Saturday, 22 September 2012
It’s one of those most glorious of mornings, and my
favourite. Cold but not bitterly, a smattering of frost on the longer grasses,
an almost cloudless sky with vivid sunshine and quiet, even the traffic noise
which we do get even though the motorway is four miles away, is dim. The leaves
are just turning and we are starting to hear autumn bird calls, the plinking of
blackbirds – which my Sparrowhawk is fascinated by! The wild Hobby’s are
fledged and playing around us, and chasing the house martins, who will be gone
by the time we get back. In fact just the sort of day that makes you not want
to get up at 1.00am tomorrow morning to catch a 2.00am bus to Heathrow!! Art
came cantering up for his breakfast and I have a lesson at 8.30am, he then goes
to Sam’s on Monday until we get back from India, so that is one less worry.
Holly and Ben are house sitting with the dogs, Shasta
who has a bit of a swelling on the inside of her elbow which we are assured is nothing
to worry about, is much better and now coming outside for some of the day. She
was getting very stressed being cut in all day, plus she was chewing
everything.
All the birds are doing brilliantly, we were flying
the merlin yesterday and a wild Goshawk came over which was a delight to see.
The two baby Grey Buzzard Eagles in the second clutch had to come out yesterday
as mum is on more eggs and was getting a little stressed by them. One has gone
back to Chris O’Donnell, the other Mark is going to train, so for the time
being it has gone in with Hare and Azor to grow up a little.
All the Lanners are loose now and going well, my
Indian Tawny Eagle is now called Plieadies (spelt wrong I think) and she is
amazing, I have not seen an eagle come on in such an exciting manner in a long
while, we are very very pleased with her.
Had a lesson Art this morning, which went OK, he was a
little bumptious, but as I had not ridden for about five days that is not
surprising.
Holly, Michele and I along with two Lanners have been filming this
week, long tiring and on occasion boring days, but it never fails to amaze me
what the birds will do for us. Dawn Run sat on a branch in a tree while a huge
camera on a long boom arm can up behind her and filmed the actors with her in
the foreground, and then she flew out of frame, Holly was up a step ladder and
I was out of camera shot in the distance, although she got so bored with the
whole thing that eventually she refused to do the flying bit, so Discovery took
over and was very good although she would not deal with the moving camera,
however the previous day she had been flying after a four wheeled vehicle with
another huge boom arm on the top and the camera filming her as she flew after
the car, Holly was in the car, Michele released the falcon and then did a
dramatic drop to the ground to get out of shot, and I called her in at the end –
it was amazing stuff and the birds were brilliant.
Got to finish off stuff, and get packed and so I will
write again when I get back on October 4th
Saturday, 15 September 2012
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| A friend sent me this - kites galore! |
There are times when I get very tired of people asking
for concessions, can we get in cheaper, can we have a discount, do I have to
pay if I am disabled, a student, a green goblin and so on. It would be so nice
if for a change some people did not constantly want something for nothing. It
has been a difficult few days, a whole ton of things nearly went wrong on
Sunday, a meeting on Monday that should have been at 11.00am was put at 2.00pm
and half of us knew and half did not and to cape it all I managed to miss my
dentist appointment, which I thought was 2.45pm, and having just rearranged the
whole 2.00pm flying demonstration, I discovered it was 10.40 and I missed it.
So I am feeling decidedly grumpy and if I get another phone call about bloody
advertising I may just scream!
On second thoughts the green goblin might get a
discount but only if he or she can do magic!
The next few months are so hectic it is not true, I
have three trips abroad – two vulture ones and one conference in Spain, Holly
is going to Costa Rica with Ben for a monitoring trip, we have courses, new
birds to train, none of the birds have gone to Duncombe yet so we are really
stretched and I am looking forward to December!!
However all the young birds are coming on now, the
weather has been and is today quite glorious again, reminding me how much I
love the Autumn.
Interesting to see that the press surrounding our
Royal Family are as pleasant and human as ever, I have to say that I do
consider them to be the scum of the earth with their panting tongues and long
lenses desperate to get a picture that they think might put our Royals in the
limelight for something that is mostly totally private. As I am of the school that
consider they killed Princess Diana, I have never liked them, but it seems that
their appalling behaviour continues unabated, regardless. Even the BBC report
ended today by saying ‘our future queen topless’ which I thought was
purposefully done, when he could have said ‘a young woman privately sunbathing
like millions of other young women – shame on you man. Although I suspect that paparazzi
don’t understand the word shame. As for the Editors, they should have slightly
more morals and brain, but again, they show their true colours.
