I thought I would make a quick entry on my blog as it has been almost 3 weeks since my last entry.
One thing I should of mentioned in my last entry was that 2012 is a special year for Strathblane Falconry. This is the 10th year in business. I guess it is a time to reflect a little bit.
I will say 1 thing. It doesn't feel like 10 years. The time has flown by (no pun intended). There have been highs and there have been lows. There have tears of joy and tears of sadness. There has been alot of laughter and a few tantrums over the years and 1 near death moment when I came under fire but it has all been a great experience. Would I change any of it - yes there are bits I would change but over all there is not much that I would change. One thing I would say is that I have no regrets. Yes I work a 7 day week but I love the life style I have. I get to work with and fly birds of prey all day. just being around them is a privilege.
One of the great things that after almost 10 years I am still learning things about the birds and myself. Even though times are hard for everyone I look to the future and feel confident that Strathblane Falconry should be here for another 10 years.
Right back to the present and what has been happening. Not a lot if I am being honest. For starters it is January so things tend to be a bit quiet and secondly the weather has been awful so it has been difficult to do anything. There hasn't been much chance to go out and fly the birds for myself. It has rained most days. Saying that it was dry yesterday and today and it is meant to continue for the the next few days.
I did get out with Pele (Harris Hawk) on Friday last week with Gail who used to help me in the centre alot. Pele flew well and chased a few pheasants. He did get hold of 1 but we couldn't get to him quick enough so the pheasant escaped with out most of it's tail. I am going to go out tomorrow with Gail again and fly Pele so hopefully we will have better luck.
On the booking front things have been quiet with not much happening but things are looking good for the coming year with a few interesting bookings coming up. For example in February I am giving a talk to the Edinburgh Veterinary Zoological Society on bird of prey husbandry and then doing a 2 flying demonstrations in the afternoon. We have also been asked back to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery to do a demonstration and at the moment I am waiting to hear if we are going to get a contract to provide several demonstrations for a company over the summer but I don't want to say too much about that until I know if we have been successful. On the whole things are looking good.
The birds are all doing ok with several birds now on a diet as we get ready to change some of the team. Duffy (Bengal Eagle Owl) is on a diet at the moment and jumped to the glove for a piece of food.So I am hopeful that he will be flying in the next few week and Lobey (Turkmanian Eagle Owl) will be allowed to have a moult. Kyle (Buzzard) is also on a diet as I am going to fly him a bit and get him doing some work. He is a challenge as he refuses to fly to anyone apart from me or Gail. In the coming weeks we will start to look at changing the team about and more birds will flying as we get closer to the spring.
There is not much more to tell so i will finish up there.
811
Monday, 30 January 2012
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Happy New Year
Happy New Year everyone.
Well we survived the festive period and it was a wet and wild one with lots more wind and rain. Unfortunately we had to cancel 1 booking over the festive period but we managed to get everything else done which was no mean feat considering the weather at times. We did get a little bit of luck with the weather and it wasn't to bad when we had bookings to do.
So what has been happening. Well we were busy over the festive period with bookings at the centre and over at Cameron House. I suppose the highlight would of been Cooper our new Harris Hawk doing his first demonstrations on Boxing Day and New Years Day and he was brilliant. He flew well and came into the glove when asked to perfectly. Cooper has been a great addition to the team and I really am looking forward to flying him as no matter what we ask him to do he just gets on with it.
All the other birds that were flown over the festive period flew well also in the various bookings that we had from Hawk Walks, to Family Fun Sessions to Half Day Sessions to the 2 demonstrations that we did. There was no real outstanding moments from the bookings over the festive period. Pele (Harris Hawk) almost caught a rabbit during a hawk walk at Cameron House. We were walking through the woods behind the hotel and he was about 25 feet up in the trees following on when all I saw was him dropping out of the tree and crashing into to some bramble bushes, a rabbit bolted out of the brambles running across the path and into some bushes with Pele jumping up out of the brambles and flying into the bushes after the rabbit where he lost it. Good effort on his part though.
Talking of hunting I haven't been out at all since my last post the weather has just made it impossible when things have been quiet. More often than not it has been raining and very windy. This year so far has been rubbish. I think once we got the 1st January out the way all it has done is rained so far this year. We have had more storms last week which were stronger than what we had at the beginning of December with a few trees coming down in the grounds of the hotel where we are based. We had 2 snap in half behind the centre but thankfully the fell away from the centre
While the 2 trees that snapped in half behind the centre weren't that large there was a large tree that did come down in the garden of 1 of the houses that is in the grounds of the hotel
Thankfully the centre and the birds came through it all unscathed. The birds though were a bit jumpy after the last storm. I think they had had a bit of a rough night with the high winds as some were a bit jumpy when I went to put them out on the front lawn to be fed in the morning.
