National Birds of Prey Centre
NEWSLETTER Photos Duncan Jennings
December 2003, Number 18 December and nearly the end of the year, the trees are bare now, and I arrived back from a short trip to the US to a very wet and windy Sunday. However we have just gone through one of the loveliest autumns I can remember, with dry sunny days and memorable leaf colour. BLACK VELVET IN FLIGHT
As you can imagine it is a huge blow to me personally as I have lost the sale of the house and centre. Having to now face running it for another ten months without the plans to do so, or the finances in place. So we are continuing with the project in the US, the building is progressing as I write, as are all other aspects, but moving the birds is delayed until November. However much is actually ready for the birds to move in terms of paperwork and so we will not be so bogged down with that next year, which is a good thing as I think I am going to be out in the Centre more than usual. The export permits are through, bar a couple of them, the import permits are being worked on, the enclosures are hopefully in process. John Temperly from Health and Hygiene has donated enough F10 disinfectant to get all the birds safely through quarantine which will keep infection and stress related disease at bay. We hope that BP Amoco who had so kindly donated the warehouse to quarantine the birds, will be able to allow us to use it in November. RL FLO-MASTER have incredibly kindly donated some fogging machines for us to use in the quarantine, which regardless of the delay will be crucial for the health of the birds and we thank them enormously and
This is a difficult newsletter for me to write because I had anticipated moving to the US at the end of January and handing over the Centre to the potential new owners, but we are now having to delay, and sadly we are not able to have a short delay. Because of circumstances and the weather in the South East of the US, we either have to move early in the year or late in the year.
PEBBLE, WHO JUST JOINED US, AND GORGIOUS AUTUMN COLOUR—WHICH YOU CAN’T SEE!
So why the delay? The move having been a little fluid anyway, was finally settled at the end of January. But we have now had to postpone until November 2004 and it was not an easy decision. We have recently been advised by four internationally known veterinarians that because of problems with West Nile Virus, vaccine availability, and weather constraints, that we would be risking up to 60% or more of the collection to West Nile by moving at that time. Jim and I have had long and painful discussions about what to do. This means that if we did go ahead and move at the end of January as planned we would be flying in the face of strong advice from vets to delay. Also I have to add, nothing is ready over there.
hope that they and John will come to our opening of the new Centre in early 2005. I have hundreds of bloody boxes in the workshop and about 30% of my clothes now overseas.
To those of you who have so kindly come and said goodbye and those who have given me farewell presents, please accept my apologies for this delay. But the birds health and welfare have to come first. You can always pretend I have gone, and not come in, however what I would really like to do is to see you all next year, we will need all the support we can get. And as the date is finally fixed for early November we should have a farewell party to go this time. So I will be looking for volunteers to organise it! Have a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all of you.
A number of new falcons are here, I got in four new falcons to go with us. One is a beautiful black hybrid falcon called Black Velvet—you will have gathered by now that the theme this year for names is Whiskey. I have to say I did not know that there were so many whiskeys in the world, the choice was endless. Two new and unrelated Lanners and a Merlin called Dimple There are three new Harris Hawks on the working course team all doing well and generally we are very pleased with how all the new birds are settling in.
US Trips
Jemima
NEW BIRDS THIS YEAR. As usual we have added new birds to the flying team, this is done every year, partially as some birds each year leave the team, sometimes to go on to breeding sometimes because they are just not quite good enough, or very occasionally they are not happy doing demonstration and so we find them a private home where they will be content. This year has been slightly different because of the impending move. I chose three owls to hand rear and take with us as many of the trained owls are staying here. Talisker is a European Eagle owl who has done really well and is happily doing owl evenings now we are closed. Northern Lights and Tobermory who are a Hawk Owl and a White-faced Scops Owl flew well through the summer and as we wanted the owls that were staying to do the owl evenings, we grounded these two after we closed to get them fat and happy for the move. We have a wonderful new eagle - Lammerlaw who is an African Fish Eagle, She is doing very well and is a charming person with tremendous personality, although not now enjoying the more usual damp English winter that has finally arrived. Eagles need environmental lift to fly well and it is not here to help her.
