This evening all the dogs were lying around the kitchen, little black bodies, with paws covered in the pink sand from the new gravel coating each pad, turned upwards, Sorrel clasping one of my wellies in her paws, what would life be without them. With their eyes closed, and relaxed and happy, they are a wonderful part of my life.

It has been a relatively shitty day, I took six birds to fly at Dean Close School in Cheltenham, the bloody wind is still with us, so that adds to making a more difficult demonstration. It was not a pleasant place to fly, a tiny arena and very enclosed with trees, however Common was brilliant, you could not fault him, Bay Middleton would not pick up properly, so I took the decision not to fly him as I had a back-up bird (thank goodness) so next came Lambrusco who was brilliant (kite) then Greeves(kestrel) did nice flying and a lovely hover. All the time gulls were stooping at the birds, but as soon as Hare took off about 30 crows came out and dived at him and even hit him.

I flew him one more time than I should have done damn it, and he got driven away by crows and gulls. I finished off with Discovery, who was very good, but as I was on my own I was a little distracted, to say the least.

It took about two hours to get Hare down and Mark kindly came over and helped me, because it was hard work moving from the car park to the school, Hare didn’t want to go anywhere, but the fences meant a long walk each time he moved, followed by a ton of crows and gulls. He came down eventually, and it was good to have him back. So home we went.

The bugger of it is that all the birds flew really well, and they should have been remembered for what they did, but I know that all anyone will remember is that the eagle flew away, although in fact he was driven away by bloody crows, and that leaves a bad taste in ones mouth.

However I had a bottle of champagne left from our 44^th birthday, so the taste is going!! And as ever it is great to be home with all birds in their compartments and all well, apart from the fact that (prior to the champers) I reversed the trailer into the oil line to the shop and flat – bugger it! Still the evening it glorious, the lowering sun is leaving long shadows on the lawn, there is still a slight wind and the baby Aplomado Falcon is a sweety.