Its cold today, after the glorious weather of the last few days, its a bit on the grey and chilly side today. I had planned to mow and do some spraying, but its not that welcoming outside. Yesterday Adam and I took down all the signs in the carpark, so the hanging sign with our logo, that is safely put away and will come with me, the others all went in for recycling. The carpark looks very odd without them, but perhaps it will encourage those who come to visit that the only notice left is the one that says Closed Permanently and yes it does mean it.

Just over 30 birds have gone so far, with a good number going in the next three weeks. All that have left are settling and we have had photos from some of the people who have had them which is really nice. Viruses have been causing us a few problems though!! Either people who were due to come can caught covid and so could not come. Or they have ended up in a surveillance zone for Avian Influenza, all of which slows down the process of rehoming. It is hard to see the birds go but it will be better for those going to public facilities to have visitors seeing them again, and those going to private people are generally those who did not like the public anyway.

Stratosphere who will go to Helmsley this coming week

The dogs are of course missing visitors, or perhaps I should be more honest as I think really they are missing the scrouging of food!

Another member of bird staff has a new job and the last two are going for interviews in the next couple of weeks. April approaches quickly with Easter very late this year, we are still going to have our traditional easter egg race in the field though.

 

Adam is over in Wales a lot of the time building wonderful temporary aviaries for the vultures who are going over. He hopes to get that all finished by the end of May. Holly has been going over to help with a couple of the eggs that the vultures have laid.

Eager and mate went today to a great home in Norfolk

I am still looking for a new property, the exchange of contracts here I hope will happen in the next couple of weeks, and then I can be more serious about looking. There is not much on the market but I hope that will get better when more people put their properties on the market. It is really frustrating when the estate agents leave all the sold properties on their website. I am also finding that the brochures do not give you the information that you need. Views from above are really useful but rare. A plan of all the buildings would be really useful but also rare. As for the ukfarmsandland website, the damn thing crashes with monotonous regularity which is seriously frustrating.

 

Indian Chestnut, not so beautiful now

There is still some clearing up of tree damage since the last storm, we lost a huge branch off a sycamore tree and that hit my Indian Horse Chestnut, but we have had to wait until the ground is dry enough to take a trailer down and do the clear up.

I had thought that perhaps when I move and have a bit more time and privacy that I would grow my own vegetables, but last year Anna gave me some tomato plants, which grew really well, but only have 5 tomatos and they never went red, so I got fed up with them!

 

So we move on with the next chapter, and we are all on board with what we are doing, the plan is a good one. Actually looking at the horrific price of fuel right now I doubt we would have had many people be able to afford to come, so we have by sheer chance timed it right for ICBP

Not successful tomato plants - never again!!

 

How Things Are Going At ICBP

 

For those of you who have contacted us to see how the future is looking for ICBP, many thanks it is lovely to know that you care.

The process of closing the Centre is done,we finished all the owl evenings, and completed a further month of experience days. The rest we had to cancel and refund the finances because if we had run all of them we would have still be doing them in October and we could not afford to do that. Don't forget though, this is not the end of ICBP, but just a different chapter in its long life! 

All the birds are well, the Avian Influenza zone was lifted last week and so we have been able to start moving birds. The first 14 went on Tuesday to a good friend of ours who has had birds from us before, it was hard to see them go, but better that they get settled quickly. Two more went today, and there are another nine going over the next two days. We have made sure that all are going to places where their housing is as good as here or better. We plan to have all of those who are not staying with me or going with Holly moved and settled by the end of May at the latest.

One of our bird staff is sorted out job wise and leaving in the third week of April, the other three have all gone for interviews and will hear soon. So it is good to know that they will find new jobs fairly easily. Holly and Adam are staying until we have moved all bar the birds I am taking, then they will move with all the vultures that are going with them, plus a few other birds Holly is taking. That will be a move and a half.

Exactly which of the birds  goes with me is a moveable feast as I will take those that we can’t rehome, either because I don’t want them to go or because they are too old or cantankerous to find the right homes. But it will be 8 – 10 birds I think.

The property has been sold subject to exchange of contracts. But in case you are wondering, not as a bird of prey centre. I have done that before and am not doing it again. The buyer has been kind enough to give me time to finish everything here and find a new property to go to. If they love this house and land as much as I do that will be great.

Where am I and the charity going? That is a question that people ask me and the answer is at the moment I do not know. Until the contracts are exchanged for this property there is no point in getting excited about a new place. I am looking, and there are a few properties out there, but not many at the moment. I am told that more will come onto the market once the spring is here. I am looking in several areas and hope to find somewhere as quickly as possible. Once I do I will let everyone know what area I and the charity will be moving to.

So that is about it for now. We move on waiting for various things to happen and in the meantime, care for the birds, tidy up everywhere as we go along and get rid of things that we no longer need. We are not bored that is for sure.