A cold week

Well after the snow we had the big freeze. When I opened up on the morning on Tuesday morning it was -12C. It took me a while to get the centre opened up. Something to do with the fact the pad locks were all frozen. It is great fun getting stuck to cold metal as I unlocked the centre. All the birds were ok and the day started like a few other days recently - clearing snow.

The week has been quiet with only 1 booking . Then again it is not really surprising as the weather would put a lot of people off - snow and sub zero temperatures - from going out to fly birds of prey. Not to mention a potential fuel shortage at 1 point in the Glasgow area. It was a bit like the week before for me. Making sure the birds have got plenty of food  and cleaning the centre. The most challenging thing was the alarm going off twice in 1 night due to the snow - once at mid night and again at 3am.

The only thing that did worry me was the fact the birds food was running low and I was unable to go and collect more due to the snow. Not helping was the fact that the last half mile of where I need to go and collect the food was along a dirt track in 3inches of snow. My old Volvo estate was not going to make it. Help was at hand though. My friend Brian was driving up from England and he has a 4 wheel drive so he stopped off picked up 10 boxes or 2500 chicks - food shortage over. I have another 3000 chicks being delivered this week. The food shortage is well and truly over.

On Friday there was a bit of a thaw which was great as it cleared a lot of the snow from the centre. I was running out of place to pile it when I was clearing it

On Sunday we did a 1 hour session and it was great to get back to flying birds of prey again. When you run a falconry bird of prey business it is not all standing about and flying birds of prey. Over the last few weeks a lot of time has been spent clearing snow for example. So on Sunday to have a booking was great. The people flew Oran (Male Harris Hawk) and Lobey. Lobey was his usual reliable self. Oran was great also. This was the first time I had used him for a booking in the last 6 months as he had been having a moult. He only flew free on the Friday (2 days before hand) after deciding to jump to the glove in  the aviary and allow me to weigh him. On Thursday he was a complete nightmare balling his feet up and refusing to stand on the scales to be weighed and screaming at me. On Friday he was like ok lets do it. Oran can be like that. He can be a bit grumpy refusing to do anything when you bring his weight down to start flying him and then something seems to click and he is brilliant and is always very reliable. None of the other Harris Hawks behave like this. With the rest you can see them getting hungry and more sociable. Not Oran. With him it no chance of doing anything 1 day and then the next day he is perfect. He is doing doing the next 2 bookings tomorrow and Wednesday. The booking on Wednesday is at Cameron House.

Even though it is still freezing and there is some snow on the ground I am trying to get things back to normal to where I was before the snow arrived. This means back to work with Artemis. She is on a diet. As I haven't been flying her over the last 2 weeks I allowed her weight creep up so she is over 7lb and I need to get her back down to 6lb12oz. Hopefully in the next week I  will be close to getting her back to where I was before with her. Hopefully we don't have to much more snow to slow things up.

The coming week starts with  a few bookings and then goes quiet but there are things needing to be done. I need to make more jesses for the birds. This is the leather straps that are attached to the birds anklets so you can hold on to it. Several of the Harris Hawks need their beaks coped. Becky who is a 3rd year vet student is hopefully coming to help me with this as it will allow her some hands on experience. Also if the snow stays away I am hoping to get out and look at 2 farms that I have asked if it is ok to fly the birds on them. I should hopefully hear if it is ok in the next day or 2. On the whole another steady week snow permitting.