Lead poisoning and a little bit of magic

Time has flown by once again and it doesn't feel like a month since my last blog entry.

We seem to be going through a faze where things are really busy or really quiet. This week is starting to get really busy with 6 bookings in the next 2 days while last week was quiet and next week is quite quiet at the moment but I am expecting that to change as quite a few bookings have been coming in last minute. To be honest having a quiet week or 2 at this time of the year is not a bad thing as I am busy in the centre getting this ready for the coming season. At the moment I am working with 15 birds out of the 20 that I have in my collection so things are busy and the days are getting longer. 9 hour days are becoming the norm but the other day I ended up doing a 13 hour shift. All great fun.

The big news of the last month concerned Corrie (European Eagle Owl). I noticed Corrie has been a bit slow and not really firing on all cylinders if you like. I was a bit worried about him as he seemed a little bit out of sorts. I put it down to the fact that he had been flying for a year and maybe needed a bit of a break which he was due. Things weren't that busy and I decided that I would give Corrie a squirrel to eat. Something a bit richer than chicks and then a few days off to chill out and hopefully he would pick up a bit. He ate the squirrel and I waited for him to bring up a pellet (fur and bones which he can't digest) to say he had digested it. I was expecting the pellet to appear 2 to 3 days after he ate the squirrel. I gave him the squirrel on the Friday. The pellet should of appeared Sunday or Monday. When no pellet appeared I started to get worried. I weighed him and his weight said that he was empty - that he had digested the squirrel. I thought maybe the pellet had fallen down the back of his aviary and out of sight. The thing was he looked ok and seemed himself in someways but not in others. I decided to book him into the vets. I got an appointment on the Friday morning. On the Friday I was really worried as I could see a huge difference in him. He seemed very weak. I took him to the vet. The vet examined him and said it could be lead poisoning. I said no way I'm careful about that. he then said well it might Capillaria which is a type of parasitic worm. The next step was to run some tests to see what was going on with Corrie.

I got a call on the afternoon to say that they had x rayed Corrie and found a air gun lead pellet in his stomach and that he had lead poisoning. I went over to collect him with Jo to hear what the situation was with him. We were shown an x ray showing the pellet in his stomach.

The air gum pellet is the mushroom shape in his stomach

The air gun pellet is the white oval shape in the x ray

 The x rays also showed that his stomach was swollen and inflamed. I was sent away with a whole load of different meds to give him. The plan was to try and get him to pass it naturally. A blood sample was also taken for testing to find out how much lead he had in his blood.

Once we got him on the medication to deal with the lead he picked up and seemed a bit brighter. He had to have medication administered down a tube put down his throat and straight into his stomach, medication in his food and get an injection each day. Lucky we were able to do this at the centre as Jo my girl friend is a vet with exotics experience. We gave Corrie his medication with me holding Corrie. Jo and Becky (4th year vet student) administered the medication. Quite a team effort. A big thank you to Jo and Becky for all their help.

A week later we were back at the vets with Corrie. The air gun pellet hadn't been passed and it was time to try and get it out. I was also given the results of his blood test. I was told anything under 20 is low, 60-80 is high and 100 is acute. Corrie's blood test results came in at 580 so he had a massive amount of lead in his system.

It was decided that the best option was to flush the pellet out. I once again left Corrie at the vets not feeling very confident that this would end well. I was told that the last time they had put Corrie under a anaesthetic to x ray him he had not been very stable and at one point they had to help him with his breathing. I was seriously worried about Corrie but I had no option the air gum pellet had to come out.

I got a phone call to later that day to say that they had got the pellet out but it had been a real struggle. The whole procedure should of only taken 30 mins but it took 70 min. The problem being Corrie had been eating small stones and his stomach was full of them. He had probably been doing this because his stomach was not working quite right due to the lead and he was trying help his digestive system.

They had to use a endoscope with a small basket on the end to shovel some to the stones out and then they could flush the rest out along with the pellet.

When I collected him they gave me more meds to help deal with the lead levels in his blood. 5 days later he was back at the vets for a check up and another blood test to check the lead levels. 2 days later I had to go back to the vets to get more meds and the results from his last blood test. I didn't know what to expect from the results. The last one was 580 and that was massive anything below that would be good. I was overjoyed when I was told it had dropped to 47. This is still quite high but it still a massive improvement. One more course of meds and the lead should be out of his system. The vet said he wouldn't need to see him again.

