JPJ's Weblog

2012-01-16T21:42:00.000Z

Had very a long and sometimes a little boring but important all day meeting in Bristol last week, got home and said hello to the dogs – always a wonderful welcome, got the right side of a delicious gin and tonic, fed the horse, deleted at least three emails on penis enlargement (take it from me chaps – we don’t care!! Only you care!) Deleted numerous emails telling me that my account in various banks that I have nothing to do with have been ceased, stopped or otherwise impeded, ( again – I don’t care!!) Deleted a number of advertising emails, plus a bill from a New York company for natural gas!! It was good to be home.

Winter has finally arrived, we have had some heavy frost and the most glorious days. I went to the Hunt meet on Saturday, took Sorrel because she had a horrid week last week. She had her hips scored, which meant she was sedated and came home very upset, and then on Thursday had her eyes checked which also upset her, she is a wimp when it comes to vet things. However it all had to be done before she is allowed to have puppies and I am delighted to say that she has passed muster. Hips are very good and eyes are also good. I am not sure how much she enjoyed the meet. About forty huge (to her) horses and then the hounds, she was a little overwhelmed, however I took them all for a walk later and they were fine. I had had a lesson on Mollie early in the day and managed to fall off before I even got there!! Not Mollie’s fault, she slipped on some frozen ground and then shied and I left out the side door as they say!

Alexandria is going well (peregrine) and Lady Isabel is just coming down to weight. We are slowly getting the birds ready for opening in a couple of weeks. And I am going on the first holiday in probably two decades, maybe more. My sister Anna is taking me and our other sister Dinah skiing!!! I must be nuts! It seemed like a great idea about six months ago, and I am looking forward to it, but I always get cold feet anytime I have to leave this place!! Still I am almost ready, emails are cleared (don’t email me until Jan 27^th) desk is tidy, kitchen is clean, washing is done, ironing is done (just finished!) stuff to go is ready, I have charged my phone, kindle, and notebook, so ready to go really. Just have to buy gin on the way out!!

Nathan’s dad started to lay the hedge in the wood where all the dogs are buried, so what with thinning out the trees, clearing the undergrowth, laying the hedge and we will level the ground out a bit, it is going to look great very soon and allowing more light in will encourage some of the wild flowers. I noticed some crocuses up today, although our snowdrops are not as advanced as some at a friend’s house I saw today.

I am told there is plenty of snow for the skiing, so here is hoping we have a great time and I learn to ski properly!! Watch out Ski Sunday!

2012-01-10T21:18:00.000Z

There is a stunning moon outside my office/library window, I think it is full, it has a haze round it, and wisps of cloud crossing its ivory splendour. My computer still thinks is it an American computer so it tells me that splendour should be without a U, apparently it does not understand UK English. Although having said that apparently most English people do not understand English either, which is a bit of a bugger as it is a wonderful language. The wisps have gone, the moon is vivid and luminous, just how lucky are we really to live on this wonderful planet, that so very few really appreciate.

I watched the next episode of Earth flight, the more I see the crosser I get, I am sorry but I don’t think it is acceptable to have what are very obviously long shots of helicams or some other sort of airborne camera upsetting and chasing birds, no wonder they are tired and weak, I would be being chased by an irresponsible cameraman. It’s not ethically sound in my book. I am also finding the shots taken from a birds back are misleading, it is some sort of a fisheye lens, and that misshapes the wings, when a stork or vulture is soaring, the wings are not in front of the head, they are out straight either side, behind its head, they only come forward on some of the wing beats and mainly when the bird is landing or taking off, I kept wondering why it looks so odd and why the wing beats look all wrong, and I think it is lens, very disappointing, and not giving people the correct information. I think I will not watch the rest or I will only get crosser. However the programme on the Barrier Reef is excellent and well worth seeing. Also watched Endeavour – the programme on the young Morse –I hope there are more because it was great!

I won on my lottery ticket yesterday, you will notice I am not getting majorly excited, £2.60 is not going to go that far sadly, ah well, maybe next time!!

We are getting birds ready slowly for opening on February 1^st, they are slowly coming down to their flying weight. However to add to the difficulties, I am going on Holiday – yup, holiday, the fifth holiday in my life. My sister has invited me skiing, so all three sisters are going. Needless to say, that I thought it was a great idea six months ago and the closer the date gets, the more I am thinking, is this a good idea. But that is because I am so appreciative of where I am right now, that I actually don’t even like to leave the premises. Well only on Mollie.

Today (Tuesday) we rescued the shrub by the Aplomado’s, the fence had blown down and we are putting up a new one, but the shrub had grown through the pot and into the ground. Simon et al had dug it up, but not done anything with it. So hopefully today having found it looking a little dry, we planted it in one of the flower beds. That led to taking out a dead plant, and that led to cutting down the dying Yew tree and a Mahonia in the flying ground – which was a task and a half, however after much effort by John, Holly, me, Mike and Sally, out they came, and we leveled the ground. Then having dug stuff up, we planted a beautiful Liquid Amber tree which David Kay had given us. It should look super.

I have to go to a meeting in Bristol tomorrow, but did manage to find time to take Mollie out today as well as other stuff!

2012-01-04T19:24:00.000Z

Lammerlaw, lets hope she becomes a mum this year

Busy busy day! Adam did major tidying up in the wood and burnt all the stuff, it is looking good and we can see the path again. John pruned the Whitebeam archway and it looks great, ready for the spring. Holly found the full sized Condor silhouette and a piece of plywood for putting a fund raising gauge on for the hospital and scraped them clean and started to paint them both, the Condor will go on the back of Mozart’s block and the fund raiser by the shop. Tom made the last three feed drawers, Mark started on painting and readying the ceiling in the café. Simon is getting the incubators ready and finishing off nests for the breeding season. Jan caught up with all the back log in the office, Katherine came in to do the accounts, boy is she pregnant, I would definitely go for a caesarian, about three weeks ago and she still has over a month to go. Angela moved a ton of stuff in the café and is cleaning like mad and feeding us all soup for lunch. Mike came in for coffee and to look at a couple of things that need doing. And I did – stuff!

It was very windy and a bit damp, although not as wet as yesterday. The birds are coming down to weight again and we are moving forward as they say!

2012-01-03T20:41:00.000Z

Happy 2012 everyone!! It’s a New Year, it’s the Jubilee year and yes I am Extremely proud of my Royal Family, it’s the Olympic Year, and a bugger that they did not accept my offer of a flying demonstration for the Opening Ceremony, particularly as I offered it for nothing! And it’s our 45 anniversary, what could be better………… well maybe winning the lottery and paying off all my debts and have a fortune to spend, and I can’t think of anyone I know who could do it better or quicker, or make as many people enjoy it!

The weather has been interesting, yesterday it was glorious, winter sunshine, bright clear, wonderful, until I took the dogs for a walk and then it got rather less glorious. Today, howling gale, horizontal rain and then guess what glorious sunshine, bright clear, wonderful!! Everyone is back, life returns to normal, the dogs are delighted, proper coffee time, proper lunch time, everyone here, they are happy woofers!! It is always good to see my staff and I hope they all had a good break, they certainly worked like Trojans (now that is a pretty weird quote!) and got almost all the aviaries cleaned, all the flyers picked up and weighed, jesses greased and started again for flying, although all were overweight, which they should have been.

We have our first egg of the year, which is great, the Tawny Eagles have laid, here is hoping for a good clutch and lovely babies. The Steller’s are coming into breeding condition already and we are waiting for the African Fish Eagles to lay as well, so the breeding season is upon us! Talking of which hopefully the Labrador breeding season will be here soon too. Sorrel is hopefully going to have babies this year, look out for puppies!!

The Falconry Weekend in September is going to be organised by just us now, the UK Falconry Club have decided that they need an August date and so are going to run their own event somewhere near Evesham, not sure where as it is not very clear but we wish them the best of luck with it. We will keep our weekend the same date – first weekend in September – same venue, here, same time and same brilliant weekend I hope, so put it in your diary now!

2011-12-30T13:47:00.001Z

The problem with a new series being hyped up is that often one can be disappointed, and although much of the new Earth Flight was wonderful photography and it was, I wish they would use experts in the editing because the Bald Eagle turned into the legs of an African Fish Eagle, I have grave doubts about some of the dubbed on sound as I have never heard a Bald Eagle make some of the noises we heard, and I have lived with them for many years. Bald Eagles don’t normally follow migrating Coots in the spring as they are usually busy breeding. The imprinted Snow Geese and Pelicans did some lovely flying, but I have never seen geese fly that low to the ground on migration, unless of course they are following a camera car. The feather condition on some of the Pelicans was not good, which should have been noticed, and like some of the chase stuff in the Frozen Planet I do have concerns that the behaviour of animals and birds is affected by camera men chasing them in helicopters.

On the other hand I thought it was absolutely great that they filmed the tiny polar bear cubs in the snow cave in captivity, I think that was the responsible thing to do, rather than risking upsetting a wild mother. You have to consider what effect filming has on wildlife and anyone who tells you that it has no effect with some of the stuff we are seeing these days is not telling the truth, or worse, does not understand what effect they are having.

I am sure that this will not necessarily make me popular with wildlife film makers, but guys, come to the experts and we will stop you making stupid mistakes!! And never ever think that there is anything wrong in filming trained animals – particularly and I mean particularly if they are trained to work anyway. I often wonder what happens to the animals trained purely for a wildlife film, where will the imprinted geese go? Will they be still able to fly, what will happen to them and the Brown Pelicans? The reason I have concerns is because I know that at least two people have been prosecuted for cruelty to Harry Potter owls after the films were finished and the owls passed on, and I predicted that would happen before Warner Brothers even starting filming the first one, and even told them so when I refused to sell them owls.

As I appear to be having a moan, it is interesting to note that the weather forecast is wrong again. It’s a good job we are not open as they would have put off all customers and its now 1.30pm and still no predicted heavy rain and winds. I think that weather forecasting should be banned!!! Come to think of it I am pretty sure that all this awful depressing news is partly responsible for the recession, we are being talked into it guys!

OK last bitch for 2011, and apologies if I have upset someone, I undoubtedly have!! Its not raining, we are thinning Danny’s Wood, and it is starting to look great, we will be able to fly the owls through it much better now. In the meantime I have got myself covered in black stain but finished staining the end of the stable block and now I am going to get covered in blue paint and do some more to the trailer!

2011-12-29T19:37:00.000Z

It was a beautiful day yesterday, mild, sunny, warm and completely unlike winter! Christmas was fun, I had Christmas lunch with Alice and James, then Boxing Day supper with John Crooks and family and then supper with Sally and David and friends on the 27^th – positively leading the high life!! I had some lovely presents too.

Holly came over to collect a parcel – she has been internet shopping – again!! So we took the dogs for a walk and had lunch. I bought half a Stilton and a whole medium sized brie from Waitrose, I have to say that the Stilton was very good, and nearly gone and the brie was poor. I try not to keep cheese in the fridge, I usually open the packaging as I don’t think that plastic does it any good and put it in the larder, which is cool with a new damp J Cloth over it. The brie was awful, it was rubbery, never ripened and was so disappointing that I binned it, which I really do not like to do. I have come to the conclusion that if you want cheese you need to go to a proper cheese shop!

The freezer is behaving itself, which is very good to know, and Simon has been looking after the birds, he put all the falcons out for a bath yesterday and they all leapt in, and Casper was drenched. It’s nice not to have to worry about freezing weather!

Today I painted black stain and blue gloss paint for most of the day, I wanted to finish the outside of the doors on the tractor shed, so they are now done and I started on the outside of the stables which badly need a new coat of paint, plus it being our 45 birthday next year I want everything to look smart. After lunch and a walk with the dogs - you can't get away without a walk at this time of the year, I put the top coat on the trailer, or started to. The blue is brighter than I wanted so I mixed in some of the grey undercoat, but I think it will look OK, I want to get it finished tomorrow, as it is supposed to get colder next week and then the paint takes forever to dry. It was windy as hell but that made the black stain dry all the quicker.

David Kenworthy and his brother arrived in the morning and started on thinning the trees in the wood, it is going to look very good when it is done and I had a brainwave about the soil that we have spare out of the compartments in the Hawk Walk. Where the dog graves are the ground is very unlevel, it sinks over time over the graves and it is not possible to keep it looking smart, so I am going to use some of the soil to level the whole area and then plant it with woodland plants for the dogs. Aster will be coming home soon so I need to get it smart for him.

So tomorrow which I think is Friday (its very confusing as to what day of the week it is, I never know these days!) I should finish off the trailer and get some more of the stables done depending on the wind, and maybe over the weekend start on the outside of the freezer shed. There is also a part of me that wants to paint the walls of the compost heap............... hummmmmmmm, not sure about that, but I think it would work if I choose the right colour........

2011-12-25T01:00:00.001Z

Its Christmas Eve, I have taken out the live Christmas tree in the shop as it would not have survived in there for another ten days, it is outside and had a good drink, so I hope it recovers. I have hoovered the shop and the stock room and done two late experience day vouchers as presents, which I will post late tonight and they have something to print out on email for the day.

I have tidied the house, lit the fire in the sitting room and the library (my office) there is food on the table in the dining room and candle lights outside for people to see the way in. I am having a small thank you and celebration with neighbours and friends, which I did last year and it was fun, so we are having another go this evening. The dogs are confused, all this action and as yet no one here!! I guess people will arrive soon. Its so very different from last year when it was freezing cold with ice and snow everywhere. Now it is positively mild.

Mollie is doing well with the people who are trying her out, at least I think she is. I do miss having her here, it’s a hole without a horse! However it does mean I don’t feel guilty if I don’t ride, which I doubt I would have had time today.

All the chest freezers have gone and can you believe it as soon as the last one went the new freezer went wrong. However the company sent someone from Gloucester and he managed to fix it – although it took a couple of days. But now it is running OK again thank goodness.

Very sadly we lost our old breeding Verreaux’s Eagle female, she was 32 years old, so I guess that is a reasonable age. However by sheer chance a friend has lost his male out of the pair and so the female is going to come here, I hope they like one another.

The last Owl evening of the year went well, we had a lovely clear crisp night, the guided tours were good, the hog roast excellent and the birds flew very well, they were delighted to be fed huge amounts at the end of the evening as they do not have to fly again until January 3^rd next year!

My drinks party went well I hope, I enjoyed it anyway, most of the people invited - came, and most of the food went, to the disappointment of the dogs, who behaved very well. The house looked lovely and the mulled wine went down easily! Everyone had left by about 9.00pm and as I can’t bear the thought of clearing up the next day, I had washed up, cleared, polished the dining table, hoovered everywhere and generally got the place back to normal all by 10.00pm, just a little too organised I think, but there you go.

Christmas is round the corner, it’s a wonderful time of the year, so a Merry Christmas to all and I hope you enjoy the next chapter of Mozart’s Story.

Its now Christmas day, the house is quiet, it is trying to rain, I have just got back from midnight mass at the local church, there was no organist, which was a shame. Christmas is here........

2011-12-18T10:24:00.000Z

I don’t have a spam filter on my emails because I am concerned about missing ones that might be money!!! However some of the ones that I get really piss me off. I get so tired of getting ones for Viagra. You would think that at the very least they would only send them to men!! I don’t want Viagra, come to think of it, I would not be happy if any male I had any relationship with took the bloody stuff, the very thought horrifies me, and to my knowledge the results of it either horrifies or bores every female I know, why do men think it is a good idea – believe me chaps, it aint!!

The freezer is working beautifully, three of the chest freezers have gone and I am advertising the last two on EBay, its good, but more complicated than I can manage!! The building is about finished inside apart from lights and the freezer will be filled tomorrow with bird food, so after that I will not have to worry about the weather.

Not that it has been bad, we did get a sprinkling of wet snow on Friday evening before the Owl Evening, the Forest of Dean always gets it much worse than we do, Angela had to stay the night as one of the hills in the Forest had a jackknifed lorry blocking it. However we were lucky and the weather held for the evening. We had a warm night on Friday, and having had rain the ponds are now full to over flowing, which is good to see, they have been very low for months and months. The Owl evening last night was wonderful, not a full moon, but properly winter cold, a clear sky, the birds flew very well and we had a lovely audience who were responsive and enthusiastic, which always make it more fun for us.

The tractor, dumper and digger and in their shed as is Richards hedge ladder. My horse trailer is being smartened up and I am going to go and do more to it in a minute, it is going to look very different from the awful paint job it came with, and very smart. However Mollie has gone on loan with a view to buy. She had come on a treat and was going really well, but because I don’t have time to ride a horse daily, she got a bit sharp for me to be relaxed and enjoy. Her potential new home is an eventing one and her rider is a young lad who rode her very well when he tried her last weekend and like all the young he had no fear!! Where I am thinking – what happens if I fall off, I am too old to bounce well! Part of me hopes that she will come back, but it is a much better place for her and I am on the hunt for the perfect horse for me – again!

The new King Vulture is here and in with Pelfour, and they are getting on fine, it is good to see both the Turkey Vulture with a mate and now the King Vultures as a pair again. We also collected two young White-tailed Sea-eagles, they are settling slowly and we will start to train them in January.

As the weather has finally got cold we grounded the merlins, and some of the Lanners, so we are down to less birds for the rest of December which is what we usually do, and by Christmas after the last Owl Evening next Friday, all will be grounded until after the New Year. The heaters in the Hawk Walk are all in and working, its lovely not to have to worry about the tethered birds, and we have the materials coming to cover the fronts of the aviaries if the weather turns.

OK, time to go and paint the trailer, just in case I need it soon!

2011-12-11T09:02:00.002Z

Well, the freezer is IN! The freezer shed, although shed is not a smart enough name for it now (!) is almost finished, the outside has been re-clad in feather edge, it does need a paint, but that will have to wait until the weather eases a bit. The inside is insulated and clad and painted, the thawing room is up and will be painted by the end of the weekend I hope, two of the chest freezers are in there and a very smart walk in deep freeze. The only thing to do now is fill it with raptor food and we are set, and I don’t have to worry any more about the weather causing delivery failure of food.

Although having said that, here we are getting all prepared for another very cold winter, and so far it has been incredibly mild, not that I mind as it is easier for working outside and better for the birds. However thinking back to this time last year we had had five days of the most amazing hoar frost, with the trees white and the spikes of frost getting longer by the day and the temperature never getting above freezing. All very pretty and wintry and Christmassy, but hard on the birds, the staff and the pocket. Getting heating oil last year was a nightmare.

It was hellish windy on Thursday, although nowhere near as bad as they got in Scotland. We had an Owl Evening for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and amazingly we got away with it on the Thursday, it went well. However the Friday and Saturday ones were most magical evenings, Friday was very cold but a clear clear sky, so you could see the owls without the lights, it was amazing and very special. Last night it was also bright but not as clear and crisp, but still lovely, I think the full moon nights can be the most exciting.

The tractor shed is nearly finished as well, another day or so and we will be able to get the machinery in there, it will be the oldest dumper in the world under cover!! But I will be pleased to see it and its much nicer to start work on it by sitting on a dry seat than a soggy one! We managed to get a leak in one of the central heating pipes through the kitchen ceiling on friday, but between them Mike and Richard got it fixed and the heating working again, getting the heating working was the nightmare part!

The birds are generally well and flying very well, we are still flying the three Merlins as it has not got cold enough to worry about them yet. I guess we will ground them at Christmas and then get them going again in March. We need extra special teams of birds next year as it will be our 45^th anniversary!

Follow this link below to see what a WONDERFUL WORLD we have and should desperately cherish far more than we are right now, I only wish the message at the end had been better thought out, I could have done better!http://t.co/LPIQAmIx

And I loved this one!

Every Town in England needs a Council Chief like this.

A maverick mayor elected after promising to slash council spending, clear the streets of yobs and ditch politically correct services is the torch-bearer for how towns should be run.

On his first morning as Mayor of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, Peter Davies cut his salary from £73,000 to £30,000 then closed the council’s newspaper for "peddling politics on the rates".

Three weeks into his job, Mr Davies was pressing ahead with plans he hopes will see the number of town councillors cut from 63 to just 21, saving taxpayers £800,000.

Mr Davies said: "If 100 senators can run the United States of America, I can’t see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster".

He has withdrawn Doncaster from the Local Government Association and the Local Government Information Unit, saving another £200,000. Mr Davies said, "They are just talking shops".

