We had a perfectly glorious weekend start to the school holidays, we have had some lovely customers this week, it is always so much fun when you know they are enjoying themselves. Although I have discovered something today, I often wondered how the decision was made as to who flew the Steller’s to the fist at the end of the demonstration, and answered all the questions, and who was at the bottom of the field calling her. Well I found out!! It depends on how many pretty girls there are in the audience!! So they have a look and then choose who is going to do what!! Can you believe it!!

The new aviaries are nearly finished, the feather edge just has to be stained and the owls are loving their new homes already, Sidewinder is digging away on the floor and playing with worms!- update - they are finished! Now we start on the doors for the outdoor Hawk Walk to make that suitable for use during cold weather, which also means we can turn a part of the indoor Hawk Walk into a photographic studio.

I have had two friends over from South Carolina Mary Catherine and James, they were here for a week and the weather has been very kind, warm during the day and cooler at night, they loved it particularly as it is hot as hell in the US at the moment. They completed a new path over the lawn by the weighing room, it is made of very heavy pavers, which they had to move and I suspect were very glad to see the back of, but it was worth it and it looks great and will save the lawn, so James feels now that he has left a permanent mark on the place. I on the other hand appear to have left only blood around the place, I managed to try and take the top of my finger with a step ladder, I then discovered that both Simon and Mike had done the same thing, but with less blood, so the ladder is now residing on the scrap metal pile! I caught my thumb in the Ferruginous’s beak while I was coping him and then damn me Rhadamanthus landed on my arm, and while takin g off to go to Adam managed to leave a couple of gouges in my arm, which bled copiously! So my typing is a little haphazard and I will not be playing the piano for a few days!! Which is probably a relief to the dogs whom I believe are not impressed by my playing!

My pond is very low, but if it is a choice between enough rain to fill it, and nice weather for the next three months, I know which I am likely to take! Henry is apparently doing well with the girl who now has him, he is not behaving that well, but she does not seem to mind. I am trying out a new horse who is called Mollie, I know there is a horse out there for me, I just have to find it.

James and Mary Catherine went to Gigrin Farm with Linda to see the kites, one of these days I will go, but I think the autumn would be when I would like to see them. Our baby Kite (yellow Billed) is going to fly loose today, he is nearly there with the catches and the training line is getting in the way now, so today is the day! We have been watching the celebrations on the news, a year to go for the Olympics, I guess I should be more interested, but I have to say that celebrating a year ahead seems a little odd. That would be like celebrating our 45 anniversary here the year before!!

I have to say I do wonder about HM Customs and how bright they actually are. I asked one of my part time staff to do an extra day each week and after a couple of weeks she came to me and told me that the amount of tax she is having to pay means that she gets less than if she worked two days a week so she needs to go back to two days not three! That is nothing short of crazy, what is wrong with the people in government, can they not see just how stupid this is. I once spoke to a woman who worked for one of the government departments and asked her why people were moved around from one department to another without actually having the expertise needed to do the new job, she said it was a remnant of how the civil service worked during the war years. Well all I can say is if I ran my business like the civil service runs the various departments I would fail.

I have just watched the BBC news, needless to say that the Newspaper scandal is still high on the list of items, and now it appears the media, the BBC TV news included is out for as much blood as they can get. It is interesting to note that where they are pushing for top policemen and our prime minister to accept responsibility for the appalling behaviour of the media, have we ever seen a news reporter or a TV reporter resign because they have got something wrong? Have we seen them apologise to accusing, lets mention Spain in the recent Salmonella scare, no we haven’t. I loathe the way the media, all of them, apparently feel they can run the country. There is an aggressive bias in the way the TV people interview subjects, there is a complete lack of compassion, or understanding that very often humans in all walks of life will make mistakes.

Regardless of the knock on effect of this mess, the responsibility for the initial disgraceful behaviour, the spying, phone hacking and bribing, lies firmly and squarely with the media. At the moment the Murdock empire is taking the blame, but I very much doubt if it stops just with his newspaper group.

I remember seeing on the TV news many years ago a camera man filming a woman who had just been taken in to see her husband, or relation had survived one of the ferry disasters, now he was there filming it – by chance? I don’t think so! So you can pretty much bet he knew before she did, and he was there as a voyeur to spy on the event. I was disgusted, as indeed I am when I see the media like a scurrying horde of ants over powering an animal and killing it, chasing after people to get a picture of them in their car fleeting away, are we such awful creatures that we need this rather poor picture of whoever the person is who may in the end turn out to be completely innocent. I have no affection for Mr Murdock, but do we really want or need to see an old man buffeted, pushed and shoved by the media desperate to get a picture.

