Result!

Well now we're fully open and have been for the last week or so. It's been such a busy time for everyone here but its great to be back in the swing of flying birds for visitors again. The Easter weekend has been and gone with varying success on numbers but those who did come along were lovely with one group of people braving awful weather for our morning 'World of Owls' display in the Old Rose Garden and had a lovely time by all accounts. Those are the visitors I enjoy working with the most I think; people who come for a good day out and don't let anything stop that so they suit up in thermals and waterproofs and are ready for anything and smile about it! The World of Owls has been really well received in its new location - we're just about getting used to the new routine of flying in there now and it really gives visitors the chance to see birds flying very close. What's more is that we've managed to get Diego, the Kookaburra fishing from our extensive Australian lake! Peter managed to snap a shot of her doing it too - would be nice to get a really good shot of this before the end of the season but Stuart's face in this one is classic so the resolution doesn't bother me so much.

We also had another visit from Ashley Smith from HCT who helped us with a few more of the exciting plans we've got for the coming season and beyond. It's a reminder that we're still a work in progress and that to be where we are now at such an early stage in our development is fantastic. Something we're looking to expand further at the centre is our on-site conservation efforts. This is an area in which Emma is particularly interested in getting involved so some time with the conservation team at the Hawk Conservancy might be an option to give her the extra support she needs to progress. This visit we also had the chance to spend more time with Ash as a team. This meant that we managed to imp (fix broken feathers) Herriot's tail feathers and soak up as much wisdom from our 'Jedi' as we could before he left.

Herriot and the rest of the Sky Hunters team are also back in full swing at the slightly earlier time of 2pm this year. Operationally this has made the day much more manageable for us and gives us a 'golden hour' between 3pm and 4pm when we can give people the chance to fly a Harris' Hawk through the woodlands here and, perhaps when they're in full bloom' through the bluebells. Doesn't get much better than that! Having said Herriot is back on the team, it's been a little hard to predict what he's going to do in demos day to day. Sunday for example he soared high above the castle, disappeared for a few moments before pulling the most jaw-dropping stoop over the trees and into the arena (to spontaneous applause I might add from large crowds of people). On the other hand, when I flew him yesterday, his display went like this - Take off, land in a tree, the branch snaps, he falls into the long grass, gets up, lands on the main castle lawn, sits and has a rest before flying so low through the woodland he nearly took a lady and her two children out in the process. In fact they ducked for cover when I shouted at them! Hopefully he'll get more consistent
as his fitness (and the weather) improves.

More exciting news is that we're currently on the hunt for another member of bird staff at the moment. We've been a three person team for almost a year now so another member of staff would help us enormously with the additional work we plan to do and make the demos much slicker. We've had a few applicants but there's still time to get a CV into us if you or anyone you know are the special sort of person we look for in a member of bird staff. More info here - http://www.muncaster.co.uk/files/documents/seasonal_falconer_advert_18_3_16.pdf

The Kites are back!

We open in less than a week's time! It's really very exciting after a long wet and cold winter to be finally within touching distance of the main season. We've also been really lucky with the weather recently - I've had a few days that Ive been wishing I hadn't opted for wellies. A lot has been happening - we had a visit from Ash and Penny from HCT which was very helpful. It was really good to see the look of pleasant surprise on Ash's face particularly when he saw the changes we've made to the Old Rose Garden, which by the way is very nearly almost finished and looks lovely. Once summer comes around and everything starts to leaf up a bit it'll look even better. We've started flying in that area now to get the owls used to it and their doing brilliantly. 

Our new freezer unit arrived this week which sounds like a really boring thing to say but when our food has been stored in 3 or 4 emergency freezers around the site it means we really appreciate having it all in one place! The old one gave up the ghost at the back end of last year and had really seen better days. The new one is al digital and high tech. We're very lucky. On that point we'll be having an enormous food delivery this week which should last us the season so the new unit arrived just in time! The roof on our weighing room and equipment shed is being replaced this week too so long as the weather holds. With all the rain the quick fix which was applied last September really isn't up to the job so hopefully this attempt will last a little longer. 

 

Peter flies Diego

All the birds who fly on the meadow are flying well too. Nutmeg even made an attempt to thermal yesterday and ended up being in the air for 25 minutes or so only to come back over at tree height. We're going to make a conscious effort to only fly him in displays when the weather is right for him. Last year when it wasn't he got in a habit of sitting in trees - not exactly dynamic and exciting to watch for any of us. Herriot will need to undergo some heavy imping (mending his feathers by using old mounted ones) as he's looking a bit rough. This eagle does not appear to have moulted anything but a few head feathers since he was a baby.  He is however training up well again and I'm hoping to get him flying free this week. There's going to be a really stark difference between the two displays this year and the most obvious is the amount of space the Falcons, vultures, kites and eagles use by comparison to the Owls we fly in the morning. 

The screen to protect the birds goes up

 

Before we know it we'll be in the midst of the main season again with more audience than we know what to do with. The sun is shining for now and the dog is enjoying it as I write this which makes life here that bit sweeter.