Monday, 27 September 2010

End of the month

Well another month is almost finished. September has gone very fast or is going very fast.

Last week started quietly with nothing really happening on Monday to Wednesday but from Thursday to Sunday things were very busy with events. Monday to Wednesday was spent cleaning the centre, doing a few odd jobs around the centre that always seemed to be needing done and flying the birds.

The birds are all doing ok. Gigha the peregrine seems to of come off the boil a bit as he has stared sitting which you don't want falcons doing when you fly them to the lure but he has done this before and comes through it and stops it. Bob is Bob. He is still very up and down but his fitness at long last seems to be improving and I can see that he is getting faster and stronger now which is great. Amber is doing ok. Pele is going great as well. All the other birds that are flying are all just getting on with it and doing things to the usual high standard.

While last week started off very quiet and became busy this week is going to very busy from the start. I am fully booked every day this week with things going on in the centre and things to do out on the road. We have a large corporate event on Wednesday through in Edinburgh. I always get a bit of a buzz at these events. I love doing them. Tuesday and Thursday I will be in the centre, Friday is a site inspection for a event I am doing the following week and the weekend I am all over the place doing 5 bookings with 2 in the centre and 3 out on the road at a different location. I am feeling confident about this week which is going to be a bit full on. One of the benefits of having a small team of birds is that I can spend a lot more time working with them individually so hopefully I can get them to a good level of fitness and ability with regular flying. It also means when I have a week like what is coming up I have a lot of confidence in the birds because of the time I put into them. In a weeks time I will telling the blog how I got on.

On a sad note I was called out to a wild barn owl this morning that had been hit by a car. Jo had a look at it but there was nothing that could be done as it had broken a wing badly and the bird was fading fast due to shock so there may of been other injuries that we couldn't see or find. Unfortunately it passed away before we could do anything. It is always difficult with wild birds that have been injured. The stress can be enough to kill them at times. If you can stabilize them I then feel you need to ask the question of how long will it take it to recover from the injury and to get it back into the wild. If you are talking weeks and months the best thing maybe to put it to sleep. It is not a simple case of nursing the bird back to health and releasing it back into the wild. For example a buzzard that injures a wing and needs to be rested so the wing can heal will loose fitness. If you release the bird back in to the wild and it is not fit as in it does not have the fitness to hunt and catch food is going to find  it very hard to survive and will probably die. To get it back to a reasonably good level of fitness you are going to have to fly it like a falconry bird build it's fitness back up and ultimately hack it back to the wild this is going to take a lot of effort and time. I feel that the longer a wild bird spends in captivity being  treated for an injury or illness the less likely it is to survive in the wild for any length of time when it is released. Saying that if (and I am) called out to help a wild bird of prey I will always go and see what I can do for it.

Sunday, 19 September 2010

A steady week

It always amazes me when I think I have a quiet week and i will say ok I will get this that and the next thing done and at the end of the week I have only done half of it and I am left wondering where the week went.

There wasn't much in the diary this week.

Monday 13th was a complete wash out with the rain and nothing was flown.

On Tuesday we were back out on the road with a booking over at Cameron House which went well. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was spent in the centre cleaning and flying the birds which was great. Amber the female Harris Hawk was a bit hit and miss - some days she was great and others a bit wayward. She is starting to show the attitude that I have grown to respect when in and around her aviary. She can be a bit grumpy. Gigha the Peregrine is going great guns. Looking good and fast but his fitness is still not great but he will get fitter and he is still great fun. He will get there he always does. Bob is Bob. He is doing ok. I have changed the lure that I fly him to to see if that will make any difference. I have made a lure using crow wings. I tried it out today but no difference but it was his first day so we shall see.

I have finished up with Brel. He will now be given a break and allowed to have a moult. He is looking a little bit worn shall we say. He has worked hard all year for me and did his last event for this season yesterday a large family day in Edinburgh and was his usual reliable self. Today I left him out on the front lawn with a pigeon and he was delighted. I gave him the whole pigeon. I didn't expect him to finish it but I wanted him to eat his fill which he did. I did have to watch as there was a wild buzzard hanging about trying to come in and rob him of it. This has only happened twice in the past and both times it has been Brel who the buzzard has been trying to steal food off. I should point out that the pigeon was bred for human consumption and was not a feral pigeon. I wouldn't feed those to my bird as they carry to many parasites and diseases.