These amount to two trips recently, one in September and one in November, both to work on plans and tasks towards the new Centre. The architects have the enclosure designs and the new Hawk Walk now complete and building has started on the first enclosure. A contractor firm is coming in to build them, so unlike how Jim and I have always built in the past—in our own time, with a couple of builders and much personal input, these will be done professionally and quickly. The site is looking wonderful and we are working to make it as natural and unspoilt as we can while we build. Jim phoned me and said that he had been concerned once clearing started that it would look awful, but he was delighted and said it looked like the enclosures belonged there. I am looking for-
ward to starting to do some planting too as I will miss this garden greatly. BP Amoco have cleared the building for the quarantine for us. The delay may mean that we lose this opportunity and have to look elsewhere, but we hope that BP will forgive us, as our reasons for delay are for the birds. It would be great to have an ongoing relationship with them as they are a UK/US company and our merger is the same combination.
Moving the Birds As I said this is proving to be a difficult newsletter to write as I am having to change so much now the move has been delayed. But many people have and probably still will ask us how we are moving the birds. Actually I would have thought that it was fairly obvious that they have to go by plane!! I have needless to say had suggestions about training them to follow under their own steam, however I think that is probably out of their and my reach. We have started to build the boxes as you will see by the photo. There has been a tremendous amount of things to undo this end. Apart from losing the sale and having to tell the staff, plus dealing with the next ten months financially, we have had to contact Defra who were doing all the CITES export permits and put them on hold—they will have to be re-applied for later in the year as they are only valid for six months. MAFF (I know they are Defra too, but its too complicated for me!) had agreed to issue individual health certificates for each bird and even offered to help with the administration on the moving day, which was incredibly kind of them. I hope that will hold. Those licenses are on hold. I have contacted USFWS for the CITES import permits and USDA for the quarantine, to inform them of the delay. There are many business things we have to do, we have no leaflets for next year or guidebooks, the shop is devoid of stuff, we cancelled some services as of the end of Jan—the more I think of it all the more depressed I get!!! However the box team and I had a discussion and we decided to go ahead and finish the boxes, although more slowly. So any minute now we are going to start treating the timber so it is waterproof and then store them all on shelving that we are building this weekend in the workshop. They will be sprayed with F10 on a monthly basis to keep them from building up any fungal spores or bacteria. And we will not put the carpet in until close to the move. The plane to get the birds there is now postponed and perhaps if the war in the Middle East is over by then, we can get help from one of the two air forces, which would be nice. I would like to thank Richard, Simon, Mick and Nathan, who have spent many very cold evenings in my workshop building boxes, that I promise will not be time wasted, but instead just delayed Hello and Goodbye…………..to Richard Jones I had already written an article telling you all about Richard Jones the vet due to come with us, welcoming him to the ranks, sadly this now has to be a hello and goodbye item. Richard joined us on November 3rd, in the run up to the proposed move. He came to work with the birds, prior to the move, give them all a check over, highlight and treat any problems and generally get us all up to speed for the move. Sadly because of various circumstances, and the delay in going, he has decided that it is not possible for him to come and join us in SC when we finally do move. This is totally understandable, he could hardly hold his career in abeyance for any longer and so we wish him and Jo well, hope that he gets the job of his dreams and have told him to remember that the door remains open!! As Sparrowhawks are his most favourite bird, Tanglefoot is pictured to wish him luck, and we will all miss him.