"Doncaster is in for some serious un-twinning. We are twinned with probably nine other cities around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the council’s expense".

The mayor’s chauffeur-driven car has also been axed by Mr Davies and the driver given another job. Mr Davies, born and bred in Doncaster, swept to power in the May election with 24,244 votes as a candidate for the English Democrats, a party that wants tight immigration curbs, an English Parliament and a law forcing every public building to fly the flag of St. George.

He has promised to end council funding for Doncaster ’s International Women’s Day, Black History Month and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.

He said, "Politicians have got completely out of touch with what people want".

"We need to cut costs. I want to pass on some savings I make in reduced taxes and use the rest for things we really need, like improved children’s services".

Mr Davies has received messages from well-wishers across the country and abroad as news of his no-nonsense approach spreads.

Now it’s your chance to spread this most sensible way to run a town council.

2011-12-02T14:30:00.004Z

Today I and two good friends of mine lost a dog, it was Aster. I said three of us because I bred Aster and had him until he was about eight years old, and then he left me for his own sake. Many of you will not remember him, he was a beautiful lanky Labrador, brother of Arabis and Lily. We always said he must have got extra length to his legs from Lily who is very short. To see Aster run was a wonderful sight, he always epitomised joy to me when I watched him play with the others.

He was a nervous dog and at some point when he was about four years old something happened, I don't know what, but he decided he was scared of the birds, which was not fun when you are upwards of 250 of them. He would always be around but hated the Hawk Walk where the tethered birds live and always either ran through it, or avoided it.

He came with me to the US, he was terribly upset by the air flight, but recovered, although he was never as settled or happy in South Carolina, but much loved by most of the people there, he did scare us a couple of times when he disappeared, and he was not great with other dogs over there. He loved swimming in the lakes which was about the only place I could walk the dogs over there, although that in itself was scary and they were full of bloody alligators.

He came back with the tribe when my ill fated sojourn there ended, and he was reasonably settled in Eardisland until I started to bring the birds back and fly some of them, because they were brought into the barn that we all lived in, and were sitting outside close to the trailer that we eventually moved into, he hated it, and started to run away. The road outside was very busy and I was extremely worried that he would get run over, so I took the difficult choice to ask some friends if they would take him. I had sort of planned to make it a short term move, but as it turned out it would have been wrong to take him away again, it was best for him to stay there with them.

Maggie and Jinny took to him like an old friend. We met in the Cotswolds at a very nice hotel so they could be introduced, and after an hour or so, Aster happily jumped into their car and off he went. He settled well and they would take him up to Winterton in Norfolk, and he would run on the beach with their other dogs, it was perfect for him, no birds, nothing to upset him and he was a happy happy dog.

Another Labrador arrived as a puppy to remind him of his family and he and Lucas got on well. I saw him once when I was invited to fly at the Norfolk show, it was lovely to see him but stressful for both of us and I think it would have been confusing for him to see me too much, so I did not see him again, although he was always in my thoughts, and there were things here I know he would have loved, I think he would have played with Sedge with pleasure.

But like all dogs, who never live long enough for their owners, he started to go downhill, and Jinny is like me, you do not leave a dog too long before taking that hard decision to put it down. A dignified and honourable death is the order of the day, and also like me she is a strong believer in the deed being done at home where the dog is happy and secure.

As I have said before it completely staggers me that people can take their dog to the vets and just leave it to be put down, that is an abdication of responsibility in my book and just not acceptable, because at that point it is not your feelings that are important, it is the dogs.

Aster died this morning at his home, it was peaceful and honourable and just right, if these things ever can be. He leaves a huge hole both with me and with Jinny and Maggie, to whom I am eternally grateful to for giving him a great life and a good ending. He will eventually come back to the field and wood, and join his family when the time is right.

2011-11-30T18:11:00.004Z

Last day open, from December 1^st we close to the public until February 1^st, although we run the Owl Evenings and a five day course, plus a number of experience days up to December 23^rd. We have a ton of things that I would like to get finished before Christmas. The food drawers should go in next Monday and Tuesday, the freezer shed should be finished and ready for the new freezer by the end of tomorrow. The electrics in the Hawk Walk will hopefully be done soon and the electrics for the freezer have to be done by the end of Monday! The tractor shed should be done and the tractor, dumper, digger and trailer in and secure by the end of next week. It will be good to know they are undercover if the weather does turn, makes for a dried seat to sit on too!

We are going to be busy, and we will have a fair number of birds still going. I had planned on grounding some when the weather changed and got cold, but it hasn’t yet. Amazing to think that this time last year it was freezing cold and we had the first snow, this year it is still mild, and I have only had the heating on in the house a few times. The leaves have mostly gone in the strong winds, although there is one Oak tree where they have barely turned from green!

The three merlin's are going really well, I am delighted by the way they are flying, and all the young falcons are coming on. Pioneer (Steller’s Sea Eagle) is in with her two brothers and doing well. Cremorne is out and will start work again in January, I hope she does not do the same as last year and bugger off for a week! We are also getting two White-tailed Sea-eagles which are going to be flown next year and for a while until they are old enough to breed, which is exciting. It will be good to compare a Bald Eagle and White-tailed Sea-eagle as they are so closely related.

The Owl Evenings have been going well, we have eight left to do and they are booking up nicely, Jan wants to have carols at the last one, but as she isn’t even going to be here………. We shall have to see!

Adam came over and fixed computer problems, I don’t know what we would do without him, he is a wizard at getting them to do what he wants, and he happily teaches all of us as well. Linda has been very busy with photographing the countryside for the Wye Valley, she has some stunning photos and finally someone is paying her closer to a decent amount for all the work she does. We have some also stunning photos for this year’s photo competition, last years were good, this year they are better, which is great, I hope you have bought the calendar of the last years photos it’s a good Christmas present, and nice to see staff, birds and dogs on your wall for a year!

Linda just sent me this - its great fun!

http://www.drawastickman.com/

2011-11-23T18:37:00.004Z

Back from India safe and sound, it is good to go, and even better to come home again.

The trip was good, it was an early start on the Saturday that I left, I caught the 5.44am train. As I rode the train to London, I looked up and the sky was a glorious colour, oranges, greys, light blue and creams, the trees were not quite the deep black of a nighttime silhouette, but instead a dark indeterminate grey and the mist hung just below them in the fields, I wished I was not going, and my feet were cold because I was wearing sandals – ah well, the joys of travelling. It did not last long, the sunrise was done, the mist rose and grey predominated the view, hedges and trees loomed out briefly, and the mist made it hard to focus on anything as we sped past. I got to the airport via Paddington and then the shuttle to terminal, I then went to ask where I should go for passport checking and realised that I think I left my printed out boarding pass on my printer at home, but the lady I asked was very nice and instead of sending me to a queue, just booked me and handed my boarding pass to me, it could not have been easier. I met up with Thalita who is the Brazilian Vet going out to India and Nepal for six months to help with training and off we went.

We arrived in India at 1.30am, and then after a short night of two hours in a hotel, we met up with Chris, Janki and Vibhu and we all trained it to Pinjore. We went out to the Centre, the vultures are just starting to breed, so we did not look too closely at the colony aviaries but did see the new breeding aviaries, which are now filled with birds. We spent the next couple of days discussing the progress, planning for the coming breeding season, having a look at incubators and probably getting in the way of the staff who were getting ready for an influx of people from all over the world at the SAVE meeting. The meetings went well, three days of them! I was definitely meetinged out by the end of it. Ian Newton and I travelled back together and it went well, although catching a plane at 3.30am is not fun really, however it did mean that Adam Bloch who met me at Heathrow and drove me home, (thanks Adam) got me home in time for coffee – and a heavenly shower – and a bacon sandwich!

Although if I have a complaint it would be to the designers of Terminal Five – the shuttle train to get you from the plane to arrivals is very poor, we had to wait until the third train before we could get on and there was no option to walk, which I like to do after a long flight – very badly done I thought, particularly for a new terminal.

It is lovely to be home, it has been a little grey and overcast, but its still good to be back. Adam is in Guatemala doing his cycling bit and we are all hoping that he is having a good time. The wedding with Katana went Very Well, Holly and Sally went to do it and came back very happy that it had all gone according to plan (so was I, I have to say!).

Linda and Mark did a photographic job while I was away, that worked and the client got some stunning photos. Robin and Michele have just done SIX lectures to a school in Tewksbury in one day!! They came back pleased, relieved and tired. Anabelle has gone off home to Mauritius and will be back before Christmas. Simon is still delighted with his motorbike, but it is no longer here! Because we are redoing the freezer shed, prior to the new walk in Freezer arriving, he was worried about it, so it lives in a smart garage off site all by its little self! Although he and Adam blew it on their sojourns away. Simon left a lure in the rucksack that we use looking for lost birds, that took us several days to find the smell after he had gone to India and I found a lure and three pickup pieces in Adam’s bag yesterday!!! I on the other hand cleaned out my bag before I left!

The electrics in the Hawk Walk is coming on, I think it is just a question of joining up all the various bits of cable now. The heaters are in, the switches are in, the line has been tested, the steel armoured cable is in, just boxes and then the big switch on (and pray! Opps, sorry Richard!) and the birds will be snug and warm.

2011-11-11T20:06:00.002Z

I am off to India at 5.00am tomorrow morning, car, train, shuttle and plane, arriving in Delhi at 1.25am on Sunday morning, three hours in a hotel if we are lucky and then a four to five hour train trip to Kalka. I hope, as usual, to survive the trip, Anabelle is staying in the house and caring for dogs, horse and house. Its raining heavily for the first time in a while. My staff will be as good as ever - I know. Mike and Richard will move things forward on the heating for the birds and I long for the 20th when I am home again. DON'T send me any emails until I am back - please!!

2011-11-10T21:47:00.003Z

Furiously getting ready to go to India, I am not a great traveller, I love my home too much, particularly as I got so very close to losing it, that makes you appreciate home far more. The washing is done, my office is more or less clear, my wonderful staff are more than capable of coping and hopefully I will survive yet another series of plane flights, which I do not enjoy.

Anabelle and Michele came out to do Mollie this evening so they know what to do, she did not know what hit her, three people grooming tidying and feeding her, As we walked out to the stables, the sky was a little cloudy, but the moon was out, it gave good light but sort of out of focus, it was easy to see without a torch, but still amazingly warm. Mollie still has not had her new winter rug on yet, although I am not unhappy about that as we don’t have the heating in yet, so the longer the forecast hard winter takes to come, the better as far as I am concerned.I think she liked it!She whinnied loudly as we got there, probably because we were late because everyone stayed a little late this evening to help with the electrics. Richard taught us how to put together various bits for the heating in the Hawk Walk, including leaving his tools which was wonderful. Had I not got the wrong number of tiny bolts we would have finished, as it was by 7.30pm we got an awful lot done, Adam is the best at it, with Anabelle a close second. Mark and Anabelle were going through the Lantra award at the same time, electrics is more fun with a lot of people and a glass of wine.

Mark and Michele took a number of birds to Neil Forbes today, a vet run we label it, we took an elderly Barn Owl who is not well, but the prognosis is OK, I am glad we took her. Delectable to have her feet checked as we were worried, but with changed perching and some permanent monitoring and ointment, she should be fine, with her abnormal leg she will be a long term bird to watch. She was NOT impressed by her new perch. She came out of the box and went straight to it, and then looked properly at it, and you could see that she said – what the hell is that – aaagggghhhhhh and refused to go near it, vultures are so suspicious!! Mozart had a good check up and is not bad for his age (the same could probably be said for me!) Lady Isabel has a tummy infection, which is good to know, and fixable and explains why she has not been getting properly fit, and Alexandria probably has the Peregrine virus, so we have treatment for her. An expensive but important visit to Vet’s Now, and if you can’t afford to go to a good vet, you should not have the animal in the first place.

Most of the leaves are going now, we have had several dull days, but this is still the best place in the world!

2011-11-09T20:19:00.005Z

Is anyone out there having problems with PayPal, I am not getting confirmation emails and it is very concerning and they are being about as helpful as an extremely dead donkey. I may have to remove the option of using them soon. And what is even more annoying is that they are not admitting the fault is theirs, which it most definitely is. They are going to be in big trouble if they don’t fix it before December that is for sure.

The British Airways advert that is showing at the moment takes me back to the day I flew back to the UK with the birds, June 13^th 200. The shots of the huge jumbo jet makes me remember sitting in the cockpit of the enormous plane with the tiny window at the front, smoothly racing down the runway at Atlanta airport and taking off into the rising sun with all my birds, my dogs and my life, flying back to something that I had no idea if I could deal with, and no home to go to. It was a memorable and unforgettable moment.

I see that that idiot Robin Page is at it again, - Time to prey on predators – in his country column in the Telegraph, if I were a farmer I would be ashamed of him, although I am not convinced he actually is one. Interesting that they show a drawing of a Sparrow-hawk rather than a photo and then a photo of a non-indigenous species of animal that is frequently hunted and shot because of the damage it does. I wish he would learn a little about wildlife because he sure as hell does not know what he is talking about, but then he is very short, perhaps that explains it! I wonder if he gets paid for that rubbish.

I just filled in a form called the million women study, I am really bad at forms because the boxes never give the option that I want to give, so I either leave it blank or put in my own! Not quite sure about the question of how many bowel movements I have a week, that depends entirely on if I have been to India or not and the answers would be extremely variable. Loved the one about how many units of alcohol I drank in my 20’s 40’s and 60’s, I put ‘are you serious – who the hell knows’! And I suspect they are going to be somewhat interested in my diet – breakfast cereal – NO!

However I am feeling very virtuous because I have gone through my various in trays and cleared as much as I can before going to India (and increased bowel movements!) It is looking much healthier now, with only the usual things that I want to get done, but never manage, they get to be old friends in the end.

It was a glorious day on Sunday, Simon is back, and Holly and things are getting back to normal, we had lovely visitors, many of them now good friends and the birds flew brilliantly. On the Saturday evening wee went to a fireworks display that Laurence, a friend of Richards did, Richard was the vital assistant, it was very very impressive, I have never been to one other than the ones we do here, the only thing was I forgot to take my camera which is now annoying me!

I have got to the point where I think that R and D (research and development) departments should not be allowed. Last year we put in a water heater in the weighing room, it is small and it has a tap that apparently is the relief valve as well. Remembering that hot water expands and so it needs somewhere to expand, well the idiot that designed this system thought it would be a good idea to have the water expand through the tap. So we were told not to turn the tap off fully, so that the water could dribble out and dribble it did, almost permanently. Well that might be fine in a household with one person, but it sure as hell does not work where up to twenty different people may use the tap. To start with you have no idea where to stop in turning off the tap, where is too far???? Its like giving directions to get somewhere and stating that if you get to the roundabout you have gone too far, by which time it is too late! I think it is a clever ploy because the flaming tap is £150, and we would need one about every nine months. However we are changing the system to get rid of the bloody tap, although it is turning out to be immensely more complicated than I would like.

We got a lot done today, although I found it a frustrating one, and still have not ridden Mollie, we cleaned and re-perched and painted all the owl enclosures in the small falcon block, made room for a pair of Mottled Owls that are coming, and moved the kestrels around so we could put the two new pairs of Lesser Kestrels in there. They are not in the best of condition feather wise and so need to be in a nice safe, secure, dry and warm aviary, which they now are. Had another injured wild buzzard in yesterday as well, they are nearly always males, I wish I knew why.

2011-11-04T15:18:00.003Z

Good God, what the hell happened to the rest of October, I can’t believe it is November already. Charlie came down and totally rebuilt my bathroom, I have a new shower, which I can’t use for another day, a new bath because the old one was not well, a new basin because the old one was broken, a new and safe set of stairs down into the bathroom as the old ones were going to kill me at some point, and the same loo, but in a different place, oh and a new floor of beautiful stone tiles, it looks amazing and is nearly finished. We then, that would be Michele and I – and yes she is out of hospital and no we have no idea what was actually wrong – had a cleaning session. I have this habit of having a major clear out on occasion, and this seemed like the ideal chance, so all the drawers in the various bits of furniture had a clear out – I found my wedding cards, so they all went in the bin as did a fair number of very old drugs (legal I hasten to add) that were somewhat out of date to say the very least.

I have done all the clothing drawers a couple of weeks ago, now all I have to do is find the time to get a couple of pieces of wood, fill various holes in the wall, clean and stain the new stairs and paint the room, oh and when I can afford it new curtains as the ones in there are awful!

The leaves on many of the trees are going fast now, with only the oaks still green, they are always the last to go. It is still amazingly mild for the time of year which is good for us and the birds, we are finally getting some rain, but not a lot, however the pond is looking fractionally better. We have only one more compartment left to do in the insulation of the Hawk Walk we are saving it for Simon when he comes back from India on Sunday!! Richard gave me a lesson in electrics last night, so we are wiring up the tubular heaters that are going to go under the perches, should get it done and dusted by the end of the month I hope.

Tom is making the last of the food drawers so when I feed round at Christmas it will all be done and clean and tidy!! And we have ordered the walk in deep freeze, I found a good company that are doing one at a reasonable price and we have help with the cost, we only need to completely re do the freezer shed and it can go in. It will be lovely to have a clean fresh freezer and a clean and fresh and insulated room for it. We are moving ever forwards!

The birds are well and most are flying to a good standard, the three new kites are all catching properly now, we ground Pioneer on Monday, Mark wants her to have a rest and I want her to have some time with her siblings which will be good for her, then Cremorne will come out in January and hopefully we will not chase her round the country again! Rinkhals did a rehearsal for an Owl Evening and was stunningly good, all the other owls are working well and Holly and I rehearsed two of them for our first wedding soon and that went fine too. The only problem I have is with the various staff being off I have had little or no time for anything including riding Mollie, I hope that will change.

2011-10-23T10:54:00.002+01:00

Well the ironing board is still in the van as the rest of the day did not really go as planned. I did manage to get out for a ride, although I suspect today I will not succeed. I took Mollie onto May Hill and I have to say she was very good, almost too good, I was pushed to get a canter, but at least no explosions which is great, she was a little more excited on the way down, silly horse, but all in all perhaps the change of food and help from Sally and friends (thanks all) over the last couple of weeks is making a difference.

By 5.30 on Saturday afternoon we had all decided that Michele who is our American Student who has been here since mid-September had been sick for long enough, she has had three bouts of vomiting and this last one was not stopping, so I phoned Gloucester Hospital A and E to see if they would see her. They asked me to phone the duty GP at a different department, so I did and they said one would phone me back, which he did. We managed to get Michele down to the phone and she told him the gory details, and he then was passed back to me, he said that she should be taken to the Dilke which is a small hospital in the Forest outside Cinderford. So off we went, bowl in hand. We found the right place (eventually) and the doctor examined her, and decided that she needed IV fluids, which we both concurred with, however they could not take her at the Dilke so I needed to take her to – guess where – Gloucester Hospital A and E! So off we went again, bowl handy. We got there and I grabbed a wheelchair – whatever complete moronic idiot designed the wheelchairs they have in there should be shot, it is impossible to push them forwards in any decided direction, the only way they work is backwards. Why on earth don’t designers actually try out their work before they are allowed to make a final product, it never fails to amaze me how many things that have supposedly been designed by some brilliant designer are utter crap. I could mention many objects, many wheelbarrows being up there, however actually a good wheelbarrow would probably have been better than this bloody wheelchair!

Anyway, I took Michele into the waiting room – the counter there is unpleasantly high, difficult to see and for older people almost impossible to hear the people on the other side. I suppose it is that high for security, what a great shame the human race can be so completely vile at times, to make hospitals have to be careful of their staff who are there to help the sick and injured is a sad reflection.

