Friday 27 August 2010
It’s a lovely day today, yesterday was like being in a cloud, but it was just about OK to fly outside and I have to say that the birds were amazing. All of them did well, even the eagles and damp mizzily weather is not good for eagles and Karis was amazing, and did three lovely stoops in the wet!! Flame, the new male Kestrel trained by Joan and Simon has done his first experience day, and did it brilliantly, which means that Greaves is now grounded for a moult and a rest. The baby Steller’s has fledged, and I think it is a male not a female, but we will see when we get it out.The west side of the Eagle Barn is almost finished and looking clean, tidy and bright and we have started on the east side now. Hopefully making them clean and lighter will help with the breeding. It was the last barn we tackled on my arrival home, and it was a mess. Its nice to see it looking better now. Next is Barn two and then we tackle Barn three, so it is all going according to plan.
Dinah left on Thursday morning, she is going to stay with a good friend in Ross on Wye, and will probably have a much more fun time as they will go out and go to places, which I never do!! It rained most of Wednesday and meant that for the first time we could not do two of the demonstrations outside, however the weather this summer has been amazing really.
It was cold last night though! I was almost tempted to light the fire, it was positively autumnal and some of the trees are turning, although I think they are a little more cheerful now we have had some good rain. As it was I just put on my electric blanket instead – ummmmm lovely. The birds all flew well today with one notable exception, my new Harris Hawk who does not yet have a name at least not one that is repeatable, is sitting in the Oak tree in the horse field, and has been there for three hours and looks like staying there for the night. We have been training two Harris Hawks, both female, Holly’s Harris Hawk Domino is charming, a lovely tempered bird and was a joy to train. My Harris Hawk is not charming, and at the moment does not have a lovely temperament and is flipping huge. Domino is flying at about 850 grams, mine I could not get away from at 1020 grams! But today she went up into a tree, which she did yesterday and came out nicely, however not quite the same today, she is still in a damn tree! ah well, hopefully she will have a cold night and want to come down tomorrow!Hard Tackle got up good height and would have gone higher but for the young buzzard who came and chased him, and Alexandria got chased by a young hobby, they were around all day having fun in the sun. All the young bird are coming on nicely which is good, and we have taken out Dusky Emperor, the female Grey Buzzard Eagle, also known as a Chilean Eagle and about four other names as well. A friend is lending us another female, who might be a better breeding prospect, so we will fly ours for the time being. And Adam is being ambitious and is trying Arial, the Ferruginous Buzzard again, so that will keep him busy. To keep me busy we have a parent reared male Goshawk just arrived, and he is pretty wild, so he will take time and effort to get tame and going.
Henry (the new horse) has been an exciting ride! He and I have had discussions as to which way we are going on a ride, I have been winning, but it certainly does not make for a boring ride. He is settling in now and is much more relaxed in the field and is charming in the stable. I left the yard gate open the last couple of days so they could go in and out of the stables at will when it was not pleasant. However today I forgot to put away the High visibility waistcoat that I wear out riding, so I hung it on the door to put away later! Henry stole it – I saw him do it!! So he is a charming thief!Show day tomorrow and I have the Landrover back again, sadly only for the weekend before it turns back into my van again. Such is life.
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1 comments:
Ah ha! Some new birds to come and meet, I'll have to plan a visit soon.
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