WEST NILE VIRUS - WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT AND WHY IS ITS EXISTENCE IMPORTANT West Nile Virus is a mosquito borne flavivirus, which has been spreading across the US over the last 3 years. It has caused massive die offs (thousands) in corvids and raptors as well as other species, whilst certain song birds can be infected but not killed by it and as such act as a reservoir for the spread of further infection. Effected birds are presented with tremors, seizures, disorientation, reduced appetite, weight loss, difficulty swallowing, shutting eyes, feather loss and green faeces. The disease not only effects birds but is also potentially fatal in horses and man. In USA a commercial vaccine (developed for horses), is available although its efficacy and safety is not certain in all raptor species. The best assessment given by Professor Pat Redig from the Raptor Centre (University of Minnesota), is that this vaccine reduced the level of mortality by 40%, i.e. 60% of infected raptors would still die. However in the interim Dr Patti Bright of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, using genetic engineering has developed a a research 'virus sub unit' vaccine. This form of vaccine is very much safer and more effective than the previous one - however it is sadly not only unavailable commercially, but is also not even available on a trial basis (at present). As NBPC veterinary advisor, I sought opinion from Professors Ritchie, Redig and Dr Bright, whose opinion was universally that we should delay the emigration of NBPC for 12 months if at all possible. The rationale being, that the disease might have burnt itself out by then, and if not the safer and more effective trial vaccine should be available by then. As a last ditch attempt we considered importing the existing horse vaccine from the USA, to at least get some protection, but this was impossible for legal reasons. To get maximum protection using this vaccine it must be administered three times at 3-4 week intervals. The last option open to us was to export the birds and then vaccinate them on arrival in the US, during their quarantine period, ie prior to the mosquito season. This plan would have been risky but possibly feasible, until the time line drifted, such that even vaccination on arrival would mean the birds would not be fully protected before the main mosquito risk season was well under way. Whilst we appreciate it is a great blow to Mima, Jim and all those involved in the plans for emigration, the conclusion was that the world's most important and prestigious raptor collection, is just too important in conservation terms to take the degree of risk which we were faced with. As a result, the joint decision of all those involved has tragically been to delay the move until the autumn of 2004. Sad and very difficult though this is, I have no doubt we are acting in the best interests of the collection as a whole. Neil Forbes FRCVS
Staff changes Along with bird changes and additions there have been staff changes as well Again because of the impending move some staff have already moved on and others were coming. Charlotte Hill left at the end of October but comes back in regularly to help with owl evenings. Emmeline our French member of the team left also at the end of October, she was coming back, but is now not able to. We have a work experience student from Massachusetts who joined us in September, Sarah is a workaholic and one of the most enthusiastic people I have met, she works very hard and is a valued member of the team now, I am rather hoping that she might join us in the US sometime in the future. Liz who has volunteered for some time now and you will have seen her helping with demonstrations with the vultures and the owls has been here through much of the year and again was joining the team once I do left, but is not able to now.
looking forward to the changes.
Owl Evenings We have run these as usual for November and December and as usual they have been very popular. We reduced the numbers at each one this year and that has made it less crowded in the education room. The birds have been flying well and the fire in the ed room has been behaving, although there have
I must never forget those volunteers that have been so faithful throughout the year and without whom we would find things a great deal harder. The rest of the staff have said they will stay on, it is of course just as hard for them, because the future is uncertain now, where before the delay they were
not been many cold nights. The last one it was damp and 15C which was very warm. We will be doing at least one weekend in February around valentines day. I may be in India at that time, but I am not sure at this point. So book early to get a place on one of these.
Award………… In early November I went to the Federation of Zoos Awards ceremony, it was held at Bristol Zoo and we had a great lunch there, and I probably should not have driven home. I was pleased and delighted and touched to receive an ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ in service to the Zoo Community. As if that were not enough, the Federation members then presented me with the most beautiful and enormous book—Goulds The Birds of Great Britain, Volume 1, which is a stunning book with the most amazing illustrations of birds of prey. I now feel that of course I should save up for the rest of them!!! But this one is a pleasure and a wonderful memory of my friends in the zoo world in the UK. Of course I feel like a fraud now the move is delayed for nearly a year, but I am hoping that they will forgive me……..
Volunteers
I had a headache by about 8pm that night………… however it was well worth it.
I know that I must have said a number of times that one of the things that attracted me to the South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey was and is their volunteers.
I know from what they have said since the news of the delay that they will be here with us this coming year as well and from the bottom of my heart I thank them for their time, patience and loyalty.
Although I do not have the numbers that they do, what we do not have in number we make up for in quality. And this year with myself and Annie supposedly leaving, the volunteers were even more special, and they made the last day of opening very special this October. After the last flying demonstration some of them, will all the staff that were here—office and café as well (!) came marching down to the flying ground, Mick had a large gin and tonic in his hand. He led myself and Anne back into the flying ground and made a lovely speech to the audience. Anne got her G and T as well and they then gave us both a bunch of flowers—it was a lovely moment and much appreciated by both of us. They also brought three bottles of champagne, which we proceeded to drink after work and
IT ONLY REMAINS FOR US ALL TO WISH ALL OF YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. WE HOPE TO SEE MANY OF YOU NEXT YEAR, AND DON’T FORGET—PARTY TIME SOMETIME IN OCTOBER FOR THE REAL AND FINAL GOODBYE! JPJ