It’s raining, but my garden badly needs it and the pond could do with a top up right now. I am almost ready to got off to India this afternoon. Nic Masters Chief Veterinary Surgeon at ZSL are meeting up at Heathrow and flying to India and then on to Nepal later on the trip. We have a ton of things to do and my luggage is full of stuff that I will not be able to take as hand luggage so I have to check it in, I have not done that for many years. Prefer only to travel light.

 

The smallest Steppe Eagle is huge!!! He weighs a ton, but will soon start to get to a less unacceptable weight, he is doing well and was out on the lawn for the first time the day before yesterday. Muckle Roe is back on duty and doing well, she had three proper catches yesterday, just needs to learn to feed on the wing now and it will be a done deal. Chris has incredibly kindly given us her sister as well, so we plan on flying the two together once they are both ready for it. Our other kites are going well too. Most of the falcons are now flying free and coming on. Yeates is going to stay working through the winter so we can work on his fitness which is still a long way from good, mind you he would get fitter if he stopped sitting down!

 

The dogs are well except that Briza is lame and it has been difficult to get her to rest, so she is going to stay with Penny, her breeder while I am away, I hope she is going to be OK, but it will be very good for her.

 

The hospital is going on nicely, it is starting to look like a real project now and today the telegraph pole is being moved as it is in the way! The power guys have been great about it all. Abby our really good work experience is going to stay for another three months which we are really pleased about, it really helps in times when staff need to go on holiday.

 

Agatha, our Canadian Golden Eagle is going to a friend when I get back, she is just not suitable for a public aviary bird and will be much happier being trained and flown, she is a really nice bird, but too nervous for here and it is not fair on her. We have a new very settled female coming this week to go with the male. Watamu is slowly coming back to settling here, he is more nervous than he was and does not like the dogs, I guess because he has not seen them for three years, but we did a training session in the field on the last demo yesterday and he was getting there. A friend of mine has a daughter getting married in Watamu this year and now we know it is pronounced WaTAmu!

 

Other than that I am looking forward to being in India and Nepal although I hate the travel and I am looking forward to being home again!

 

Well we are all exhausted, but the Falconry Weekend was a great success. The weather has been amazing for the last week, my staff and volunteers have been working so hard, we just could not have done it without all of them. They all are a stunning group of people. As I write Burgoyne’s has finally removed the last tents and left the field, Brinsea who still had their stand in the field has gone, the rubbish has gone, the PA system gone back, and only the electrics which have been neutralized has to be got in and we are back to normal. All the people doing the flying did brilliantly and the comments on Facebook are in their hundreds and all positive. It was as in the last two years, a wonderful atmosphere.

 

It has been a tough time though, after Rush died, our young Snowy Owl had to be taken into Great Western Exotics to see Neil, at the same time we had to take Alexandria, an 11 year old African Peregrine, and Pleiades my beautiful Indian Tawny Eagle whom we bred last year. The Snowy Owl, called Lindisfarne  turned out to have cerebral malaria, two weeks of intensive treatment, including one of the doses of antibiotics at 4 am one morning and we thought we were getting there, but he slipped back and even after a blood transfusion from his mum did not save him. Although young, we are going to bury him in the field. We lost the other two as well. Alexandria had an inoperable tumour and Pleiades had the same kidney problem that all the young seemed to have and was in great pain, so it was not fair to go on with her. They are buried together. Its so hard to lose these birds who are such a huge part of our lives.

 

All the other birds have been going on nicely. The four baby Yellow-billed Kites are all catching now and just all have to learn to eat on the wing and stay flying and they will be a stunning team.

 

Holly’s merlin Jura is going to be a good one, flying very well, the three young Lanners are now flying free, we have two young Luggers who are more of a challenge, but then Luggers always are. Mark’s Barbary is going really well and flying more and more strongly. Even Yeates, the five year old African Peregrine that I have been struggling with for months is now beginning to fly more strongly.

 

We had a big grounding of birds on Monday, the Falconry Weekend was over, the end of the school holidays was done and we need to concentrate on the young team, so four Lanners, two Harris Hawks, one Buzzard, two Eagles, three Kites and several Owls are now stuffing their faces and either in aviaries or about to go into one. Thus the young teams of birds take centre stage and improve more quickly as time goes on. We have kept the smallest young Steppe Eagle, I hope it will be a replacement for Pleiades, although I have my doubts, but you never know.

 

Indigo scared us all to death on Sunday, he was looking very old and ill and started to shake, so Holly and Ben bundled him into the van and took him to Ledbury to the vet. He stayed all day and was scanned, he had been eating far too much and his elderly tummy could not manage. He did worry us though and I was very upset as I could not bear to lose a second dog in such a short space of time, but he is much better now, and almost back to his usual self. Since Rush died he has slept on my bed and Holly has promised that he can sleep with her and Ben while I am away in India!

