Snow

It has been an up and down week with bookings - either fully booked or nothing.

On Tuesday I was at a school - Balmuidy Primary. The P3 class were studying The Owl Who Is Afraid Of The Dark. When I do a school visit I take 4 owls - Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, White Faced Scops Owl and European Eagle Owl (2 native, 1 small and 1 big). The Barn Owl flies in the hall. Dylan was once again asked to fly but I suspect this was his last school visit as Alba is almost at weight. It was then back to the centre to clean pens and aviaries and then load up and go to Cameron House for a hawk walk which Pele was used for. I took Artemis as well and did a bit more flying on the front lawn. People were stopping to watch from there cars. She was looking good coming 60m to the food I dropped for her.

On Wednesday there was nothing booked so I took Amber out and flew her for myself. She was very good. She was really alert looking for things to chase. I was hoping to see a few pheasants where we were but no luck. Instead she went for a crow which she missed. The crow wasn't too happy about this and started giving her a hard time. She didn't seem to fussed about it.The other thing we saw a few of was woodcock. They are really hard to spot only breaking cover last minute and are really fast when they get going. She came really close to 2 of them but she stands no chance in level flight against them. The day finished empty handed but that wasn't the point. It was just a chance to get out in to the countryside and fly a bird.

Amber chasing a crow through the trees

Still chasing

The crow getting away

On Thursday I had a  small corporate event to do at Cameron House. Two 30 minute demonstrations with handling and flying for about 20 people in each session. The people attending were from all over Europe and their English was perfect. I always feel a bit embarrassed at how good people from other parts of Europe  at speaking English. They all seemed to enjoy it and I got some good feed back from them. Pele - Harris Hawk and Lobey - Turkmanian Eagle Owl did the flying both were good.

Friday was in the centre chasing up people by phone and answering e mails. In other words running a business. I also decided looking at the weather and that some parts of the country seem to be getting covered with snow that I had better get an order in as I have about 2 weeks left. I didn't want to run my food supply right down which is what i do in the summer and find that I can't go and get any more due to snow. I am collecting food on Tuesday as long as it doesn't snow any more. I also took it as an opportunity to get things sorted for the cold temperatures that were forecasted. Just making sure things were ready.

On Saturday I awoke to find the place covered in snow. This wasn't that surprising when I got up as the centre alarm went off at 1am when I was sleeping and called me. When I was driving out to the centre to deal with it, it called me again. The roads were white and I had to walk up the drive way of the hotel as I couldn't get up the drive way. I got back to bed for 2.30am. An interesting start to Saturday.  We had a half day booked on Saturday afternoon. It was cold but the sun was shining so it was quite pleasant until the sun dropped behind the trees and the temperature dropped. Once the half day was finished everything that had been flying was fed up as it was going to be a cold one on Saturday night -5C. Mice, pigeon, sausages, rat were all used as well as chicks. When we have cold weather like that I don't like to muck about. I like to give the birds loads of food to make it as easy for them as possible. Midge the White Faced Scops Owl has been moved out of the centre due to the cold and is now staying at my mum and dads to make it a bit easier for him.

Sunday was a complete loss with it snowing for most of the day. It was a case of checking that all the birds were OK and feeding with a bit of cleaning.

Today though Monday it had stopped snowing and the sun was shining so it was all go to clear 7inches of snow from the path and doorways so we can get into the aviaries and get birds out. We also had to clear snow from parts of the front lawn so birds can be tethered out and be fed. I did all this and Jo did the cleaning. After about 4 hours everything was sorted.

Scops Owl who is from Africa and very small. He is brought indoors. Then there are other who are prone to getting wing tip oedema (frost bite of the wing). I think I mentioned this in a previous post but the Lanner Falcon, Lugger Falcon and Harris Hawks are all quite prone to this. I try and keep them quiet and dry. The thing is life in the centre still carries on. The centre needs cleaned, the birds and the ferrets need fed. Just because there is snow on the road or it is -5C or below and the water supply has frozen doesn't mean you don't have to be there or that the cleaning can stop. I have to be there. In some ways even more so. It is business as usual.

The centre this morning

Artemis on her perch

Birds in the areas that have been cleared for them

 The only down side of the snow is that it has brought the flying of Artemis to a halt. Artemis won't fly to the glove. I have tried and she won't do it. She will fly to a lure. The only thing is that when you drop a lure onto 7 inches of powder snow it disappears. I will need to try and work something out.