Anabelle is back from Mauritius, and so she can take
over her birds again, which is nice, they are both going very well,
particularly the Kite, and they will be going up to Duncombe when all is ready.
Adam Jon and Tash were up there this week getting big perches in the aviaries.
I will go up when I get back from India with Simon, Mike and I are going up to
get on with the landscaping, at least he will landscape with a machine and I
will help! Sally and I were thinking of going on a two day riding trip, but I
just can’t fit it in this year, which is sort of a shame. But my riding is
improving which is very nice. We have changed the shape of Art’s field back to
how it was when I left, there is almost nothing now that I have not returned to
how it should be, which is a nice feeling. Although very soon I am going to
have to start to do some work on the windows in the house as they are looking a
little sad.
Amazingly we see Owl Evenings looming up, I can’t
believe how quickly the time goes these days. And Hemp has not even finished
moulting. Still my Sparrowhawk is improving by the day!
Friday, 7 September 2012
The summer holidays are over and so needless to say
the weather is now wonderful!! Sod’s law applies again, I think someone is
taking the piss!! The Falconry Weekend was a great success, all the stands
arrived well in time, we did have to be very careful and not allow anyone to
drive on the grass as we had had the most amazing downpour on the Wednesday,
with half an inch of rain in eight minutes!! And it went on for another 20
minutes, I thought we were going to have huge problems – they were putting up
the tents for the stands in the rain! However the following day it was warm and
windy, the best combination for drying out the ground. Friday dawned fair and
it recovered further and although we did not allow anyone to drive on it, thank
goodness Richard had lent us his ATV, Thank you Richard, because without it
last and this week we would have had problems. We took most of the large stand’s
stuff down in it, Adam did stirling work and Ben pushed stuff around in
wheelbarrows, and we did the same thing on the Sunday to get everyone out, we
had the whole lot out and cleared by 7.00pm on the Sunday evening apart from
two stands that were staying until Monday and that included getting one the
stand holders car started with my Landrover battery. 
Both days went really well, the seminars were
brilliant, the demonstrations first class, Gary Biddiss did his usual brilliant
stuff with his Peregrine Merlin, sadly there was not enough wind to do his kite
so I think we will work on a balloon over the winter months. Nigel King flew a
Striated Caracara which was excellent, a Hooded Vulture to work with Vulture
Awareness Day and a very good young Lanneret who got lovely height both days.
Howard Kirby and Roger James did great dog demonstrations, poor Roger was the
only one with rain as we had a short period of it on the Sunday, but otherwise
both went really well and my dogs were shut in for that period!! All our birds
did not let us down and it appears that the most popular was my Musket
Sparrowhawk who was excellent, although I have to say that today he was a pain
in the arse as it took 2.5 hours to get him out of a tree!
My staff and the volunteers were wonderful, some did
the BBQ all day, which was greatly appreciated by the punters, who were pleased
to have good food at a good price. Then Angie and staff did the evening BBQ for
the stand holders, I have to say the venison was gorgeous, thank you David
Morton and David Kay for providing in and thank Charlie and me for cutting it
up and marinading it in a brilliant fashion.
There have been amazing comments on both Facebook and
the IFF, and I hope that many of those who did not come this year will make it
next year as we will be doing it again – August 31st and Sept 1st
– put it in your diary!
Finally, today, Friday, the tents have gone, the loos
went on Monday, as did the Biffa bins, most of the clear up was done by the end
of Monday and I was exhausted, we also collected Art, so he is home again,
which is great, although he did managed to cut himself and pull off a shoe on
the first day back!! We have moved the fence in the field back to its original
place, which is going to look much better and we even managed to have a Members
BBQ on Wednesday evening to finish off the burgers and venison and that was a
great success too, of course the weather was great because I had done it while
the tents were still there in case it rained, so needless to say it did not!
We grounded Hare and Karis on Monday and Cowan Red,
they all need a moult and it gives us more time to concentrate on the young
birds, or at least that is the theory.
Charlie came down on the Thursday and as usual was a
tower of strength, although we were far better organised this year because it
was just done by us, so we knew what still had to be done. He left on Monday
morning and is back getting things ready for the birds to go up to Duncombe
soon. John and Adam and Tash are going up next week to help with the perches in
all the aviaries.