I believe that the media, all of them, need to stand back and have a good long look at themselves and their behaviour and remember that sadly they do have far more power than they really deserve. Therefore they should treat that power with respect, honour and decency, none of which has been very evident in their behaviour during my life time, and which is rapidly getting worse.

One of my staff just sent me this!

In the queue at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappy’s because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that was right we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

But he's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a tap or water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water, and amazingly we survived without carrying drinking water we drank when we were thirsty! We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got blunt.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Our summer BBQ and Owl evening went very well, we had a full house, and although the day started off very grey and raining, by the afternoon, the sun was out, the grey clouds were high and the weather was pretty damn good for the evening. Adam and Mark took a baby guided tour – i.e. a tour of all the enclosures with birds with young, and then we had burgers and sausages and white wine spritzers, followed by a demonstration. The birds were very good, the new Common Buzzard was a little annoyed at being left that late in the day, but did well as did Mark’s new Lanner, Sidewinder who is much improved was enchanting and went down a tunnel several times, Grey Cobra was excellent, and so was Harley, who really in coming on now, we were going to leave him until last but had a phone call about the missing Milky Eagle Owl, so a team shot off to see if we could find him and I finished off with Barn Owls, we brought down the baby Barn Owl, which like most of the Barn Owl family are not that attractive as chicks, and followed that with ‘one we made earlier’!

Pan, who was his normal excellent self. It was just getting towards dark, and it was lovely to end up with an owl that people might see in the evenings in the wild.

Yesterday we had a young Sparrowhawk in, she had been found in the middle of a corn field, not sure how she got there, but she is feeding well, too young to go as yet. The Vale Rescue Centre brought her in, and at the same time delivered six Hedgehogs to be released, which I did just before dark, they finally ambled off into the wood, I hope they like it here and stay, and survive the damn badgers who eat them.

Never did get round to doing the Kestrel photo damn it, it has been a hectic week I have to say and I am not feeling that well today. Henry is going to have to come back, he has not behaved as he should have done, so I have to collect him next week, blowed if I know what I am going to do with him, particularly if he is getting that difficult.

It’s raining again a little this morning and we have the usual half experience day, Mark and Adam are off for their days off, and Holly is in. She will be pleased to see Boom slang again. We have had to separate Boom slang and Sidewinder, they are going through the teenage stage and scrapping with one another. Their new aviaries will be ready in about a week I hope, then we are going to extend the small aviaries at the top of the hawk walk a little and make them better and more roomy. I have to say that the place is looking wonderful at the moment, even if it is a little damp right now.

Well we got some rain, and it was definitely heavy stuff, I am sure the trees appreciate it, however my pond is still very low and I dare not replace the fish that died over the cold winter until it is up again or the Herons will get the lot. Sidewinder has managed to injure one wing, he has soft tissue damage and was feeling very sorry for himself, we have no idea how he did it, however he is much more cheerful now. All we have to do is work out a way to hold his right wing up for a few days as it is dropped and he is not being helpful about it as he manages to remove any bandages in about 7 minutes flat, the little devil!

A really nice girl came to see and ride Henry last week, and he is going on a trial next week, I hope she likes him as I can’t do him justice and need something a little more in keeping with my age and lack of time!

Linda took a Wild About Photo day yesterday, I hope they got the picture I would have wanted, in fact, I might even take the kestrel up onto May Hill and get the shot I want. Why Not I ask myself, indeed I answer! She (Linda that is) is very good with the photographers and very patient as it takes some time and effort to get a good shot.

We appear to be bee free for this week anyway, although we did find a large wasp’s nest in Common’s compartment, which had to be dealt with. The two baby Lanners are doing well as is my Barbary. The three baby Merlins are growing nicely as is the baby Aplomado, so all bodes well for next year’s breeding season. Baby Great Grey is still with us and slowly improving, we are crossing everything that she makes it through. Pyrites is nearly there in his retraining and Adam and I worked him yesterday, I think he is going to be Very good which is nice, and the first baby Yellow-billed Kite is close to being grown up now so will be in serious training very soon, that one is for me!

Next Saturday is our first summer Barbeque, we have a good number of people coming and they are going to see all the new birds in training of various degrees, all we need is good weather please. We have extended the roof a little on the Pavilion so that people can shelter if it rains during the demonstration, which proved very useful yesterday as it had its first serious usage. Oh and I won money on the huge Euro Lottery!! £2.80p!! A little more would have been useful, but you can’t complain.