While I said I haven't been out hunting so far this season with 1of my birds I did take a day off last Saturday and visit a friend to watch his Peregrine and Gyr x Peregrine hi-brid hunt duck. It was very windy and both birds didn't go as high as they normally would due to the strong wind, the Peregrine did manage about 500ft and the Gyr x Peregrine did about 800 feet. No ducks were caught but both birds put in good flights and were unlucky but it was a great day out seeing a different style of flying that I don't do. It's awesome just to see falcons coming down from a good height up in a stoop. You hear the whoosh of them cutting through the air at high speed chasing after a duck.
Life in the centre has been quiet with short days at the moment and not alot of bookings. The days have consisted of open up the centre put some birds out front to feed (if the weather is not too bad), clean, feed the rest of the birds, walk the dogs and then lock up and go home. The weather has really limited what we can do in the centre. I suspect the birds won't care as it has been easy for them. The next couple of days are meant to be ok so hopefully I can get out on 1 day as I have a few bookings this weekend. Fingers crossed.
I did go and get get more bird food the other day. Quite a simple order this time - 26 boxes of chicks, 1 box of quail (40 quail to a box) and 1kg of mice. I am not even sure if I needed the quail as I still have a few cockerels left that were given to me last month for bird food. I suppose the quail will get used up eventually. Talking of the cockerels, they have been great eating for the birds. I can feed about 8 or 9 birds with 1 cockerel. I should be getting some more later this year. I didn't get any rat or duck neck this time as I still have a load of squirrel to use up plus the cockerels. As I said in my last entry on my blog - all the birds are eating well at the moment.
alot more good times.
781
Well we survived the festive period and it was a wet and wild one with lots more wind and rain. Unfortunately we had to cancel 1 booking over the festive period but we managed to get everything else done which was no mean feat considering the weather at times. We did get a little bit of luck with the weather and it wasn't to bad when we had bookings to do.
So what has been happening. Well we were busy over the festive period with bookings at the centre and over at Cameron House. I suppose the highlight would of been Cooper our new Harris Hawk doing his first demonstrations on Boxing Day and New Years Day and he was brilliant. He flew well and came into the glove when asked to perfectly. Cooper has been a great addition to the team and I really am looking forward to flying him as no matter what we ask him to do he just gets on with it.
All the other birds that were flown over the festive period flew well also in the various bookings that we had from Hawk Walks, to Family Fun Sessions to Half Day Sessions to the 2 demonstrations that we did. There was no real outstanding moments from the bookings over the festive period. Pele (Harris Hawk) almost caught a rabbit during a hawk walk at Cameron House. We were walking through the woods behind the hotel and he was about 25 feet up in the trees following on when all I saw was him dropping out of the tree and crashing into to some bramble bushes, a rabbit bolted out of the brambles running across the path and into some bushes with Pele jumping up out of the brambles and flying into the bushes after the rabbit where he lost it. Good effort on his part though.
Talking of hunting I haven't been out at all since my last post the weather has just made it impossible when things have been quiet. More often than not it has been raining and very windy. This year so far has been rubbish. I think once we got the 1st January out the way all it has done is rained so far this year. We have had more storms last week which were stronger than what we had at the beginning of December with a few trees coming down in the grounds of the hotel where we are based. We had 2 snap in half behind the centre but thankfully the fell away from the centre
While the 2 trees that snapped in half behind the centre weren't that large there was a large tree that did come down in the garden of 1 of the houses that is in the grounds of the hotel
Thankfully the centre and the birds came through it all unscathed. The birds though were a bit jumpy after the last storm. I think they had had a bit of a rough night with the high winds as some were a bit jumpy when I went to put them out on the front lawn to be fed in the morning.
While I said I haven't been out hunting so far this season with 1of my birds I did take a day off last Saturday and visit a friend to watch his Peregrine and Gyr x Peregrine hi-brid hunt duck. It was very windy and both birds didn't go as high as they normally would due to the strong wind, the Peregrine did manage about 500ft and the Gyr x Peregrine did about 800 feet. No ducks were caught but both birds put in good flights and were unlucky but it was a great day out seeing a different style of flying that I don't do. It's awesome just to see falcons coming down from a good height up in a stoop. You hear the whoosh of them cutting through the air at high speed chasing after a duck.
Life in the centre has been quiet with short days at the moment and not alot of bookings. The days have consisted of open up the centre put some birds out front to feed (if the weather is not too bad), clean, feed the rest of the birds, walk the dogs and then lock up and go home. The weather has really limited what we can do in the centre. I suspect the birds won't care as it has been easy for them. The next couple of days are meant to be ok so hopefully I can get out on 1 day as I have a few bookings this weekend. Fingers crossed.
I did go and get get more bird food the other day. Quite a simple order this time - 26 boxes of chicks, 1 box of quail (40 quail to a box) and 1kg of mice. I am not even sure if I needed the quail as I still have a few cockerels left that were given to me last month for bird food. I suppose the quail will get used up eventually. Talking of the cockerels, they have been great eating for the birds. I can feed about 8 or 9 birds with 1 cockerel. I should be getting some more later this year. I didn't get any rat or duck neck this time as I still have a load of squirrel to use up plus the cockerels. As I said in my last entry on my blog - all the birds are eating well at the moment.
alot more good times.
781
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