 

Muckle Roe, my beautiful Red Kite gave us a fright on Monday, she had one eye closed during the day, by the evening, her face was swollen on one side and tilted, she then threw up and so we decided to take her to GWE straight away, Tom was on duty and did an excellent job and we waited for her to recover from the anesthetic before I drove home and got back at 10.00 pm. I missed a good Chinese with Biff, so Holly and Ben had it!! Muckle Roe looked far worse the following morning, but at nearly 10.00pm 24 hours later she was looking more cheerful. She came running out of the sky kennel (bearing in mind we are rebuilding the hospital right now and so have birds littered everywhere!!!) ate some finely chopped food and then turned round and ambled all by herself back into her box!! Bless her! Today she is back on flying duty and did three excellent catches in mid air.

 

A new book about father written by Dick Fitzgerald was launched at the Falconry Weekend as was a reprint of a beautiful book by George Edward Lodge. I have a copy of each. And the Philip Glasier Falconry Museum concept was also launched.

 

 

You just think that things are going well, all the birds are flying well, all the young ones are coming on nicely, the Falconry Weekend is getting organised well and things are on track for that. The young Martial Eagle is lovely and settling nicely, and we have been offered a male on breeding loan, and then something hits you that you really don’t expect.

 

We lost Rush today. I have been there for the deaths of 12 labradors, well 11 and orchestrated one from the US and it never never gets any easier. Two days ago Rush started to be very lame on and off, and he was crying loudly with pain. So I took him straight to Eden Tanners, who looks after the dogs for us. We had a job to get him out of the car and he was very quiet in the surgery. We could not find anything that was blindingly obvious, but they had concerns about him and so kept him in over-night. They did not have a peaceful night. He went through bouts of pain that had him yelling very loudly. Drugs kept it under control, and the following day he was X-rayed. This showed various problems with his vertebrate, particularly in his neck. I collected him early that evening and he was gently crying, but seemed better when we got home. However by 11 pm he was back to crying, I managed to stop him for a while, but by 3.00 am he cried for the rest of the night, it was not a peaceful one for either of us. I took him back to the vets the following morning and they gave him more injections for pain, but over the day it was patently obvious that it was not working. If I or someone he knew was with him it was bearable, but if on his own, he could not cope. Sam Smith who is a great animal chiropractor looked at him as well and said there was not a lot that could be done for him, particularly taking into consideration his age.

Well I did go and buy one!! Briza (which is the scientific name for quaking grass which is my favourite grass of all time) came and joined us last Saturday. She is twelve weeks old, which is older than I like and I was a little worried, but I should not have been she has settled in like she has been here for ever. I had wondered that with a new Lab, maybe, just maybe Shasta would not be bottom of the pile, wrong she still is! But she and Briza are playing together which is really nice to see.

 

Gluey is doing really well although now nicknamed One Jump Gluey, as that is all he will do for food!! However he is a different bird now and living with his younger but larger brother Middle Mouse and doing very well. Middle Mouse just had his TV debut on Newsround, and hopefully people will rush here to see him!

 

Not all has gone really well with the breeding, it is the usual roller coaster ride. We have all crossable things crossed because the Striated Caracara’s has just hatched a baby, so we are hoping that they will hatch the other one as well and rear both. They are such clever birds that we don’t want to interfere and we certainly don’t want to hand rear them. Sadly we had a great deal less luck with the second clutch of merlins, they got some infection, which literally killed three of them in about 12 hours, we managed to save the oldest and largest chick, and it is still on antibiotics, but it was a grave disappointment to lose three out of the four.

On the up side Taransay (baby Condor) is now getting huge!!! And she is starting to very dramatic jumps up in the air, with those great big furry wings she looks enchanting when she does it and the visitors love her.

 

We have had lovely visitors most of the time however we have had one who has complained and been a pratt on Trip Advisor. The first moan was that we don’t have hot water in the loos and he stated that was illegal – wrong chum, and let me tell you that the day some of my customers stop shoving tampax and sanitary towels and the hand towels down the loo, stop using enough lavatory paper for an elephant with diarrhea, learn to aim properly at the urinal (you would think they could do that wouldn’t you!) and turn off the taps and not leave them running, then and only then will I consider, and it will be consider, putting in hot water. Plus as a conservation centre we don’t believe in wasting either water or power, or my income. Then he complained that the baby changing facility was utterly basic, you are dead right mate, it is not only basic but it’s extremely old as well – am I going to put in one of those expensive pull down things that you see in some loos – that would be a resounding no!! Do you have one at home, I don’t think so. I don’t actually see why I should provide anything, it’s your choice to have children, learn to deal with them without expecting other people to fork out for them!! Then he wanted us to offer sponsorship of eagles for £10 and a goody bag!!! What an idiot ( not my first choice of words!) I wish people like this would have the balls to  a) put their real name on complaints, and b) have the guts to complain to me personally, except that they rarely do as usually they are afraid of me.

