An Owl outside in the woods, not in a Bar in London

Well I had a lovely email from a lady who was a professional singing teacher (I wish she lived closer) and she gave me some advice on how to get back control of my vocal chords - I have been practising in the Land Rover which is a good place to start and I think she is right - thank you very much Marian.

We have been fighting to stop this dreadful Owl Pop Up Bar that has been on the go for starting up in London. Most responsible owl owners would never be involved but of course there are some complete idiots out there who will do it, which is a great shame. Although I suspect they would become persona non grata if they do it! They certainly would not be welcomed here. The people still wanting to run this are obviously completely uncaring about owls, and interestingly they said they were only doing it to give the profits for owl conservation. However we worked out that they would probably be turning over about £50,000 and in their original email to a charity, they offered £500 - £1000 - not exactly a large donation one might say.

Various other things have been going on including a lost Eurasian Eagle Owl outside a local town which has taken up way too much of my time, plus various lost birds - not ours I hasten to add.

Nightshade is recovering slowly, it looks like so far her hip is going to OK, she has another two weeks to go of rest before she can be X-rayed, but she is sound, no sign of pain and walking well. She is also very difficult to keep calm, and her brother who is probably lamer than she, is eating everything. The second television remote control went yesterday and I still have to find one of the batteries, if he has eaten it I hope it comes out sideways!

Today I signed the lease for the Centre to the Charity, so there is no going back now! It was a sort of scary moment, but at least we can move forward into the future now. Next thing, make a Will! Not that I have any plans to pass away in the near future - maybe in forty or so years. That is another three generations of Labradors.

We get the occasional complaining visitor who does not like my dogs (unbelievable isn't it) so we are putting a dog gate in one of the rooms of the café to have a dog free area. I will not be sitting in there again once it is up! David complained about my notice on the loo doors as well, so I have changed it to a more polite one, although I still think that people who stuff God knows what are 'mindlessly stupid' and personally if I caught them at it I would gladly make them clean the loos with a toothbrush, however we have to be nice and polite now!

Just hatched Stellers!

We have a baby Stellers Sea Eagle and a baby Bald Eagle, the Brahminy Kites have been laying eggs all over the place, the Luggers are on eggs, so we are crossing our fingers they are fertile this year and various other birds are on eggs as well. The Griffon Vultures have their chick back and are looking after it well. The CCTV makes a huge difference in letting us know how eggs or chicks are doing. Although yesterday when Holly was in Ledbury she checked on her phone to see how the chick was and could not see it, so phoned the shop, who got on the radio and all staff ran down to the aviary to check. The chick had got out of the nest and was in the corner of the ledge and was fine. Another phone call told Holly to check again and her baby was there in the nest and safe. However Robin who was running down the slope to the Barn said that he could not stop and used the wall as a brake! The wonders of technology!