JPJ's Weblog

Its been a cold and damp two days, I was hoping that as the temperature dropped the rain would go, but at times in the last two days it has been pretty raw, cold, grey and damp. Nevertheless, we get stuff done. I did manage to go to Ross on Wye, got bedding for the Secretary Birds so they could be comfortable, did some food shopping and got a big Axe to chop up logs!! So look out all, once I am wealding that one! We have done a ton of clearing, the paths are All raked, most of the lawns are and things are looking tidy, very tidy! Yesterday and today Robin and Simon and our wonderful volunteers got the last of the Kite aviaries wired, painted and finished, we only have to move the Red Kites in there now. And then have a sort out in the Moulting aviaries. There are a few nest ledges to get up, but most are done now. And they managed to clean all the owl aviaries as well, what a team.

The aviaries at the end of the Hawk Walk are looking great - everyone is pleased with them and Mike has done a great job, the framing in up and the big perches are in, we are very organised I have to say. And now if you fall over or have a heart attach, five of us have had first aid training today and can do CPR. The chap who came to train us was very good, and very patient as we did have to answer the phone on occasion and I had to deal with puppies, who were not liable to behave with the practise dummies!! I can thoroughly recommend the company. They came to us and Andy was very good at explaining and showing us and answering a million questions. I am glad we did it, it also highlighted a couple of things we need to do here as well.

We finally had to change the phone system, the old one was very old - 25 years or more, and although it would have been nice to wait, it was not worth the risk. But if anyone phones and we lose you, its only because Jan and I have not worked out the system yet - so we apologise - phone again! My house is very untidy though because of all the walking through from one area to another with the new system, and the wet ground and mud has not helped the cream carpets!!

The light in my downstairs loo is playing up, actually all the damn lights with string pulls are playing up, the one in the loo comes on (if you are lucky) after anything up to five minutes, which can make you jump if you have forgotten it is going to come on! I did go and buy a new fitting for the one upstairs, but I am not sure it is going to fit and anyway, Acer got at it, so it is not as well as it was when I bought it! Colin, the phone man left a spare phone on the kitchen table for a short while - bad move, it had no plug on the end in a very short space of time, Acer is teething madly right now and nothing is safe!

The birds are well and coping with the cold, all but two of the flyers are in the indoor hawk walk, but we have not been able to do much flying in the damp foggy weather. We had a buzzard with a hugely swollen eye in this afternoon, he is thin as well, I hope he recovers, eyes can look very much worse than they are, and we have had some good recoveries from some awful looking injuries. Adam and I went to a meeting at Hartpury Ag College last night, and on the way back nearly ran over a rook that was sitting in the middle of the road in the pitch dark, it was under the car by the time I managed to stop! Adam caught it, I think it has a head injury, we have called it Rooky because Adam said that every college he knew had a Boa constrictor called boey, and an Iguana called Iggy!! These are incidentally my least favourite sort of names! If it had been a crow it would have been crowy or a jackdaw - jackdawy, but that is rather more difficult to say!

We have three owl evenings in a row starting tomorrow and then all the owls will be fed up for a month, before bringing a few back into training for re opening on Feb 1st. Time flies by that is for sure.

The Five baby Indian Eagle Owls are doing well, yes five! And I suspect we will have eggs again soon. Bloody hell its 10.00pm - my bedtime!