SANCTUARY owners who feared for the lives of ten birds who were released into the open have now found all but one.

Russell Claydon

SANCTUARY owners who feared for the lives of ten birds who were released into the open have now found all but one.

The search still goes on for Isis, the 11-year-old Pharoah owl today after 30 cages at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary were broken into.

Falconers, who are staging 24-hour vigils until all the birds are found, managed to locate two of the three that were still missing from lunchtime yesterday.

At 5pm on Friday Titch, a one-year-old burrowing owl, was discovered in some bushes on the site, while it took until 5am this morning for Gollum, the four-year-old tawny owl to be spotted on the flying grounds in Stonham Barns, near Stowmarket.

Andy Hume, the manager of the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, said: β€œIt is a big relief finding Titch because he is so small and we were really frightened he would not survive.”

He said they had already been contacted today about sightings of the final missing bird in the Debenham area, but the team had so far been unable to locate Isis.

Anyone who spots an owl in the area, who is large and sandy in colour and does not look native to the UK, is asked to call the sanctuary on 01449 711425.

The aviaries are thought to have been targeted by animal rights campaigners and were opened with bolt cutters sometime between 6pm on Thursday and 8.45am Friday.

Meanwhile the East Anglian countryside Show and Falconry Fair remains on at the Stonham Barns site from 10-5 today and tomorrow.