Good Bye Dylan

Yesterday evening Dylan (Barn Owl) was put to sleep. I finally took the decision to have him put to sleep after speaking to Jo about it. Dylan has been struggling for quite a while with his eyesight. We had stopped him flying to people last year as he was struggling to land on peoples' glove when asked to fly. He has also been struggling to find food that is put in the aviary for him and he was starting to show signs that he couldn't see where the perches were in his aviary. I decided to end it as it wouldn't be fair to drag it out right to the bitter end where he would almost be blind. I didn't want to remember him like that. I wanted to remember him as the Barn Owl who would do big laps of the front field every so often, who once went after a Jackdaw, at school visits he would just fly about games halls and as a strong member of the flying team who could be relied upon to fly no matter where we were.

I had Dylan since he was 19 days old and he died 4 days before his 9th birthday. He was with me near enough his whole life and that was the way it was meant to be as far as I am concerned. Unfortunately that life has been cut short by incredible bad luck with him getting pigmentation of the retinas and slowly loosing his eyesight. He was not old at 9, if anything he was probably only middle aged for a captive Barn Owl. He was one of the original birds of Strathblane Falconry in the fact I got him when I first started. He worked hard and more than earned his keep. He may be gone but he won't be forgotten and will be dearly missed. RIP Dylan.

Dylan the Barn Owl in action

Life in the centre has been busy since my last post. In the last 10 days I have had the centre's 6 monthly vet inspection, 3 hawk walks at Cameron House, 3 corporate events, 1 highland games, 2 school visits and a scout group visited the centre. Plus 2  vet students from Glasgow University on EMS placement. On the whole it has been quite busy. We should of been busier in the fact that a further 2 bookings were cancelled due to the rain.

The highland games was hard going in the fact that I had too leave the centre at 6am to get up to Gordon Castle for 10am to set up and get ready for the event opening at 11am and finishing at 4pm with 2 flying demonstrations at it. I got home at 11pm after being up since 3.30am. The event itself was great fun with all the birds behaving and the flying displays going well. Uist (Lugger Falcon) was in good form as was Brel (Harris Hawk).

Pele (Harris Hawk) has not been at his best recently while flying at Cameron House but he was back to his best last Friday in the woods behind the hotel. He was flying with real purpose and determination. In other words a joy to fly. He was flying so well he took a gray squirrel out of a tree and landed on the ground with it. While it is not the hunting season, I always respect the seasons and I will always try and release what the bird catches at this time of year - gray squirrels are the exception. If I let the squirrel go I will be technically breaking the law as I would be releasing a non native invasive species into the the wild. For this reason I will always kill a gray squirrel. It is also safer for the bird and me as well - kill it quickly less chance of getting bitten. While Pele was looking good Mardy was copying Oran his brother. I was flying  Mardy on the front lawn when he crashed into a bush and came out holding on to a very angry goose. In the 5 years that I have flown Mardy at Cameron House he has never pulled a stunt like that before. Sure he chases all sorts but he has always blanked the geese. Just shows you you never know what may happen. You may think you know but at the end of the day if the bird thinks it can take it then it is game on.

Bella the baby Barn Owl is slowly progressing and seems to be taking her time. She has been preening a lot and is loosing her down feathers with the adult feathers coming through. She hasn't shown any sign of wanting to fly as yet and is still coming home with me. I keep on saying in the coming week she will be left up at the centre but that hasn't happened yet as she hasn't shown any sign that she is ready for that.

The coming week is busy in the fact that we are doing a static at the Drymen Show on Saturday. This is the local agricultural show.  We did it last year and it was good fun and it is a great day out. Sunday will be spent in the centre doing bookings which will be a welcome break from being out on the road doing events.

After the weekend it will be quiet though for the birds but not for me. I have bought a house with Jo so next week will be spent moving house so I need to focus on that and deal with the real world to get things sorted with that. For the birds it will be a chance to relax with a lot of quail, rat, pigeon, mice and venison getting used on Sunday to feed the birds. A little bit of down time for them.

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Busy weekend

I am feeling the effects of a busy weekend. The weekend went very well considering how busy it was. There was an Agricultural Show on Saturday and  visit to a Brownie camp on Sunday morning to do a flying display and Jo was at Mugdock Castle to do a static display and I did the afternoon session when we had to do a flying display.

There  has been 2 early starts, with 2 late finishes, loading and unloading of cars, lots of talking to members of the public with 3 demonstrations at 3 different locations in 2 days. I would like to point out that I am not complaining. I love it when it is like this. There is a real pressure and buzz. The events have all been going well with a lot of good positive feed back.

