Monday, 11 August 2014
The weeks fly by, the weather has been stunning apart from yesterday and even now it is beautiful out there, the rain has filled and cleared the pond, the plants and trees are looking washed, clean and happy and everything has a fresh look to it.
I have been to South Africa, I offered to help a group called Vulpro, run, conceived and driven by Kerri Wolter. She/they are working with injured wild vultures from all over South Africa. They are also working on breeding them using the non releasable birds. They are at a crossroads where I think they will be very important to African vulture conservation and I hope I was able to help. 
Africa's vultures are in trouble. Every time you hear about elephants or rhinos being poisoned by these disgusting poachers bear in mind that hundreds and probably thousands of other animals and birds will die as well. All the scavengers, vultures, hyena's, jackals, hunting dogs, crows, egrets, ibis, these are just a few of those that will be affected by this revolting trade in animal death. Add to that the indirect poisoning by local farmers to protect their domestic livestock, the Muti market, which is the use of thousands of dead animals and birds for tribal medicine and last collisions and electrocutions on power lines, not to mention wind power which will have a bad effect on vultures as well.
In some ways the problems for vultures in South Asia
are much easier to deal with if only the governments would see it and get more involved.
are much easier to deal with if only the governments would see it and get more involved.
It was good to see a couple of old friends in Africa and to get to eat beef biltong again though. I suspect I will go out again to help if needed and if I can afford it again!
I had my painting skirt on on Friday, which actually looks much like most of my skirts these days, a little old!! But this one has more paint on it that all the others. We have just put a proper gate where there were two old bits of metal fencing to stop the dogs from going next door. And I managed to paint it and myself black!! The gate looks rather smarter than I do.
I was going to start on painting the new Incubation facility, but did not get round to it, that will be a task for the evenings I suspect.
Our new birds staff member starts on September 1st, the day after the Falconry Weekend, and will go onto the seven day falconry course that is running from the start of the second week. We have an exciting weekend lined up for August 30 and 31st, apart from our birds flying, Gary Biddiss will be here with his birds, Nigel King is keeping secret what he is going to fly, Trevor Fowles is going to bring his Bald Eagle which by all reports is very good, and Bob Dalton is going to fly his falcon as well. We have TWO book signings and possibly three, not sure about the last one yet. David Cobham is going to be signing his new book 'A Sparrow Hawk's Lament' on Saturday. which is a great read with wonderful illustrations by Bruce Pearson. Helen MacDonald is going to be signing her book H is for Hawk, on both days, so it is going be a very special Falconry Weekend - don't miss it!
Saturday, 19 July 2014
Well I have to say its been a shitty week. The weather was lovely until last night when we had a mother of a thunderstorm and very heavy rain, which I was out in as there was a power cut and the drains were blocking. However the gardens did need it, this will have given them a much needed drink. At the end of last week our Great Grey Owl from the Owl Courtyard, one of the breeding pair, except that they have never bred, got ill. We took it to Vets Now, but sadly she died two days later. Then a good friend of mine gave me a ten day old male Sparrow H
awk chick, who died 36 hours later. I am confident that it was nothing that we did, I do not know why it happened sadly. Then Nijinsky our elderly and much loved Kestrel suddenly became ill and as he was rapidly losing weight and not responding to treatment we decided not to try and keep him going when it obviously was not fair on him so he was euthanized. Then the oldest male baby Snowy Owl decided to die, he had been doing well, but had enteritis that did not show until he was dead. Then to cap it all my beautiful baby Tawny Eagle suddenly got the same symptoms as the other Tawny Eagles had, just when we thought we were past the danger point, and so I had to have him euthanized as well. So a really shitty week all in all.
However the puppies have now all gone and so the two I am keeping - Agapanthus who is a boy and twice the size of Nightshade who is a girl. They are very happy and pleased to be in the house and have settled well all things considered. Sedge is not being too mean to them and I have not had to rush downstairs in the middle of the night to a screaming puppy as yet! It is a relief to have the others gone and I know they are all in great homes, so I don't have to worry about them. I hope their new owners are having as much fun with them as we are. Mine love the fan in the weighing room, because it has been so warm they have been lying in front of, when they are not trying to dig all the water out of the various water bowls around the place!
We have started training this years young Lanners or at least some of them, we are keeping and training five as we are a little short on flyers this year. I am training and female as is Helen and Jimmi is training a male, the other two are second clutch birds and so not quite ready, so Holly and Mark will train those. I am also training the only Merlin that we bred, who is jumping to the fist nicely however we can't work out what sex it is! Its definitely either male or female.
Holly and I did a flying demonstration on Thursday in Quedgeley, which is near the river on the outskirts of Gloucester and it is always a difficult place to fly because of the damn gulls. We must have had 400 of the things flying over us when we started. They chased the falcons and hated the eagle but otherwise ignored the kites and Harris Hawk. The birds were amazing although you could see they were a little concerned about the gulls. So was I!
