Monday, 4 January 2010
Hooray, back to normal, or at least normal for the last month. John, Zoe, Josh and Tom were in as volunteers, it was bloody freezing outside, -8 C last night and it did not get above freezing all day. Barn 2 and Barn 1 are now clean, but we can’t do the baths as all the water is frozen. The small wild birds, Robins etc are having a tough time, we put some warm water out for them and Adam made a bird table before Christmas and they are using that in the Hawk Walk. Simon now has to leave the door of the weighing room open when he is cutting up the rats as a Robin comes in and eats the liver!! Adam said it will be growing teeth next and be a vampire Robin! The bird sits on his wheelbarrow as he brings the food down the Hawk Walk. I wonder if it will stay tame when the weather eases up.The Steppes now have a nest ledge and a smart nest, which I hope they appreciate, there is one more to go in that block for now and then we move to the Owl Courtyard on Wednesday. The stand off barrier is down in there ready for us to change the mesh on the front of some of the enclosures and then a new one will go back up that will be better for the owls. Tomorrow I want to finish off Barn 4 and sort out the last two moulting aviaries, and then do a move of some of the moulting falcons, check them over and they will have a larger space and better perching. We also want to put together another pair of the Lanners as they attempted breeding in the US.
The dogs were pleased that proper Coffee Time is back, with staff and volunteers in the café and toast being made especially for them! I often think of all those poor dogs that have to live outside, especially in this weather, when mine have the life they do. Talking of the cold, Simon is going to check that Mozart is up on a perch when he does the babies last feed and if he is on the ground, he is going inside. We desperately need to rebuild the hospital block and I have some ideas about that for this year.
Mike and Tom got one end of the rebuilt enclosures finished barring the mesh and the doors, the wall is clad and the fascia board is on, it looks good. Lots of fiddly bits to do, the other end is about four boards still to go and then it’s the felt and battens, which will make the inside waterproof. Although as the sand is a frozen pile right now I suspect we will not be putting sand in for a day or two!There is a three quarter very yellow moon tonight and the ground is glistening with frost and is crisp to walk on. I went out to have a cup of tea after putting the dogs to bed, before coming in to finish off some office work. The forecast said we might get snow – I wonder!!
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