After answering all the same questions I had done twice before because apparently the computer had not sent through the records (we know what I feel about software!!!), I left Michele in the wheelchair and rushed out to put the car somewhere that it would not be clamped. I have to say I find it iniquitous, as do many other people, that visitors have to pay to come and see people who are ill in hospital, its again a shameful thing, there is a 15 minute car park for people who have brought in emergency patients, obviously another idiot thought that the patient would be seen and dealt with in 15 minutes!!!! Dream on! When I got back, she had gone, wheeled (probably with difficulty) into a room which I then had to find, but only after a doctor one presumes, told me that if I looked in cubicles I might see something that upset me – I guess he did not know what I do for a living! After more questions and another bloody pressure check we were taken to another room, where eventually I went out to see if anyone was actually going to come and see her and give her fluids, a nurse arrived as I went out she was very nice, found her a trolley so Michele could lie down, took blood pressure (third time!) and bloods and put her on a drip. By nearly 9.30pm we saw a doctor, who decided that she should be admitted, bear in mind that decision had already been taken at the Dilke over two hours previously but had to be taken again according to some new rules, (which incidentally the doctors and nurses think is pretty stupid as well) one wonders if the same idiot who invented that particular wheelchair was the person making up the ‘rules’ because they are as ridiculous and time wasting and inefficient as the wheelchair.

Michele was looking better by now, half the bag of fluids was now inside her and her colour was better and she was talking again! So I left her and drove back home to the dogs and Anabelle who had been looking after them and the Woodburning stove and Mollie in the interim period.

Michele is still in the hospital, I have managed to speak to her this morning, she may be in for a while, they are assessing her and Anabelle has gone in with computer, pyjamas’s toothbrush etc., and some of us will go in and see her this evening – opppppppsssss there goes the ironing again! Well break my heart!

2011-10-22T13:21:00.003+01:00

It’s amazing how things always come at once. I spent days working on finding the best new walk in deep freeze, Although if the winter is going to be as hard as they are predicting I could probably do without one anyway!! Just leave the food out and it will stay frozen! However that is not really what we need to do. So to get a new walk in freezer, we need to revamp the freezer shed, which means new cladding on the outside, as the old stuff really is past its sell by date and will probably fall off soon anyway, and then insulation, oh and moving the water softener. Well the softener is about 25 years old or more, probably more I suspect. So it is very worn, hideously ugly and a nightmare to move, consequently that means a new one, and I might tell you not many people can give you advice on water softeners, but I now know far more about them than I did before and really wanted to know anyway. However a new one will hopefully be on its way soon and is much smaller, much neater and hopefully easy to put in as I can’t afford to pay someone to do it! It is interesting though, we de-commissioned the old softener and I can see a difference in the water quality in a couple of days and not a good difference, so we really do need a new one.

Stupidly at the same time I wanted a shower in my bathroom, because on a bad day, having two baths in one day, which could happen, is wasteful of water and heating oil, and time consuming as well. So what did that lead to – the electrics need to sorted out!! Oh and the plumbing. I now know why the water in my bathroom tasted so utterly disgusting, but having now got rid of the now defunct header tanks in my loft, the water pressure is higher so all the loos leak, and the dogs water drinker, and the washing machine in stock room, and so on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess we will sort it all out but boy it’s all a great deal harder and more expensive that I needed at this time of the year.

It’s a glorious day, the autumn colours are amazing and we have some of our regular photographers coming, so I guess it is a good photo day as well. Simon is off to India next week, he is going to be helping them get ready for the coming breeding season and looking at helping one of the other centres get ready for artificial incubation and rearing. The new doors on the Hawk Walk are making a huge difference to the warmth for the birds, the handles are on, they are closing more easily although some need to be adjusted, and we don’t have to worry about the birds. I am now looking into the tubular heaters and we will be set for the winter for the trained birds. Just need to win the lottery fairly soon!

All the birds are going well and improving and Simon’s merlin should be loose before he goes away! Finally Alexandria is getting fitter as is Lady Isabel, and I am pleased about that in fact today Alexandria flew brilliantly as did Banded Krait my merlin.

We will put the next chapter of the Mozart book on the website on opppppppppphs wrong, it is November 1^st, I hope people are liking it, bear with it, I think you will enjoy it. And ...............I have bought an iron and the ugliest iron board in the whole world, so I can start to look less untidy, of course it would be better if I actually got the ironing board out of the van where it has been sitting for four days!!! It will happen though.

2011-10-16T19:59:00.005+01:00

Well, I had a day off today, Sally took me to a Three Day Event, well maybe it was a one day Event, but whatever it was great fun and afterwards I bought some new jodhpurs as mine are falling to bits. So I flew no birds and did little at home, it was very good for me. I did take Mollie out when we got back and she was somewhat hairy to ride I have to say, never mind, I stayed on and my new jods were great. Oh and on looking at my photos of people jumping, I don't think the pro's have anything to worry about!

If you look to the side there is a new newsletter on the website, I have also done a slideshow which is on YouTube, with a link on the side and finally I have decided to publish a book on-line, see the link and click on it if you are interested.

So we start with the Mozart book, which I will, or to be more accurate Linda will put on the website a Chapter at a time, she has done a great job with the page, I hope you like the book, please tell others if you do.

2011-10-14T21:03:00.004+01:00

I have to admit to having a fairly unproductive day, the internet is supposed to save you time, and it does but you have to know the right terms to find what you need. I spent much of the morning trying to find out about walk in deep freezes as we desperately need to get back to having one. Our old one died finally after about 26 years – which I guess is pretty acceptable, however having tried very good commercial chest freezers they just don’t work for us, they take up a ton of space and don’t give us enough room to have back up food. With a potentially hard winter coming we are very uncomfortable not having at least two months’ supply in hand. So hence the checking prices online. In the end because I was not sure what size we need, we resorted to drawing out the internal measurements in chalk on the concrete outside the shop – I am a fairly literal person after all – and then drawing in the size of pallets to see what we could get it – it worked OK ish, so now I just need to find the best price for what we need and what I can afford.

It is significantly colder this evening, I had to fly one of the falcons late in the day, because I had had that unproductive day etc., and noticed that I was not exactly warm and the sky was very very clear, which to me means cold. So I mentioned it in passing and the general thought was that it was not going to be that cold this evening. However about twenty minutes later Simon came back and said OK it’s going to down 6 degrees, so we put all the metal grills back up and closed the doors for the first time!! And then I realised that I have to get good door handles to pull to close them properly – back to the internet and find out the right name for the bloody things, they are incidentally called Pull Door handles and they cost anything from £1.98 to over £100 each!! I suspect I will be going for the former as I need 29 of them!

The birds flew well today mostly, Adam’s Steppe Eagle is really coming on, the Steller’s is also starting to circle which is wonderful. D’Arcy Spice is back on line, Sidewinder is coming back into work – a bit manic, but doing well. And Rinkhals is being persuaded that trees really are a good idea and would she please go into one. Unlike my merlin whom I would be delighted if I could persuade him Not to go into one!

The light has been beautiful in the last few days, I love the low autumn light when the sun is out. Although yesterday it was damp and misty and that was just as nice. Oh and look what Simon has just got - a Harley Davison Motor Bike, its pretty smart and if he could get it up the stairs to his flat it would be in the bedroom with him!

2011-10-10T20:29:00.006+01:00

Winter Flying Times were instigated today, which should mean we have a little more time at the end of the day until the light goes. We managed to get most of the birds done although the wind was very blustery and fierce at times, my Merlin was amazing!!

Mollie was somewhat like an unexploded bomb in the wind, which made for an interesting ride this afternoon. And she can buck when she wants, to!!

We continue on with the insulation of the outdoor Hawk Walk, I was very pleased we are doing it when someone said that it stated in the newspaper that we were going to get temperatures of -20C this winter. So we definitely need to get done in time for those! At least we know what we are doing this year and can make the trained birds much more comfortable.

Nathan and his Dad looked at the bottom hedge that I want to lay, but most of the trees in it are too big, so I am looking for someone to cut it down – for the wood, there is a great deal of valuable fire wood in there.Then once that is done and the spring comes it will shoot from the base and we can get it looking nice and lower, so we get a better view of the birds flying.

Rush is pretty much back his normal self, much happier now the stitches are out and no longer trying to scratch it thank goodness.

He did not like his T shirt though, which I thought was ungrateful as Sally gave it to him and Holly collected it specially!

!

2011-10-08T19:13:00.006+01:00

Cooler weather now, I even lit the wood burner yesterday, although it is warmer this evening. Rush is much better I ended up taking out his stitches late last night and he has been much more comfortable. Sorrel is a little lame which worries me and so is Indigo, they all need to lose weight, as indeed do I! That should help all of us.

We are still working on the insulation of the floors of the outdoor Hawk Walk, it is taking more time than I had hoped it would so if anyone out there is keen to do some digging in the next couple of weeks, just let me know, this is the perfect place for it!!

I redid all the letters and leaflets for all the courses and experience days in the last couple of days, there were 18 of them and it took a while I have to say, but needed doing urgently. Adam Bloch and Holly did the wedding photos on Thursday, they looked great and the car was wonderful, I could definitely have given it a good home, well OK perhaps not a great home, but a very appreciative one!

I have not had time to ride Mollie, which is annoying particularly as the days are getting shorter very quickly now, however on Monday we ground Fortina, Karis, Hare and Deception, so that means that I have less birds to fly and hopefully will have a little more free time.

Holly’s Barbary is going really well, as are the two merlins, Simon’s is still not loose, it is going to be the longest merlin training in the world! Azor is coming on and the Steller’s Pioneer was very spectacular today! Casper is back working, he is such a beautiful falcon, and he is coming on nicely.

We start the Owl evenings any minute now, I hope you have all booked in as they are going to be good this year, not that they are not always good I hasten to add. Other than that, I am going to have a new bathroom I really want a shower in there and my bath has pretty much rusted through, so there is a new bath sitting upside-down in my bedroom waiting for the rest to get here and get done.

Also in my bedroom are about a million tiny flies, who moved in about a week ago, Sue and I have been hoovering up the damn things but they appear to be endless, at least they don’t bite like the ones in South Carolina, which is something.

Sally sent me this link below, as some of you may know I love only classical music and this is very moving, what a great idea and how very appreciated, humans can be amazing, its just such a shame it only happens rarely! Please click on it and watch with your sound up, its wonderful.

http://www.classicalarchives.com/feature/dont_miss_this.html

2011-10-03T20:05:00.004+01:00

I am struggling to get the next newsletter done, usually I can do a newsletter in about two days, but we have been so busy and I have had to be at every demonstration for the last six days, that I just don’t get enough time to be able to focus, and in the evenings I am too damn tired to do a good job.

Rush is OK, he is still not comfortable and I have been trying to find a new protective collar that a lady spoke to me about today. Those plastic Victorian Collars are awful, the dogs hate them, he gets particularly stressed and if they move about quickly, which they do, and hit you they are bloody painful. I found some inflatable ones, but I am not sure that I liked those, this was supposed to be a much smaller softer version of the plastic Victorian ones but I am damned if I can find it. Anyway the results have come back and it is a grade two tumour, but the vets have managed to take enough skin to have got all the cells, so hopefully he will be OK.

He is still crying on occasion so I am going to take him for a checkup tomorrow, but I think he might be just trying it on a little! Right now he is wearing a sleeveless T shirt that Sally gave him and it works a treat to stop him licking and is far less stressful than a collar and less painful to me as well!

My Barbary Falcon is not improving at the moment, he still thinks he is a lawnmower, where Holly’s is going really well – annoyingly!! However I will persevere and hope that with the temperature dropping he will find a little more energy. At least my merlin enjoyed the wind today! Azor is starting to go well though (Steppes Eagle) and we have the Snowy Owl and the Ural Owl starting off as well in time for the winter Owl Evenings which start at Halloween.

We had the most amazing mushrooms, or toadstools growing in the Centre this week, not sure what they were, but they were impressive. I did have a lovely mushroom ring as well that I was looking forward to photographing, but it got mowed the other day! Damn it – too late!

2011-09-30T18:24:00.005+01:00

Blimey it’s positively sweltering!! 31 degrees yesterday and today and tomorrow, good job I just bought some jerseys for the winter!! Now I need to do something about my skirts most of which are a little - OK a Lot - past their sell by date.

Well I collected Rush yesterday early evening and brought him home, I had planned to play tennis with the others on Sally and David’s court, but that went out of the window because Rush could not be operated on until late because of other emergencies. So I have a poorly dog, who is not happy about life, he spent the night on my bed and cried for almost all of it, and so I took him in again this morning and he had some more pain killers, but he still was crying for some of the day, however I think it may be that he is milking it a little. He did manage to force down some ham that Holly and I shared with him and Indigo as we ate supper on the floor last night! Oh and some milk and a very small piece of cake that was saved for him from lunch time. Angela and Sue looked after him for much of the day today and he is now in the office with me. We hope the mast cells have all been got, the scar is certainly big enough.

I had to order a new Amplifier for the PA yesterday as well, the old one was on its last legs and not likely to last a great deal longer, it arrived today – amazing, probably not by HM post sadly as they could not have managed that. Adam put it in and we are up and running with no sudden increase of sound to scare us all. Another job jobbed, eventually I will have replaced everything and not have to spend any money – or perhaps it is like the Forth Bridge, you just start again!

The Swallows and House Martins usually leave on the 29th of this month and I have seen none today, I wish they would let us know when they are going, it would be nice to wish them good bye and good luck. I can’t believe it is October tomorrow, especially not with this weather, it is almost like being abroad it is so clear and warm. We cleaned the Hawk Walk today, a proper clean, it took almost all day and I think I need a shower what with the heat and the sand!

All the owls are starting to fly well ready for the owl evenings, I am looking forward to them particularly as the lights are now a fixture. We did a Hunting Day today, we have changed the format, and people get here for 8.00am which is much better as hunting in the middle of the day really does not work, and a good thing we did too with this weather. They caught a rabbit in the first session with was good.

2011-09-28T19:55:00.004+01:00

What simply gorgeous weather we have had for the last three days (I think it is three!) 25 degrees C, endless sunshine, and the most wonderful clear skies in the evening, there is my favourite blue again. That dress will materialize one day, when I get back to having a figure that is worth a dress.

I have to admit to being a little worried this evening. The day before yesterday the dogs went for their yearly vaccinations along with a little wild male Sparrow-hawk who went for an X-ray. The three dogs are fine, the Sparrow-hawk needs three weeks rest and then should be fine, but Rush had a lump, so yesterday he went back in and had it aspirated – sample taken from it, and after the result late this afternoon, tomorrow he is having it off pronto. It had some nasty cells in it and as it is small and in a good place at the moment, the faster we move the better. But it is never fun to contemplate any of the dogs having something wrong. Here is hoping that the operation will go well and there will be no repercussions.

As I won’t be able to ride early I took Mollie out this evening for the first time in four days, she had a nose bleed on Sunday (livestock!!) and so has had a few days off, apparently her nose is fine, and she managed to get a reasonably good buck in on the way home, and also apparently I am getting better at sitting them out! As I rode through the woods it was marvellous to see the autumn colours, they are stunning already, this morning as Mike and I drove to Birmingham to get the glass for the Hawk Walk doors, ready for the winter, there was a morning mist, the first this autumn, and I suspect we will have another tomorrow.

We had a meeting on Friday about next year’s falconry event, so now, we have a Gladiator weekend the first weekend in August and the Falconry Event the first weekend in September and in May our 45^th anniversary celebrations, so fill up your diary!! We also start the Owl Evenings at the end of next month.

Yesterday during the 2.00pm flying demonstration a somewhat ambitious Sparrowhawk, a juvenile female, came steaming in while Fortina the Peregrine was flying, it spent several minutes chasing her, it was very lucky that the tables were not turned! But it was amazing to see.

We are getting close to having the Hawk Walk ready for the winter and cold weather, we are about to ground the last of the summer flyers and be able to concentrate on the winter birds. Simon’s Goshawk has caught 8 rabbits so far, and we are ready for the autumn months now upon us.

The below stuff was sent to me by Linda, it never fails to amaze me that courts, judges and juries are this stupid, perhaps they should all be made to take some sort of common sense test before being allowed to sit in judgment on others………………………….

It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'! For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S.STELLA AWARDS

SEVENTH PLACE

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

SIXTH PLACE

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

FIFTH PLACE

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are more...

FOURTH PLACE

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
THIRD PLACE

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

SECOND PLACE

Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
FIRST PLACE

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

2011-09-23T22:19:00.004+01:00

Well my bloody computer is not doing well today, it had for some reason moved all my files to heaven knows where this morning, they came back, but we don’t know why and I just lost half of this text here because it is locking up and has to be crashed to get going again. Sometimes I hate them and they are always too damn slow as well!

Another week gone, more than gone, we had our first all day rain the day before yesterday, which was a bit of a shame as we also had a teaching photo day, but actually the people on it were amazing and they did well, learnt a great deal and got some good photos. I always say to the photographers that if they get one good to great photo of each bird they are doing well. The Wild About Photography day on Sunday went well too, the weather forecast was wrong as usual thank goodness and they managed to get some lovely photos of the birds on the side of May Hill, particularly I thought the Kestrel with the huge visa in the background was stunning.

Mollie is going well, learning a great deal from her lessons, still very bouncy on occasion out on a ride but I think she will slowly learn that gates, bikes, people, dogs, drains, pheasants, pigeons, squirrels and a number of completely invisible things are actually not going to kill her!! Oh and sheep, apparently they are particularly dangerous!

The three merlin's are doing well, Simon is getting his going and the other two are flying nicely. We have got Lady Isabel out, the female Barbary Falcon and Simon is going to fly her, he is also flying his goshawk and already catching stuff again. Mine has gone on loan to Mike Cordell as I have a nightmare of an autumn with stuff to get done. Also I really want to get a couple of books on the go this winter before I forget all that happened!!

Adam and Robin were filming this week and it all went very well, a film called the Wedding Video, the birds were excellent and got the shots very quickly, it’s nice to be professional, which is more than I can say for the restaurant that I have just come back from. The Olive Tree in Ledbury is not a place I would be able to recommend because I can’t stand bad service. We got there at 8.00pm, there were a large number of us but that should not be an excuse for bad service, in fact the other way round. I had to ask them to come and take the orders, several tables got served before us although they had come in some considerable time after we had got seated. Finally after waiting an hour I told a waiter that if I did not get my meal in five minutes I would be leaving and not paying for my order, they just about managed it, but it was in fact probably more than five minutes, so I will not be going there again.

Emily Shepherd from Swansea University and Rory and Xavier came today to do more research on bird flight, it is very pleasant to work with these scientists and they are fun to be around, and interesting. I feel privileged and lucky to be able to be involved in things like this.

Autumn is very much here now, the leaves are turning fast and the mornings can be chilly, I even lit the fire one evening. I do so love the autumn, and we are now getting ready for the Winter Owl Evenings so look on our website for details, they will be fun again this year.

2011-09-14T08:34:00.003+01:00

OK I have a beef today, I rarely buy clothes which is probably pretty obvious to anyone who sees what I wear. I loath buying clothes, cloth shopping is my worst nightmare and I go through shops like the proverbial whirlwind. I am not even that enamored of buying stuff online, because I am always worried about sending it back. However I did buy a couple of really nice jerseys from a company called Woolovers. So when I saw their stand at the Bath and West in June, I bought a couple more, but they did not have the ones I wanted in stock so they promised to send them on their return after the show. Needless to say I sort of forgot about them with the rush of life here. However they rather stupidly email me adverts on a regular basis, so that reminded me. Eventually after 6 weeks (!) they arrived, actually I don’t like one of them! Unwisely I ordered some more. I ordered them in July, not one arrived in what could be called a minorly reasonable time and I am still waiting for the last one. I think they are trying to catch the bloody sheep to make the things. So take my advice, they are nice jerseys, but unless you don’t mind dying of old age or pneumonia with winter coming along, waiting for the damn things don’t buy from them!! Oh and apparently they have not heard of apologising either!!

I just had an interesting email from Amazon too, they occasionally send me recommendations of things that would interest me, not sure they really have my measure, but I was amused this morning to be offered two books written by – myself!!

The local hunt met here yesterday and parked in our car park, at about 10.00 am they were loading up horses to leave but one chap had a horse that would not load, we all offered to help but he said no, two hours later the bloody horse was still standing half way up the ramp. He asked if he could leave it in one of my fields, and so he did, however he needs to learn to shut a gate properly, because about ¾ of an hour later a lady came in and said there is a horse walking down the road – on its own. So about four of us rapidly went to look, as it saw Holly it started to trot, so Adam and Linda got in his van, I grabbed Mollie’s head collar and John was ahead of me in the road. I was tearing down the road – OK not tearing as I can’t exactly tear these day, but a reasonable trot I would say, and a very kind lady offered me a lift. We drove about ½ a mile before we caught up with Adam behind the horse, and a nasty corner followed by the town coming up. So I encouraged Adam to push on and over take the damn thing, and he brilliantly did so and then swerved his van across the whole road and stopped it! I got out and managed to put Mollie’s head collar on the beast, although it was far too small and would not do up and John and I walked and trotted it back to the Centre and tied up the gate with various bits of rope so it could not get out again. The owners arrived late afternoon and had Jan not by chance been in the Car park we would not have known they were taking the horse, and then can you believe it the chap’s mother led the damn thing 11 miles home!!! It would not be my horse for very long I have to say!!