I am normally really careful about the risk of lead poisoning when using wild food to feed my birds. I normally check it over. The squirrel was part of a batch that I had been using to feed the birds over the winter. I had been told they had been caged trapped and then hit on the head to kill them. I didn't check them that closely as I was told that squirrels from the same batch had also gone to conservation projects a to feed wild birds of prey. From what I understand their had been several people trapping and killing the squirrels and 1 of them had been shooting them rather than hitting them to kill them. From now on the heads are all removed and the carcass is thoroughly checked so we don't have a repeat incident.

I experienced a little bit of magic the other week. I got a call from a local farmer asking if I had lost a bird or if I knew of anyone who may of lost a bird as there was a large bird of prey flying on his land with what looked like or could be some straps hanging from it's legs. I said no but I would go out and have a look. I went out to see the farmer and he told me where it was. I asked what it was like he said it has some white on it and that it was bigger than a buzzard. This didn't exactly narrow it down but I said I would go and have a look when I had time over the next day or 2. From what I was told and the questions I had asked I thought someone might of lost a female Harris Hawk. Next day I went to the spot and had a look. He said it had been sitting in an old dead tree. I found the tree and went to have a look about. I was looking for feathers or any food scraps. There wasn't any just some large mutes (bird poo). Too big to from a Harris Hawk. Everything was quiet. I decided to head back. As I made my way back a wild Golden eagle flew out of some trees in front of me and flew over my head no more than 50m away. A magical moment and the closest I have ever been to a wild Golden Eagle.This was the strange bird that the farmer had been looking at.

That's all the exciting news out the way. Now about what has been going on in the centre with the birds. In a word -  LOTS. As I mentioned earlier I am working with 15 birds at the moment. I have birds flying for bookings and I have birds flying to get them ready for the coming demonstration season.

The flying team has been changing. Corrie (European Eagle Owl)has been given a rest. He was due it but all the problems with the lead poisoning just sped it up. He will now spend the next 6 months relaxing, recovering and moulting. Bella (Barn Owl) has also been allowed to moult (drop out old feathers and grow in new ones) with Alba the other Barn Owl now flying. I have to say Bella has been a star. She was brought in to replace Dylan who had to be put to sleep last year. I was a little bit worried as Dylan was very good and always very reliable. Bella has been just as good and a bit more hyper. Anyway she is now being given a well earned break and it's Alba turn to fly. Alba is 7 years old this year and very different to Bella. The difference being she is alot calmer. Next up to be dropped from the flying team will be Pele (Harris Hawk). He has a 1 more booking to do and then I will allow him to moult over the summer. Mardy (Harris Hawk) is now flying and looking good after his winter break. Also Brel (Harris Hawk) is flying and it is all about getting him back up to speed at the moment as he is very unfit.

I have also been flying Uist (Lugger Falcon) who has been looking good. Next up on the falcon front is Bob (Gyr x Saker). I felt I turned a bit of a corner with Bob last summer so hopefully we can build on that and improve on this this summer.

The only other thing to mention is that I was doing a hawk walk over at Cameron House this afternoon and  Cooper (Harris Hawk) flew off. It was my fault. I had stopped to explain something and Cooper got bored and flew off. I thought no worries he will be just up ahead a bit. I called him - no sign. I walked down the path a bit and called - no sign. Time to get the telemetry out and track him down. I switched on the telemetry receiver to pick up the signal from the transmitter he was wearing and got that re assuring beep to tell me which direction to walk in. I caught up with him 10 mins later. He had lost sight of me and had started following some other people that he had come across. I think they were delighted to have a Harris Hawk join them on their walk. When I saw him he was getting a hard time from some seagulls and crows. I shouted and he came straight in. I went back to where I had left the guests and carried on with the hawk walk.

Time to finish up this entry. I am up very early tomorrow as I have got 3 hawk walks to do and a early start so a busy day ahead.

899

On the radio

Well it has been just over 3 weeks since my last entry so time to give an up date as to what has been going on.

