with doing the performance in front of the audience. Having attentively responded to the keepers' instructions, they swiftly flew from one place to the other. One of them astonishingly flew over my head. Malaysian wood owl had a very distinctive mark on his face, but he appeared to be a rather shy guy, and was reluctant to make a pose for the people who were taking photos of him. He was flying and stopping at the branch competently. The final performer was a falcon. The keeper said that the falcon had been trained with the rope and he could fly at very fast speed and high altitude. I managed to take a shot when he flew into the sky. Very instantly, he had flown above, and we could not identify where he had gone. The keeper showed where he had gone, i.e. several feet above the conifer trees in the woodland. He rotated the rope to get the falcon to return to the site. In a few seconds, the falcon came back. Several minutes of exercise made him hungry. The keeper offered him the food, and it let viewers take photos of him eating on the keeper's arm.

We had lunch at the cafe. There were a wide variety of cold and hot meals, cakes, and coffee and teas. We thought the chips were delicious.

---