Tuesday 17 April 2012

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"

Our website over the years has been done quite brilliantly and selflessly by Linda Wright, it is her work that has made it so good, it is her beautiful photos that have adorned it, and her months of sitting in front of her computer, often on lovely days, that put it together and keep it up to date.
However the time has come to stop relying on her, she needs to get out and take photos again and we miss seeing her around here laden with camera's, plus she needs to do some bird handling again! Adam Bloch also is a computer buff and he, on his own bat, sat down, grabbed all the photos, and much of the work that Linda has done and put it all in a format that is understandable (OK that is a huge overstatement!!) to us less computer minded people so that we can build, change and update the website without having to constantly have to email or phone Linda to sort it out. We none of us really understand what we are doing, but we are getting there and we hope to do the changeover soon so that we can free up Linda and she can forget about some of the stuff that she has been doing. Although having said that, we are not going to let her go completely on the website, she has to still help us out, and come up with ideas, backgrounds, photos and her usual amazing energy – if she will!!
 
Robin is doing the education pages and the metadata and meta tags (impressive that I know this eh!!) Mark and Holly have been coming up with ideas on how the ‘new look’ should be, Adam B has been putting it all together and coming up with all the stuff that we can’t do, and I have been bombarding him with text!!
 
It has been a difficult time financially, and I am reading a great deal late at night, which is usually a sure sign I am worried about stuff, but hopefully as the spring moves into summer and our website grabs people’s attention, we will increase our visitor numbers again. The place is looking lovely, the leaves are shooting out on the trees and the gardens really are starting to be alive again, I could wish the rabbits that live here would move out, but you can’t have everything, oh and the swallows are back, late, but here!
 
My merlin does an interesting demonstration, he takes one look at the lure and flies in the opposite direction, which is a little disconcerting I have to say, but he does fly well. Bay Middleton chased the wagtail that lives on the flying ground, although it did not seem that concerned about it, and Dawn Run has been trying to catch the Jackdaws who are far too canny for her. We have not seen the wild Peregrines again recently, which we are not sorry about as they chase Fortina and she is not happy about it. Nor sadly have we seen any more Red Kites since the start of the year. I had hoped they would be around here more, but in time they will be.
 
The two baby Steller’s Sea Eagles are back with mum and dad, the three baby Tawny Eagles are doing well with their foster parents, as are the Grey Buzzard Eagles with their official parents and we are crossing everything because the Brahminy Kites have been seen mating, that would be wonderful as they are some of the suitcase birds.

The breeding season is hotting up, oh and finally Hector, a fantastic Lanner we used to fly has become a Dad! I hope his babies are as good as he used to be. Hard Tackle is building a nest and his new wife is completely ignoring it, but she is new! Other than that it is the usual wait and see of the breeding season.



1 comments:

Ukfalc said...

I am sorry to hear that you are concerned about visitor numbers.

I have only recently discovered your centre, and am amazed that you are not overwhelmed with visitors all year round. You have such stunning surroundings, beautiful birds, friendly staff and amazing flying displays. The centre is a photographer's paradise and my only regret is that I didn't find you 10 years ago.

Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing the new website.

Hello

I have to say that keeping a weblog can at times become compulsive and at other times a chore. Sometimes I am berrated for not keeping it up and sometimes I get wonderful comments from people who follow the news of the Centre.

It is fun to share the daily goings on here, some good and some bad, some funny and some sad, but all a part of our daily lives.
And as I said before its a pretty cool to be here and it is a great place to visit, you should try coming and watching the birds and meeting the staff and of course the dogs.

An interesting video on Lead

An interesting video on Lead

I find it staggering that people who want to hunt don't see the value in changing their ammunition from lead to a safer product. We have stopped using lead in petrol, in paint, in our water pipes, but they still want to use lead - ah well, apparently eating it not only kills birds but leads to reduced intelligence in humans......................

NO ONE is asking you to stop legal and genuine hunting, they are just asking you to change your ammunition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHZGQ8i8AwI

HC

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