Brel after he had eaten his fill of pigeon out in the rain. I don't think he was to impressed with me taking his picture. You can see the large crop on his chest. The crop is where a raptor hold the food before it goes to the stomach. It's a bit like an internal elastic bag. I won't feed Brel till he has digested the pigeon which could take 2 days.

Now that i have finished with Brel for the season Pele comes back. Pele is another male Harris Hawk and a really lovely bird to work with. I use him for all sorts of things activity days, hawk walks, corporate events small demonstrations and hunting. He is one of the original team and I got him when I first set up the centre. He does have 1 bad habit and that is he can be a bit vocal but he does seem to getting a bit better each year. He is quite laid back and not as moody as the other Harris hawks but then again he is in no way related to them. He is a great bird to work with and very reliable. I loaned him out to Gail who used to help me in the centre for about 5 years so while he has been about for 8 years I have really only had him for 3 of them. All he did with Gail was hunt. I stopped flying him in March this year on a bit a of a low note in the fact that he broke a wing but he has made a full recovery thankfully
Pele flying to the glove

Alba the Barn Owl has also been allowed to moult after doing the corporate event yesterday where she was a star and flew brilliantly to loads of children along with Duffy the Bengal who after a slow start was also good and flew to lots of children. When we got back I gave Alba 3 mice. She will now be allowed to moult and I will start flying her in February.

I feel the summer has now gone. The swifts and swallows are long gone ans the house martins numbers seem to  dropping daily I still see the odd one but I didn't see any today but the weather was very wet at times so not the best. While I said back in August it felt like the summer was over I feel it is now as these birds leave in advance of the coming cold winter. Here's hoping this winter was like last year - really cold and dry rather the usual wet mild winters that we normally get where i am always feeling cold and damp.

Sunday, 12 September 2010

Flying

Well September is still a bit quiet but it has it's moments.

Last Monday we were at Cameron House doing a hawk walk using Mardy (male Harris Hawk) when he was thinking about creating 1 of his incidents if you like. To give you a bit of background information on Mardy. He is 1 of the most up for it Harris hawks to try and catch something. When we first got him and were training him on the creance (long line) he was trying to catch things. Well, he had a moment on Monday. He thought it would be a great idea to try and catch a juvenile herring gull on the front lawn of the hotel. Thankfully he missed.

The hawk walk on Thursday using Mardy passed with out incident.

The birds that we have started  flying again after their moult are all doing well. Amber (female Harris Hawk) is now flying free. We are now working on her fitness. Dylan (Barn Owl) is still a little way ward but seems to be doing ok. Saying that we have a big event in Edinburgh on Saturday so I will use Albe the other Barn Owl as she seems a bit more reliable.

I have also been flying Gigha (Peregrine Falcon) so we have a falcon flying. He is doing well and looking great even though I haven't flown him in over 2 months. I will probably use him for the event this coming Saturday as Bob is still a bit of the mark. He is getting better and little bit calmer in his pen.

Bob is improving but he just makes everything hard work and awkward. I am still not sure when he was last flown but the worst case would be 4 years ago. That's a long time. His fitness seems to be taking forever to improve. It is quiet this week so hopefully we should be able to fly him on a regular basis but the weather is not great so that may go against us.
 
   

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

New month

What a change a new month makes. We were flat out over August with a lot of events out on the road and bookings at the centre. We are now in September and the diary has gone quiet. Saying that we were fully booked today and we also picked up a big corporate event for a week on Saturday, so the bookings are still coming which is great.

As i have said before while it is quiet with bookings that doesn't mean we are quiet in the centre. Amber a female Harris Hawk is getting ever closer to her flying weight. We are bringing down Pele's weight down as well as we get him ready to start flying again. Plus we have the other birds to work with. Bob the GyrXSaker is an on going project  if you like. Some days he seems to be making progress and other days he seems to be going backwards.

Dylan a Barn Owl flew free the on sat for the first time in 6 months and seems to be doing ok but every so often his aim seems a bit out and he misses perches. We will need to keep an eye on him.

While i am saying that there is always plenty to do in the centre one thing can restrict things and that is the weather. The weekend there was great - warm and sunny. Monday was ok - dry. Tuesday morning (today) it was pouring. At least the sun came out in the afternoon. We still managed to get the booking done that were booked in for today even if the morning one was in the rain.

Hopefully the weather will improve for the weekend. Saturday is fully booked with bookings at the centre and Jo is at the Milngavie Book Festival so busy as normal.