My sister Dinah and brother Nick are here now, both arrived yesterday, so they saw a short period of sunny weather and now it is raining again as I write bugger it.
Thursday, 3 July 2014
My eye is sore! Damn it, I think I can see better, but I am not sure, if I close the right eye things are more or less in focus but it has changed my vision and I don't think my brain has caught up with it yet!
Still have two boy pups to go, so if you know anyone who would love a beautiful pedigree KC registered black lab, let me know! I have been taking them out into the field and they just love the Burrowing Owl mounds, they were obviously made just for puppies to play on. I can remember when Sedge was tiny he actually went down one of the tunnels, it was fun to see.
Sedge does not like the puppies, he is horrid to them and needless to say they are fascinated by his wheel chair, so it is not a good mix at the moment. Karen from Cotswold Dog Hydrotherapy is convinced that Sedge will walk again, even our Vet Eden Tanner was amazed at the difference in him, it is harder for me to see differences because I see him everyday and cope with his not insignificant needs, but fingers crossed that I can cope long enough for it to happen.
Holly's Hawk Owl now called Sirocco is flying very well as is Muggy the Abyssinian Eagle Owl that Jimmi has trained. Haze, Helen's Barn Owl is a girl most definitely and is flying to the buzzer, but is a little too fat at the moment! Team Cloud, the SIX Burrowing Owls are now on demonstration although it is a little chaotic I have to say! Rhian has been training Drizzle the Asian Brown Wood Owl, who is hysterical, he starts to fly towards her, or the perch and then panics, he almost hovers and then has to make a decision to turn back or go on and he is not that decisive! Mark and I are going to train two of the now hatching Snowy Owls, well most have hatched, there is one to go.
The Grey Buzzard Eagle has finally taken back a chick so she is rearing one now, which is great. The Striated Caracara's have looked like laying for weeks and not done it although I am not that sorry. We have three eggs left in the incubators and then we are done for the breeding season - hooray! Our wild Little Owls brought off four chicks in the Leylandii hedge, which Jimmi ringed. I have a feeling he is the one that ringed some of our magpies as well, however one ended up in Gazelle's feet (Lanner) and did not survive the experience, he was very proud of himself.
It has been dry for ages, so the garden is suffering a little, but we are getting wonderful flying from those birds who like warm weather. Discovery has been a little odd since her short stay at Duncombe, twice now she has seriously and I mean seriously chased pigeons, she damn nearly got one two days ago and it was a really exciting flight!! We will be starting on the new falcons in a week or so, which will be good as we are a little short on falcons right now. Its always fun to start on the new birds.
My brother and sister are coming to stay this month which will be fun, I have not seen either of them for nearly two years, that is the problem of one being in the US and one being in New Zealand I guess.
Don't forget - I need a good home for the last pups!
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Well the weather has been glorious for days now, its just so nice to have warm dry days. The birds have been flying brilliantly, and the falcons just love it. Karis has been pulling the most amazing stoops out of the bag.
All the baby owls are doing very well except for Storm who sadly is going to have to leave us as she seriously wants to kill the smaller dogs, which I cannot have. She needs to go to a dog free zone. Muggy is doing really well, he is an Abyssinian Eagle Owl, Haze the new Barn Owl, is coming along, the Northern Hawk Owl who does not yet have a name is going to be excellent, Drizzle the Asian Brown Wood Owl looks like being a girl and is getting the idea now. Team Cloud - the SIX burrowing owls are getting the idea. And the Snowy Owls have started to hatch so Mark and I will be training one each of those.
We have moved Delectable and she is much happier in her new aviary, also the Lappet faced Vulture is now in the old Secretary Bird aviary and is much more settled. The young Lanners are mostly full grown and we are going to move them away from parents soon so we can start training them after a couple of weeks on their own.
I am off to hospital tomorrow for a cataract operation, they are doing my left eye first and then the other one I hope. Everyone tells me it is a breeze and makes a huge difference - I bloody hope so!!
The puppies are growing like mad and all bar two have been sold, I have two beautiful dog pups left. All are going this weekend, and then I hope to be able to focus on the two I am keeping, a huge boy called Agapanthus and the girl is called Night Shade (Deadly not Woody!).
The Incubation Facility is coming along although we are short of funds for it now. The workshop is at a standstill until the Incubation Facility is finished, but that should not take long I hope once we start on it. The grounds are looking wonderful thanks to Rob's hard work. We are looking for a new staff member and I already have 36 CV's to go through.
Our baby Brahminy Kite is growing apace and is wonderful, it sounds exactly like its parents, Holly is going to have her hands full with that one. My baby Tawny Eagle is still with us, but I dare not give her a name yet.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow............