I have been interested in all the newspaper scandal, and if you believe that it was just the one newspaper then you are nuts. Now I have relations and good friends in the newspaper reporting business so I apologise to them if I upset them, but I have to say that I was not in the slightest bit surprised at the disgraceful behaviour of British newspapers. Having been at the end of a smear campaign personally, I have no illusions about their morals, I am not convinced that the majority of people in the media actually has any, I think the drive to sell papers, or TV programmes is so great, that morals and accuracy long since went out of the window.

I also can’t see the reasoning that ‘the public has a right to know’ – why!! Apart from the fact that why anyone has any interest in the lives of grossly overpaid, incredibly badly behaved and apparently not particularly good footballers, completely defeats me, why should people have a right to know about the intimate lives, mistakes, and behaviours of others. Where did that come from – oh, could it be the media!! Unless it impinges on the GP’s safety, security, or their lives, then surely it is nothing to do with us. This insatiable, grasping and mindlessly destructive greed for gossip is a purely human trait and one that is sadly a very unpleasant one, and does not need to be fed by the media in the way that it has evolved and indeed in the way that the media has trained its public to expect.

Opppppppppppps its coffee time! And I am needed on the half experience day as well.

Another hectic week, the weather has been and still is glorious, we are busy which is great and we were up again on numbers for June, not hugely, but up, so that means we have increased our gate every month this year. It’s just a bloody shame that the government has increased the VAT so we lose 20% of it. We had yet another problem with bees yesterday. The swarm that had taken up residence in the eaves of my house swarmed again yesterday, I knew they would because they had gone into the south side of the roof which gets all the sun and so it gets hot as hell under there. They did it just before the 2.00 pm demonstration, but this time went onto the trunk of a tree in the garden, I managed to find the swarm coordinator (!) for Newent and they very kindly came up and recovered the bees whom I hope now will find a good home, preferably miles away from here. Sadly I think the House Martins have given up on their two new nests damn it as they were invaded by the bees.

The birds are doing well, the little new Great Grey Owl baby has been very ill, a virus we think, but fingers crossed, with superb treatment from Neil Forbes and great care from my staff, she is finally looking better and we are hoping she will pull through, its been a tough road for her though. Boom Slang Holly’s new White Faced Scops Owl is charming and doing well, Sidewinder my baby Burrowing Owl bids fair to be every bit as good as Copper and Ruby, he (we hope) is fearless and going through tunnels like a little windup toy, he is enchanting. Grey Cobra is the Abyssinian Eagle Owl that Donatella, our trainee is working with and he flew 20 feet to the fist yesterday, although he was not happy when a helicopter flew over – come to that neither was I! We took out the two baby Lanners a couple of days ago and Simon and Mark are training one each, Adam is waiting for his baby Kite to grow up and is working on one of the Black Kites that has finished moulting – Pyrites, so there are a ton of new birds coming on. And Karis is flying like a dream, I just need the audience to appreciate him more!!

The new tractor is going well and mowing the grass and Nathan seems to like it, he also saved the day yesterday as we had a mix up in the accounts and he is apparently a wizard and so found the missing money that Jan and I could not account for! It was so stressful Jan and I had to have a G+T for lunch yesterday!

Linda is doing great things with the website at the moment and we are in the run up to our first summer barbeque. She has put on some great new pictures, she really does work very hard on it and it shows.

I am trying to merge two word documents at the moment, I need to get on with writing a couple of books and I have two documents both of which I have worked on and I need to put them together. I went to Microsoft help and blow me to give me the answer they want to charge £28!!! Can you credit it, what a flaming rip off. They certainly should not call it help!!

Good Lord how time flies, it ages since I wrote, it has been hot as hell for the last two days and very muggy. The mower arrived and Nathan seemed to like it although I have seen him on his old little mower for the last two days, so I am not convinced. We

filmed today, live, for Crimewatch Road-show, which was interesting, but exhausting by the end of the day, not that they stayed long after the end of the show, long enough for us all to have breakfast at 10.00am, but then they all left, but they started at 6.am! So that meant an early start to get dogs fed and walked, horse checked, the gates open, the cafe open and the coffee on! So I am running out of steam right now I have to say. The filming went superbly well, Adam did a great job with Harley who was the star - you can see it on BBC I player if you are so inclined. Holly's owl Boom-slang (!) opened the show, and both owls and all humans behaved impeccably. My great staff and volunteers were all in early or on time and we did a good job.

