Saturday, 21 November 2009
Yesterday was one of ‘those’ days and I was so ratty by the end of it, it would not have been a good idea to put fingers to keyboard, well not and keep a business going! Today is going to be much better! Although I have to admit that it is a little grey and dismal outside my office window, and its raining, which makes life a little tricky for the experience day today – it’s a falcon day and that is always more difficult in the wet. We had an experience day yesterday and an owl evening and the same today and that makes for a long and tiring day. This was the fullest owl evening so far, and the mulled wine was one of my best, though I say it myself. The owls did themselves proud and Robin did most of one of the guided tours which I think he enjoyed. Holly flew Oath (Ural Owl) who was excellent, all of them are really getting the idea now. I do miss EJ Gallo though, she was a bad tempered Barn Owl, but flew circles beautifully and I have not managed to get another to do that yet. Eager, (Long-eared Owl) does his wing clap inside – it looks really weird actually, most ungainly, but I guess when they do it up high on display it is spectacular, it certainly is audible!
Dave managed to finish the hedge yesterday and tidy up a number of other trees in the field and Danny’s Wood. Of course now there is a huge pile of stuff to burn and it doesn’t want to! So as the forecast is pretty dire for the next few days, we will let it season before trying again. We are worried about the young Yew tree in the middle of the field, it does not look well and a number of my trees have died for no apparent reason, which is concerning. Perhaps they missed me! With the help of Nick and Jo and Matt, we managed to get all the first cuts from the huge Leylandii hedge over to the bonfire for our fireworks, which is supposed to be tomorrow, but looking at the forecast we are going to postpone it – after all, the rest of my work has to be done whatever the weather, but a celebration? That needs to have at least reasonable weather.
So actually I guess we got a fair bit done yesterday, with the experience day, the bonfire, the hedge, I managed to rake the Hawk Walk in between times, we did three flying demonstrations, and the owl evening – hell no wonder I slept well!
However today rain, rain and more rain, it stopped by about 9.30 and we did not get it again straight away so we were able to do some of the Experience Day in the sort of dry, but by lunchtime it had set in, so we just carried on!! Fortina did brilliantly in the rain, as long as there is wind she doesn’t give a damn what it is doing! Common (lanneret) was drenched by the time he had done three catches for the falcon day course. The poor chaps on the course carried on until 3.40 and then we gave up. Steve and Jim got painting done in the third of the Kites aviaries and Simon has both Vulture nest ledges made and ready to go up. I suspect the carpet on the edges is not going to last long knowing them.
The rain let up for the owl evening and actually it turned out to be a pretty good evening, the people were nice, the owls flew well, Cool Ground (snowy owl) did brilliantly, much better than his first night and only the new torches did not live up to their promise. Two long days though…….. I’m for bed and a book.
Dave managed to finish the hedge yesterday and tidy up a number of other trees in the field and Danny’s Wood. Of course now there is a huge pile of stuff to burn and it doesn’t want to! So as the forecast is pretty dire for the next few days, we will let it season before trying again. We are worried about the young Yew tree in the middle of the field, it does not look well and a number of my trees have died for no apparent reason, which is concerning. Perhaps they missed me! With the help of Nick and Jo and Matt, we managed to get all the first cuts from the huge Leylandii hedge over to the bonfire for our fireworks, which is supposed to be tomorrow, but looking at the forecast we are going to postpone it – after all, the rest of my work has to be done whatever the weather, but a celebration? That needs to have at least reasonable weather.
So actually I guess we got a fair bit done yesterday, with the experience day, the bonfire, the hedge, I managed to rake the Hawk Walk in between times, we did three flying demonstrations, and the owl evening – hell no wonder I slept well!
However today rain, rain and more rain, it stopped by about 9.30 and we did not get it again straight away so we were able to do some of the Experience Day in the sort of dry, but by lunchtime it had set in, so we just carried on!! Fortina did brilliantly in the rain, as long as there is wind she doesn’t give a damn what it is doing! Common (lanneret) was drenched by the time he had done three catches for the falcon day course. The poor chaps on the course carried on until 3.40 and then we gave up. Steve and Jim got painting done in the third of the Kites aviaries and Simon has both Vulture nest ledges made and ready to go up. I suspect the carpet on the edges is not going to last long knowing them.
The rain let up for the owl evening and actually it turned out to be a pretty good evening, the people were nice, the owls flew well, Cool Ground (snowy owl) did brilliantly, much better than his first night and only the new torches did not live up to their promise. Two long days though…….. I’m for bed and a book.
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