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Shasta went through her operation OK and is now getting
bored with being shut in and eating everything in sight. Rush is keeping her
company as he has to lose some weight. Autumn is showing already with leaf
colour, although I have to admit to being worried about the leaf drop on a
number of the trees, I hope they are all OK. Here is hoping that the weather
holds for the weekend.
I have just managed to change the last bed, so the
house is clean, thanks to Sue and Michelle who came in and rescued us today as
Sue was not feeling well, all my clothes are clean and I am off to bed with my
kindle!
Saturday, 25 August 2012
Apparently I am going to have no time for paperwork
emails, blogs or anything else at the moment, I have to say I am feeling a
little worn. So unless they are very neccessary, don't email me!!! What with bad weather, bank holidays, the falconry weekend (which
is very busy now) and the training of new birds, plus all the birds that should
have gone up to Duncombe a couple of months ago, there is no time for anything.
I have not even ridden my horse for three days. .jpg)
It’s always a hard time of the year anyway as all the
young birds are coming into training and the older more experienced ones are
still flying because the young ones are not ready to take over, so there are
masses of birds to get done through the day and the Experience Days, although
great because they bring in funds, mean that we can’t use the field in the
afternoon until they are done. Oh to win the lottery and buy some more land!!!!
We are training four large falcons and four small ones, three eagles, two
kites, one new Harris, and my Sparrowhawk, and that is on top of all the usual
flyers at this time of the year, oh and that does not count two new owls
either!!
However all young are going well, and will be an asset
to the teams here and at Duncombe when they finally go up there. Once the
Falconry Weekend is done after next weekend we will have a grounding of about
five birds which will ease the pressure as well. It’s the unexpected that
screws it all up. Two days ago Ara, the tiny male Lesser Kestrel buggered off,
so that took Michele and I from 1.30 – 4.30 to finally get him back at which
point his name was close to being changed!! And we walked bloody miles after
the little dear!!!
Holly’s Grey Buzzard Eagle is now flying free, and
called Ganymede. She is wonderful and doing really well. It is interesting to
see how different she is to my young Tawny Eagle who is NOT ready to go loose
yet and is also not the same charming character either!!
Shasta is still lame and now has to have a big
operation on her elbow, which is just before the Falconry Weekend and I am
dreading it. I hate taking them in and leaving them for an operation, I always
wish I could be there with them.
It’s the Bank Holiday, we know that because it has
been raining, like every other bloody bank holiday this year!!! We had terrific
thunder storms, which had Leaf disappearing, but I have to say we still did get
some visitors, and they stuck it out through rain, wind and sun!! As usual the
birds were amazing and did not let us down. They are so special really, as are
my staff as they continue on in the rain, just pretending it is not happening!!
I will be glad when the autumn is here though it will
be nice to be under less pressure – I hope. Although I have three trips which I
have to do, which is not so much fun. Ah well, better go and feed Art as I have
not had time to ride him - again! Oh and here is our Gold Postbox, with grateful thanks to the Dressage Team and the Individual Gold, in fact thanks to Charlotte we should have two!!Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Yesterday Mark and I spent the day at Margam Park near
Swansea filming for a series. Well to be more accurate we spent the morning
waiting to film and the afternoon filming. There was a chap with all the stunt
horses who came up and talked to Mark and came out with one of my least
favourite comments. He asked Mark if he had been to some French bird of prey
centre, and Mark said no, and he said – they do the best demonstrations in the
world – I think that is so rude. If he had said it to me I would have said –
have you seen the so and so horse team, they do the best stunt horses in the
world!!! It really pisses me off when people do that – ah well he also told
Mark that birds of prey can tell if you are scared by scenting you, which is
pretty bloody clever as apart from three New World Vultures the rest don’t have
a sense of smell, I hope he is more accurate with his horses!! The film job
went really well, the birds were asked to do some quite difficult stuff and
they performed brilliantly and did not put a foot or beak wrong, they did all
that was asked of them, we were very proud of them. Shanny who did the bulk of
the work did her last day as we have now retired her, she has been a star for
years, and had not flown that well this year so we decided she has earnt her retirement,
she will of course stay with the Centre for the rest of her life.
I did a demonstration with my Sparrowhawk today, I did
put him back on a line as he was a little nervous, but he was brilliant, so I
might try him loose tomorrow, he is loose on his own and is called Deneb.
