Last Monday I was at a meeting and I was speaking to someone and they told me that it was going to snow over the coming week. I totally dismissed it and said no chance. How wrong was I. The snow wasn't that bad and it didn't come to anything but it did snow and on more than 1 day. On Thursday I woke up to find there had been a dusting of snow and on Saturday all the bookings were cancelled due to the snow showers. The hills are still streaked in snow. Hopefully that will be end of the snow.
The weather has been all over the place and so have I. The last week has been steady with 9 bookings spread over 6 days with 5 happening away from the centre. On Saturday the 2 bookings cancelled due to the weather. 1 was booked back in for Sunday and the other has been booked back in for 2 weeks time so no big deal. The week flew by and it all seems a bit of a blur with the bookings coming 1 after another.
The 1 day that does stand out was Thursday. It rained, the hale came on, sleet, strong winds, sun shine and I finished the day locking up the centre with the snow back on. I was still able to get the 2 bookings that I had booked that day done in between all the showers. Thankfully the weather is not like that to often.
In between all the bookings I am still rushing about getting birds ready for the up coming events. Sanda and Uist had their tail mounts put on the other day so that we can attach a transmitter to their tail's when they are flying. The birds are unaware that they are wearing the tail mounts as they are super glued to 1 of their deck feathers (birds have 2 deck feathers. They are the 2 central feathers in their tails). I won't fly my falcons with out a transmitter on. Sanda (Lanner Falcon) and Uist (Lugger Falcon) are both quite reliable in the fact that they tend not to fly off but it is just good practice and management for the bird to wear a transmitter. This is why I bought another Marshals telemetry system earlier in the year. The other thing is that if a falcon decides it is going to fly off for what ever reason then it can go a distance. I have tracked falcons down over a couple of miles away and the only way I was able to find them was due to the fact they were wearing a transmitter. I generally use telemetry on all the bird if I am flying birds off site at a demonstration or an event. There is no excuse to not use it.
Going back to Sanda and Uist. Hopefully I will be flying them free this week at some point as long as the weather stays dry and there is no more snow. Mardy is not that far way from flying as well. I was able to weigh him today and he was about 1lb 7 1/2 oz. he need to below 1lb6oz before I will fly him free so hopefully he will be flying at the end of the week. That just leaves Brel and we are getting him closer to his flying weight. They should all be back flying to a good standard by the time the big events come round.
It looks like there will be quite a few big events in the coming months. The 3 days of events that we were asked to do over the Easter weekend has confirmed which is great. I don't want to say to much but it is a fantastic venue and 1 that I have never done an event at before. There has been an enquiry for 2 days work in October doing a product launch but it is early days on that 1 and I am not sure if it will happen. I am just waiting to see on that 1. I did have to turn down a booking today for a demonstration at a Highland Games as I was already booked up on that day for another event. I always hate turning work away but I work on the simple basis of first come first served. It is a bit of a problem when you are 1 man operation but unfortunately it can't be helped
The coming week is a strange 1. I have 3 booking tomorrow and 3 the next and then nothing for the rest of the week. I suspect that will change and something will book later in the week. If not then I will have loads of time to work with the birds.
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