What with the very strong winds that we have had for about four days now, which sadly have ripped off a quarter of my beautiful Liquid Amber tree, the hunt meeting close by, and the wayward horse, Mollie was extremely wound up and our lesson was done with no rider and on a lunge line, and still she was pretty firey!! The wind has dropped today and I am teaching in the afternoon on the five day course. Our American guest has arrived and is still sleeping off the jet lag, the weather is glorious and I am going to take Mollie out now and see if she is a little calmer before her next lesson on Friday. At least today we should be able to fly the young falcons as we have not dared in the last few days. Oh and the Steller’s was amazing on Monday – above tree height and looking great in the wind!

Following is a little treat from the EU!

All You Need To Know About European Bureaucracy.

Pythagorean theorem: ...........................................24 words.

Lord's prayer:........................................................ 66 words.

Archimedes' Principle: ..........................................67 words.

10 Commandments: ............................................ 179 words.

Gettysburg address: ............................................ 286 words.

US Declaration of Independence: .................... 1,300 words.

US Constitution with all 27 Amendments: .......... 7,818 words.

EU regulations on the sale of cabbage:....... 26,911 words.

And worst still WE paid some flaming idiot to write it and even worse, could we survive without it – I suspect we could! Let’s get out of the EU!

2011-09-06T20:38:00.004+01:00

Well my field is very quiet, all the stands are still up but empty, the wind and misting rain is blowing them around. A huge branch has blown off the smallest Walnut Tree, the wind has been strong. The Biffa Bins have gone, the loos have gone, the bar has been sorted out and all the spare drink organised to go back, or gone back. The deep freezer will be moved back to the freezer shed, the fridge has gone back to the clinic, the signs have been taken down, the car park returned to a field next door, the temporary fencing is down, the horse field is clear and Mollie is back, we are almost back to normal, just the tents to go on Thursday, and that will be that.

The two days of the Falconry Event went really really well, we were busy, lots of visitors, of course we could have done with more, but considering it was the first time for this event we were very pleased. The weather was great, grey to start with both days, but soon the sun broke through and it was sunny and warm throughout the day, all the birds flew well. Gary Bidiss did a great job on both days, with his little hybrid flying superbly on the first day and although mucking him around on the second, ended up doing its usual excellent stuff. and a great kite demonstration (material kite not live one!) with a training kite and his peregrine. Terry Large was only with us for the first day as he had a prior engagement, but did his usual excellent demonstration with a number of birds. Nigel King flew his Aplomado on the second day which was a treat. He could not fly it on the first day he said he had just given it a snack on the first day but the rest of us think it must have been a whole flaming pigeon it had a huge crop for hours!! However he and Mark flew it together on the second day and she flew nicely to the two of them .

Our original dog demonstration had let us down, but Howard Kirby stepped in at the last minute on the second day and what an excellent demonstration, the best I have seen and a joy to watch. I hid my dogs away for it.

Needless to say my staff did a first class job with all the demonstrations and not one bird let us down, they all did brilliantly. The dogs were in heaven, we should have taken bets as to how much weight they would put on over the two days!! They were convinced that the whole thing had been put on for their benefit, but they did have fun and on the first day we tried out a motor to pull a rabbit and Sedge, Sorrel and Indigo showed people that although fat, they could still chase the rabbit! However for most of the day they either cruised the Centre helping people out with their picnics or food, or sat by the two food stands looking starving (well trying to!)

We had some great stands and artists, and all the exhibitors were really nice, and seemed to have a good time. The atmosphere over the whole place over the two days was really friendly and pleasant and it was good to see old friends that I did not expect to come. The UKFC cooked the BBQ and an excellent job they did and Mike and my staff manned the bar. Everyone on the stands and in the camping area came, Richard had organised the lighting for us and it looked great, there was a band but most people were enjoying chatting so few went over to listen. The BBQ finished on time as promised at midnight, although by the time I got to bed it was closer to 2.00 am – way past my bedtime.

All in all it was a great weekend, with lovely visitors, a wonderful setting, a good joint effort, and my staff and volunteers did a fantastic job making the place look wonderful beforehand. Charlie Heap put in enormous effort for the Centre to get the thing up and running.

Here are some of the comments

Good event, very well organised ,some top displays ,nice to put a face to some of the forum members and catch up with some old friends, i first visited the centre in 1977!!!!! been back a few times over the years, great setup, clean and tidy, brilliant, mark.

I also had a great weekend with the Mrs. met some awesome people, deffo will be going next year!

I’m glad me and Mrs went, had a good time, enjoyed displays, and David Foxes talk with wez:s input at the end ,Good seeing u guys, hopefully this will become a yearly event

I just have to say well done to Charlie and Mima + team for persevering with the event and putting on such a good event. It’s obvious from the comments how well received it has been.
I had a terrific day on Sunday, even the Mrs enjoyed it. Loved the art stands and was a pleasure to meet Mr Rampling and hope Birmingham wasn't too painful for you! Great to meet various other people and see a variety of birds flown so well.
Finally I have to admit in my opinion Howard and the dog show stole it for me, I don't know a great deal about the subject but I found it fascinating and entertaining and a really nice chap to chat to afterwards and all at the 11th hour! Even Mima commented on it being the best dog display she's seen! Thanks Howard!
Roll on next year maybe!? Make sure your there to support it!
Jimmi

ARE we going to do it again - probably yes!!! Watch this space!

2011-08-31T20:35:00.003+01:00

It only took us 22 man hours to get all the paths back to scratch after the rain last week. We had nearly an inch in half an hour, and I think most of it went down my neck. Not sure the weighing room floor is going to survive long term, the wooden bit is not looking happy after a torrent of water went through it for about an hour and a half. Still it should not happen again as we have now built a barrier that will stop almost anything (I hope!)

Iloana and Joan arrived last week and Iloana is doing sterling work in the gardens, we planted up the area that Sally completely cleared and watered it, just before the downpour!!

Charlie is here and we are getting ready for the event, which is exciting, or it would be if I did not have an awful cold and cough – I am

planning on having pneumonia by Saturday!!

The man doing the dog demonstration for the event is now not coming, however Howard Kirby has stepped into the breech, he can’t do the Saturday but will be here for the Sunday, I am looking forward to meeting such a helpful chap, and I have promised to put my lot in for the demonstration.

A number of people seem to want to bring dogs and birds to the event. Just look at it this way chaps, if you were visiting the Centre, which to all intents and purposes you are, you would not bring livestock, so sadly the same applies for this event.

Charlie and I have marked out all the stands and marquees, Mike has opened up the parking field, which looks great. Sally and I have picked up horse poo from the stall holders camping areas ( nice of us hey chaps!) and the beer and wine has been ordered. The place looks great and the volunteers have been stunningly wonderful to help us. I appreciate it a great deal guys. The weather looks set to be fair, come on over!!

2011-08-26T21:46:00.002+01:00

Well I am soaked to the skin, I have spent the last hour sweeping water from the weighing room and I dread to think what the paths are going to look like tomorrow, we have had serious rain, what I think we used to call a cloud burst. Heavy heavy rain, hail and water rushing everywhere. It is at this time when you realise that the gutters probably need a clean. Luckily I know where all the drains are that will need a clear, so I dive in and remove whatever is blocking them and watch the water swirl away. My top pond is full and I suspect that the bottom pond will look a little more like a pond by the morning. The birds are OK, Mollie is ignoring thunder and lightening and not bothering to come in although there is food and hay for her in the stable when she feels like it. Tomorrow will be a clear up day I suspect, which is a shame with a Bank holiday already upon us and our falconry event only a week away! Ah well, these little things are sent to try us……………………

To give a good demonstration, a good lecture, write a good weblog, make a slide presentation to go on the computer, any of these things, to do it well, to give of your best, is to do just that, to give of yourself. At the end of a day, or a lecture, or as I just have, watched one of the old slide presentations on my weblog, you give away a part of yourself, I sometimes wonder if you ever get it back, but I think you do in the comments and thanks from the visitors that we get on a daily basis. When someone says – as two people did today – that it was the best £10 they ever spent, that makes giving so much of yourself away not only worthwhile, but also renewable, it gives you the energy to do the same thing the following day and the many after that.

I watched the slide show and realised that I give away a huge part of my personal life with photos of the birds, dogs, house, all the things that I love, but I am happy and proud to be able to share them with anyone who is interested. Although I have to say that it is draining nevertheless, but the right sort of tiredness I hope.

We were busy again Wednesday , the weather has been very very kind to us this year, and although very dry, that does bring out the visitors. I did manage at the end of the day to have enough energy to take Mollie out for a ride and a very pleasant one we had, I then gave her a bath afterwards, not sure she enjoyed it that much, but after I had left her with a rug on and some supper for her, and some scrambled eggs for me, I went back out and checked she was dry and warm, and then groomed her, she is positively gleaming now and looks wonderful.

I have apparently recovered from Sorrel’s attempt at felling me, and although still a little stiff I could move properly today again, thank goodness. All the birds flew well and Tewa who is out to work after a break is keen already. Holly’s Barbary went AWOL for a few hours but was back before the end of the evening and Mark and my merlin's are coming on nicely.

2011-08-20T17:41:00.005+01:00

It was a beautiful day yesterday, warm and sunny and we were very busy, which is good, but tiring by the end of the day, we had four people on the falcon experience day, and I don’t think I stopped all day. Having said that, I did take some time off first thing and took Mollie out for a ride, she was very good and we went up onto May Hill for the first time, she behaved excellently even going past another horse on the way back down again. Today Sally came and lunged her, she does not know how to walk well on the lunge but that will come.

My little Merlin came to the lure yesterday for the first time, which is good, I am so looking forward to flying him, it is a long time since I have flown one. Holly’s Barbary is coming on nicely as is my one, and the three new Lanners are now all flying loose, as are two of the three Yellow-billed Kites. Bush Master is excellent and doing really well. Simon’s Great Grey is flying beautifully, and he is very fond of her, interestingly all the others in the clutch we had her from died, just goes to show what a good vet Neil Forbes is and he most definitely saved her, him and Simon.

Adam has a new Steppe Eagle just out, who is very pretty and hopefully will fly well. We have grounded Hard Tackle and two of the Lanners to make room for the new birds, and because they really did need a rest. But we got out Tewa so that we have one adult falcon going through the winter.

We moved the two baby Steller’s Sea Eagles today, mum and dad have had enough of them now and need to have some time on their own, so the kids are in an aviary together until we decide what to do with them. On the other hand the White-tailed Eagles have been fighting again, so we have had to take steps with the female again.

The doors for the winterizing of the Hawk Walk are done and put up on the top side now with catches to hold them open. Next we have to do the bottom side and then line each compartment and paint them, still we are moving on as they say.

Today started damp, but improved, however I am a little sore as Sorrel bowled me over in the field at our early morning walk, I hit the ground and more importantly split my early morning cuppa!! Not good, so I have been stiff all day, a good excuse for ibuprofen and gin – a well-known combination! Oh and yesterday after a very long day we picked damsons and made four litres of damson gin, my recycle bin looks a little concerning with five empty bottles of gin in there!! I am going to give blackberry gin a try to make this year as well!

I put on facebook that if anyone has any time in the next two weeks, we could do with a hand painting and tidying – let me know!

2011-08-16T08:36:00.004+01:00

I woke up very early yesterday morning, I had not slept that well, and I had both bedroom windows open and it was decidedly chilly in there. In fact early morning had a very definite autumnal feel to it. The previous day by the last demonstration the feel of the day had changed, instead of being warm and humid, it was warm but much fresher, the air was lighter. Many of the trees are changing very early, because of the lack of rain I guess. However it was a glorious morning, and I think that the autumn is probably my favourite time of the year, so I did not mind the autumn feel.

It remained good most of the day until the last demonstration when it became over cast and was very slightly raining, but that did not last long. I had hoped for a peaceful evening, but I had opened the French windows and let the dogs out, and forgot they were out there. At about 9.00pm I went out to check on Mollie and Sorrel was outside. On my return to the house could I find Sedge – oh no, I called, I looked under the decking, I searched the house, the shop, the workshop, the field, no Sedge I was getting very worried. Luckily Adam came up and found him stuck under another part of the damn decking – for the fourth time, so the decking is now being removed, which should solve the problem and get rid of the rabbits that are breeding under there. I can’t cope with worrying about him and Acer got stuck under there, and Sorrel has tried, so it has to go. One day perhaps I will be able to afford a really nice Conservatory, but for now it will be a big step out of the doors!

Holly’s Barbary Falcon went loose for the first time yesterday, as did Adam’s Lanner, so that makes all of the large falcons flying free now, there are a couple of Yellow-billed Kites to get off the creance and the two merlins are only just feeding on the fist, oh and the Steppe Eagle is doing well but very early stages right now.

And good news from Charlie, the little tiercel that he took for us last year to release has been trained and he has flown it, and then he cut a hole in his new barn (what we do for these birds) and has had it at hack (flying loose but can come back if it wants to) in his words it buggered off and killed a crow 200 yards away! So that is another one we can say should go back safely, which is good news for us and for Charlie.

My sister Dinah has left, has gone to riot torn London and flies out back to Brooklyn today. It was good to have her here, even for a short time, she always looks after me and gives me great meals – no wonder I miss her!

The last two pictures are Mary Catherine with Spy our Goshawk, whom she loved and James with Pioneer the Steller's Sea Eagle, whom he said was bloody heavy, it was such fun to have them here at Newent, particularly MC after all the less than pleasant experiences we shared in South Carolina. It is nice to know that she still has Saluda, her African Spotted Eagle Owl and he is doing well!

I am hoping to get a saddle this evening that will be comfortable for Mollie, I have not been able to ride her because the girth gave her a sore which has now healed, it will be good to get it sorted out so I don’t have to worry, she has a particularly fine skin, and so we have to be very careful with her, she is a lovely person though.

The new doors to go on the Hawk Walk to keep the birds warm and safe in cold winters are coming on. The top side is built and need to go up and the bottom side Mike has just started, we should get them done and up by the end of this month, and then we have to line the compartments and Richard has to do the electrics! It has been a busy August, I would like to have a month with no projects!

2011-08-13T12:30:00.003+01:00

Visiting us on Thursday was generally not a pleasant experience, not because of us I hasten to add, the day went well with the birds and all flew well, we even got out both of the merlin's due to start now, I am looking forward to training mine, however the whole place absolutely stank! The farmer who rents the land to the east and south of us kindly decided that as the wind was coming towards us from his land it would be a great day to spread chicken shit all over the fields. I might point out that I had expressly asked him to wait until there was an easterly wind, but no, he chose the worst day possible in terms of the wind direction. So from about 9.30am until the end of the day we had tractors going round spraying the bloody stuff to within feet of the aviaries and the café. The smell was dire, enough to make you actually want to throw up, the visitors were amazingly patient about it, but no one could eat outside, although the weather was warm, and all the cars in the car park were covered in the stuff by the end of the day. I was and still am pretty pissed off about it, I do not think it was a kind or neighbourly thing to do.

I then had great fun the following morning, I have been trying to indd out where I tell what used to sensibly be called the Ministry of Agriculture, and used to employ vets, and is now called AHVLA which happens to be the same bunch that deal with CITES - that I am importing a male King Vulture for the King Vulture EEP so that we might breed some. I gather that I have to inform the relevant authorities that I am bringing the bird in from a zoo in France.

So logically you would think I would phone AHVLA in Gloucester, so I did, and they said, no you need to phone Chelmsford where things are centralised. Chelmsford said No, you need to phone your local area, which now things have been centralised is Exeter (really close to here!!), third phone call Exeter who said, (Guess what!) No; that now that things have been centralised you have to phone Carlisle (so now I have been round the bloody country). Was it the right place – no, that is centralised for Export not imports, however Carlisle were helpful, they said that they were the wrong place ( there is a surprise), but they would phone round for us and let us know who to phone. And guess what, we have to phone the local people in Gloucester.

The smell of chicken dung is slowly seeping away and we have our last summer barbeque and Owl evening this evening, then the next thing is the Falconry Event on the first weekend in September and we have just organised three Golden Eagles to come and be here for the weekend. And here is a picture of Mollie, my new horse, not with me on board I hasten to add - well not yet, but soon!

Quote for the weekend E.O. Wilson Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the "environmentalist" view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.

2011-08-11T09:25:00.004+01:00

Well isn’t it just a wonderful time we are seeing with our towns and cities at the moment. All these lovely people who consider that it is perfectly acceptable behaviour to go on the rampage, steal, set fire to buildings, ruin people’s livelihoods, cause others to lose their jobs because of the damage, and generally behave in about the most moronic fashion, the more civilized and intelligent of us have ever seen.

I am ashamed that these people are living in the same country as I am. When you think what people in other countries such as Syria are facing, some fighting and losing their lives to gain democracy, where the idiots over here probably don’t even know they already have it, and certainly could not spell it, let alone understand the word. Others starving to death, where I saw little evidence of that in the pictures we were seeing on our TV screen, sadly all we saw was unforgivable and sheer greedy behaviour from people who were more than well fed.

The time has come to stop pussy footing around. Our teachers and police have been successfully emasculated by people who think that children should be empowered and wrong doers should be treated well. Neither teachers nor the police have any respect anymore and it is not surprising as we don’t allow them to their jobs properly. We need to go back to a time when if you misbehaved the people in charge of you at the time had the power to stop you doing it. Not be concerned that they might get sacked for telling off a child, or sued for using stronger methods to control crowds. It is time to give teachers back the power they used to have and remove the right to complain that you failed an exam because you were a lazy bugger. It goes through all walks of life up to the time when people are supposed to take responsibility for themselves. When you are not responsible, then you should be made to behave by those who are, when you are responsible, you should stop blaming others and get on with trying to do things better. The courts need to stop feeling sorry for the criminal element and remember the victims.

This country should not be in this state or be held to ransom by a bunch of people who when listening to them on the Television not only have no idea why they are behaving as they are, but who are thieves and thugs into the bargain, just using whatever excuse they can think up to be generally vile. Police and teachers need to be able to regain the respect they had and that means they need to be given back their power, and included in that is the right to be able to comfort a child if it needs it, not to be afraid you are going to be accused of being a sexual deviant.

On the other side, congratulation to the young people we saw a glimpse of on the news, who went out and helped to clear up the devastation, what a shame there are not more of that type of person around and encouraged.

We have had the saddest little bird in a couple of days ago, and it is not the first time. We had a young freshly fledged Hobby just left the nest come in. Its leg was broken, twisted and one toe dead, all from the bloody plastic binder twine, the stuff that holds bales of hay and straw together. It is vile stuff, firstly it is made from oil, like most plastics. I personally would prefer to have oil in the form of fuel which I can use for the foreseeable future, rather than plastic that I have to get rid of in my recycle bins. We need to go back, natural fibres sisal for binder twine, which rots over time, paper bags which comes from trees which are a natural resource and give us oxygen on a nighttime basis. The Hobby had to be euthanised as the injury was too bad and too old to fix.

2011-08-04T07:59:00.003+01:00

A friend just sent me this set of pictures, which are a disgrace to us all, where is this happening, Costa Rica, so make sure you don't go on holiday there and give them any of your support or money until this is stopped. When are we going to learn that this stunning planet is not just ours to rape and pillage.

The Turtle eggs are stolen - harvested if you prefer ( I prefer Stolen myself, harvested is not the right word here, this is wholesale theft and murder) - to be sold.

NOTHING LIKE A

PICTURE

EXPLAIN AN EXTINCTION, aren't you just so proud to be human and the most intelligent animal in the world

2011-08-03T20:16:00.004+01:00

I have to admit to being absolutely furious this evening, Holly, with some assistance from me, is trying very hard to get all our bird records straight, which is not easy at the best of times, especially with the work load we have at the moment and when dealing with a government department is made even less easy.

