Sunday 15 November 2009
What a change from yesterday, a stunning day, although we did have a very quick rain front whip over during part of the 1.30pm demonstration, but we just ignored it and carried on! It has been as warm as a spring day, with the remaining leaves on the trees looking a warm yellow in the low light. At the bottom of my fields, next to the pond is a maple tree which in the autumn goes a glorious red. When you stand below it, the shape of the leaves resembles stars, the sort you drew as a child, so with some on the bright green grass and some still clinging to the tree with blue sky behind, they look just wonderful. It’s nice to know that apart from the very mature trees here, I planted all the rest, it’s a good feeling.We managed to get most of the birds flown, and Adam and I have started to take the young male Steppe Eagle down to the flying ground, not a lot is happening when we get there, apart from whoever is carrying the bird ends up with an aching arm! However it is good for him to go down and get the feel of the place. Greaves, the female Kestrel really is coming on nicely now and is hovering well on a still day or a windy one, which is very satisfying. I wish we still had Sole, my albino Kestrel, I do miss her, she was without doubt the best flying kestrel we ever had, but nine years was not a bad age for her.
The wild Tawny Owls are calling like mad at the moment, even during the day so I suspect that there will be young Tawny Owls around very early this year. I only hope that we don’t have that same very cold month that we had last year. It was bitterly cold when I got back here at the very end of December, and that will not do young owls any good.
The Kite barn now is half done, we have replaced the weld mesh with Zoomesh, which is wonderful stuff and looks sooooooo much nicer, clad all walls so there is no studwork showing which is also so much nicer, and put up nest ledges and new perches, the kites seem to be impressed!! I certainly am, only half to do now. And we have started on replacing the old aviary at the end of the Hawk Walk so that we can have the fences up and the trained birds more secure – it is going to be a job and a half, but will look great when finished.
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