Pioneer is back on duty and flying well although very unfit. We have a new
Merlin thanks to Greg – thank you Greg she is lovely. The Lesser Kestrel Ara is
coming on, and the two new Kites are lovely, particularly John’s who has
recovered from its cracked leg bone and is already catching in mid air,
although it does not quite know what to do with the meat once it has caught
it!!
We decided that Dusky Emperor was bored of her
routine, so to change it we have introduced her to the dummy bunny – at first
she was horrified and thought about flying in the opposite direction, but now
she is getting very interested and today killed it well and truly and then let
it go and when I pulled it away she ran after it and killed it again!! I think
she will soon get the idea although I think the local wild rabbits are safe for
a while!
The new Grey Buzzard Eagle is just wonderful and
should go loose tomorrow, although that is more than can be said for my new
Tawny Eagle who is a bad tempered person and although the same age, the same
rearing, the same handling and training, is not ready to go loose yet!
Bookings for the Falconry Weekend are now full, which
is wonderful, in fact even all the Space Only has gone!!! As long as the
weather is fair it should be a great weekend for everyone. Charlie is coming
down and the house will be full. Don’t miss it!!
Jules is going up to London for the ParaOlympics, so
Art and I will have to do without her teaching for two weeks!! We have a lesson
tomorrow and then we are on our own for a bit, although he is going away for
the Falconry Weekend as I need his field for parking and camping and I don’t
think the campers would really appreciate his nosiness!!
Friday, 17 August 2012
It’s been hectic!!! The weather has been so damn
variable it’s hard to know where the hell we are!!! We lost a big branch of the
Eucalyptus tree in the Hawk Walk, luckily after everyone had left, so David
Kenworthy came over immediately and we took down a number of other branches and
the whole tree will have to come down in the winter, still it will make for
very aromatic fire wood in the future. We dragged all the branches away to the
fire the next morning, the dogs sort of helped, although I am not sure that
help was the right word.
We have given up on the Hobby, I am about to write to
AHVLA which my computer insists is actually HALVA!! And tell them that we in
our expert opinion consider that this bird is not releasable, it will not
survive in the wild, and so we are leaving the decision as to what to do with
it to them. We do not particularly want to keep it however we are prepared to
give it a home for life, but they may not agree and may want us to kill it –
which we are not prepared to do, so if that is what AHVLA and JNCC want, we
will give it to them and they can kill it – that should make for an interesting
conversation!!
All the young
birds are coming along nicely, the awful weather is slowing things up a little,
but we are moving forward. Mark has just got the young Aplomado Falcon out to
start training, it is a male and stunning to look at!! The American Kestrel is
a male and I am told really good at killing the carpet!! Adam and I pulled out
four wheel barrows of stinging nettles from the other side of Barn 1, I am
still itching a little, but I am told the stings are really good for
arthritis!! I hope so as they are mean bloody nettles and always get you back
as you pull them out.
The Falconry
Weekend is looking like it will be a great success, I just pray for good
weather. We have had a ton of late bookings, and I finalised on the tentage
today. We have three spare spaces and that is it!! All the people coming to
demonstrate or give seminars are on track and it really should be a wonderful
weekend. The atmosphere here is always fun and it adds to anything that we put
on. I am looking forward to it.
Then the next
thing is Simon and I go to India for the Incubation workshop, which will be
hard work, but worth it and then I think we go on to Nepal to see what is going
on there with the Vulture Programme. This autumn is going to be busy!!Saturday, 11 August 2012
I went to the Olympics last week!! Got the chance to
see the first day of the team Dressage at Greenwich Park, it was amazing. The
organisation was superb, the volunteers helping people to get to where they
needed to go were wonderful, friendly, helpful, chatty and they deserve a huge
thank you. The travel was seamless, no waiting anywhere apart from a short
queue to get out of the park, but other than that, all trains ran on time and
it could not be been easier. We left at 5.30 am and got home at 9.45 pm and the
whole thing was really exciting and well worth going to. Well done all those
organising the Games and to all those detracting it, just go away and shut
up!!! I am extremely proud of the UK for all it has done in the organising of
the games and even more proud of all those taking part, winners and losers. And
we won Gold in the team event and Gold and Bronze in the Individual. In fact
Britain is doing brilliantly in the medals, so we should all be very very proud.