There is not much to tell about the run up to last weekend. I had 2 hawk walks to do over at Cameron House on the Thursday that went well with Mardy and Pele (both Harris Hawks) flying well. Saying that Mardy did go off on 1 of the hawk walks but he came back quickly. I suspect it was just Mardy being Mardy. As I have said before he is 1 of the most up for it Harris Hawks  I think I have worked with in the fact that he is always looking for something to catch. He always keeps me on my toes.

The weekend was very busy but all good. It was our 6th year at the Agricultural Show so we must be doing something right to keep on getting asked back. It starts with a static display and then we do a 30  min flying display in the main arena and then we get the birds back out for another static display. The flying display went very well with Alba (Barn Owl) Brel (Harris Hawk) flying really well and Uist (Lugger Falcon) being in great form using the wind to get height and speed to swoop down at me swinging the lure. He didn't grab his tail so he put in a good shift. The birds were all looking good during the static display. Where the birds sit at this show is great. We are right next to the main arena so we get lots of people stopping to look at the birds. The birds were all on great form. The back of the static area is gorse bushes, there are no people there, and the birds were watching the local mouse population run about in the gorse. Brel spent a good 20mins staring into the gorse and Artemis (Steppe Eagle) was at it as well trying to catch them, Corrie (European Eagle Owl) spent most of the static display sleeping with the odd rouse (shaking of his feathers) to get comfortable, Taz (Kestrel) sunbathed in between the showers and Bod (Gyr x Saker) put alot of effort into preening. This was great to see as it showed once again the birds were not stressed by the event as they were displaying signs of natural behaviour. It also meant that we could point this out to the public and once again try inform as many people as possible that you shouldn't stroke birds of prey.

Sunday was more of the same with a visit to a Brownie camp. This was our 3rd visit to this group which was great. We did an hour there and then it was load up the car and head over to Mugdock Castle to take over the static display that Jo was doing and  and do the flying display. Once again alot of time on Sunday afternoon was spent talking about the birds welfare and why we don't allow handling or touching as they would find this stressful.

The baby Bran Owl is still living in the flat with me and Jo. It is getting big. It's tail is also just starting to come through and there is what looks like a dark stripe across it. With the size and the fact there is a dark stripe on the tail we think it will be female. In the the bird of prey world the female is always bigger than the male and the female Barn Owl is meant to have dark stripes across it's tail. If it is a female we are going with Bella as a name.

Bella preening. You can see the new feather coming through in the wing

Spud takes his baby sitting very seriously

Bella the Barn Owl

Still no sign of it flying so it will be with us for the next week at least.

The next 6 days are very busy. I have 2 corporate events to do, a highland games where we are doing 2 flying demonstrations, 3 hawk walks at Cameron House, 1 scout group visiting the centre and 1 demonstration at a wedding at the hotel. On top of that I have my 6 monthly vet inspection by the vet that I use which is part of the terms and conditions of my zoo licence and I have someone coming out to speak to me about getting a bird of prey.  A good week with a good variety of bookings at a good variety of venues.

I am looking forward to the 6 monthly vet inspection as I am always confident. The way I run the centre has always passed any inspection and I have always had good feedback from the people making the inspections of the centre.
 
BrelBrel on numerous occasions in the blog but I feel I need to mention him again. For 6 months I will barely talk about him in the blog. Over the autumn and winter I don't fly him. He sits on his perch and is generally a bit grumpy and anti social while I allow him to moult. If someone other than me picks him up a bit grumpy becomes very grumpy but come the spring he is brought back down to flying weight, he is flown, his fitness improves and he is back. No matter where we are, if I have to do a flying demonstration I want Brel to be part of it. He floats about and will fly to anybody I ask him to. At this time of year when the big events are coming thick and fast Brel is flying at them all. The only thing is if someone other than me picks him up off his perch he will be grumpy no matter how hungry he is. I am the only person who handles him. He is a star and a big player in the team who flies at the big events or venues and there have been a few over the years.

Anyway time to go. I need my sleep as I get ready for another hectic week at Strathblane Falconry. While for some so called falconry companies it is all about charging to have your photo taken holding a bird of prey or hugging or stroking an owl whilst rattling a tin for donations at Strathblane Falconry we are about flying birds of prey and promoting the welfare of the birds through good husbandry and management.