First the bad news. We have had a few cancellations this month so far. Not something that we normally have. Ok we do get cancellations every so often but normally only 1 every 5 or 6 months. This month we have had 3. The other bad news is the weather is still very wet. We did get a few dry days last week which was great and the centre dried out a bit. This week we seem to be back to rain and everything is soaked again.

Anyway that's the bad news out the way. Now the good news and what has been happening. Truth be told - quite alot.

I suppose the most exciting thing has been that I was asked to go on the Fred MacAulay show on BBC Radio Scotland this week. They were doing something on the fact that Jon Hamm (an actor in Mad Men) has 4 eagles that he keeps as pets in his back garden over in the US. They asked if I was available to come into the studio to answer a few questions on and if birds of prey make good pets. The answer of course is NO. In the studio with me doing this piece was a guy who owned a exotic pet shop and he had brought along a tarantula and a reticulated python plus the 2 presenters. Susan Calman who was presenting instead of Fred MacAulay looked pretty worried by the tarantula. I was only in the studio for a short period but it was all good fun.

I have to admit I was a little bit nervous about going on and speaking on live radio but once I was in the studio with the headphones on it was ok and I actually felt quite calm. Slightly bemused that the 2 presenters were so worried about the tarantula and python.

The other big thing was we were asked by the Edinburgh Vet Zoological Society to give a lecture on bird of prey husbandry at a conference they were having at the Edinburgh Vet School. This was a booking I had been looking forward to. I need to say a big thank you to Jo for putting together a power point presentation for me. When it comes to computers I am rubbish.

Me giving my lecture on bird of prey husbandry

After the lecture I had to do 2 flying demonstrations in the grounds of the vet school. The birds did ok. Lobey (Turkmanian Eagle Owl) was a bit slow but he could see his reflection in the glass of the buildings and wasn't to impressed by that. Bella (Barn Owl) was in good form  and Cooper (Harris Hawk) kept up his good form as well. All in all it was a great day.

Cooper (Harris Hawk) during flying demonstration

This month so far we have been quite steady with bookings with quite a few bookings over at Cameron House, also quite a few bookings at the centre and 2 school to visit as well.

I always enjoy doing school visits. They can be a bit random at times depending on the age of the children and the questions they ask but they are always good fun. The 2 schools we visited recently were both repeat bookings which is great. When we visit schools we are asked to give talks on various topics/subjects the most common topic being owls. Saying that the 2 visits that we have just done 1 was on birds of prey and the other was on endangered species. We received another booking today for a school visit once again a school we have visited before this time it is on medieval falconry. I think there is now about 5 school visits in the diary over the next 2 months.

The phone has been ringing alot this week with enquiries for the coming summer which is great. It all really kicks off mid April with the first big event being the Glasgow Vet School Rodeo. This will be our 3rd year there. There is also a few possible corporate bookings in the diary as well for the end of April so we will just need to wait and see. The corporate work has been a bit quiet in recent years but hopefully we may now be turning the corner on that front and it will start to pick up.

We have also been booked by Historic Scotland to do 3 events for them this summer. We have done work in the past for Historic Scotland and their events are always well run and organised. There has been also a gala day booked in as well as another corporate event for later in the summer . The diary is starting to look really busy in places this early in the year which is great.

With all these booking and enquiries coming in more birds are now on a diet to get them ready for the coming summer. There are now 9 birds in the centre who are having their weights brought down. Some will be replacing birds who have been flying over the summer - Duffy (Bengal Eagle Owl) for example will be replacing Corrie (European Eagle Owl) who has been flying and doing events for the last year. Others though are being brought back for the summer flying season as we will need more birds flying as we have more bookings to cover - Brel (Harris Hawk) and Uist (Lugger Falcon).

I always love this time of year. the days are getting longer. When the sun does come out you can feel it getting a little bit warmer and it is time to start getting things ready for the coming summer. I start weighing the birds on a more regular basis looking at how much weight they need to loose to get them to fly to me and with some it is quite a bit this year. Mardy (Harris Hawk) is 1 that springs to mind. He need to loose somewhere in the region of 12oz - normally it is only 5 or 6oz. Serves me right for giving him squirrel and adult cockerel for most of the winter. I don't think he has ever been so heavy. As the weeks go by the flying team will increase in number to cover the increase in bookings. Last year at the height of the summer I think I had 16 birds flying out of 20 either preparing them or flying them in bookings. I supect this summer could be the same.