I am old enough to remember when bird registration first came in, in fact I have wished since 1979 that the falconers at the original meeting in Stoneleigh had said let’s have licensing of the falconers and owners, rather than the birds, but they didn't, which to this day I believe was a huge mistake. However the first bird to be ringed with a cable tie and registered was our Golden Eagle Sable, who removed the cable tie within ten minutes!! The government department was then called the Department of the Environment, or DOE, they are now called AHVLA don’t ask me what it stands for, (although I bet I could think something up!) we have all given up guessing as to what they are calling themselves these days.

My computer keeps wanting to call them HALVA, which personally I believe would be just as bloody accurate. They have gone through at least four name changes, all of which cost us the tax payer huge sums of money for a new logo (as if any of us give a damn about it) new name, new stationary, IT and so on. They used to do what they do for conservation reasons, now I see absolutely no conservation efforts on their parts whatsoever.

Now they have policemen on secondment who are convinced that any and everyone who has anything to do with keeping birds of prey must be a criminal, in fact I am surprised that the prejudice that we see is not held against them in any court cases. Now I am not saying that all falconers and bird of prey keepers are whiter than white, far from in, there are a fair number that I am disgusted with, however not all of us are out to break the law. Any more than we should judge all policemen by those who take bribes, or bend the law, or civil servants who leak important documents, or even become traitors to their own country. I don’t imply that all those who work in these fields are criminals and so similarly we should not be judged.

But today was just the bitter end. We applied to get what is called an Article 10 certificate for a wild disabled Hobby. Now let me explain that if we put any British birds of prey on display to the general public this is called commercial, the fact that they make little difference to our commercial success or failure apparently is neither here nor there. The fact that we take in and care for injured wild birds and the government does nothing apart from charge those who do for paperwork, is not taken into consideration. The fact that the idiots in CITES who changed the annexes and so put all European birds of prey at the same status, regardless of the fact that Black Kites are the most highly numeric birds of prey in the world, and yet Eleonora’s Falcons are rare and on the decline, did not seem to enter their tiny brains, so because of these idiots we have to run the gauntlet of paperwork and pay through the nose to do so.

However those facts aside, we applied for the bird and others with our cheques for £100, and were sent a letter asking yet more questions, some were about a Eurasian Griffon Vulture we bred this year, The questions about our education policy, the target audience (whoever walks through the bloody door!) the signage, how it pertains to the national curriculum (that is staggeringly full of vulture stuff of course) what conservation benefit will accrue to the species, etc etc, were not only endless, but if they don’t know that to get a zoo licence we have to fulfill criteria every bit as high as these questions if not higher, then they should be ashamed of themselves. Apparently they have no idea that the Centre is involved with the vulture project in India and Nepal, or any of the conservation work that we do, interestingly that supposes that English Nature doesn’t either, regardless of the fact that I have over the years sent them piles and I mean PILES of information on what we do, and they email me fairly regularly asking for advice!! Still we got all the bloody paperwork together which takes time and staff, and by the time it was all done the Hobby had very thoughtlessly died on us.

Robin who is our education officer thought it would be very useful to take its wings and dry them and use them to demonstrate to the visitors in our new education building the differences between a Hobby and a Kestrel, both of which are seen in the UK. So while I was on the phone checking that if we sent all the stuff up they would please keep it on file so that we would not have to do it again – which we are going to have to do because apparently the education stuff we do for the birds has to stipulate the individual species, otherwise we could be doing all the stuff for every bird on the place Except the Eurasian Griffon Vulture, my goodness to think I might have got that wrong. I then mentioned that the Hobby had died and I assumed that we would need an Article 10 to use the wings so could the wording on the application be changed from Live bird to Dead bird. NOPE! Not only did we lose the £25 for the Article 10 for the bird, which we never got, so that was £25 for no Article 10, but we would have to reapply with another £25 for the dead Hobby. Now I consider that to be extortion, it is disgraceful, it is nothing to do with conservation, it is downright greed and blindingly unhelpful to the people who are responsible for them having a damn job in the first place! So sadly the dead Hobby is going to go on the bonfire, what a criminal waste of what could have been a very useful educational tool and I would like to congratulate AHVLA, on your bird conservation, it is quite without par. Of course my MBE is for services to bird conservation, I wonder what services you could get one for?

2011-07-29T07:26:00.004+01:00

We had a perfectly glorious weekend start to the school holidays, we have had some lovely customers this week, it is always so much fun when you know they are enjoying themselves. Although I have discovered something today, I often wondered how the decision was made as to who flew the Steller’s to the fist at the end of the demonstration, and answered all the questions, and who was at the bottom of the field calling her. Well I found out!! It depends on how many pretty girls there are in the audience!! So they have a look and then choose who is going to do what!! Can you believe it!!

The new aviaries are nearly finished, the feather edge just has to be stained and the owls are loving their new homes already, Sidewinder is digging away on the floor and playing with worms!- update - they are finished! Now we start on the doors for the outdoor Hawk Walk to make that suitable for use during cold weather, which also means we can turn a part of the indoor Hawk Walk into a photographic studio.

I have had two friends over from South Carolina Mary Catherine and James, they were here for a week and the weather has been very kind, warm during the day and cooler at night, they loved it particularly as it is hot as hell in the US at the moment. They completed a new path over the lawn by the weighing room, it is made of very heavy pavers, which they had to move and I suspect were very glad to see the back of, but it was worth it and it looks great and will save the lawn, so James feels now that he has left a permanent mark on the place. I on the other hand appear to have left only blood around the place, I managed to try and take the top of my finger with a step ladder, I then discovered that both Simon and Mike had done the same thing, but with less blood, so the ladder is now residing on the scrap metal pile! I caught my thumb in the Ferruginous’s beak while I was coping him and then damn me Rhadamanthus landed on my arm, and while takin g off to go to Adam managed to leave a couple of gouges in my arm, which bled copiously! So my typing is a little haphazard and I will not be playing the piano for a few days!! Which is probably a relief to the dogs whom I believe are not impressed by my playing!

My pond is very low, but if it is a choice between enough rain to fill it, and nice weather for the next three months, I know which I am likely to take! Henry is apparently doing well with the girl who now has him, he is not behaving that well, but she does not seem to mind. I am trying out a new horse who is called Mollie, I know there is a horse out there for me, I just have to find it.

James and Mary Catherine went to Gigrin Farm with Linda to see the kites, one of these days I will go, but I think the autumn would be when I would like to see them. Our baby Kite (yellow Billed) is going to fly loose today, he is nearly there with the catches and the training line is getting in the way now, so today is the day! We have been watching the celebrations on the news, a year to go for the Olympics, I guess I should be more interested, but I have to say that celebrating a year ahead seems a little odd. That would be like celebrating our 45 anniversary here the year before!!

I have to say I do wonder about HM Customs and how bright they actually are. I asked one of my part time staff to do an extra day each week and after a couple of weeks she came to me and told me that the amount of tax she is having to pay means that she gets less than if she worked two days a week so she needs to go back to two days not three! That is nothing short of crazy, what is wrong with the people in government, can they not see just how stupid this is. I once spoke to a woman who worked for one of the government departments and asked her why people were moved around from one department to another without actually having the expertise needed to do the new job, she said it was a remnant of how the civil service worked during the war years. Well all I can say is if I ran my business like the civil service runs the various departments I would fail.

2011-07-22T15:09:00.007+01:00

I have just watched the BBC news, needless to say that the Newspaper scandal is still high on the list of items, and now it appears the media, the BBC TV news included is out for as much blood as they can get. It is interesting to note that where they are pushing for top policemen and our prime minister to accept responsibility for the appalling behaviour of the media, have we ever seen a news reporter or a TV reporter resign because they have got something wrong? Have we seen them apologise to accusing, lets mention Spain in the recent Salmonella scare, no we haven’t. I loathe the way the media, all of them, apparently feel they can run the country. There is an aggressive bias in the way the TV people interview subjects, there is a complete lack of compassion, or understanding that very often humans in all walks of life will make mistakes.

Regardless of the knock on effect of this mess, the responsibility for the initial disgraceful behaviour, the spying, phone hacking and bribing, lies firmly and squarely with the media. At the moment the Murdock empire is taking the blame, but I very much doubt if it stops just with his newspaper group.

I remember seeing on the TV news many years ago a camera man filming a woman who had just been taken in to see her husband, or relation had survived one of the ferry disasters, now he was there filming it – by chance? I don’t think so! So you can pretty much bet he knew before she did, and he was there as a voyeur to spy on the event. I was disgusted, as indeed I am when I see the media like a scurrying horde of ants over powering an animal and killing it, chasing after people to get a picture of them in their car fleeting away, are we such awful creatures that we need this rather poor picture of whoever the person is who may in the end turn out to be completely innocent. I have no affection for Mr Murdock, but do we really want or need to see an old man buffeted, pushed and shoved by the media desperate to get a picture.

I believe that the media, all of them, need to stand back and have a good long look at themselves and their behaviour and remember that sadly they do have far more power than they really deserve. Therefore they should treat that power with respect, honour and decency, none of which has been very evident in their behaviour during my life time, and which is rapidly getting worse.

One of my staff just sent me this!

In the queue at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator or lift in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. We were also not an overweight lazy bunch of humans because of it.

But he was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappy’s because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that was right we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them before we had paper throw away ones?), not a screen the size of Wales .

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used a padded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised and kept fit and lean by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But he's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a tap or water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water, and amazingly we survived without carrying drinking water we drank when we were thirsty! We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got blunt.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the train or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service, which causes a nightmare for those trying to get to work, and keeps our children fat. We had one electrical socket in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. We even had enough brain to use a map.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Interesting eh?

Oh and two other things, yesterday I drove along the M50 - very slowly - not through choice, but because there are 7 miles of roadworks along there. Every so often we passed a sign stating that the road was closed for the safety of the workers - WHAT WORKERS!!!!!!!!! in seven miles a friend who came the other way earlier saw none and we saw (we were counting at that point) two people, one driving a truck and the other playing around with cones, and that ladies and gentlemen was all being done with your taxes!! As for the idiot driving the Asda lorry at 10.30pm on my return journey, thanks whoever you are, at least I had no chance of being done for speeding, we never even got to 40 mph!

My last beef today is the price of fuel on the motorway, I was staggered to pay 10 pence more per litre than a garage I had stupidly passed the previous day and not thought about filling up. Why are these places allowed to charge so much more and don't tell me its because they are on the motorway because they get a ton more customers by being there, it is an undiluted rip off and I hope they get ripped off in the same way!

2011-07-17T08:59:00.005+01:00

Our summer BBQ and Owl evening went very well, we had a full house, and although the day started off very grey and raining, by the afternoon, the sun was out, the grey clouds were high and the weather was pretty damn good for the evening. Adam and Mark took a baby guided tour – i.e. a tour of all the enclosures with birds with young, and then we had burgers and sausages and white wine spritzers, followed by a demonstration. The birds were very good, the new Common Buzzard was a little annoyed at being left that late in the day, but did well as did Mark’s new Lanner, Sidewinder who is much improved was enchanting and went down a tunnel several times, Grey Cobra was excellent, and so was Harley, who really in coming on now, we were going to leave him until last but had a phone call about the missing Milky Eagle Owl, so a team shot off to see if we could find him and I finished off with Barn Owls, we brought down the baby Barn Owl, which like most of the Barn Owl family are not that attractive as chicks, and followed that with ‘one we made earlier’!

Pan, who was his normal excellent self. It was just getting towards dark, and it was lovely to end up with an owl that people might see in the evenings in the wild.

Yesterday we had a young Sparrowhawk in, she had been found in the middle of a corn field, not sure how she got there, but she is feeding well, too young to go as yet. The Vale Rescue Centre brought her in, and at the same time delivered six Hedgehogs to be released, which I did just before dark, they finally ambled off into the wood, I hope they like it here and stay, and survive the damn badgers who eat them.

Never did get round to doing the Kestrel photo damn it, it has been a hectic week I have to say and I am not feeling that well today. Henry is going to have to come back, he has not behaved as he should have done, so I have to collect him next week, blowed if I know what I am going to do with him, particularly if he is getting that difficult.

It’s raining again a little this morning and we have the usual half experience day, Mark and Adam are off for their days off, and Holly is in. She will be pleased to see Boom slang again. We have had to separate Boom slang and Sidewinder, they are going through the teenage stage and scrapping with one another. Their new aviaries will be ready in about a week I hope, then we are going to extend the small aviaries at the top of the hawk walk a little and make them better and more roomy. I have to say that the place is looking wonderful at the moment, even if it is a little damp right now.

2011-07-10T11:20:00.003+01:00

Well we got some rain, and it was definitely heavy stuff, I am sure the trees appreciate it, however my pond is still very low and I dare not replace the fish that died over the cold winter until it is up again or the Herons will get the lot. Sidewinder has managed to injure one wing, he has soft tissue damage and was feeling very sorry for himself, we have no idea how he did it, however he is much more cheerful now. All we have to do is work out a way to hold his right wing up for a few days as it is dropped and he is not being helpful about it as he manages to remove any bandages in about 7 minutes flat, the little devil!

A really nice girl came to see and ride Henry last week, and he is going on a trial next week, I hope she likes him as I can’t do him justice and need something a little more in keeping with my age and lack of time!

Linda took a Wild About Photo day yesterday, I hope they got the picture I would have wanted, in fact, I might even take the kestrel up onto May Hill and get the shot I want. Why Not I ask myself, indeed I answer! She (Linda that is) is very good with the photographers and very patient as it takes some time and effort to get a good shot.

We appear to be bee free for this week anyway, although we did find a large wasp’s nest in Common’s compartment, which had to be dealt with. The two baby Lanners are doing well as is my Barbary. The three baby Merlins are growing nicely as is the baby Aplomado, so all bodes well for next year’s breeding season. Baby Great Grey is still with us and slowly improving, we are crossing everything that she makes it through. Pyrites is nearly there in his retraining and Adam and I worked him yesterday, I think he is going to be Very good which is nice, and the first baby Yellow-billed Kite is close to being grown up now so will be in serious training very soon, that one is for me!

Next Saturday is our first summer Barbeque, we have a good number of people coming and they are going to see all the new birds in training of various degrees, all we need is good weather please. We have extended the roof a little on the Pavilion so that people can shelter if it rains during the demonstration, which proved very useful yesterday as it had its first serious usage. Oh and I won money on the huge Euro Lottery!! £2.80p!! A little more would have been useful, but you can’t complain.

I have been interested in all the newspaper scandal, and if you believe that it was just the one newspaper then you are nuts. Now I have relations and good friends in the newspaper reporting business so I apologise to them if I upset them, but I have to say that I was not in the slightest bit surprised at the disgraceful behaviour of British newspapers. Having been at the end of a smear campaign personally, I have no illusions about their morals, I am not convinced that the majority of people in the media actually has any, I think the drive to sell papers, or TV programmes is so great, that morals and accuracy long since went out of the window.

I also can’t see the reasoning that ‘the public has a right to know’ – why!! Apart from the fact that why anyone has any interest in the lives of grossly overpaid, incredibly badly behaved and apparently not particularly good footballers, completely defeats me, why should people have a right to know about the intimate lives, mistakes, and behaviours of others. Where did that come from – oh, could it be the media!! Unless it impinges on the GP’s safety, security, or their lives, then surely it is nothing to do with us. This insatiable, grasping and mindlessly destructive greed for gossip is a purely human trait and one that is sadly a very unpleasant one, and does not need to be fed by the media in the way that it has evolved and indeed in the way that the media has trained its public to expect.

Opppppppppppps its coffee time! And I am needed on the half experience day as well.

2011-07-03T13:54:00.004+01:00

Another hectic week, the weather has been and still is glorious, we are busy which is great and we were up again on numbers for June, not hugely, but up, so that means we have increased our gate every month this year. It’s just a bloody shame that the government has increased the VAT so we lose 20% of it. We had yet another problem with bees yesterday. The swarm that had taken up residence in the eaves of my house swarmed again yesterday, I knew they would because they had gone into the south side of the roof which gets all the sun and so it gets hot as hell under there. They did it just before the 2.00 pm demonstration, but this time went onto the trunk of a tree in the garden, I managed to find the swarm coordinator (!) for Newent and they very kindly came up and recovered the bees whom I hope now will find a good home, preferably miles away from here. Sadly I think the House Martins have given up on their two new nests damn it as they were invaded by the bees.

The birds are doing well, the little new Great Grey Owl baby has been very ill, a virus we think, but fingers crossed, with superb treatment from Neil Forbes and great care from my staff, she is finally looking better and we are hoping she will pull through, its been a tough road for her though. Boom Slang Holly’s new White Faced Scops Owl is charming and doing well, Sidewinder my baby Burrowing Owl bids fair to be every bit as good as Copper and Ruby, he (we hope) is fearless and going through tunnels like a little windup toy, he is enchanting. Grey Cobra is the Abyssinian Eagle Owl that Donatella, our trainee is working with and he flew 20 feet to the fist yesterday, although he was not happy when a helicopter flew over – come to that neither was I! We took out the two baby Lanners a couple of days ago and Simon and Mark are training one each, Adam is waiting for his baby Kite to grow up and is working on one of the Black Kites that has finished moulting – Pyrites, so there are a ton of new birds coming on. And Karis is flying like a dream, I just need the audience to appreciate him more!!

The new tractor is going well and mowing the grass and Nathan seems to like it, he also saved the day yesterday as we had a mix up in the accounts and he is apparently a wizard and so found the missing money that Jan and I could not account for! It was so stressful Jan and I had to have a G+T for lunch yesterday!

Linda is doing great things with the website at the moment and we are in the run up to our first summer barbeque. She has put on some great new pictures, she really does work very hard on it and it shows.

I am trying to merge two word documents at the moment, I need to get on with writing a couple of books and I have two documents both of which I have worked on and I need to put them together. I went to Microsoft help and blow me to give me the answer they want to charge £28!!! Can you credit it, what a flaming rip off. They certainly should not call it help!!

2011-06-27T19:51:00.005+01:00

Good Lord how time flies, it ages since I wrote, it has been hot as hell for the last two days and very muggy. The mower arrived and Nathan seemed to like it although I have seen him on his old little mower for the last two days, so I am not convinced. We

filmed today, live, for Crimewatch Road-show, which was interesting, but exhausting by the end of the day, not that they stayed long after the end of the show, long enough for us all to have breakfast at 10.00am, but then they all left, but they started at 6.am! So that meant an early start to get dogs fed and walked, horse checked, the gates open, the cafe open and the coffee on! So I am running out of steam right now I have to say. The filming went superbly well, Adam did a great job with Harley who was the star - you can see it on BBC I player if you are so inclined. Holly's owl Boom-slang (!) opened the show, and both owls and all humans behaved impeccably. My great staff and volunteers were all in early or on time and we did a good job.

I drove to the RSPB HQ on Thursday for a meeting on the vulture programme, it was good to see and talk to everyone again, and we sorted out a few problems, and better still my Range Rover behaved superbly and got me there and back in record time. I took Henry to Leominster sale on friday and brought him home again, the prices were very poor and he was very upset, he has recovered now!

This piece of news is particularly sad, again you have to wonder at the brainless stupidity of those people who refuse to stop using lead as an ammunition for shooting. Again I would point out to those people that no one is asking you to stop shooting things, just to change your ammunition, you would not think this was rocket science, or particularly difficult. The excuses are: it’s too expensive, well it would get cheaper if you all used it and it’s even more expensive for the poor unfortunate birds that die from consuming lead while clearing up after the shooting fraternity. It will damage my gun – get a new one and hang the expensive one up on a wall so you can admire it. It’s not as lethal as lead – get better at shooting or do the R and D that is required! There are answers to all your excuses chaps, and as for the complete moronic idiots who refuse to believe the OVERWHELMING science that pinpoints lead as a killer of birds who pick it up while feeding, and the overwhelming science that it is actually very bad for humans as well one can only assume that they have already consumed enough lead to make them particularly brainless, there can’t be another reason – can there?!

I guess all this just goes to prove that the hunting fraternity in the US really does not give a damn about conservation, apart from conserving what they hoot, and certainly has no pride in their rare wildlife.

