WWW.ICBP.ORG
APRIL 2011
NEWSLETTER
DIRECTORS NOTE
I owe apologies for the late arrival of this newsletter, but things were tough this winter and although we are now in April, we are still trying to catch up on what was not done during the very cold weather I have a new programme for newsletters and so it appears that it will be easier if I do them again! As I write it is a stunningly beautiful day, and we heard a cuckoo yesterday The trees are showing leaves, the snowdrops are over, the daffodils both wild and domestic are nearly over and the cherry are in bloom, the breeding season is upon us and spring proper is finally here, breathing quietly with increasing birdsong. The birds are well and we look forward to your visits this year with our usual delight. jpj
The wild daffodils are up now and we are building a maze in the play area.
THE GARDENS In November last year, which I have to say I think is a little late, but I am not the gardening expert, we planted 455 new plants around the Centre. Peter Dowle who advises on our gardens and plantings came over and some of his staff moved some of the existing plants, and then when the new ones arrived, they and we planted them. We had to fell the two Twisted Willows that were in the flower bed near the kites, one was very dead and the other one was dying. I have lost a number of trees since I left in 2004, not to mention the hacking of trees that was allowed to go on when I was not here. The ponds have been cleared and finally the grass has been rolled, so once I sort out the new leak in the large pond (damn it!), we are done with them and lovely they are going to look as well. The mud has been cleared from the field now it has dried and we have ploughed the bottom field and need to rotavate and reseed
The Birds The newest bird on the block as it were is the Steller’s Sea Eagle, what a change from the baby last year!! I think we think it is a male, it doesn’t really matter, but whatever, he or she is doing A Frame work, he is too heavy for me, the Bald Eagle Cremorne flies at 3600 grams and the Steller’s is coming on line in the next couple of months. 2000 grams more! Then of course there are new birds to the team from the breeding season. Amazingly the other pair of Griffon Vultures has not only laid, but the egg is fertile, and it is Some old friends are out now, Hare amazing as the male only has one is on duty, Brenin the Red Kite is wing! We have yet to hatch the flying free now, Paris is out, egg. Pinotage is working well and so is the Milky Eagle Owl who is very We have one baby Tawny Eagle and interesting to watch fly, with huge two baby Steller’s, we are going to wings. Karis is out and flying end up with a flock!. The African brilliantly the Yellow-billed Kites, Fish Eagles laid, and the egg was and Brahminy Kites are still to fertile, but we failed on that one. come and Ruby is back on duty. So there will be plenty of new birds Cremorne is grounded to give space to the Steller’s, who is getting spectacular as is Delectable now she is gaining confidence.
The Verreaux’s Eagles have laid, both pairs, although the old pair only lay one egg now, which is not surprising. And to our joy the Grey Buzzard Eagles are mating, we put a new female in with our old male last year, and its done the trick! The Sakers are on eggs and one pair of Lanners, things are definitely looking up this year, and we are getting back to the sort of breeding that we should be doing. We also have a pair of Merlins together thanks to good friends who have helped. I would love to breed Merlins again. We plan on adding a Great Grey Owl to the owl team, which will make great owl evenings in the winter. We have had to ground Bramley who refuses to fly with wild Buzzards in the air and right now the air is full of them. Hemp has laid three eggs again so she is now off duty until September, and Cool
Ground has stopped as well as it has been getting warmer. Both he and Hemp are better as winter birds. Lastly Eager is flying very well for the visitors, although he still refuses to fly for me!
Closed and nothing to do! I wish! One day there will be a closed season where we actually do have nothing to do except maintain the birds, that will be a treat! However as usual we had things to do in the closed months this winter. I could not get the loos to smell clean, no matter how clean they were, we even had them steam cleaned and that was a waste of money, we also had problems with leaks, not surprisingly in the frosts we had this year. So we stripped out the whole thing down to the outside cladding, well Mark and Adam and Simon did with lots of help. All the plumbing went, and we replaced everything except the wash basins which were in good condition anyway. Now it has a perfectly delicious Stainless Steel Urinal! Please aim correctly those of you who use one, and a new lining on the walls and it smells fresh and clean - hooray! Of course thanks to the perishing Bald Eagle it was not ready in time to open on February 1st, but it is done now and looks good.
Charlie came down and put up a new ceiling in the shop which makes a huge difference and Richard changed all the lights so the shop is nearly done, just a few things to finish there and it really does look nice now. Jan and Angela and Linda and I went to the Spring Fair at the NEC and got a whole load of new stock, which I have to say is OK, especially the toy vultures! Mark put a low brick wall at base of the cafe, where the water had rotted the timber and that looks great, he also put an opening window in the cafe for Angela when it gets hot in there. Robin is working on the new Owl Maze in the children's play area, it is
going to look very cool. Adam has done a stand off barrier for Delectable, and is working on the wood now. Holly has the unenviable task of getting all the paperwork up to scratch, which is not a fun job. The spring is here, summer is coming and we are never short of things to do!
The Dogs We are down to only four, and only three are labs, that is the lowest number I have had for a very long time, and it feels all wrong. Acer who is a working strain Labrador started to wander over the Christmas period and it slowly got worse and worse, we never knew where she was and she was very upset when we found her. So I knew with lambing coming up and her taking Sedge and once Sorrel with her, that I had to do something. Very kindly Richard Hayes Hall said he would try her out as a gun dog, and hey presto, she turns out to be potentially very good, not surprisingly and loved being with him and his other dogs, so that problem was resolved well for her sake, and we hope Richards! On a sadder note Nettle died, she was twelve years old and I never seem to manage to keep any of them longer than that. She had a great life, but nevertheless it was a big shock to take her to our vet for a check up and come home with a dead dog. It was the dreaded cancer of course. She lies buried in the wood with the other dogs, and I hope they are all having fun in a dog heaven somewhere, it should happen!
Events for the Spring and Summer So what is planned for this year, well Easter is late, but we are going to run our Easter Egg hunt again this year, which was popular with the children last year, although I hope that there will be no parents cheating this time!!
We thought we should do some fun evening events this summer. Start at 6.30pm, a guided tour of some of the birds, then a barbeque, followed by the owls as the light fades at the end of the evening. A sort of crepuscular evening!
Let me know if you are interested in this sort of an evening and we will get going on the organising.