Well Acer and Angus have gone home, Richard and Janet collected them this afternoon, I have to say although it was fun to have them I realise just how wonderful my lot are as I can have them out all day, wandering around, and I never have to worry about them. Acer and Angus were very pleased to see their proper owners, and went nuts with pleasure. Mine watched in amazement, with Sedge joining in as he was pleased to see Richard, rather vocally so, although I have to say that today they were not that helpful with the gravel laying!! Sorrel and Indigo just stood beneath the dumper and got covered in gravel and Sedge insisted on helping Mike to drive! Later in the day Sorrel took over a supervisory role checking that all was done the way it should have been as you can see by the photo, and she wasn't in the way at all, oh no!

I think we are about half way through putting down the new gravel on the paths and I have to say it looks just wonderful where we have done it, so now all visitors will have to levitate please so as not to spoil it. And any children

scuffing the paths, piling up the gravel or throwing it will be instantly fed to the vultures! Go and use the new Children’s Adventure trail, that will be much more fun and not ruin all our hard work on the paths!

The baby vulture is sort of back with parents, Simon has put it in the nest and it is feeding itself, and has the parents there in the background as it were, so hopefully it will know it is a vulture. The Red Tails have hatched, so things are moving along nicely and I am going to get a baby Great Grey Owl next week, which I am looking forward to training. The baby Tawny Eagle has had to have a name change, Anaconda just did not work, so now she is called Tokara, which is a name that suits her, she is a charming person so far and we are going to see if she would like to join the flying team, if not we will keep her for breeding. Pioneer, (Stellers), is coming on a treat and flying well now and understands and focuses properly, although she still likes to watch Mark the best.

Still almost no rain here, this has to be the driest year I have known, I hope it does not mean that we will have a ton of rain later.