The only other thing that is worth mentioning is we have mice in the tack room of the centre at the moment. I thought we may of had 1 or 2 as there was a few signs that they were there but nothing obvious. It sometimes happens in the winter that the mice come in looking for shelter. Unless it becomes really obvious it tends not to be a problem. It has now become really obvious. I am not sure how 1 managed to do it but it got up onto the work counter and had been nibbling on the birds food. That was the final straw. Traps were put down. I only have 2 traps and on the first night I got 1, on the second night I got 1 and  the third  night I got 2. Also the food had been cleared off the traps so there is still at least 1 mouse running about. I will keep baiting the traps until we stop catching them. I didn't think there was that many. That's the most we have ever had. Not good. One thing they will not be used for is food for the birds. I won't use wild rats or mice when feeding the birds. I don't know what toxins, poisons or diseases they have been exposed to.

Anyway on that cheeful note I will finish up.

856

Quick up date

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

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

cold & wet

Once again I have been guilty of neglecting my blog. It has been a while since I have put anything up.

Saying that not a lot has been happening so there hasn't been that much happening which is out of the ordinary. Not unless you count the weather.

The only way I think I can describe the weather is that I think we have had almost every type since my last post. There has been a lot of rain and the ground is cutting up easily and becoming very muddy in places as it is saturated. I have to be careful where I walk on the grass in front of the centre to try and keep it nice and grassy for the birds to weathered on (This means to sit on their perches outside). So far I am managing but certain parts are becoming increasingly muddy.

The last week in November was particularly wet and then in December it got a bit cold and the snow came and went with a bit more snow, gale force winds and some more rain. All in all difficult weather for flying birds in.

Bookings have been a bit thin on the ground but they always are at this time of the year and with the way the weather has been people don't think about going outside. Saying that we have still been doing 3 or 4 bookings a week and we have got all the bookings done as we have been a bit lucky with the weather.

The birds are all doing ok with a very small team actually flying at this time of year. What with the weather and the short days it is difficult to find time to fly many of the birds. Also the cold can slow things up with frozen locks and snow to clear. Meaning there is even less time to fly anything.

At this time of the year the number of birds flying is at it's lowest level. At the moment we only have 6 birds flying which are used in the activity days. A lot of the birds are being given a well earned break after the summer display season. Also it is safer for Midge (White Faced Scops Owl) and Taz (Kestrel) to be given as much food as they want as the margins are so small between life and death for these small birds. Taz at the moment is sitting at 8.5oz his flying weight is 6oz. It may not sound much of a difference 2.5oz but when you think about it he has increased his weight by over a third which is a lot. When Taz is at 8.5oz and eating as much as he wants I don't need to worry about him no matter how cold it gets. Saying that the weather is getting milder at the moment so it will be getting easier for the birds.

The birds have been getting fed all sorts at the moment. I was given a dozen adult cockerels a few weeks back. There is a lot of good eating in a good sized cockerel for the birds. I can give 8 birds a good feed from 1 cockerel and that includes the eagle. We have also been using squirrel, quail, mice and some rabbit on top of the usual day old chicks. The birds are eating well at the moment.

I do need to be careful what I am feeding some of them  as I am quite busy over the festive period with bookings with 2 demonstration and a number of smaller bookings for people either at Cameron House or at the centre.

Talking about the festive period it will be the normal routine even on Christmas Day. I will be in the centre for part of it. Birds will be put out front of the centre as normal and fed. All the enclosures and aviaries will be cleaned. Just because it is Christmas Day doesn't mean it won't happen. Saying that I will finish up early and only do a half day once I have cleaned everything and fed all the birds.

The only down side at the moment is I normally try and find time to go out and fly a bird for myself but with the way the weather has been I haven't been able to get out so far. Hopefully in the new year I can get that sorted.

Well there is not much more to say except  have a great Christmas and New Year and thank you for reading my blog.

