Saturday, 11 August 2012
I went to the Olympics last week!! Got the chance to
see the first day of the team Dressage at Greenwich Park, it was amazing. The
organisation was superb, the volunteers helping people to get to where they
needed to go were wonderful, friendly, helpful, chatty and they deserve a huge
thank you. The travel was seamless, no waiting anywhere apart from a short
queue to get out of the park, but other than that, all trains ran on time and
it could not be been easier. We left at 5.30 am and got home at 9.45 pm and the
whole thing was really exciting and well worth going to. Well done all those
organising the Games and to all those detracting it, just go away and shut
up!!! I am extremely proud of the UK for all it has done in the organising of
the games and even more proud of all those taking part, winners and losers. And
we won Gold in the team event and Gold and Bronze in the Individual. In fact
Britain is doing brilliantly in the medals, so we should all be very very proud.
My brother who normally lives in New Zealand is over
here at the moment, he was staying with me, arrived on the 18th, he
was due to leave last week to stay with our cousin in Llangollen in Wales. But
her husband is not well so he is not able to go, which is a great shame really.
He is in Scotland to see Anna now, in the country to start with and then back
in Edinburgh for the festival
Right, a bit of a rant. There is a huge row going on
between the various shooting groups about a report from the Wildfowl and
Wetlands Trust on lead. The shooting
fraternity in their normal blinkered way are continuing to shout at the top of
their voices that there is no proof that lead causes problems for wildlife, one
wonders why they don’t realise just how stupid this makes them look. This is
regardless of reams and reams of very good science to the contrary. Why am I
particularly annoyed right now, well we have just had a young Red Kite brought
in and it is the second one suffering from lead poisoning. I can’t stress
enough that if lead is ingested it kills birds, and it also kills mammals. Our
local vet even had a number cows killed because there had been huge clay pigeon
shoot over just cut hay, the hay was baled and the lead picked up and the cows
swallowed it when they ate the hay and died. LEAD IS TOXIC, that is why it’s
banned in all other substances!!!!!!! And have absolutely no doubt ---- it
will be banned in shooting, it is only a matter of time. Wouldn’t it be just the best thing
if the shooting people voluntarily did it before they were forced to, but of
course they won’t.
The Kite has recovered and been released again, but we
suspect that the male of the pair probably died somewhere unfound, because the
people in who’s garden they nested said that he had disappeared a couple of
weeks ago. Other than the Kite we have had in a ton of Buzzards, so many that
the need for a new hospital is really getting quite desperate! And then last
night a Heron was brought in – very thin, but it did not make it.
I have been remiss
in writing the weblog recently, life seems to be incredibly busy and hectic,
more so than usual. The weather has been kinder to us in the last week or so,
it plays such a huge part in visitor numbers, although I think that eventually
people just get fed up with the weather and go out anyway.
Birds are doing
well, the second clutch of Grey Buzzard
Eagles are growing well with their parents, and our young female from the first
clutch is starting to fly well on a training line. The older Tawny Eagle chick
is flying very well, and we have started to move her on with flying towards the
public now, she was very unsure on the first attempt, but soon relaxed into it
and did well.
The four baby
Lanners are now out of their aviary and have started their training, and are
already feeding by their perches, so
they will move on quickly now. Mark is about to start with his Aplomado Falcon
which we think is a male. We have a
female Hobby coming which will be a treat. Mark is struggling with the injured
wild Hobby who is interesting and that would be an understatement!!! She appears to be very imprinted, and is
still flying like a baby, rather than moving forward, she is very unfit,
although we are flying her daily, and she flies just fractionally unbalanced,
which may be due to the original injury.
I have to say that
I have no desire to keep her, and interestingly the Americans have a reasonably
good process to make sure that anyone imprinting a bird, either on purpose or
by accident, does not benefit from doing so by keeping the bird. The imprinted
bird if it can have a viable and useful life has to be passed on to someone
else.
We appear to be
working with a number of small birds this year, the smallest being the little
Lesser Kestrel who is flying at around 130 grams, and I am delighted to have a
male Sparrowhawk who is just coming to the fist but not really chasing the lure
properly yet at 150 grams. And then Tash is going to be training the only
American Kestrel we have bred this year, and Simon is going to train a
Red-footed Falcon which will be new to us.
The gardens are
looking good, although I am worried about some of the smaller trees, which seem
to be losing leaves in a way that is concerning. The weeds have done well in
the damp weather, but we are just about in control of them! The grass growth
has been a nightmare, three of the mowers had to go and be made better as they
had been working so hard this year!
The Gladiator
Weekend was successful, I don’t think it brought in a ton more visitors,
however I think that all those there thoroughly enjoyed seeing them do their
stuff. We also had a local face painter from Newent come in and she did some
lovely bird of prey faces on the kids, she is going to come again for the
Falconry Weekend which will be fun for the kids that visit.
Next is the
Falconry Weekend, we have a good number of stands booked, the tents will be
here on time, we are doing all the catering in house, so there should not be
any complaints about the costs and I am looking forward to an early morning
bacon sandwich!! I suspect the dogs are also looking forward to it. Mark the
date in your diary Sept 1st and 2nd www.thefalconryweekend.com
will give you all the information you need to come.
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