Public asked to help stop lead poisoning as three more condors die

Six California condors were discovered to have toxic levels of lead in their bodies in early May. Three of the birds died of lead poisoning and the other three were successfully treated and released back into the wild. "X-rays showed 18 shotgun pellets in the digestive system of one bird and 6 in another. The third had remains of a spent bullet in its system, all suggesting these scavengers died after eating one or more animal carcasses that had been shot," said Chris Parish, head of The Peregrine Fund's condor recovery program in Arizona.

31 May 11 - Lead continues to hamper condor recovery in Arizona and Utah; 3 condors die

GRAND CANYON, Arizona – Recent episodes of lethal lead poisoning in California condors have biologists asking for more help from the public to conserve endangered condors in northern Arizona and southern Utah.

Tests indicated that a total of six California condors had toxic levels of lead in their bodies in early May. Three of the birds died of lead poisoning. The other three were successfully treated and released back into the wild. Necropsies were conducted by the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.

“X-rays showed 18 shotgun pellets in the digestive system of one bird and 6 in another. The third had remains of a spent bullet in its system, all suggesting these scavengers died after eating one or more animal carcasses that had been shot,” said Chris Parish, head of The Peregrine Fund’s condor recovery program in Arizona.

Biologists were alerted to the most recent poisoning incident by a Grand Canyon hiker who reported seeing a dead condor. Biologists recovered the bird, an 11-year-old male that had been nesting in the area.

“The loss of this older condor is especially harmful to the recovery of the species because of its potential to add to the population as a breeding bird,” Parish said. “While the Arizona program is experiencing some positive milestones, like the new chick that recently hatched in the wild, the availability of lead to condors continues to hamper the program.”

After receiving the hiker’s report, Peregrine Fund biologists immediately began capturing other condors known to have been in the same area to try to determine the cause of death. Of nearly 30 birds captured and tested, five had toxic blood lead levels that required treatment and two died, in addition to the bird found by the hiker. The other three birds were released back into the wild after chelation treatment, a process used to remove lead from the birds’ systems.

Chronic lead poisoning paralyzes a condor’s digestive system, which leads to starvation, weakness, and death. Acute lead poisoning, typical of high doses, can kill condors more quickly.

“If the hiker hadn’t found the dead bird and reported it, this exposure event might have slipped under our radar and the population could have suffered the loss of even more birds,” Parish said. “Annual exposures tend to follow the big-game hunting seasons, but this episode shows that it can happen anytime. Condors are scavengers and if carcasses or discarded remains are left in the field, they will consume them.”

Since 2005, the Arizona Game and Fish Department has been working with hunters in the condors’ core range of northern Arizona to voluntarily use non-lead ammunition. The effort has resulted in up to 90 percent of hunters taking efforts to reduce the amount of lead available to condors. The department has provided free non-lead ammunition to hunters drawn in affected game management units and also to Navajo animal control officers and the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department.

“Arizona Game and Fish has been encouraged by the support it has received from hunters to use non-lead ammunition in condor range, but we’re asking for anyone who uses a firearm to harvest or dispatch wildlife or domestic animals to use non-lead ammunition or remove the carcasses from the field in condor range,” said Kathy Sullivan, the Game and Fish condor program coordinator.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources began a non-lead program for hunters last year to benefit condors that have expanded their foraging range to Zion National Park and surrounding areas.

When hunters learn that lead ammunition harms wildlife, they often are willing to use non-lead bullets or haul the remains out of the field.

“I am a hunter and until a few years ago I had no idea that lead-based ammunition was harmful,” Parish said. “Now, like many hunters who are aware of the problem, I use non-lead ammo and find that it offers fantastic performance.”

There are now 68 California Condors flying free in the wild in Arizona. Another nine condors are in a holding pen awaiting release within the next few months.

And it is not just the US chaps!!!!

Lead rains down...

A study funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has shown that almost 70% of ducks shot in England are illegally shot with lead ammunition.

Out of 492 ducks bought from game dealers, supermarkets and butchers, 344 contained lead ammunition. This figure is similar to that found in 2002 in a study, showing compliance with the law has not improved over the last eight years. A survey of shooters indicated that most understood the law, but nearly half (45%) admitted to breaking it. The main reasons given for breaking the law were that there was only a small chance of being caught, disbelief lead is a problem, as well as the lack of availability

and cost of lead-free ammunition. The failure to enforce legislation and protect wildfowl in wetlands from lead poisoning would be a big enough concern in itself. But recent evidence has suggested that lead poisoning is a problem away from wetlands, where a wider range of species can suffer from lead poisoning. This includes birds of prey that ingest lead shot (or even bullet fragments) when feeding on shot and non-retrieved game. Of course, it’s not just birds of prey that eat game shot with lead ammunition – people do, too. Fragments of lead ammunition left in food are not necessarily removed by the standard butchering process, and potentially dangerous lead levels can be found in food for human consumption.

The Government has established a Lead Ammunition Group, which includes representatives of shooting bodies, ammunition manufacturers, conservation and welfare groups, to look at all the new evidence and recommend a sensible response. This group will include the poor compliance with existing lead regulations in their discussions and is due to report to Ministers in 2011. See www.leadammunitiongroup.co.uk for information.

2011-06-16T13:49:00.010+01:00

It’s was lovely day yesterday, although the forecast as usual was wrong very wrong damn them. They said rain, so I sowed grass seed yesterday morning and did not spray weeds, and in fact I should have done it the other way round!!

I collected the ‘eyes’ for our Owl Maze on Monday and a stone that had been specially carved by Rob from Royal Forest Pennant Stone. Thanks to him and Nick Horton, who gave them to us, and my goodness if you want quality carved stone, that is the place to go.

I was lucky enough to be shown an Apple Tree that is going outside Hereford Cathedral, and it is absolutely stunning, worth going to Hereford just to see it once it is in place, even if getting through Hereford is a nightmare! So the maze is complete and looks wonderful. Children seem to like the new adventure trail by the flying ground, and the one that Adam and Mark and various wonderful volunteers are doing in the wood is going to be very exciting, not for smaller children though!

The birds are flying well, the Steller’s was superb, needless to say on the day I was not here! But in a wind she is definitely getting the idea, not so good on a still day but that is not surprising. The Great Grey Owl is doing well, will be on demonstration soon and the baby Abyssinian Eagle Owl is one of the charming owls I have yet to meet. Holly’s little White-faced Scops Owl, (thanks to Mick) is also very sweet and I have a new baby Burrowing Owl who is just a scrap of a thing at the moment. Very soon the Lanners will be able to come out, and the young Harris Hawks are fledged and flying around in the aviary.

The two people who came on the photography day have put some lovely comments on our Facebook Page, they apparently had a wonderful day despite the rain, and there is a great video of Sedge running in the Lurcher Race and the Falconers Fair in May which is on there as well. Holly has put up some new pictures. Sadly we did not have enough people wanting to come to the first summer barbeque, so I hope you will book in for the July one, it should be fun, and Richard Will have finished the lights by then!

The grass in the bottom field is finally growing, although needs spraying for non grass weeds very soon and the top field is almost all buttercups, which are going to cop it very soon too. The pond is fractionally fuller than it was although I think it is going to take some major rain to fill it up again. Life got rather interesting on Thursday for the 2.00 pm demonstration, we have had a swarm of bees trying to take residence in the roof of my house, and they are seriously upsetting the House Martins, which I am not pleased about. However as we started the second demonstration, either them or another swarm came buzzing down to the flying ground, we had done two birds and decided to take Ruby into the indoor Hawk Walk and wait and see what happened outside. Well a huge swarm took up home in one of the Walnut trees just behind the seats in the flying ground. We did fly the Steller's but had the audience sitting on the play area! Sue phoned a friend who is into bees and two of them came, we used Richard's big hedge stepladder - thanks Richard, and they climbed up, pruned back some of the branches and then one of them held a tiny - well it looked bloody small to us (!) - basket out and Adam and the other chap shook the branch with a rope, and blow me they

dropped into the basket - did it have a top - nope! Then it was brought down out of the tree and gently placed open end down onto a sheet and the bees all either stayed in there, or climbed around and then went it, they did about three other shakes into one of our buckets and after about a couple of hours, off they went with the sheet wrapped round the hive thing - in the back of their car!! Amazing!

The heavy rain promised for Friday never came here, my tractor arrived, but with the wrong mower, so that is coming on Tuesday, with a five foot cut that should save Nathan a lot of time once he gets the hang of it. Richard HH has been working on designs for a potential new shop and cafe, something that we desperately need, we spend hours yesterday on it and I know he spend even more time previously, I envy the programme he is using, but it looks hard to learn.

2011-06-12T22:49:00.005+01:00

While I remember, can anyone who is using those weird email groups, business link, que pasa and the like, please not include me. I don’t like them, they are invasive and a bloody nuisance, so if you have tried to get me to join and I have not replied it is because I don’t want to get involved with them, not because I don’t like you! If you want to talk to me – use my email which you already have, otherwise I would not have heard from you!! Don’t be offended, but know that I will and do immediately delete them. The same goes for texts, I don’t do texts or my mobile answer phone, I delete all those on the few occasions that I even turn on my mobile phone!! So be warned!

It’s been a miserable day, rain, rain and more rain, although the ground, grass and plants need it badly, I just wish it would bloody come on a Monday (not a bank holiday) and not a Sunday. I drove up to Yorkshire to a good friend’s wedding, left on Thursday as we had some work to do and drove back leaving at about 4.00 am this morning. I hit the rain just as I got onto the M5 and it literally has not stopped all day. The wedding was fine, both parties rolled up, always a good sign!! Seriously, it was lovely and the weather held, the church was wonderful and the champagne at the reception excellent. I was taken out to supper on both Friday and Sat, what a treat. I worked out as I was driving back that in fact I have only ever been to seven weddings, one in the US (they have an amazing number of do’s – wedding rehearsal, wedding dinner, wedding disco, wedding breakfast, wedding, wedding reception, I have to admit I did not enjoy it but then I did not go with a particularly pleasant or attentive person, and I had to change three times!) and five over here, two in the sixties, three in the 80’s (one of which was mine!) and one yesterday. There were a number of children at this wedding………………………I have decided that no children are allowed to come to my funeral, only friends and a lot of Labradors!

We had to fly the birds indoors today, some of them really are very good considering that the indoor hawk walk is not huge, but I wish we had the building that I put up at Eardisland, it was designed for an indoor flying arena and it was stunning and would have been great here. My cousin came down with baby Tawny Owl number six, which will be fostered and then released later in the year. My baby Great Grey Owl has grown and will need to start to come into the house tomorrow, he is particularly noisy. I have a ton of stuff that I need to get done but with being away it has slipped back a little. So Monday – nose to the grind stone!

I just heard on the news that various students are up in arms because one of them got arrested for downloading an al qaeda manual. Well I for one am delighted that people are vigilant enough to see that as a possible threat and if the student, who presumably is an intelligent person did not warn the University he was going to do it for his research, then he is pretty short sighted.

We had a photography day today, three people cancelled because of the rain, two came, and I think they had a great time. We were able to do a little outside, but mostly we had birds inside and Linda got them taking some lovely stuff, and the close ups were to die for. So just because it rains, don’t think you won’t get good stuff here – you will! We are very adaptable!

This picture we took on the trip to the Bath and West!!

2011-06-05T18:52:00.004+01:00

Its June! Blow me down where does the year go. The Bath and West Show went well, it is absolutely exhausting to be away from home and doing two demonstrations per day, I don't think people realise just how tiring it is. The show was good, we did eight excellent demonstrations and the birds were faultless. However it was not easy, the wind was extremely strong for all four days, and it was hot as hell on the Friday, but the real problem was the sodding gulls. Every time we started to fly the birds the gulls started to appear, my considered opinion is that the best gull is a dead one!! By the time we got to the eagle on each demonstration they were up to about 20 of the damn things and they gave Hare a miserable time.

I don't think people understand just how difficult they make my job, they dive consistently at the birds and keep their height down, so what should have been a great day for superb flying on the Friday with the eagle was spoilt by the XXXXXDX gulls!! At one point I thought one of the Lesser Black Backed Gulls was going to actually catch one of the male lanners, but all things considered the birds did not let me down and did very well. Oh, that is with the exception of Bay Middleton, (male Harris Hawk) who did a good demonstration on the first day, an excellent one on the second day and on the third and fourth day behaved like a completely untrained bird!! He refused to do anything. Needless to say, today, at home, he remembered he was a trained bird and had it not been raining all day and me being very tired, he would have flown in his normal fashion, as it is I am still pissed off with him!

Everything is more or less OK here, one or two problems, but nothing that is not part of the normal routine of this place. The grass is finally growing, which reminds me, I sort of bought a tractor at the Bath and West!!!!!!!!! Well wait a bit, we desperately need a better mower for Nathan, but if I buy a good commercial mower - that is all it does - mow.

So there was this tractor - an elderly but really good one, with grass tyres, which means we can take it over the field at almost any time, and a great finishing mower with a five foot cut. So.................... it will be here in about ten days, so I have to tell Nathan and at the same time have a word about the second light that has just been written off!

The birds are well, the away team was very pleased to be home, as was I I have to say. I have to drive to Yorkshire later this week for a wedding and I have no clothes that are suitable. My wardrobe really is getting somewhat scary it is so poor. But we will give the Range Rover a test and see if it can get to Yorkshire and back, otherwise it will be the AA that I am calling!! While I was away the BBC emailed to see if we could tell them of a good place to fly a kestrel for filming and bugger me, they were using someone else for the damn filming - what a bloody nerve to ask us and not use our birds. That would be like me emailing ITV and stating that I was filming with the BBC and could they tell me of a good location they have used in the past!!!!!!!!!!

Other than that, I have caught up with most of the emails and probably only annoyed two people at most, I am desperately tired having not slept well for days, and I am looking forward to settling back down again after being away, which I do not enjoy any more. The dogs are happily asleep on the sofa's and I am aiming for an early night.

2011-05-28T20:34:00.005+01:00

This evening all the dogs were lying around the kitchen, little black bodies, with paws covered in the pink sand from the new gravel coating each pad, turned upwards, Sorrel clasping one of my wellies in her paws, what would life be without them. With their eyes closed, and relaxed and happy, they are a wonderful part of my life.

It has been a relatively shitty day, I took six birds to fly at Dean Close School in Cheltenham, the bloody wind is still with us, so that adds to making a more difficult demonstration. It was not a pleasant place to fly, a tiny arena and very enclosed with trees, however Common was brilliant, you could not fault him, Bay Middleton would not pick up properly, so I took the decision not to fly him as I had a back-up bird (thank goodness) so next came Lambrusco who was brilliant (kite) then Greeves(kestrel) did nice flying and a lovely hover. All the time gulls were stooping at the birds, but as soon as Hare took off about 30 crows came out and dived at him and even hit him.

I flew him one more time than I should have done damn it, and he got driven away by crows and gulls. I finished off with Discovery, who was very good, but as I was on my own I was a little distracted, to say the least.

It took about two hours to get Hare down and Mark kindly came over and helped me, because it was hard work moving from the car park to the school, Hare didn’t want to go anywhere, but the fences meant a long walk each time he moved, followed by a ton of crows and gulls. He came down eventually, and it was good to have him back. So home we went.

The bugger of it is that all the birds flew really well, and they should have been remembered for what they did, but I know that all anyone will remember is that the eagle flew away, although in fact he was driven away by bloody crows, and that leaves a bad taste in ones mouth.

However I had a bottle of champagne left from our 44^th birthday, so the taste is going!! And as ever it is great to be home with all birds in their compartments and all well, apart from the fact that (prior to the champers) I reversed the trailer into the oil line to the shop and flat – bugger it! Still the evening it glorious, the lowering sun is leaving long shadows on the lawn, there is still a slight wind and the baby Aplomado Falcon is a sweety.

2011-05-26T08:49:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was our 44 birthday, the Centre opened on May 25th forty four years ago, what an amazing thought. The cost to get in was 2/6d for adults and 1/3d for children, for those of you who never knew our proper money that was 12.5p for adults and just over 6p for children!! However petrol was 5/6 a gallon, which is 27p and Father bought the house and land for £11400!! How things have changed.

Various people reminded me about it, and its not that I forget things are going to happen, its just that I never know what the date is on any given day, that is the downside of living where you work and working seven days a week. However the upside is that I rarely have to go out in the car! I managed to do it yesterday, to

get to the Bank, get dog food for while I am away as a couple of friends are kindly going to look after the house and dogs, and importantly get some champagne to celebrate the Centre's birthday, which we did in fine style after work.

The adventure trail in the wood is coming on nicely, I think it will be fun for the older children and yesterday we had two school parties so I was able to see that the trail near the flying ground also works well. The children liked it and it made them physically work hard, so it is not only fun, but also good for them!

We have to get on with all the insulation of the Hawk Walk in the next couple of months, I want to get that sorted and the heating in well before the winter comes, I don't want to have to struggle with that sort of cold again and have to worry about the birds. We are pretty sure that we can make them very much more comfortable and make it easier for us as well.

The pictures are of Mozart, when he was a young man in the snow, and in the last couple of weeks. He is amazing, he is now in his late thirties, it would be so nice if he made it to our 50 anniversary!!

2011-05-24T17:50:00.004+01:00

The last couple of days have been a bit miserable, we lost Tokara, the baby Tawny Eagle, she was doing really well and everyone loved her, she had a staggeringly nice nature and was being carried round on the fist, even did a couple of photography days and then suddenly on Friday she lost weight and became dehydrated for no apparent reason, she was rushed to Neil Forbes, but although we medicated her frequently we lost her on Sunday. So everyone is still very low about it. I would almost rather have lost one of the other baby eagles than her because the Indian Tawny Eagles are so important to us.

The gravel is all down and we have about 15 tons left to top up and patch over the next few months while it all settles in. We even managed to do the car park, so enormous thanks to Tarmac at Stowfield Quarry in the Forest of Dean as they made it all possible. The whole place looks wonderful. However within one hour of it being down by the seating in the flying field we had two children visitors and one of them had put piles of the new gravel on the grass!! I supposed putting a notice out stating that this gravel is toxic to children would probably be counter productive!! I suspect it would not work anyway. We now have to spray for weeds as they come through, but the weather has not allowed us to do this yet. It has been very windy for days now, only stopping in the evening, it makes it a little difficult for flying, but we are managing as ever. Pioneer is amazing in the wind, and did two circles the day before yesterday.

The baby Great Grey Owl has arrived and I will be training it, it’s with some of the other baby owls being reared at the moment, but will soon come into the house and have dog and human interaction. It is uncanny, we got given a baby Snowy Owl two years ago and immediately our pair bred five babies and now we have been given a Great Grey Owl and the adults here are on eggs!! I love Great Greys, but they are susceptible to stress related problems so we are going to be very careful. The three baby Red tails who are going back soon and the three Harris Hawks are starting to get about, Simon says we have a definite female, a definite male and a definite not sure! There are three very cute baby American Kestrels too, which are tiny and very vocal.

Dante has left us, the girl who borrowed him lost her grazing so he had to come back but as I have no grass and could not manage two horses I took him to Leominster sale. He looked stunning behaved really well and lots of people were interested, he went to a nice home which was a real bonus. Now I have to sort out Henry who is not happy living alone (silly boy -it’s the best way to live!).

Next week is the Bath and West Show and thank goodness I am staying with a good friend of mine, which means I don’t have to camp, I am delighted because I loath camping and I am far too old to do it. So Anabelle and I with nine birds will be working away in Somerset and friends will stay in my house with the dogs.

Adam and Mark have just started on the Adventure Trail through the top half of the woods, and I have finished the drawings for the Stamp trail, so we are moving forward on the kids stuff. Angie Davis (Pink Frog) is designing the new stuff for the education room, which will be nice as it is all very old in there now.

2011-05-17T21:03:00.009+01:00

Well Acer and Angus have gone home, Richard and Janet collected them this afternoon, I have to say although it was fun to have them I realise just how wonderful my lot are as I can have them out all day, wandering around, and I never have to worry about them. Acer and Angus were very pleased to see their proper owners, and went nuts with pleasure. Mine watched in amazement, with Sedge joining in as he was pleased to see Richard, rather vocally so, although I have to say that today they were not that helpful with the gravel laying!! Sorrel and Indigo just stood beneath the dumper and got covered in gravel and Sedge insisted on helping Mike to drive! Later in the day Sorrel took over a supervisory role checking that all was done the way it should have been as you can see by the photo, and she wasn't in the way at all, oh no!

