The last couple of days have been a bit miserable, we lost Tokara, the baby Tawny Eagle, she was doing really well and everyone loved her, she had a staggeringly nice nature and was being carried round on the fist, even did a couple of photography days and then suddenly on Friday she lost weight and became dehydrated for no apparent reason, she was rushed to Neil Forbes, but although we medicated her frequently we lost her on Sunday. So everyone is still very low about it. I would almost rather have lost one of the other baby eagles than her because the Indian Tawny Eagles are so important to us.

The gravel is all down and we have about 15 tons left to top up and patch over the next few months while it all settles in. We even managed to do the car park, so enormous thanks to Tarmac at Stowfield Quarry in the Forest of Dean as they made it all possible. The whole place looks wonderful. However within one hour of it being down by the seating in the flying field we had two children visitors and one of them had put piles of the new gravel on the grass!! I supposed putting a notice out stating that this gravel is toxic to children would probably be counter productive!! I suspect it would not work anyway. We now have to spray for weeds as they come through, but the weather has not allowed us to do this yet. It has been very windy for days now, only stopping in the evening, it makes it a little difficult for flying, but we are managing as ever. Pioneer is amazing in the wind, and did two circles the day before yesterday.

The baby Great Grey Owl has arrived and I will be training it, it’s with some of the other baby owls being reared at the moment, but will soon come into the house and have dog and human interaction. It is uncanny, we got given a baby Snowy Owl two years ago and immediately our pair bred five babies and now we have been given a Great Grey Owl and the adults here are on eggs!! I love Great Greys, but they are susceptible to stress related problems so we are going to be very careful. The three baby Red tails who are going back soon and the three Harris Hawks are starting to get about, Simon says we have a definite female, a definite male and a definite not sure! There are three very cute baby American Kestrels too, which are tiny and very vocal.

Dante has left us, the girl who borrowed him lost her grazing so he had to come back but as I have no grass and could not manage two horses I took him to Leominster sale. He looked stunning behaved really well and lots of people were interested, he went to a nice home which was a real bonus. Now I have to sort out Henry who is not happy living alone (silly boy -it’s the best way to live!).

Next week is the Bath and West Show and thank goodness I am staying with a good friend of mine, which means I don’t have to camp, I am delighted because I loath camping and I am far too old to do it. So Anabelle and I with nine birds will be working away in Somerset and friends will stay in my house with the dogs.

Adam and Mark have just started on the Adventure Trail through the top half of the woods, and I have finished the drawings for the Stamp trail, so we are moving forward on the kids stuff. Angie Davis (Pink Frog) is designing the new stuff for the education room, which will be nice as it is all very old in there now.