Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: Rich.H on July 10, 2013
-
I'm sure some folks have already seen this but last night World of Owls in Randalstown was broken into and the birds set loose. Full story here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-23247073 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-23247073)
Last update I saw was that 12 birds are still missing, I won't go into the issue of the sort of folks who did this etc as it's possible anyone did. What got to me most is partly due to my overnighter in the forest where the centre is sited. I tried to email them before going about use of their car park, but perhaps they have problems with the site or it got lost in a spam box. My main worry at the time was first some over enthusiastic citizen seeing my car as a security risk all night, or worse it getting broken into.
What does occur to me though is had I been able to park right outside the centre's front door then it may have appeared like someone was pulling an all night shift, thus been a slight deterance for vandals. Failing that had I ben camped in the top end of the forest I would of seen or heard a commotion. Granted this is speculation as I was there nearly two weeks before this event took place. But at least one other forum member has asked me about where I camped etc for their own desire to camp there also.
It won't do anything to help Marks current problem but perhaps if folks who live up near there and may want to use that area on a regular basis were to ask as a group to park there? I could see something like an agreement that we can park at the front door all night and off we go, Mark gets a free deterrant and early warning system should trouble be spotted. We in return get a spot to go and spend time outdoors.
Obviously there is an issue with the camping side of things as the forest I believe is forestry commission owned or some other government body. As such it has the usual rules of no open fires, tents etc. An easy way around this is what turned out to be my bad weather backup to just throw a sleeping back in the birding hut, it is already there and requires no tent as such when I was there I broke no local by laws.
Most of us already break the by laws to some degree simply as it would be near impossible to camp out in 90% of the country without doing so, however we do so in good sensible ways and leave no trace thus you never hear about it in the media etc. So no doubt some folk may choose to tarp and hammock a night in the forest etc though I would guess we would all have to draw a line at no open fires as it's just too small a forest to do so without someone noticing and then ruining the entire thing for everyone.
Just wondering what others think.
-
Sounds like a plan, someone just needs to ask him if he's ok with it, perhaps after this current incident has calmed down a bit.
Update: 10 still missing: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113528855413424/
About £10k worth of damage done, while getting the birds back is priority for them at the moment, donations welcome: bank (https://www.facebook.com/groups/113528855413424/permalink/385972591502381/?comment_id=385972991502341&offset=0&total_comments=4) or eBay donations (http://www.ebay.co.uk/egw/ebay-for-charity/charity-profile/?NP_ID=44716).
http://www.worldofowls.com/
-
Animal rights activists maybe?
Be on the lookout for anaemic types wearing thick black rollneck jumpers in defiance of the warm weather
-
This could go the other way. If I was the owner of the owl centre I may be asking the police to include a drive past in their regular patrols and I'd hope that they would investigate if they saw suspicious cars parked there at odd times....actually that sounds a bit too much like old- fashioned community policing, it would probably not happen.
-
Shocking
-
Still seven still not found.
Video released about the breakin:
CCTV of the breakin:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=694303957251479
and a unicorn chaser (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boing_Boing#Unicorn_chaser) :)