I think we are about half way through putting down the new gravel on the paths and I have to say it looks just wonderful where we have done it, so now all visitors will have to levitate please so as not to spoil it. And any children

scuffing the paths, piling up the gravel or throwing it will be instantly fed to the vultures! Go and use the new Children’s Adventure trail, that will be much more fun and not ruin all our hard work on the paths!

The baby vulture is sort of back with parents, Simon has put it in the nest and it is feeding itself, and has the parents there in the background as it were, so hopefully it will know it is a vulture. The Red Tails have hatched, so things are moving along nicely and I am going to get a baby Great Grey Owl next week, which I am looking forward to training. The baby Tawny Eagle has had to have a name change, Anaconda just did not work, so now she is called Tokara, which is a name that suits her, she is a charming person so far and we are going to see if she would like to join the flying team, if not we will keep her for breeding. Pioneer, (Stellers), is coming on a treat and flying well now and understands and focuses properly, although she still likes to watch Mark the best.

Still almost no rain here, this has to be the driest year I have known, I hope it does not mean that we will have a ton of rain later.

2011-05-13T19:19:00.009+01:00

Not only are our birds breeding well, but the wild birds are doing it too. We have a Dunnock’s nest in the little bush right next to the Goshawk and Harris Hawk, so we have moved the hawks to give the babies a chance to fledge safely. There is a Wagtail nesting on the beam in the Lanners compartment, Starlings in with the Black Kites, something very noisy in with the Condor and so it goes on. It is interesting that people think that having birds of prey around will frighten off the native wildlife, but not a bit of it. And to cap it all the bloody rabbits are being a pain in the field, digging up the grass, you would not think that with about 280 raptors and right now six dogs we would have a rabbit problem!

The 150 tons of 6ml to dust is nearly all delivered, D day for putting it down is Monday!! We have to move the larger stone off and spray with weed killer and then the great gravel day begins!! It should make a huge difference to the look of the place as it will pull all the paths together, I am looking forward to it!

The new play area is finished!! It looks wonderful and I hope children will enjoy going round it –we do. Holly has the first timed round at 55 seconds, I am sure Adam will beat it, he is trying to go round on one foot – hopping, but that is what we would expect from Adam.

Having chased Lady Isabel around the flaming country again last weekend, we have decided that as she has started to moult we are going to feed her up and put her in to moult and fly her in the winter when the leaves are gone, we have also grounded Pinotage as she has a couple of broken tail feathers and would benefit from a good moult. Delectable is coming back into work, although first we have to persuade her that the new play area is not in fact a highly dangerous vulture trap!! Pioneer, (Stellers) is doing really well now and much more focused. The baby Tawny Eagle is perfectly lovely manners wise at the moment and a particularly beautiful colour.

We have a Hobby that I am training, which would be easier if it did not hate the dogs and we have retired Storm Force and are training a new Buzzard which I would love to get to soar, we also have a new male Kestrel who was supposed to be in an aviary, but was horrid to Flame so he will have to work instead!

The grass is growing, so are the weeds, the pond is slowly slowly filling up again and the tadpoles are proliferating. I think we have no fish in the pond after the big freeze, so there is nothing to eat the tadpoles, so we will probably have a frog explosion, but I think they are toads as I did not see any frog-spawn in the pond, we will see. And to add to my day Aster has not only eaten a whole 500 gram packet of Joint Aid for dogs so I phoned the company to see if I should worry and they said no, she might have a runny tummy. Well she has made damn sure she will have because then she polished of my plastic bottle of cod liver oil tablets!! That should do the trick! I can't wait to see the kitchen floor in the morning, oh goody!

I had some nicer pictures put on here but bloody google has played around with this programme and now putting photos on is a nightmare - I repeat SOFTWARE PEOPLE are the pits. LEAVE STUFF ALONE WILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trailer has been sign written, it looks good we think, I am very pleased with it, so it matches the Landrover and should look great in the arena at the Bath and West Agricultural Show at the end of this month

2011-05-07T09:18:00.002+01:00

As I look out of the window the sky is dark with rain, and we need it badly, although it would be nice if it only came at night. It rained last night (kind of it!) but the ground is cracked with the lack of rain, so it is going to take a few inches before it returns to normal. Mark is out in the field flying Rhadamanthus early so he will be ready for a half day experience day tomorrow. John is going to take three birds off to a good location for a Wild About photography day. The grass is green the lilac is going over and the weeds have been repressed by the dryness, however I bet they go nuts with a bit of rain. The Laburnum is just out and looks wonderful.

Henry is in disgrace, he and I had a big argument about riding up the lane and he won, the only reason I did not fall off is because I got off, but he buggered off down the lane, across the road and into a field where I chased him for several minutes before catching the blighter!! I then rode him and made him trot for ages so he (and I) were knackered by the end of it. We will try the lane again next week when I have time to ride.

We are up to six dogs again temporarily, Acer and Angus are staying for a few days, it seems right to have that number, four is just not right for the Centre! Acer remembers everything and Sedge is delighted to see her, Sorrel is jealous, she is a jealous girl generally. The only down side of six dogs is that I never get a seat on the sofa’s

The play area is coming on a treat, we are really pleased with it, another week and it will be done, then we do another in the top part of the wood, we are getting positively child friendly (but only if they behave). The maze is going to have some eyes soon as well I hope. Angie Davis of PinkFrog has done such a good job on the new guidebook that she and Robin are now going to design the refurbishment of the education room. It will not be complete until the end of the year I suspect because we have a lot to do, but some stuff outside will be done and again more things for children.

The birds have been flying superbly this week, all are coming on a treat, which is really nice. We have a Hobby that has not been settled in the aviary and so I am going to try and fly it, that would be wonderful if it does well as they are superb flyers. Oh and guess what – the Range Rover is back and working!!!! Wonders will never cease!

The two baby Stellers are now both back with their parents and doing well, the two Steppes are back and fine and the one with Mark Kay’s Golden eagle is also doing well. The vultures were not sure about their baby, but we have a plan for it so we can get it parent reared. The two baby Lanners are fine and we await the hatching of other eggs as the spring moves into summer.

And as a final comment, just keep an eye on government because I found it interesting to note that our government was going to (and may still do so if we are not keeping an eye on the ball) sell off OUR forests in International Tree Year!!!

2011-05-03T20:03:00.006+01:00

An interesting weekend/three bank holidays has been had by all at ICBP. Firstly the Friday, the Royal wedding, what a pleasure, only the Brits could pull off such a wonderful wedding and I have to say the BBC managed to cover it with taste and decency which I was very pleased about. Kate Middleton looked just wonderful and the couple were a joy to watch, the whole thing was a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of, and by that I mean, being British, and enjoying and being proud of our Royal family.

Our little HawkWalk (street!) party went well, there were not many people there, I think most were watching the wedding on TV, however we got busy in the afternoon after most of the initial coverage was over, but it was fun and we drank lots of white wine spritzers.

Saturday was a good day, Adam and I got ready with various birds for the two shows we were doing. I was doing two days at the Falconry Fair, and Adam was doing a demonstration at the North Somerset show, (which went brilliantly I am pleased to report) otherwise it was a quiet but very windy day, oh we did try the baby Griffon Vulture back with its parents, but no joy sadly, so Simon removed it. We also sent one baby Steppes Eagle up to Mark Kay to be reared by his Golden Eagle, which has gone well.

Sunday morning Linda, Holly and I left early for the Falconers Fair with nine birds, to do two demonstrations in the main ring and two demonstrations of coping at the Keizerbrink stand. It was hellish windy, I know everyone is going to prefer Ragley Hall which is the new setting, but actually I prefered Newport (shrops!). Ragley is high and often very windy, as I have flown there before. The first demonstration went well, Hare was absolutely brilliant, Bay Middleton (Harris Hawk) went on the soar over the house and then came back, I am not convinced that many people appreciated what he did. The Kestrel, Greeves was great and so was Karis. The two coping demonstrations went fine, but at the second flying demonstration Hard Tackle literally got blown away, he kept trying to come back, but was chased mercilessly by crows and jackdaws, so he gave up, all the other birds managed well, although the wind was even stronger. So we left the ring and Holly and I went to find Hard Tackle, we tracked him but he would not come down, every time he took off the wind grabbed him and he moved further away. Louise, Lucy and Paul (founder members) stayed around to help but by 7.30 when he finally was in a good place and could have easily come down, he ignored us, so we decided that the needs of the many outweighted the needs of the few and we took the rest of the birds home. The Landrover was behaving oddly and at one point lost power, so when I got home I phoned Richard, who I am glad to say is not dead!! He offered to bring over his Landrover and take mine, so I had a lost eagle, a sick Landrover and to cap it all one of the dogs had thrown up all over the kitchen, the only good thing about it was that which ever one it was had at least chosen a wooden floor and not a carpet! We weighed the birds and fed them and made a plan for Monday.

Linda and Holly stayed the night, and Anabelle joined us at 4.30am as we loaded up and left to get there early to find Hard Tackle. We unhitched the trailer and left Anabelle and Linda to watch the birds and get set up, and Holly and I chased the sodding eagle around the area until he pitched up in the woods on the estate and settled in. Holly stayed with him until 11.30 and then we went back to the show to get the demonstrations done, checking the telemetry every so often. He stayed put until just before the last demonstration and then started to move again, however we had to finish off first. Someone had spotted him in a village called Broom close to the show and driven over, he waited until we finished the demo, which went very well, in fact both did, and we followed him to the village. Hard Tackle then led us a dance all round the village and refused to come down again, even when I put Hare on a perch with food – which is normally a good method. So we drove the rest of the birds home, planning to unload and turn round and come back before dark, because I was sure he was close to getting ready to come down.

As we drove in the gate, a ton of staff and volunteers were waiting for us which was so nice and such a wonderful treat. The birds were unloaded, fed and tucked up, the trailer was cleared and cleaned, the stuff put away and the trailer unhitched and parked up, all in about 20 minutes flat. I really do have the most special staff and volunteers. John, Simon and Mark insisted that they would do the trip back which I have to say I was really relieved about as my left hip was very painful by this point. So all the rest came in for a cuppa while they left. Only ten minutes after they had gone, the phone went and the bloody eagle had come down to a falconer who had come on an experience day only days ago!!! It was such a relief, and really kind of them to help and phone, so the away team collected him and brought him home, the rest all went home, Richard and Janet came over and switched landrovers again and Linda fixed a problem with my computer. All was well with the world – well almost!!! Remember the dog throwing up episode, well I was wrong, it was not just the kitchen floor, as I went into the office we realised that it was also all over the sofa and had dripped in an interesting fashion onto the cream carpet below!!! Ah well, you can’t win them all.

My best Thanks to all the people at the show who cared about the missing eagle and offered help or asked if we had got him back and thanks to the villages who helped us and cared as well.

2011-04-28T20:31:00.002+01:00

OK rant for today is PayPal, now generally I like PayPal, they make life easier and safer in terms of payment HOWEVER!! Try getting hold of them on the bloody phone, it used to be reasonably easy, is it now, OH NO, first you go to the contact button, if indeed you can find it because as with many websites it will be tiny! You get a phone number – that is a joke, you phone, you get answered by a machine and an extremely annoying man’s voice, who then kindly gives you a whole load of choices none of which are remotely close to what you want to talk about, you are then invited to speak your question, I had of course been doing quite a lot of speaking already, such as I WANT TO TALK TO A HUMAN!! So you try to think of the easiest way to ask your question, does it work, no of course it does not, so you hang up and send them a stinking email. You get a reply with a number and a code, so you phone again, on the fifth attempt you scream HELP at the top of your voice and the man says I don’t think I can help you, I will put you through!!!!!!!! Finally, you think, however you probably get someone from the US who does not understand what you want anyway. It is so very frustrating, it’s a good job I don’t have a heart condition or I would have been dead by the end of it. In fact if I am ever found dead on the end of the phone sue whoever I was talking to please!!! Which reminds me Richard HH are you dead??

Linda came and put bunting up today, it looks great, not a huge amount, but enough to make our Hawk Walk party go with a swing I hope. If you are coming tomorrow, bring a picnic and I will provide the white wine sprizer. The birds were remarkably good about it really – the bunting I mean. There was an easterly wind today coming up the field and all the birds flew just brilliantly, Hare was having a wonderful time in the wind and Hard Tackle is coming on Deception was just amazing for his fourth day loose and all the falcons enjoyed it enormously.

I managed to go for a ride this evening and only had two spins out of Henry when he did not want to go where I wanted to go, so we made it back all in one piece, which is good. The trees are nearly all in leaf, the place is looking good and we are going to do the paths the week after next if all goes to plan, which it may not but you can always hope.

I am away Sunday and Monday and the British Falconers Fair, which is a Wragley Hall, and Adam is going to do a demonstration at the North Somerset Show on Monday. I hope all goes well for both of us!

2011-04-24T15:47:00.002+01:00

Easter is in full swing, we had our annual Easter egg race this morning. Adam and Mark had put together a timed course!! It was great fun we did it in pairs, Jan and I came second last!! Simon and John won, although it was noticeable that Simon distracted the handicap (four dogs!) so that John could run unimpeded, we think that was cheating!! Afterwards we ate the hard boiled eggs on toast at coffee time.

We sold out of ice-cream yesterday and the company delivered this morning, now that is pretty impressive, however also very sensible, after all if you were an ice-cream company the weather was amazing you would take full advantage of it, and they did – well done them.

Rather less well done was flipping Morrison’s. I went out on Thursday morning to go shopping as I really was out of most things, I took one look at 30 people queuing to park and drove home!! It was more than I could face, so Adam and I went in the evening and that is the last time I am going there. They have moved everything, most of the aisles have changed and I could not find anything, firstly you freeze in the fruit and vegetable aisles, I had to go and hug the hot chicken counter to warm up! And then nothing is where it used to be. Now I would like to know if anyone out there is like me and finds it infuriating the way that supermarkets keep moving things. All I can say is that I probably spent half of what I normally spend, and left without bubble bath, ryvita, and several other things, and the complete idiot who put the Rug Doctor after the damn tills should be sacked!! Someone told me that people buy more when stuff is moved – WHY??? I suspect most of them just get pissed off like me

The maze is looking wonderful and the small obstacle course that Mark and everyone is building so that children (and adults!) can go all the way round the outside of the maze is coming on nicely. The weather has been amazingly warm, and we have had some good flying, but some of the birds have found it a little hard as well. I don’t think the Owls really like it, particularly in the middle of the day.

I actually managed to get out riding on Henry this evening, we only had one little blip, where we had an argument about going past two of the signs that tell everyone to drive at 20 mph because of the new road surface. He did not want to go past them and we did a little bit of spinning in the road before I won the battle! It was lovely in the woods with all the bluebells out, although I am not convinced that Henry enjoyed them as much as I did!

2011-04-21T19:17:00.002+01:00

We have been delightfully busy in the last week, the weather has been wonderful and the Easter holidays are here, so we have had a decent and very nice bunch of visitors. I did not write the day before yesterday, not because I did not have time, although at the moment by the end of the day facing the computer is hard because I am tired! But I was so furious with Gloucestershire Highways Department who decided that the week before Easter was a good time to close our road for resurfacing!! I have to say I was staggered at the moronic stupidity of closing the road to about the only tourist attraction in the area, particularly as when I spoke to one of the road workers to ask when they might be starting, it being 10.30 am by this time, and pointing out that we were open to the public and expecting a fair number of cars, he said what a shame the Highways had not asked them to start at 7.00 am because they would have been finished by about 11.00 am if they had!!! Yes indeed what a shame, but sadly a reflection of the intelligence of those running the department. I had of course phoned a week before to see if I could stop it but no one bothered to return my call. When I did speak to them they gaily told me it was only for one day! But I pointed out, that day is important to our finances, and I still have to pay my staff and feed my birds on that one day.

I am told that I have upset a software writer, which was another reason for not writing last night as I might not have been sympathetic. I am not sure if I want to apologise because working with computers, particularly when the software is changed or upgraded is for most people a waking nightmare. What I would say to any software writer is that you need to assume we know a good deal less than you do, and that includes the language you are using as well as your programme. I should say at this point that Serif Technical guys are first class, and very helpful, but I work outside for most the day and I only get to my computer to do the stuff I have to do and the stuff I want to do, usually after about 7.30pm, and they tend not to be around at that time or later. I am going to assume that the software writers do not write the manuals, but they should check them, and might I suggest that the first thing you put in the manual after how to install the programme is a picture of the screen with names on all that is there, such as the HintLine, and yes I finally found out where it was on page 47 of the user guide, but not as a heading, merely as a reference. Next go to all the icons and tell us what they do, for example in DrawPlus in the Resource Guide it explains how to outline a picture, which incidentally is where all this started, however the little pen nib thingy only has a straight line that does really weird things, and I can’t get it to stop!!

I think I am one of these people who know little about computers but am ambitious about what I want a programme to do. I want to be able to produce a great newsletter with two pages showing at once (that is called facing pages, but it takes a phone call to find out, because the help won’t) in landscape but have other pages in portrait. I have fantastic photos of birds that I want to put across two pages, but all of this seemed impossible, and probably ambitious for someone who is not good on computers. So Sir, you need to sit down with people like me who want to use your stuff, and who want to do exciting things but are not on your wave length!! Then you will understand why we all, and trust me I speak for many, get so very frustrated. Still at least you had the decency to be approachable, for which you get ten out of ten. Try getting hold of anyone from Microsoft or Adobe!! I think they might all be dead already. Oh and yes the Forum is fine, but many of the people on there are not experts, and after the last question I asked, which did not get answered they went off on a tangent because one of the people writing had a keyboard with no W and so was using two V’s, which I have to say I did not really give a damn about, but it elicited a whole ton of answers, I don’t have that much time to spare!!

Here is a comment from someone else who read the weblog and the comment from the software chap.

Read your latest weblog yesterday and fully approved of your rant at computer program software writers – I think it is also brilliant that the head of Software testing at Serif saw it and felt he had to defend himself! Maybe if these people asked the public – not just themselves - how easy their programs are, they might dumb them down enough to understand and be able to use them! If computers weren’t so useful, mine would be straight out of the window.

So its been a glorious couple of weeks, on Saturday Mark Davies came at about 6.30am to rotavate, seed and roll the field. I got up at 5.30am to put Henry in and open the gates, Henry was fast asleep in his stable with the door wide open – he looked so cute!! I spent from about 8.00am – 9.15 picking up stones from the field, which are now forming a stream bed. He and Sarah did a great job and it looks good, all we need now is some rain, someone told me that we have had less rain than Libya, which is amazing, however I need it after Easter please. The birds are flying really well and we have most of the summer team going now, just a few to add. Rival (Burrowing Owl) is definitely female (three eggs!!!) The Griffon Vulture egg has hatched today! So that will go back with mum in about a week, it will be wonderful to see her with a baby. Delectable has a pressure sore on her good foot, so we have cleaned it out, bandaged it up, changed her perching and we are giving her a couple of weeks off, amazingly the bandage was still on after four hours. We have two baby Lanners, who are doing well and more eggs from other species still to come. Karis is as spectacular as ever, and Lady Isabel is getting pretty good. Adam has Brenin going and is also flying Paris. Robin has finished the maze which is looking good, we need eyes and a finish point and it will be complete, that is my job. Mark is starting on the new play area and Holly has taken on Gazelle this season which should be fun. Simon rushes around with eggs and babies at various times of the day looking worried.

We had a Wild About Photography day on Saturday, Linda taught on it and John and his son Josh did all the bird work, it went very well and they should have got some lovely photos out of it. Sunday was a half experience day and I did our first show at the Cotswold Farmers Country Fair, which went well if a little rushed. The trailer has been painted the same blue as the Landrover and looks very smart. Easter will be with us in a couple of days, and I have to go shopping as there is as usual nothing in the house.