Monday, 16 June 2014
There are times when I hate being open to the public. Most of our customers are wonderful, but some are just awful. We have some beautiful trees and plants here, two particularly nice ones are the two Acers that are by the Kite block. We had a bench under one for shade, some son of a bitch has ripped off four branches so they can be more comfortable, all they had to do was either ask or move the bench, brainless idiots, but no, just tear off four branches from a beautifully shaped tree that does not belong to you why don't you. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, its a bloody good job I did not catch them at it or they would have left with a great deal lighter wallet. I also would probably have carefully placed at least one of the branches up their nose. Those sort of people I do not want here.
Other than that we had a great half terms, lots of visitors and although needless to say the weather forecast was wrong and actually apart from Thursday it was fine. We managed to fly all the birds mainly outside and all went well. I had a show early June at Milland in West Sussex, I do it every two years, it is just the most beautiful countryside down there, the drive is a bit of a pain as the A272 is very windy for the birds, but you pass the most stunning punch bowl scenery which I have always wanted to stop and fly a bird in! The birds flew well and it all went as planned.
Holly and I have been flying Pan and Encore (the two Barn Owls) every evening after feeding the babies because on Friday we did a film job with them. It was a difficult job, as it was away from home (near Rickmanworth) and through the night. They had been going well and we were reasonably happy, but neither bird would tolerate telemetry, try as we might.
So after a full days work on Friday Holly, Jimmi (he was desperate to meet David Attenborough) and I drove up to the M25 meeting with Adam on the way. We got there about 8.00pm and were soon filming in a beautiful old barn. Encore was very good, he did get upset when the camera (a three D one which was huge) moved on the boom, but as we had four people, his rapid exit out of a hole in the barn was covered by Adam outside. We then moved outside and did flying shots in the dark. There was a huge crane with a light to be the moon, and another light on a wheat field, plus the camera on tracks and about 22 people not counting us. Encore did well and we then switched to Pan. Pan has always been an interesting bird as he will suddenly go off on a little jaunt. He did well to start with and then disappeared behind the barn. We shot round there, but no sign. The crew broke for a meal and we all went off looking for him. We spent about an hour walking the whole area calling him, some of the crew helped, and we left Adam and Jimmie looking because then Holly and I had to go back and finish the filming. Encore did brilliantly and then before the last shot the heavens opened and we abandoned the last shot.
Holly and I then had to drive the two Barn Owls (we had taken Haze the new baby as a stand in) back to ICBP as there were babies to feed, birds to check, dogs and puppies to manage and we had an external demonstration that afternoon in Gloucester. We got home at 5.30am, keeping in touch with Adam and Jimmi who had continued the search. The dogs were insistent that I fed them! We got the morning tasks done, I flew Pinotage at the first demonstration and then we loaded up the birds ready to leave with the trailer and landrover. In the meantime I had phoned Sally to ask if either she or David would drive Holly and I back up to Rickmansworth that late afternoon, I did not dare drive as by then we would have been up for nearly 40 hours. Sally came over and spent a couple of hours phoning vets and other people about the missing Pan, just as we were leaving for the show someone phoned up, he had tweeted about Pan and someone had answered - Pan had been seen on the other side of the dual carriageway sitting on a car. Adam and Jimmi were rapidly phoned, but by this time they had gone back to Oxford where Adam lives to get fresh chicks for looking. They shot back to Rickmansworth and met up with the farmer who worked the land that we were filming on, they split up around the housing estate and Pan came to the farmer who had a glove and food and all was well. Holly and I were at the show when we got a phone call that they had a Pan in a box!! So that was a very good ending to an exhausting day. I have to say I was very relieved not to have to go back up there again.
The breeding season is slowing down, thank goodness, with just a few eggs to go. Oh and guess what we just bred our first Brahminy Kite!! He is lovely and our 66 species. The birds are flying well, the puppies are wonderful and I think all have homes now. They will be going the weekend after next, apart from the one (s!) I might be keeping.
Now I am told I have to fork out for a bloody baby changer because we don't have one in the gents loos. Why the hell I have to be responsible for other people's damn babies I fail to see, I already have to deal with their dirty nappies. So I am looking out for the cheapest one I can find because sure as hell I am not buying one of those expensive ones that fold up onto the wall, I would like to bet they do not have one of those at home. Quite frankly I would not want to change a baby in a public loo anyway, what is wrong with their car. Although then I would probably find the nappy in the bushes - do we - oh yes!!
Thursday, 22 May 2014
I have a bloody cold, there is nothing worse than a summer cold and I feel very coldy! Not pleasant. The puppies are well, they now have their eyes open, they are still in the office with me, but I suspect for not a lot longer. As soon as they can get out of the box, they will move to the place that has been readied for them. I am looking forward to the time when they are playable with. And no, I am not going to keep them all!!! So I am looking for good homes, but I am not giving them away!