This piece of news is particularly sad, again you have to wonder at the brainless stupidity of those people who refuse to stop using lead as an ammunition for shooting. Again I would point out to those people that no one is asking you to stop shooting things, just to change your ammunition, you would not think this was rocket science, or particularly difficult. The excuses are: it’s too expensive, well it would get cheaper if you all used it and it’s even more expensive for the poor unfortunate birds that die from consuming lead while clearing up after the shooting fraternity. It will damage my gun – get a new one and hang the expensive one up on a wall so you can admire it. It’s not as lethal as lead – get better at shooting or do the R and D that is required! There are answers to all your excuses chaps, and as for the complete moronic idiots who refuse to believe the OVERWHELMING science that pinpoints lead as a killer of birds who pick it up while feeding, and the overwhelming science that it is actually very bad for humans as well one can only assume that they have already consumed enough lead to make them particularly brainless, there can’t be another reason – can there?!

I guess all this just goes to prove that the hunting fraternity in the US really does not give a damn about conservation, apart from conserving what they hoot, and certainly has no pride in their rare wildlife.

Public asked to help stop lead poisoning as three more condors die

Six California condors were discovered to have toxic levels of lead in their bodies in early May. Three of the birds died of lead poisoning and the other three were successfully treated and released back into the wild. "X-rays showed 18 shotgun pellets in the digestive system of one bird and 6 in another. The third had remains of a spent bullet in its system, all suggesting these scavengers died after eating one or more animal carcasses that had been shot," said Chris Parish, head of The Peregrine Fund's condor recovery program in Arizona.

It’s was lovely day yesterday, although the forecast as usual was wrong very wrong damn them. They said rain, so I sowed grass seed yesterday morning and did not spray weeds, and in fact I should have done it the other way round!!

I collected the ‘eyes’ for our Owl Maze on Monday and a stone that had been specially carved by Rob from Royal Forest Pennant Stone. Thanks to him and Nick Horton, who gave them to us, and my goodness if you want quality carved stone, that is the place to go.

I was lucky enough to be shown an Apple Tree that is going outside Hereford Cathedral, and it is absolutely stunning, worth going to Hereford just to see it once it is in place, even if getting through Hereford is a nightmare! So the maze is complete and looks wonderful. Children seem to like the new adventure trail by the flying ground, and the one that Adam and Mark and various wonderful volunteers are doing in the wood is going to be very exciting, not for smaller children though!

The birds are flying well, the Steller’s was superb, needless to say on the day I was not here! But in a wind she is definitely getting the idea, not so good on a still day but that is not surprising. The Great Grey Owl is doing well, will be on demonstration soon and the baby Abyssinian Eagle Owl is one of the charming owls I have yet to meet. Holly’s little White-faced Scops Owl, (thanks to Mick) is also very sweet and I have a new baby Burrowing Owl who is just a scrap of a thing at the moment. Very soon the Lanners will be able to come out, and the young Harris Hawks are fledged and flying around in the aviary.

The two people who came on the photography day have put some lovely comments on our Facebook Page, they apparently had a wonderful day despite the rain, and there is a great video of Sedge running in the Lurcher Race and the Falconers Fair in May which is on there as well. Holly has put up some new pictures. Sadly we did not have enough people wanting to come to the first summer barbeque, so I hope you will book in for the July one, it should be fun, and Richard Will have finished the lights by then!

The grass in the bottom field is finally growing, although needs spraying for non grass weeds very soon and the top field is almost all buttercups, which are going to cop it very soon too. The pond is fractionally fuller than it was although I think it is going to take some major rain to fill it up again. Life got rather interesting on Thursday for the 2.00 pm demonstration, we have had a swarm of bees trying to take residence in the roof of my house, and they are seriously upsetting the House Martins, which I am not pleased about. However as we started the second demonstration, either them or another swarm came buzzing down to the flying ground, we had done two birds and decided to take Ruby into the indoor Hawk Walk and wait and see what happened outside. Well a huge swarm took up home in one of the Walnut trees just behind the seats in the flying ground. We did fly the Steller's but had the audience sitting on the play area! Sue phoned a friend who is into bees and two of them came, we used Richard's big hedge stepladder - thanks Richard, and they climbed up, pruned back some of the branches and then one of them held a tiny - well it looked bloody small to us (!) - basket out and Adam and the other chap shook the branch with a rope, and blow me they

dropped into the basket - did it have a top - nope! Then it was brought down out of the tree and gently placed open end down onto a sheet and the bees all either stayed in there, or climbed around and then went it, they did about three other shakes into one of our buckets and after about a couple of hours, off they went with the sheet wrapped round the hive thing - in the back of their car!! Amazing!

The heavy rain promised for Friday never came here, my tractor arrived, but with the wrong mower, so that is coming on Tuesday, with a five foot cut that should save Nathan a lot of time once he gets the hang of it. Richard HH has been working on designs for a potential new shop and cafe, something that we desperately need, we spend hours yesterday on it and I know he spend even more time previously, I envy the programme he is using, but it looks hard to learn.