742

Busy busy

In my last entry I said it looked like it was going to be quiet. Well that's not quite what happened. We had a few bookings come in last minute which was great and things have been busy with a few interesting bookings in the diary.

I suppose the big news has been Bella our new Barn Owl. After a bit of a slow start she has really come on leaps and bounds over the last few weeks. Flying really well on bookings at the centre and Cameron House. Also doing 2 or 3 bookings on some days if we have been busy. The big news is that she flew at her first school booking this month. I was a little bit nervous about it. I knew she should be ok but it was her first time and I wasn't sure how she would re-act to being indoors. As it was she was a star. She flew about the school hall and wasn't fazed in the slightest. The following week we were at Glasgow University visiting the zoological department and Bella was flying in a lecture on birds. She was brilliant. The lecture hall was like a amphitheatre with the seats rising up to the back of the theatre and there must of been around 100 people at it. A tough venue for only the second time flying indoors. We did get off to a slow start but then she came good and was awesome. Swooping down from the back of the theatre to the front over peoples heads and then flying back up to the back when called. It is tough for the birds doing an event like this. The thing is they are brought to the place they are needed to fly in a black transport box so they can't see out out and see where they are. The box needs to be black so bird is in the dark so it will sit quietly in the box.  They may never of been to the venue before and have no time to tune in and take in where they are but they are being asked to fly. Dylan was good at it, Alba is good at it and Bella looks like she is just going to be just as good as Dylan who she is replacing. 

The visit to Glasgow University Zoological Department wasn't the only visit to Glasgow University. We also visited the vet school to give a talk on bird of prey husbandry to some of the vet students. It was also a chance to say hello and catch up with a few people who had been out on EMS placement over the summer.

The other new addition to the team - Cooper (Harris Hawk) has also been progressing well. In my last post I talked about how I had stopped flying Oran (Harris Hawk) and allowed him to have a break because Cooper has been flying so well. I also mentioned that I had  a few booking coming up. Well Cooper was great. I have been using him over at Cameron House on hawk walks. These last for an hour and go round the grounds of Cameron House. He has done about 3 or 4 and has been brilliant - flying well, looking confident (he didn't even get stressed when he watched a helicopter land less tan a 100m from us) and always coming quickly to the glove when asked. He even made a half hearted attempt to catch a crow that was shouting at him.

Talking about crows, Pele (Harris Hawk) caught 1. I am not sure how he managed it even though I was kind of watching. Crows are not the easiest of things for a Harris Hawk to catch especially if the crow knows the hawk is there. Crows are smart. Probably 1 of the smartest birds birds about. The crow was sitting in a tree shouting at Pele who was about 50m away sitting on a lamp post looking about not showing alot on interest in the crow. Pele has had crows shout at him before and has ignored them. What I think happened from the angle I was kind of watching from was that Pele flew towards the crow but made it look like he wasn't interested in it and was going to fly past it as he got level he turned quickly towards the crow and grabbed it. Even when he grabbed it there is no guarantee that he will be able to keep hold of the crow. Crows have a large beak which they stab with when grabbed. The crow was almost the same weight as Pele. The crow weighed in at 1lb 3 1/4oz while Pele weighed in at 1lb 5 1/2oz. As I said in my last post, Pele is 9 years old, he has been round the block a few times and is quite a calculated individual. I saw this calculated attitude again last week. We were out hunting and came across a pheasant. Pele was up in a tree and the pheasant was on the ground up ahead. The pheasant saw me and started running. Pele sat in the tree and watched. He knew that from where he was the pheasant had a good head start and he would struggle to get near it. The pheasant turned into the hedge it was running along and went straight into a fence. It was now stuck. This was when Pele attacked. He was straight out the tree, into the hedge and grabbed the pheasant. Unfortunately he grabbed it by the tail. The pheasant managed to escape missing half it's tail which Pele had. A lucky pheasant. I always have to watch Pele when he is flying. He might look like he is not interested or there is nothing going to happen but you never know with him. The only thing I can be sure of is if he thinks he can catch it he will go for it.
 
Today we had our 6 monthly vet inspection. This is because the centre has a zoo licence and part of the terms and conditions of the zoo licence act of 1981 is that my centre is inspected every 6 months  by the vet who I take my birds to for veterinary care and once a year by the council vet. The council vet visited last month and this month it was the vet who treats the birds when things go wrong - Alistair Lawrie. The inspection went well and the vet was very happy with everything in the centre.

