JPJ's Weblog

Golly, what on earth happens to the days, it’s a while since I wrote and of course I can’t remember half of what has happened. I did manage to fly my falcons over both days at the weekend and John Cottrell came on Sunday and worked very hard on the new blackboards for the weighing room, the old ones are worn out, and his wife sent Cheese cake! Adam kindly siphoned another 10 gallons of oil from the café tank, so I did manage a warm Sat and part of Sun and a bath, but by the afternoon the boiler had locked out again with no oil. The first job on Monday was to phone Butlers and find out why the hell I did not get any oil, especially as they were apparently delivering on the weekend as well, but it seems that if your slot is missed you vanish into thin air! The oil arrived by lunchtime and the house is now warm again.

It was very cold on Monday, but we did manage to fly all the birds and get them out for baths, it always amazes me that whatever the weather many of the birds will hop straight into a freezing cold bath. We only give them the chance during the morning as we don’t want them wet later in the afternoon. We did not put them in on Monday night, but put them in their compartments in the Hawk Walk and damn me we did have a frost overnight. So we are still putting them in the Indoor Hawk Walk each evening now, just in case. Which reminds me, all rehabilitators and vets in the US be warned, a friend of mine at my request sent me some Styptic powder, which I had seen used in the US in the birds of prey centre in South Carolina, to stop bleeding in birds, if they needed it. I assumed that it was good stuff, and I liked the power rather than the pencils that we often use over here. Neil Forbes came over to give the birds a check up and look at our drugs cupboard, and luckily saw it there and nearly had a fit. He pointed out that it stated that it had Benzocaine in it which is toxic to birds, and blow me it does and it also says its good to use on mammals – and Birds!! He said that any drug with the word 'caine' in it is toxic to bords, so be very careful and ask your vets about it.

Tuesday a couple of friends came over, Kes had bought her husband a day, brushing up on lure swinging in the morning and going out with the Harris Hawks in the afternoon. So we did some lure swinging practice first and got the passes down, and then he flew four Lanners, one Hybrid and a Peregrine!! It was good to see his confidence build over each bird, and the falcons were very well behaved, even Casper who did not disappear.

Which reminds me!! After his little journey we had awful trouble with two of the receivers and after phoning Marshalls, and trying to dry them out over the weekend, it had not worked, so on Tuesday morning Jan sent them recorded delivery to Marshalls UK, and I was very impressed because we got a phone call this morning saying they were fixed and on their way back, so not only did the post office get them there in time, but Marshalls were first class in their service – well done, not only a brilliant telemetry but good service……………and…………….a real human on the end of the phone, will wonders never cease!!

Tuesday afternoon was a lovely warm sunny late

winter day. The guys from Peter Dowles are here again doing more pruning, which means more huge amounts of clearing up. So we dragged a ton of prunings over to the fire and Adam finally got it to take. It was going so well by the end of the afternoon that we did not want to stop, so as all the birds had been done, and were safely in, the Harris Hawks had behaved out hunting and had some good chases, although nothing caught, the hunting team had brought back cakes though!! So we had a cup of tea and cakes by the fire with the most glorious sunset turning the sky a colour between pink and orange and impossible to describe, but a joy to watch. The temperature dropped like a stone as the sun dropped and we finished in the dark.

Today my Range Rover has gone to the garage again and I am hoping beyond hope that it will finally be fixed, but I have to say I don’t trust it anymore. The weather has been kind, Adam and Mike finished off the roof on the new aviary – it looks very good, and Mike has been doing the internal walls. We flew birds and cleared up prunings all day, it is looking great – well pretty bare, but it will look great!! And as we were doing it Simon’s voice came over the radio, and the young Verreauxs are mating!! And as we went down to home made Oxtail Soup for lunch (mmmmmmmmmmm!) he said that they were playing with the nesting material as soon as he put it in today, and SO WERE THE STELLERS!!!! Cross everything please everyone, it would be so good to breed Stellers Sea-eagles. The Tawny Eagles have two eggs and are sitting well, so the breeding season looks like we might have a great one.

Oh and I forgot, I slipped up and bought a new lamp, Sorrell had an accident with one in the office!! He is an eagle, pretty cool eh! THAT is what I did on Sat, how could I forget, I am never going shopping on a Saturday, its a nightmare!

OK Caught up, and Joan had her bone marrow transplant today and it is going to work and she is going to be fine – got that Joan!!