Sunday, 27 April 2014
Its
a grey weekend, the flashes of sunshine make everything look so wonderful, but
the grey is a little dismal I have to say.
Shasta
is enormous!! We are now taking bets on how many puppies she is going to
produce, she is not due until May 6th or 7th, I have the British Raptor Fair on
the 4th and 5th and you can guarantee that she decides to produce on one of
those days. I come back each night, but I really don't want to miss the first
litter of puppies for 13 years!!! Mark has made me a really smart whelping box
which is by my desk in the office, but right now Sorrel is flat out in it!!
Jimmy
has got Rhombic Knight (White-tailed Sea-eagle) going again, it is nice to see
him flying well. John has a new baby Eurasian Eagle Owl called Storm - the
theme this year is weather, she is going to be a big girl!!! Helen is going to
train a new Barn Owl to come to buzzers, it is weighing in at 37 grams at the
moment, so there is a way to go. Mark is flying his Aplomado again which is
lovely to see, it will be interesting to see how he develops. Holly has just
hatched our third Verreaux's Eagle who is doing very well and Adam has put a
webcam on the baby Burrowing Owls, who at this minute are just all scrunching
up against the Asian Brown Wood Owl because they have been fed, but it is chaos
when it gets towards feeding time - you can see it on the front page of the
website - its a real time waster though, so be warned.
At
the moment the killing of birds of prey in Scotland is completely out of
control, the landowners apparently have gone back to the Victorian times and
are happy to poison, trap or shoot anything with a hooked beak. A huge lack of
understanding still lives on there with closed minds refusing to learn and
understand. However here is a huge news topic (TV/newspapers) in the
Highlands about the spate of raptor persecution (poisoning of about
20 birds to date including red kites and buzzards). Probably the most useful
thing to have happened was that it was originally blamed on the farmers. The
local farmers are incandescent about being blamed, mainly, we think, because
they suspect from whence the poisonings come! They (NFU Scotland) are screaming
at Police Scotland for not investigating with more vigour and for not having
found and prosecuted the perpetrators to date. There is a £27,000 reward
being offered. All one can hope is that this time the guilty parties are not
only found, but the Procurator Fiscals in Scotland start to treat these crimes
in the way they should instead of brushing them under the carpet.
The gardens are looking lovely at the moment, Rob is doing a great job, sadly the rain for the third year has not made my tree Peony very happy once it flowered.
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