Life in the centre has slowed right down. October was steady with the school breaks keeping things ticking over. Then we got to November and things slow down even further with bookings. The weather hasn't helped. It is a hard sell to convince people they should be out doors doing things when the rain never seems to stop. While bookings have slowed up there have still been a few and we have been getting positive feed back from people who have been out which is always great. We are now getting reviews on trip adviser.
Now though we are at that stage of year where there may not be a lot of bookings but things are going to busy for me - the Christmas rush. Making sure gift vouchers get out on time. Hopefully we won't have any problems last year if I remember correctly there was problems with the website and my phone line was taken out by a tree coming down on it in a storm. Hopefully none of that this year.
At this time of the year we don't do any large events. All the bookings are for individuals either at the centre or over at Cameron House. The birds have been flying well which is to be expected as it has all been routine stuff. Oran (Cameron House) has been the stand out bird over the last 5 weeks. He caught 2 rabbits over at Cameron House and came very close to catching a pheasant on 2 occasions not to mention almost taking a duck or 2 as well. He treats Cameron House like the happy hunting ground. Saying that he always flies well there flying with real purpose and determination.
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| Oran with his first rabbit of the season |
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| Oran with his 2nd rabbit of the season |
In my last blog entry I mentioned how Minnie (Ferret) had to have an operation to remove a large ovarian tumour. Well I am happy to say that she looks like she will be making a full recovery. She had lost a bit of fur and was a bit bald in places before the op and that is what alerted me to the fact there might be a problem with her. After the operation she lost a lot more fur but I was told this was to be expected as her hormones settled down after the operation. It was a bit worrying especially as we are now going into winter and Minnie was missing 80% of her fur. I mean she was proper bald - no fur just skin. The only thing is that she shares her hutch with another 2 ferrets and they all sleep together so she should of been warm enough. I am happy to say though her fur is now all growing back just in time for the winter.
The bad news now. I had to send 1 of my telemetry receivers away to be repaired. I went to switch it on the other week and got nothing. It was working the day before and then the next day it wasn't. I thought no big deal the batteries must be flat - I'll change them. So went to change the batteries. It takes 6 AA batteries and 5 fell out - 1 was stuck. I couldn't get it out so off it went back to the manufacturer. They removed the battery and told me that the battery had leaked but I had been lucky as it looked like I had caught it early and it hadn't done too much damage - the price £20 to remove the battery, clean it up a bit and post it back to me. The receiver came back I put new batteries in it, switched it on and everything seemed okay. Next day picked it up and decided to check the batteries were okay and only 5 came out and 1 was stuck in the same place as the last time. So off it went back to the manufacturer. This time they did a more extensive investigation and found more corrosion inside the receiver and they were going to have to replace part of it - £100 later and hopefully it will be fixed. It could of been worse. If the leaked battery had corroded through to the main circuit board I would of been looking at £250 to fix it.
Telemetry is a vital piece of kit for me. That is why I use what I think is the best system out there at the moment - Marshall radio telemetry. I will not fly a bird with out a transmitter on it. For me if someone doesn't use telemetry when flying a bird then they are just being reckless and not caring for their bird. I don't care how well trained you think your bird is, things can happen that are out with your control and the bird can go off on one. This is when you are glad you have a transmitter on the bird. This is also why I have two of everything when it comes to telemetry, so if I have a problem or something breaks then I can keep going - business as usual.
The next few weeks as I have said are quiet with bookings but the I will be busy. It will be a time to see what the winter brings - cold and wet or cold and dry. If it is cold and wet then it will be a bit milder with less frost. Cold and dry on the other hand it will be a lot colder with more frost. I would prefer cold and dry. In some ways it is easier and I can still fly the birds. All I need to do is up their food to deal with the cold. So I don't have any worries about the food and running out if the weather turns which happened 2 years ago I am doing the food run on Monday. This order will keep the birds going until February.
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