The coming weeks are quiet at the moment but that will probably change. We are in the run in to Christmas so if I am not busy with bookings I will be busy with enquiries. Hopefully I will be able to get out and do fly some of the birds for myself though.

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Another Duck

October finished how it started and carried on right through - WET. While it has been wet and raining most days it is mild so while the rain has been a pain it has been warm rain. The waterproofs have always been close at hand.

Back to the birds. The flying team is getting smaller and smaller all the time. It always happens at this time of year. There are no more big displays, corporate events are few and far between and it is just bookings over at Cameron House and in the centre over the the coming weeks. I have decided to give Brel and Oran both of whom are Harris Hawks a break and I have stopped flying them. I always stop flying Brel at this time of the year as he does all my display and demonstration work. As there are no big demonstration or corporate work there is no reason to keep him going. He only flies from April till October. He spent yesterday eating a large squirrel. I also decided to stop flying Oran as well. I was going to keep him going up until the end of the year but with Cooper doing so well so quickly I decided to stop flying him. To be fair he needed a break. Oran is a great bird and has worked really hard over the last 18 months. He flew all of the summer 2010, he then got about 6 weeks off in the autumn 2010 and then was brought back for Christmas 2010. I was going to stop flying him after the New Year but we were busy and I just kept him going. He did get about 5 weeks off around April/May 2011 and then was back flying again all summer mainly doing the hawk walks over at Cameron House. He has been a star with only the 1 screw up back in September. I decided to stop flying him because Cooper was flying well and also because he was looking a bit scruffy. He did finish off with a bit of a flourish on his last hawk walk at Cameron House for the season by catching his 3rd duck. When I caught up with him he was in the water, using his wings as paddles to get to the waters edge with the duck held firmly in his talons. Saying that the duck was an easy target and he knew it. The duck had a broken wing. In the end a bit of a mercy killing.

Ok I go hunting with the aim of killing something. Using a bird to catch the prey is maybe not the most efficient way compared to a shot gun or rifle but 1 thing I will say if the bird catches the prey and the prey breaks free then the prey should be ok with nothing more than a few cuts. The 1 thing I don't like about guns/rifles is that if you don't kill the prey and it escapes after being hit and you can't find it then it is in for a long and slow death due to blood poisoning and infection with broken bones and serious injuries. That was what happened to the duck that Oran caught. It had a broken wing. Once I had killed it I could take a closer look at the wing. The wound looked a few days old, with the bone coming through the skin. On closer inspection I found an air gun pellet lodged in the wing with the bone shattered around it. Anyone who uses a air rifle to shoot at duck is just being cruel. There is no other way to describe it. There is no skill in shooting at duck on the water or ones that are on land. Most air rifles don't have the power to kill a duck unless you shoot it in the head, unfortunately most people who have an air rifle don't have the skill to do that. It's the first time I have come across something like that and I hope I don't see something like that again. It has kind of hardened my views and opinions on air rifles and who should have them.

On a more cheerful note Cooper the Harris Hawk continues to do well. The fact that he is flying so well made me think that Oran should be finished up early. He has been doing a few bookings at the centre and has done a full lap of the grounds of Cameron House with me flying him - all of which he has flown well in. This weekend I will be relying on him with 5 bookings in the next 2 days. He will be used in at least 2 of them.

The other big news is with Pele. On his first hunting day this season he caught a rabbit. He had had a few attempts at rabbit and pheasant and then he caught a rabbit. It was a good size weighing in at 3lb3 1/4oz. Pele was flying at 1lb 5oz. Saying that I suppose it is not that big news as it was Pele. At 9 years old, he has been used in the last 8 seasons for hunting and having caught many rabbits, pheasants and various other things he knows what he is doing. He is always very calm and I get the feeling he is a bit calculating compared to the other the harris hawks. Unfortunately his second hunting session was rained off.



The next few weeks are quiet in the diary but it is November. Saying that while it is quiet I will be busy as I gear up and prepare for Christmas advertising. Time to start dealing with the real world.

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