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late

I was getting into a bit of a routine with the blog. Monday evening do the blog up until last Monday. I finished work a bit late and by the time I got home and made dinner it was just too late to start.

I was going to do it on Tuesday but there was a programme on about the persecution of birds of prey on shooting estates. I decided to watch it and I can safely say it was nothing programme. There was nothing new in it. They didn't give any numbers of cases and incidents of persecution. So the blog didn't happen on Tuesday either.

It is now Wednesday and the blog is getting done.

The big event of the last 9 days was on Saturday. We were doing an event for Hopetoun House. As we turned up the rain was coming down heavily so we couldn't set up on the front lawn. We had  to set up next to the house on some gravel where it was a bit more sheltered and we could only put a few of the birds out. We allowed people to come up close and look at the birds, to give photo opportunities and to tell them why you shouldn't stroke a bird of prey. We had a few "but at the last event I went to they allowed us to stroke the birds". It's then that we have to point out things like the birds body language and how this shows that the bird is relaxed because they are showings signs of natural behaviour - like standing with 1 foot tucked up, rousing and preening. I am starting to feel like I am on a mission to stop the stroking of birds of prey at times.

Anyway back to the event. We had to fly birds at it and Brel was first up. I cannot sing Brel's praises high enough when it comes to this type of work. He might be a bit moody and bad tempered if someone picks him up other than me but if I pick him up off his perch and get him ready to fly, he will fly to anyone I ask. He must of flown to close on 40 people on Saturday evening swooping off the roof of Hopetoun House and over the crowds head. He was awesome. I decided to keep the Harris Hawk theme going so I got Pele out and he flew off. He only flew to the edge of the lawn and with in 15 mins I had him back. As I said in a previous post he is proving to be a bit erratic at the moment but I have lengthened his season this year and is maybe needing a break. This is being sorted as I am bringing Oran's weight back down so we should have him flying again by the end of the month. Other than that the event went well. We will be getting to know Hopetoun House well as we have another 2 events there this summer.

The rest of the week has been spent doing sessions at Cameron House and at the centre with a few days with nothing booked. I was hoping to use this quiet time productively and try and get some more painting done in the centre but there has been rain showers almost everyday so the place is always a bit damp. It has given me more time to fly birds though. I have had time to work with Artemis (Steppe Eagle). She has been refusing to fly to the glove again but she did fly to the glove today so hopefully we are getting back in the routine.

I have also started to work with Bob (Gyr x Saker). I tried to fly him last summer and it was a disaster. I bought him last April from someone. He was 5 years old and I don't think he had flown that much in the previous years that I got him and I don't think he had been handled that much either as he was very scatty and crashed about alot smashing most of the feathers in his wings and tail. Also I was told he would fly at 1lb 12oz which is way to low for him the whole experience was messed up.

A year on and he seems calmer so hopefully he will be better to work with. We shall see. The plan is to try and use him for hunting crows but we shall see. The first thing will be to try and get him to fly well. He does seem keen to come to the lure when I show it to him so fingers crossed. I suspect it will all come down to time.

Bob Gyr x Saker

The baby barn owl is making great progress. In the 12 days that we have had it I think it has doubled in size. I suspect it is a female. I haven't named it yet but hopefully we will have a name for it after the weekend. It still comes home every night with me and stays in the house but hopefully that will stop in the next week to 10 days as it will be big enough to keep itself warm and stay in an aviary.

I still haven't decided what to do with Dylan (Barn Owl) who is being replaced. His eyesight I feel is getting worse. I have noticed that if he doesn't see where the food lands when it is thrown into his aviary he does struggle to find it for a bit. Within a minute though he will find the food and he is still able to land on perches ok. I will speak to Alistair Lawrie (Vet) and ask for his opinion in the next few days about it. He is 1 of the top exotics vets in the UK.

Dylan flying to the glove

The next 2 days are quiet with only 2 hawk walks over at Cameron House tomorrow and nothing on Friday but this is good as it give me time on Friday to get ready for the Kilmacolm and Port Glasgow Agricultural Show on Saturday and then on Sunday I am back over at Kilmacolm doing a display at a Brownie camp and then off to Mugdock Castle to do a display in the afternoon so a busy day.

I should be hopefully back doing the blog on Monday to say how the weekend went.

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New arrival

At last I was able to pick up the new Barn Owl who was only 25 days old. I am glad I have finally got it. I always feel happier if I imprint an owl that I need to train or work with.