My brother who normally lives in New Zealand is over
here at the moment, he was staying with me, arrived on the 18th, he
was due to leave last week to stay with our cousin in Llangollen in Wales. But
her husband is not well so he is not able to go, which is a great shame really.
He is in Scotland to see Anna now, in the country to start with and then back
in Edinburgh for the festival
Right, a bit of a rant. There is a huge row going on
between the various shooting groups about a report from the Wildfowl and
Wetlands Trust on lead. The shooting
fraternity in their normal blinkered way are continuing to shout at the top of
their voices that there is no proof that lead causes problems for wildlife, one
wonders why they don’t realise just how stupid this makes them look. This is
regardless of reams and reams of very good science to the contrary. Why am I
particularly annoyed right now, well we have just had a young Red Kite brought
in and it is the second one suffering from lead poisoning. I can’t stress
enough that if lead is ingested it kills birds, and it also kills mammals. Our
local vet even had a number cows killed because there had been huge clay pigeon
shoot over just cut hay, the hay was baled and the lead picked up and the cows
swallowed it when they ate the hay and died. LEAD IS TOXIC, that is why it’s
banned in all other substances!!!!!!! And have absolutely no doubt ---- it
will be banned in shooting, it is only a matter of time. Wouldn’t it be just the best thing
if the shooting people voluntarily did it before they were forced to, but of
course they won’t.
The Kite has recovered and been released again, but we
suspect that the male of the pair probably died somewhere unfound, because the
people in who’s garden they nested said that he had disappeared a couple of
weeks ago. Other than the Kite we have had in a ton of Buzzards, so many that
the need for a new hospital is really getting quite desperate! And then last
night a Heron was brought in – very thin, but it did not make it.
I have been remiss
in writing the weblog recently, life seems to be incredibly busy and hectic,
more so than usual. The weather has been kinder to us in the last week or so,
it plays such a huge part in visitor numbers, although I think that eventually
people just get fed up with the weather and go out anyway.
Birds are doing
well, the second clutch of Grey Buzzard
Eagles are growing well with their parents, and our young female from the first
clutch is starting to fly well on a training line. The older Tawny Eagle chick
is flying very well, and we have started to move her on with flying towards the
public now, she was very unsure on the first attempt, but soon relaxed into it
and did well.
The four baby
Lanners are now out of their aviary and have started their training, and are
already feeding by their perches, so
they will move on quickly now. Mark is about to start with his Aplomado Falcon
which we think is a male. We have a
female Hobby coming which will be a treat. Mark is struggling with the injured
wild Hobby who is interesting and that would be an understatement!!! She appears to be very imprinted, and is
still flying like a baby, rather than moving forward, she is very unfit,
although we are flying her daily, and she flies just fractionally unbalanced,
which may be due to the original injury.
I have to say that
I have no desire to keep her, and interestingly the Americans have a reasonably
good process to make sure that anyone imprinting a bird, either on purpose or
by accident, does not benefit from doing so by keeping the bird. The imprinted
bird if it can have a viable and useful life has to be passed on to someone
else.
We appear to be
working with a number of small birds this year, the smallest being the little
Lesser Kestrel who is flying at around 130 grams, and I am delighted to have a
male Sparrowhawk who is just coming to the fist but not really chasing the lure
properly yet at 150 grams. And then Tash is going to be training the only
American Kestrel we have bred this year, and Simon is going to train a
Red-footed Falcon which will be new to us.
The gardens are
looking good, although I am worried about some of the smaller trees, which seem
to be losing leaves in a way that is concerning. The weeds have done well in
the damp weather, but we are just about in control of them! The grass growth
has been a nightmare, three of the mowers had to go and be made better as they
had been working so hard this year!
The Gladiator
Weekend was successful, I don’t think it brought in a ton more visitors,
however I think that all those there thoroughly enjoyed seeing them do their
stuff. We also had a local face painter from Newent come in and she did some
lovely bird of prey faces on the kids, she is going to come again for the
Falconry Weekend which will be fun for the kids that visit.
Next is the
Falconry Weekend, we have a good number of stands booked, the tents will be
here on time, we are doing all the catering in house, so there should not be
any complaints about the costs and I am looking forward to an early morning
bacon sandwich!! I suspect the dogs are also looking forward to it. Mark the
date in your diary Sept 1st and 2nd www.thefalconryweekend.com
will give you all the information you need to come.
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