Still no bloody phone!! However if it is not fixed by the end of tomorrow I will have great fun telling BT in great detail what I think of their company! It was a cold night last night, with a clear sky during the day at this time of year the temperature is bound to drop. The evening sky was superb, brilliantly clear going from blue to silver to grey and back to deep blue, with the trees and plants changing from vivid greens to grey greens to dark greens and then black against the sky, quite stuning to watch.

Birds did well on the hunting day and I think the four people enjoyed it. The new borrowed female would not fly with Bay Middleton, and was horrid to him on Thursday, so he was checked out by Neil Forbes on Friday, but got the all clear and is fine today (sunday). He and Pretender, Holly's male did the day during the afternoon, and it was Pretender's first day out and he loved it!

We flew Pretender and Radamanthus (!!!) Adam's Harris together this evening and apart from a jump at one another the first meeting they were good and gold and by the time we had all three taken them all round the field, they were following each other up into trees and sitting on the same branches like a pair of old pro's

I have spent the whole day trying to get to writing the paper for the conference this coming week, and failed, so have spend most of the evening trying to get it done, I think I have broken the back of it and will finish tomorrow. I hope! We had a photography day, which Steve one of the volunteers took, the usual busy day, a birthday party group in the afternoon and two people from the Carolina Raptor Centre from NORTH Carolina drop in as well, so it was a little hectic. Plus Hamish came and kindly sorted out a couple of problems on a new IBM netbook, so come to think of it it was more than a little hectic, no wonder I did not get much done!

The weather is set to stay fair and dry for the rest of the month, I can't remember when we last had rain, but it must be about five weeks at least, and yet the plants, trees and grass look pretty good all things considered. It only looks awful where the damn kites pull up the grass around their perches. I have to say I wish they would not do it. It is going to get colder towards the end of this coming week, but the Indoor Hawk Walk is ready for birds so it should not be a problem.

Once I get back from the two conferences I have to go to in the next couple of weeks we are going to start training the two new Steppe Eagles, which I am really looking forward to. I have not trained a new eagle for ages now.

Pups are well and getting bigger and stronger, they have a lovely life here and are much enjoyed by the visitors as well. The other three dogs are coping with them better now, and only Rush gets really annoyed with them when they push their luck. Sedge is amazing with the birds, but I have to say I wish I had seen him yesterday when he went down the tunnel for the burrowing owl!!

Pictures, Sedge eating a glove and he and Acer playing