Breeding season goes on apace. The Snowy Owls have laid, so its only now a few second
clutches and we hope the Hobby's who are late layers in the wild. Helen has built them a splendid nest.
Karis has started to go up for the season, he did three superb stoops yesterday, sadly today the weather has not been wonderful, although nowhere near as bad as the weather forecast predicted, so he did not get up much height today.
The owl team is coming along. The SIX baby burrowing owls called Team Clouds as we have no idea which one is which, are doing really
well, although it does make for a chaotic demonstration. The Eurasian Eagle Owl Storm, who John has been working with is now huge and about to start serious training. The Asian Brown Wood Owl called Drizzle and being trained by Rhian is a charmer. Haze is the new Barn Owl - Helen's bird, Jimmi is having an Abyssinian Eagle Owl which he has to start taking home soon and it is called Muggy (the weather theme you see), Holly is going to take on the Hawk Owl, that Chris Barnard has given us, that has yet to get a name and Mark and I are going to train a Snowy Owl each - phew!! The Owl evenings this winter are going to be amazing!!
The three baby Verreaux's Eagles are doing well with their various parents, and the three baby Grey Buzzard Eagles are growing apace, one is from the usual pair and the other two from my pair up north. I could do with them not fighting each other, but they will grow out of that.
The Gardens are looking amazing, we get wonderful comments about them, we have planted some Hosta's down the archway of trees into the flying ground and they look lovely, I hope the snails do not find them.
We had to ground Benbecula because of the damn crow, I will have to do something about them nesting in the field early next year, they are so aggressive and Benbecula is a flipping wimp!
We have had in a number of injured wild birds, a Sparrowhawk with a fractured Radius, but it did really well as did the Little Owl with the same injury and both recovered enough to be released. We have another Sparrowhawk in now with a worse injury, but Simon has had a go at fixing it, so we will see how it does. We also had in an adult Buzzard but that was too far gone and sadly the injury was very bad, so he is now no longer with us.
Delectable has moved to the old King Vulture aviary and Pinotage to her old place, they are both very happy about it. Pinotage is flying really well although the only people who can be down there staff wise are John, Mark and I, all the others get bullied by her!
Oh well I am going to go and have a bath and see if that makes me feel better before feeding the chicks.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
We have eleven healthy beautiful Labrador puppies and a very tired mum. She started with a temperature drop on Friday morning which is indicative of puppies usually within 24 hours. She then started digging a big hole in one of the flower beds. She was wearing one of the birds transmitters so that we could find her. I stayed with her for most of the day and most of the night and apart from panting badly she was not producing. I left her for a short while, and in that space of time she must have gone into the sitting room and dropped a puppy, which was dead. I found it a little later.
After watching her more I decided to take her into the vets, he checked her over and between us we decided that she was so huge that she was not going to manage and so he would do a caesarean straight away, as it was likely one would have to be done later anyway. So he went ahead. Holly and I then spent the next couple of hours rubbing and stimulating puppies with the team. Twelve puppies later, one of which did not survive, and Shasta tidied up, we lifted her gently into the van, plus all the pups and came home. We have two girls that did not survive who will go down into the wood with all the other dogs, five healthy girls and six healthy boys.
I have to admit to being a little worried about Shasta, but she has been through so much I guess it is normal that she looks exhausted and pants a lot, however I will be glad when I know all is completely well, and so I will worry for a bit.
The first day of the Falconer's Fair went well, Mark came with me and two of the girls who volunteer here, it is nice to be able to take them. The birds did very well, not a wing put wrong, I was very pleased with them. I did a coping session and Mark did a seminar in the Hawk Board tent, and we did two demonstrations and then came home. I like to get the birds home for the night if I can as I am sure they do better, plus there were dogs and various others to see to as well.
We leave again tomorrow at 8.00am, the vet is coming to do a certificate for a bird that is going and so is going to check Shasta at the same time which I hope will relieve my mind somewhat.
The chicks are all doing well, the third Verreaux's chick is back with the Steppe Eagles who were very pleased to have a baby. Hemp has a baby Abyssinian Eagle Owl which she loves, its parents are looking after two wild Tawny Owl chicks that have been brought in, and they will get a third one tomorrow if the phone call I had comes to fruition! The vulture chick that we took up to Duncombe is also doing well, we are so pleased that the parents have taken to it, Charlie will be able to take down the temporary fence we put up in a week as we should be past any danger point by then.
The six baby burrowing owls have been filming on a lovely set built in the Indoor Hawk Walk, I look forward to seeing the film because they look wonderful in what they are doing. Briza rather likes being on the set too, which is not what they need, but she so likes to be helpful!
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