2011-04-14T18:40:00.006+01:00

I get so frustrated with computer programmes and computers, there is a light on my keyboard and I have no idea what it means, and is there any way of finding out, no. I have just tried to use DrawPlus and can I find the HintLine toolbar, no, if I type in that name I get what it does but if I put where the XXXXX is it, OK without the swearing, no answer. I am beginning to think that computer software writers should be shot at birth. So all I want to do is draw a bloody line round a photo and can I do it – no - does it do what the book says it will – no - aaaaaaaaggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh. Adam went on a cycling thing last weekend, off road biking, or whatever he calls it, he did the marathon of 75km, with over 2000m of climbing the Welsh hills completed in a respectable 5hr 28min. the photos are self-explanatory! His finger is slowly recovering and he happily told me that it only bled twice today! We are getting back to a full team of birds, the Steller’s is now called Pioneer (apple of last year) and is flying free! The theme for this year is Snakes, chosen today, now Simon has to give me a list of snake names. Two of the Yellow-billed Kites are out now, Milan is to come as is Yala – Brahminy Kite. Gazelle and Common are out – Lannerets and Rhadamanthus - Harris Hawk. Rival has laid three eggs and so will not be working for a while, Wayside seems to ignore them so I hope they are infertile. Delectable flew straight over the crowd the other day, it was spectacular and no on died of a heart attack either – bonus! The first of the two baby Steller’s went back with mum and dad today and they were feeding it within an hour of putting it back, we will leave it for five days, switch the other one in and then put the first one back and hope they don’t fight. I would love her to rear two. We have had a tiny amount of rain but not enough for the garden, or the new grass seed, it will undoubtedly rain for Easter! Sadly one of the beautiful Beech trees by the top pond is dying if not dead, which means it will have to come down, I hate losing the large old trees and one of the oaks in Henry’s field is going the same way. I wonder if I should switch to wood burning for all my heating considering the damn cost of oil now. Ah Ha! The light was the scroll lock, whatever that is, I never went near the damn key!! Computers have a mind of their own!

2011-04-12T11:23:00.005+01:00

My hand is rather sore at the moment, Dusky Emperor footed me after flying her, the cow!! However not as bad as Adam’s thumb where the Steller’s Sea Eagle bit him , it is an impressive bite! We saw our first House Martins this week, I need to make some mud for them so they can build new homes as their old ones were knocked down by the interim owner.

Anabelle sent me this on financial advice!!

Retirement Planning (US style)
If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.
With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock, you would have $49.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of wine one year ago, drunk all the wine, then turned in the bottles for the recycling REFUND, you would have had $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

I have to say that as I have never planned for my retirement – I am not planning on retiring (!), this strikes me as very apt, what a shame for all those people who do buy stocks and shares. I think keeping money under the bed is a much better option, at least if I had any to put there! It also annoys me enormously that a company can be put under because people in the stock market don’t like it, even though it is still financially viable, that seems all wrong to me. Hence not liking the stock market!

We have decided that the next member of staff we need is someone who is a good hard working gardener and brilliant at marketing as well, an interesting combination that we doubt exists!! Oh well, I guess it will just have to be the gardener and I will flounder around with the marketing which I hate even more than the stock market.

I hope you all enjoyed the April Newsletter, you have no idea how much effort Linda and I made to get it to work, however it is there now and hopefully I will remember for the next one. Oh and if you are considering doing things to your computer, DON’T download Google Chrome because it disables things in websites and similarly don’t get Internet Explorer 9 because it does the same thing. Why oh why do these bloody software companies not just leave well alone, they have obviously never heard of the saying, if it isn’t broken – don’t fix it! I still think that Office 10 is rubbish and Windows Live is not a patch on Outlook Express.

OK today’s quote is:
Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the "environmentalist" view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.
E.O.Wilson. Good chap I reckon.

2011-04-06T20:09:00.006+01:00

We heard a Cuckoo today!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray spring is really here. It has been a simply lovely day, great visitors, good flying, and Lady Isabel pulling off a stunning stoop. Adam and Mark flew the Steller's which is great and he did well, flying at 11lbs 5ozs!! Adam is clearing in the wood and it is starting to look great, the maze is also coming on a treat.

I had to do the shop and entrance on Monday because Jan has caught a tummy bug from her husband. I am not that good at working the tills and that is an understatement. I am not sure I am shop material, don’t have the patience for it, and I always have a ton of other things to get done.

We have two baby Steller’s!! This is great news I am going to end up with a flock of them!! We had an interesting end to the day on Sunday, there was a quiet but intense radio call from Adam to John asking him to go to the Steller’s in the Hawk Walk, it was the sort of call that all staff move rather fast too! I was in the process of putting down my Barbary falcon back on her perch and the call took my concentration enough that I forgot she bites faces, so I have a hole in my eyebrow!! I walked over to the Steller’s compartment and there was John kneeling on the ground, the Steller’s with its leash still tied to the metal spring tie, but the steel wire no longer attached. John gently picked up the leash, he had no glove! And the Steller’s walked quietly back into its compartment and hopped back onto its shelf perch, as if to say ‘I don’t know what happened, but I am glad you came and put it right because I should be here!’ We all gave a sigh of relief having chased one fish eagle round Gloucestershire this year, we did not relish the idea of another one!

We had a busy weekend, with nice weather and the promised rain showers did not materialise until five minutes before the end of the last flying demonstration, which was very well timed, and today the promised heavy rain has not arrived, for which I guess I am happy about, although the grass and flower beds desperately need rain at this point. I had to have the loo in my bathroom fixed today, it is a Saniflow, and it will take me a while to recover from the cost!! And all just to have a pee and a bath!! Ah well, at least it will last another ten years, at least it better!

Hemp has laid two eggs and let us take her jesses off today with no problems, in fact she was sweet about it. It is lovely to see her settled and happy and sitting on her eggs proudly I was staggered to see that the Bird of Prey Center that I left in South Carolina, that preached about ethics and good behaviour, is selling Barn Owls on the Internet!! Wow, that is a turn up for the books! How the supposedly ethically minded are fallen! Mind you anyone buy from them needs to be very careful, because unless they have obtained fresh blood lines and I suspect that is not the case, all the birds they are producing are siblings breeding with siblings, and with the Barn Owls siblings from siblings breeding with siblings and that is not good, it will lead to very poor stock and should not be done, am I surprised no, sadly not. A good friend of mine, Arthur Middleton took me to a lecture in Laramie last November, it was by E.O. Wilson, whom I gather is very well known in the US, although I have to say I had not heard of him, however the lecture was superb, and a pleasure to be there. One comment he made struck me as so accurate I jotted it down, I am saving that one for you, but I then thought, I wonder if he said other great things, and so looked for quotes, here is one that is very relevant to us all.

If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.

2011-03-31T20:13:00.003+01:00

Its eight o clock in the evening and still there is daylight, I love this time of the year, suddenly the winter is gone, leaves are arriving by the ton (no doubt I will curse them when we have to pick them all up in the autumn). Trees have a tinge of green all over them which is sometimes indiscernible, but there nevertheless there if you just glance.

The weather forecast has as usual been wrong, but unfortunately it does affect our visitor numbers so it has been quiet, but still we move on. The Maze is coming on very slowly, there is a lot of soil to move! But we have places to put it. I seeded the area of the field where the pond soil had been put to dry out, it was interesting to do in the wind! It was very windy today, a gusty wind that is difficult for the birds, the two that dealt with it best were the two peregrines, both of which flew superbly. Karis would have loved it too, but he is only just out and not ready to go yet. However Ruby is and we took her down to the flying field to see what she thought of the new mounds – not a lot!! But she worked and it was a joy to have her back with us on the flying team. Hemp has laid her first egg!! Clever girl!

Sadly the Steller’s appear to have decided that their two eggs were enough to sit on and so somewhere along the line they destroyed our Verreaux’s Eagle egg, which is very disappointing. I am going to end up with a flock of damn Steller’s!! We grounded Cremorne (Bald Eagle), someone sent a photo of her and I realised that she is looked very frayed at the edges and so needs a break to moult and that will give us time to work on the young Steller’s. and Hard Tackle is out!! I hope he manages well this year, I am working on it being a long hot summer, and he will love that.

Dante has gone on loan, so I am down to one horse – Henry, which is fine, although the little devil broke into the food store today, heaven knows what he ate, but he gets no supper that is for sure! Otherwise we look forward to the Easter holidays and lots of lovely visitors – I hope!

2011-03-29T22:02:00.004+01:00

It was a glorious week last week, just wonderful weather, the best that England can supply and nowhere else can do it. The sun has been out, a slight frost in the morning, soon going and then a heavy dew, the wild daffodils are looking superb, the tree are just starting to come into leaf, or some of them and the Highways department closed our road!! Oh well you can’t have everything I suppose!!!! Then came the weekend grey and cold and then on Monday warm and sunny, sometimes I wonder if someone is having a joke about weekends!

We had a group of photographers in on Sat, they were a really nice bunch and took some great photos. Mike has been here and we have cleared all the dried soil from the ponds that was spread out at the bottom of the flying field, it was in piles all over the bottom horse field waiting to be rotavated into the awful soil that is there. That should make a big difference, however looked like we have a severe outbreak of enormous moles!! It has now been Scuffled!! Bet you don’t know what that is!! Well it’s between a rotavtor and a plough, so now you know. He has also tidied up the top field, and moved the tree trunk with Adam’s help to the wood for the plan Adam has in there (wait and see) and today we are moving the mound that only the dogs use to play on, and putting the soil in holes around the place. He fixed the leak in the pond and made a mess above the top pond!! But is could not be helped.

We also moved the mound that was to the left of the flying ground, and that has been seeded. Robin has almost finished laying out the Owl Maze, which is going to look amazing needless to say.

Sedge has recovered from his trip abroad – OK Wales! The others were very pleased to see him back as were all the staff, to say he got spoilt yesterday would be an understatement! Dante is going on loan tomorrow, which is good because he will get lots of work and hopefully gain the experience he needs to be a great horse. Then I can concentrate on Henry who is still lame at the moment, damn it.

One very sad occasion today was the death of Treasure, she had been self-mutilating again, and we tried all sorts of things to discourage her. Neil saw her last week and we decided that she might have an internal problem that was causing her to bite at her back, so she went in today and was X-rayed. Her spine was twisted, so Neil did not bring her round. She was 25 years old and the first Secretary Bird to be trained in the world. I will miss her dreadfully. We will bury her in the field.

The two peregrines are flying superbly, just amazing to see, they are both climbing and stooping brilliantly, bodes well for the summer. We have grounded Hemp who is about to lay eggs any minute now and also Cool Ground because he needs a rest. Ruby is going to come back into work and also Karis, Brenin, and a couple of others, so we are moving onto a full team of birds again.

2011-03-28T08:32:00.003+01:00

SEDGE IS SAFE!! Apparently (!) he got into the boot of someone's car and they found him when they got back to Cardiff, he was taken to the Cardiff Dogs Home at 2.30am this morning. They phoned and left a message and I got it at 7.30am this morning after a particularly unpleasant and sleepless night!

I can't tell you what a relief it is, although small Sedge has a huge personality and usually I curse him when he does four laps of the sofa's and then screams his little head off as I struggle to get the door open to let them out last thing. However last night I would have be very pleased to see him cornering at high speed on the carpet and skidding out of the door trying to be first, yelling the whole time. The other dogs have missed him as well.

Phew! What a relief, Linda is going to get him now and we are all exhausted!

2011-03-27T19:09:00.005+01:00

Only one thing to tell you SEDGE has been stolen. So any and all help would be gratefully received. He and Sorrel were in the Car park after the last demonstration. One of our members phoned us having got to Newent, which is five minutes away, to tell me that Sedge and Sorrel were in the car park, with a small boy playing with them. Sorrel had walked in a few seconds earlier, so I went out and no Sedge, or car with a small boy (10ish my staff think). We searched high and low, but no sign of Sedge, he is not a wanderer. We looked in all the buildings and anywhere he might have gone, but the problem is that he loves cars, and so he is eminently stealable.

We have put it on Facebook, I am hoping that anyone who took photos today, that might include the crowd will send them to me. We have a description of the boy and his father, if we have a photo I will put it up on Facebook, they were we think from Wales. Please pass this information to everyone. If you know a Postman within about 50 miles from here, give him or her a picture of Sedge, because I am told by a very good website 'doglost' that it is a very good way to get dogs back as they know all the dogs in the area.

I will put photos of him up here, if you double click on them they will come up large and you can print them out. We really want Sedge back. I can't tell you what I think of customers whom we try to give a super day, and then they take my bloody dog.

Keep Looking, Sedge is out there somewhere.

jpj

2011-03-22T08:38:00.003Z

I have had a day that has been frustrating to say the least. How many of you have tried to get hold of a firm, knowing that you are going to get an answer phone message with numerous options none of which are going to be the option that you want. You make the phone call, you are greeted by the expected answer phone and options, you struggle through them, cursing and swearing, you are informed by a voice that all the information that you require is on the website (lies!!!!) eventually after pressing several numbers and being given yet more options, you are holding the receiver in front of you screaming ‘all I want to do is speak to a human!!!!!!!!!!!’ Not surprisingly you don’t get any reply to your yell of exasperation , you are told that your conversation may be recorded for training purposes, you shout with glee – 'I hope so and I hope you are recording the fact that I want a human to talk to, not another bloody option'. Finally you get a human, the relief is amazing, you tell them what you need and they immediately put you on hold with awful music, and a voice telling you again about all the information on the website. They come back, you immediately beg them not to put you on hold, and not to hand you on to another machine with options, but to no avail, you are in the wrong department and they will tell you what options to choose. Finally in fury you give up and hang up.

Actually this time I did get through to a human eventually and did I beg – oh yes!!! I got through to another one – two humans in one phone call, a miracle!! I was trying to find out why I had not heard anything about a claim for £460 (a not insubstantial sum I have to say), for 60 keyed alike padlocks that we returned because the key was the same damn key as the ones I had bought about 20 years previously (be warned about that one!). Finally it turned out that not only had the Post Office lost my returned parcel, they had lost my claim form as well!! Classic!

As I was on a roll chasing thing up, I then tried to find out when the next Newent Town Council meeting was because I am fairly to extremely annoyed with them for not including us in the changing of the Brown Tourist Signs, which I bloody paid for – at least my one. Their website is appalling and they need to sort it out. I still have some work to do on the sign problem, but hopefully we will win on that one.

Mike Turner dropped in so I hope we are going to start on getting the two horse fields, They look awful and the job done by the farmer who had all the ménage fencing and stone was a rip off, he did not do as I asked and so I have a bottom field which is subsoil with the topsoil underneath, and it looks like it. However we will get it right and at the same time use up some of the compost and move the mound in the flying field that never gets used other than by Sedge and Sorrel for riotous games.

Holly and I spent yesterday evening doing records, trying to remember what birds came from where and what birds went where, much of which considering all the moves is not surprisingly a nightmare. I will be glad when we have got it all done.

I am really pleased with the new Guided Tour that Linda has put on our website, I have wanted to do it for ages and so I did a PowerPoint of it, and she did all the hard work and got it working. It really does give a flavour of the Centre when you visit.

Henry is slowly getting sounder and Dante is away up the road with three mares and a foal and is very cheerful at the moment, but at least not here playing with Henry and making him even lamer. The Cherry Blossom is out, spring is here!

2011-03-19T09:10:00.003Z

I have been remiss in writing, not sure why, fed up with the cold continuing, a lot to do, a lame horse, tired, lots of things happening in the world, could be anything, I will improve!

I forgot to tell you about Pancake Day, I am not sure if it is celebrated around the world in the same way that it is in the UK, we have pancakes, and you have to toss them, flip them in the pan. So we had pancakes at coffee time on Shrove Tuesday. Angela made the batter and we all had to cook our own and toss it. Mark did the most ambitious one, I don’t know how high it went, but there were shrieks of delight and applause, so it did not hit the ground. Mine went OK, but as I believe in the 5 second rule, I would not have minded dropping it. Having said that, you actually have to be a lot quicker than five seconds with my dogs around, it’s more like a mille second rule! Holly brought maple syrup, lemons, bananas, chocolate spread blueberries and heaven knows what else. Adam had almost everything on his!! Good lad, no waste there. It was a good day and great fun, we do well with staff enjoyment here.

Recently I asked a couple of people about a good software programme to do magazines, newsletters and other stuff that I need to work on. Indesign was what I was told to look at – easy to use, much easier than publisher – well what utter crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know where people get off thinking that a programme is easy to use. I think it ought to be made a law that all software programmers have to sit with someone like me when they think they have designed something brilliant and see how far they have to go to make it user friendly. Indesign is not user friendly it is not easy and I am not going to buy it!! In fact I have deleted it!! And it took less time to go than it did to down load a trial!! It’s very frustrating, it’s like the new Office 10 – that is rubbish, it is far harder to use and takes more clicks to get where you want to be, as for windows live mail, give me outlook express any day of the week. I am now waiting for a supposedly good and easier programme to arrive, I really want to master it so I can do good newsletters and such.

I had to go to Yorkshire this week, so I booked a train ticket, got up early, fed the dogs, fed the horses, walked the dogs, drove to Gloucester in the little van and caught the train to Cheltenham where I was supposed to catch another train to York, however there the plan fell apart. The Edinburgh train (the one I was going to take to York) was running 50 minutes late!! That meant that I was going to be late for a meeting, however not much to do, so I waited around, then the announcement came that the train was now 80 minutes late! So I went to see if there was another way to get to York, yes I was told, catch the train to Birmingham and at 9.30 there is another train to York. Well the train to Birmingham was packed, I can never understand why you are most definitely not allowed to over crowd your car, you are not allowed to stand in a plane, so why is it you can stand packed in a train!! Health and safety apparently does not apply here!. We stood all the way to Birmingham and arrived at 9.30am!! Yup, missed the damn train, so the next one was an hour on. I finally got to York at a quarter to one when I should have got there at 11.38! I was not pleased!

It was foggy as hell in Yorkshire and cold, much colder than home, but still beautiful. Charlie picked me up and we went late to our meeting. We then drove back to his house and it was lovely to see Hawk again, the Exmoor pony, his winter coat is very dark and he was beautifully shaggy!

Henry is very lame, he has a badly bruised foot poor lad, and so there is a great deal of rest needed and a lot of work on my field to get it smooth again so he can be a little more comfortable. Mind you the reason it looks like a ploughed field right now is because they career up and down it at a hundred miles an hour and ruin it.

It’s a glorious day today, fantastic sunshine, and the wild daffodils are looking very good this year. Roll on the summer!

2011-03-11T20:44:00.003Z

Well I went shopping and bought lots of plants with the ‘voucher’ from my staff and then spent two days making a horrible mess of the courtyard, but it looks great now, I can’t wait for the spring and everything to come out.

Henry had his shoe put back on he lost yet another one on my birthday! and I took him out last night, it was our usual eventful ride, but to be fair to him he has not been out for two weeks, roll on the clocks changing so I can go out in the evenings.

The wind has been cold, but the Barbary Falcon loves it and has been flying like a dream whenever it is windy. Hare is back out and flying, although as usual at the beginning of his season he is rather good at tree sitting. We flew Cremorne loose the day before yesterday – first time since her little sojourn around Gloucestershire, she was very good, it was very windy yesterday, so we did not fly her, but hopefully next week she will be back on form. We are slowly adding in birds to the flying teams, it is good to see some of them out again, but sadly we had to come to a decision on Shanny, she did not fly last year and was in with a male, but showed no signs of interest – it could have been the wrong male for her! So we switched her with Topaz and started her flying about ten days, ago, but she did not do well, so we decided that she had earned her retirement. She is being fed up again and will go into an aviary, we will give her a young male for company, and she can do what she likes, she worked hard for us over the years, went to the US and back and has been a star, she can look out on the world now and not have to work for her living.

We have been loaned a hybrid Merlin Peregrine, and he is very smart, if he flies as well as others that we have had he will be great fun and a challenge on the lure swinging front. Karis is still to come out and a few other falcons, the kites will be out once the risk of frost is over, and then the Burrowing Owls, whom it will be lovely to see working again, I hope they like their new tunnel design!!

Our two baby Tawny Eagles are doing well, and the Sakers have laid – hooray!! And I think one of the pairs of Lanners may have as well, so that is wonderful, all we have to hope for now is that they are fertile. And amazingly the other pair of Griffon Vultures have laid, now she has laid before but her male only has one wing, so we did not expect any fertile eggs, well, her egg is fertile!! So the old boy managed somehow, good on him! She is sitting on a dummy wooden egg and hopefully if her egg hatches we will return her baby and they will have a son or daughter to rear. The Steller’s are sitting nicely on their two eggs, we are not double clutching them otherwise we will be up to our eyes in Stellers Sea Eagles!!