When I talk about imprint - I mean hand rear. If you wan to work with owls  - fly them - then you need to hand rear them so basically they grow up looking on you as the parent and the food source. You do not want to be handling an owl that is parent reared and it grows up knowing it is an owl - nasty.

While I had full confidence in the breeder I would still rather do it myself then I know what I am getting. We haven't named it yet as I have no idea if it is a male or a female. What they say is if it has a white tail it is a mail and if it has bars across it's tail then it is female. At the moment it has no tail so we will wait and see.

Since I last posted a blog things have been busy with 11 bookings in 6 days. 6 of the bookings were at then centre, 4 at Cameron House and 1 in Edinburgh. On the whole the birds flew well. Mardy (Harris Hawk) did another hawk walk at Cameron House and was perfect. I was really watching him to keep an eye on him just in case he went off on 1 but he was perfect. He was flying in his usual style up high in the trees keeping a good height so he could try and see everything or anything that moved. This time there wasn't too much moving about but he did have a go at something in woods behind the hotel again. Once again I am not sure what as I couldn't see but certainly Mardy thought it was worth a shot at.

Pele (Harris Hawk) has been continuing his erratic form at Cameron House. At the centre where we are based he is perfect. He flies well at Cameron House in the fact that he will come straight to the glove putting in long sweeping flights across the front lawn but he can be a real pain to follow on. On Thursday I had a last minute booking for a hawk walk at Cameron House so I decided to take the more relaxing option - Pele - over the 1 where I need eyes on the back of my head - Mardy - as I was meeting with friends in the afternoon to go fishing and I thought I would make it easy for myself. Pele was good in the fact that he was once again coming straight to the glove but a bit slow to follow on or in some cases not following on. I know he is hungry enough in the fact that when the client puts up their glove he is always very quick to come to the glove - no hesitation. He is however still very reliable and caused no real problems. On Saturday though I decided to change things with him when he was showing signs that he wasn't going to follow on well. I decided to go straight into the woods at the back of Cameron House and he was perfect following on through the trees being quick and responsive. I suspect the problem was he was bored and knew there was no chance of him catching anything on the front lawn, so I suspect he was thinking why bother. Hopefully with the new routine things will be back to normal.

Today's event in Edinburgh was mostly straight forward. Artemis (Steppe Eagle) wouldn't settle due to all the children running about at it as it was a 50th birthday garden party so there was a lot of kids running about. Artemis is not a big fan of children, because of her weight she has no real contact or interaction with children as she is too heavy for them to hold. The other thing is children tend to be a bit random in the way they behave and move which unsettles her. Children move quickly and suddenly. We were asked to provide a static demonstration where people could come up and look at the bird and we allowed some people hold the birds and answer any questions that people had. As always we don't allow anyone to touch or stroke the birds. We also had to provide a flying demonstration as well.  I decided to make the demonstration very hands on as it was a small group and there were loads of kids. First up was Alba (Barn Owl) who was great even though the wind was quite strong. She was looking good and was her usual reliable self. Next up was Corrie. I had just put him on the T-perch and I was walking away to call him when a large black dog appeared from no where and spooked him he stood looked at it for a second and as I reached to grab his jesses he took off round the house. The only thing I could do was go and look for him. This wasn't a big deal as I always fly my birds with telemetry on them at events. It doesn't make any difference if it is an owl, falcon or hawk they all wear a transmitter. It is just good management. Off I went with the receiver following the signal. He was actually really easy to find as he had only gone about 150m and was sitting on the ground. So it was just a case of picking him up and heading back to where the demonstration was being held. I decided not to try and get Corrie to fly again. I got Brel Always good to get positive feed back.

The coming week is quiet until the weekend. This weekend I have a large corporate event at Hopeton House so it is back through to Edinburgh for the 3rd week running. I am looking forward to this event. I have done events before at Hopeton house but this will be the first one where they have booked me direct. Before it has  always been through event companies. The pressure will be on but it is always on when you do a corporate event. The standards are high. The client is not really interested in what you can't do. They are interested in what you are going to do. The other thing is they have an expectation as to what they expect and the very least I can do is equal that - that is the minimum requirement. That means 100%. The thing is if that is the standard you set on your first event with an event company then that is the standard that you have to maintain. I have always said that if an event company decide to use me to provide falconry services then the easy part was getting the work - the most difficult part in holding on to it as there is always someone waiting in the wings to take your place and once it is gone it is almost impossible to get back in. I always look forward to the corporate work. I like the change in environment, with some of the place I get to fly the birds being stunning. Hopeton House falls into that category.

Hopefully it all goes well.

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