Tuesday 21 August 2012
Yesterday Mark and I spent the day at Margam Park near Swansea filming for a series. Well to be more accurate we spent the morning waiting to film and the afternoon filming. There was a chap with all the stunt horses who came up and talked to Mark and came out with one of my least favourite comments. He asked Mark if he had been to some French bird of prey centre, and Mark said no, and he said – they do the best demonstrations in the world – I think that is so rude. If he had said it to me I would have said – have you seen the so and so horse team, they do the best stunt horses in the world!!! It really pisses me off when people do that – ah well he also told Mark that birds of prey can tell if you are scared by scenting you, which is pretty bloody clever as apart from three New World Vultures the rest don’t have a sense of smell, I hope he is more accurate with his horses!! The film job went really well, the birds were asked to do some quite difficult stuff and they performed brilliantly and did not put a foot or beak wrong, they did all that was asked of them, we were very proud of them. Shanny who did the bulk of the work did her last day as we have now retired her, she has been a star for years, and had not flown that well this year so we decided she has earnt her retirement, she will of course stay with the Centre for the rest of her life.

I did a demonstration with my Sparrowhawk today, I did put him back on a line as he was a little nervous, but he was brilliant, so I might try him loose tomorrow, he is loose on his own and is called Deneb. Pioneer is back on duty and flying well although very unfit. We have a new Merlin thanks to Greg – thank you Greg she is lovely. The Lesser Kestrel Ara is coming on, and the two new Kites are lovely, particularly John’s who has recovered from its cracked leg bone and is already catching in mid air, although it does not quite know what to do with the meat once it has caught it!!

We decided that Dusky Emperor was bored of her routine, so to change it we have introduced her to the dummy bunny – at first she was horrified and thought about flying in the opposite direction, but now she is getting very interested and today killed it well and truly and then let it go and when I pulled it away she ran after it and killed it again!! I think she will soon get the idea although I think the local wild rabbits are safe for a while!

The new Grey Buzzard Eagle is just wonderful and should go loose tomorrow, although that is more than can be said for my new Tawny Eagle who is a bad tempered person and although the same age, the same rearing, the same handling and training, is not ready to go loose yet!

Bookings for the Falconry Weekend are now full, which is wonderful, in fact even all the Space Only has gone!!! As long as the weather is fair it should be a great weekend for everyone. Charlie is coming down and the house will be full. Don’t miss it!!

Jules is going up to London for the ParaOlympics, so Art and I will have to do without her teaching for two weeks!! We have a lesson tomorrow and then we are on our own for a bit, although he is going away for the Falconry Weekend as I need his field for parking and camping and I don’t think the campers would really appreciate his nosiness!!







1 comments:

sue hyde said...

what is the latest news on the hobby please mima?

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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