 

I managed to hurt my back this week, it has been going on nicely, but I stupidly picked up a tractor battery and moved it after spraying the car-park on Wednesday and I have done something that is pretty painful, so I am back on the drugs, which make me feel very light headed, but do mostly work. However the new Golf Cart is great and not only helps on the feed round (the dogs love it) but also means we can spray weeds without having the back pack on, which is heavy and slow.

 

My neighbour Mark has just topped the overflow car park and the small fields, they look great now. David lent me Robin and he trimmed all the hedges, Peter Dowle has two of his staff coming in one day a week to fight with the weeds in the flower beds and the gardens are starting to look lovely. I am so lucky. And next week I am going to tackle the rest of the spraying and getting the front of the house back to how it should be. I have a tricky week this week when I am away for most of it which means I get nothing done here which is frustrating and no doubt I will have a huge pile of emails to deal with when I get back.

We have six baby Snowy Owls that we are rearing and the parents have one of their own to look after. Mark wants to train up a female, so I hope we get the choice right! We have just taken the now full grown Bald Eagle away from its foster parents, and very soon we will move the baby Lanners out into an aviary away from adults so they can grow up a little before we start to train them. The kites are doing very well and the one baby from the second clutch has joined the first three and is doing fine.

It’s nearly July – where does the time go and I have to get down to tidying up the website and the Falconry Weekend one as well, I just don’t have enough hours in the day.

No Rant today, too bloody tired, 12 – 14 hour days are OK for the young, but I am worn out!! OK not that worn out, although I have to say I do wonder where I get my energy – because I have no idea!!!

 

So what has happened in the last whatever it is that I last wrote. Sorrel is NOT having pups which is a big blow and I am getting puppy withdrawal symptoms, I may have to go and buy one!!

 

The birds are well, the breeding season is nearly over thank God!! It has been a good one, and we are generally pleased with what we bred. There are always ups and downs, joyous successes and sad failures, but Holly has done brilliantly, and she should be very proud of herself, we are all proud of her. I should add that without the excellent support of the other staff,  John, Jimmi, Helen, Robin and Mark, she would be even more tired than she is, but the team have done well and I am very proud of all of them. Of course I should say that none of them can skin a rat with quite the aplomb as I can!!

I should tell you about Gluey though. One of the five Long Eared Owl eggs started life in the incubators with a large hole in it, made by its mother. Holly covered the hole with glue (hence the name) and we did not expect it to hatch. However despite our concerns, it did and we were delighted. But all did not go well, he quickly went downhill and so put him on antibiotics, he improved, but then dropped back again, so with the advice of Neil we changed the antibiotics. Things went better for a while and then he got ill again, we took him to Neil’s, and he was prescribed a different antibiotic, again things improved and again after time he went downhill. We had to take Delectable to have her back toe amputated, it had become fixed in the wrong position and was causing problems (that went well and she is recovering very very well!) so I took Gluey in again, he had a very high white cell count and was very anemic (actually when Neil took the blood you could see through it which horrified me more than Neil), so different antibiotics ( he is by now the most expensive damn Long-eared Owl in the world!!!) and I am very pleased to say that he is so much better, that both Holly and I are for the first time more positive that he will actually survive, which we were not before. In the interim period he pinched out all bar one flight feather and he has seven tail feathers instead of twelve so his flying is more like falling. But they are growing back and he is the most charming person you could wish to meet. He does need a name change, but I suspect that Gluey will, as Holly says, probably stick!

Taransay the baby Condor is doing well, although still reliant on chopped food, we have tried her with whole chicks and half a rat, but she just sucks them into oblivion!!

 

The gardens are looking good, I had to give up and ask Peter Dowle for help, they were just getting away from us, so I have two of his people coming in one day a week for the next ten weeks, by which time I hope we will get back on track.  I do need a full time garden though.

We did Spring watch in the Afternoon about three weeks ago, the midges over there were awful and I was bitten to hell but the birds were very good, and I then had to go over there again (why do Springwatch have to choose such damn out of the way places to film) with Greeves to do Springwatch Unsprung which went well I think, Greeves was very good.

 

A very good friend of mine Barbara Handley, who was Chairman, driving force and person extraordinaire on the Hawk and Owl Trust, died the week before last. I had known her since I was 20 and she was a good friend. She died of cancer and very quickly and I miss her as will the Hawk and Owl Trust.

We are just getting close to the stage of training some of the new birds, the baby Lanners are starting to fledge in the aviaries and will be taken away from parents soon to finish growing up mentally. The three baby kites have started their handling and training. We now have a baby Great Grey Owl from Chris Barnard – thanks Chris, he is lovely and settling well. Middle Mouse – Gluey’s younger sibling is doing demonstrations already and is very nice, although he did almost write off the till by crapping in it!!

 

That is about it, or at least as much as I can remember after two hours of weeding in front of the house and two glasses of wine!