THE NATIONAL BIRDS OF PREY CENTRE NEWSLETTER No 3. JUNE 1998 Editor.
Jemima Parry-Jones Director. The National Birds of Prey Centre, Newent, Glos. Gl18 1JJ, UK. Tel. 01531 821581,or 829286 International ++44 1531 821581. Email
jpj@nbpc.demon.co.uk
Web site http://www.nbpc.co.uk
BETTER START TO THE YEAR
THE BREEDING SEASON
I have to say that I have rarely been more pleased to see the back of a year, than to finish with 1997. However at the end of it things did look up and we ended the year with two baby African Fish Eagles and five Bengal Eagle Owls. I suppose to be really honest they were the first of this year, rather than the last of last year! But whatever, it did cheer us all up a great deal.
Well its been a far better one than last year – thank goodness. I don’t know what we will end up with because as I write there are about nine eggs hatching and more to come. But I hope you saw the news about our first baby Golden Eagle – 31 years in the making, produced by Artificial Insemination, hatched like it had a chain saw inside the egg and so far doing well.
NOTE TO MEMEBERS
We got some really nice publicity just before the May 5th Bank holiday. We also have two fully fledged African Fish Eagles, we should have had four but two of the babies died of lead poisoning at five weeks old which was devastating. The Bald Eagles have two young back with them. The Tawny Eagles – the old pair have reared
Once we decide on a date, time and theme for any special events for the members, take it for granted that they will be going to happen unless we contact you otherwise. Because at the moment we do not have a huge membership, we will not contact you to confirm bookings unless there is a problem. To do so is expensive, time consuming and doesn’t use funds wisely. If you do want to check that any correspondence has got here, or those events are going as planned, either email me, or give us a ring.
THREE MORE PENS!! During the early part of this year we completed three small baby type pens at the top of the Hawk Walk. They had been planned once the new top side was completed – I seem to be unable to have a bare walk without either planting something against it, or building something on it. The new pens were immediately filled, the baby Bengal Eagle Owls went in there right now, plus a Kite for moulting and a Kestrel called Moth that I am flying. The aviary situation is reaching critical mass at the moment. We desperately need to build some more, but have nowhere to put them and no funds right now to build them. So I am looking ‘again’ at turning charitable, it will be so much easier to fund raise and get extra funding than it is right now.
one African Fish Eagle and now are looking after a Verreaux Eagle baby, bless them. Athena and Hemlock the two young Tawny Eagles have a baby – which is great after Athena badly broke her wing last year and we were not sure she was going to pull through at one point. In fact she died on the operating table three times, with me nearly in hot pursuit! Bollinger’s mum died two days ago which was sad, but the Spectacled Owls have two babies in the brooder room right now and they make our 52nd species, the young will go back with them fairly soon. So as you can see, things are looking up in that respect. All the efforts and changes in the incubator room have paid off.
THANKS TO YOU
NEW SCHOOLS PACK
Due to an article in a Barclaycard Hi Flyers magazine in December, the Falconry Experience Days have literally taken off! Consequently using the large van for the birds and my elderly Range Rover for the participants has several times left me with no car here, which can be risky. Also much as I love it the Range is a little past it’s sell by date. So we looked at our finances and managed, using the funds from the membership account, part exchanging the small van and coming up with a finance deal at only 6% to buy a really nice second-hand shooting brake Landrover. So we can now take the people, the staff and the birds all in one vehicle, and with one driver which is much better for us. The Landrover is very smart and I hope adds to the feel of the day
You have no idea how long I have been getting round to this one! In fact I was horrified when I went over the old one which I had done with a friend in the early ‘80’s. The English and the spelling were a nightmare. Still with the help of my computer and John’s wonderful cartoons the First and Lower Middle School one is done. Incidentally if any of you have children that you want to keep quiet for a few hours the pack has puzzles, colouring in pages, stories to write and heaven knows what else - it is well worth buying. I am now completing the one for upper middle schools and that has some wonderful illustrations by an art school student. Again thanks to a member we have 100 copies printed.
HOW ARE WE DOING? As I said – the breeding season is going well, I have two new staff whom you will meet over the year. We have made some changes in the café which have made many of the food items cheaper and added some new ideas. Sadly Mary, my café manager has just been offered a job that she really wants so she will be leaving at the end of this month. Finding someone new at this time is going to be difficult.
OUR WEBSITE I have to say that we really do have some very special members amongst you.
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If you trot along to our Website, those of your with computers,
We had a great February, we did really well thanks to wonderful early weather. March was not bad, April I have to say has been an unmitigated disaster. We were £5000 down at Easter and the rest of the month has been rain, rain and more bloody rain, I am told by the weather men that it has been the wettest April since 1818 – well ho-bloody-ray! Just keep your fingers crossed for a good summer, because things are looking pretty tight right now.
you will see that it has been set up by a member.
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New signs for the Hawk Walk that I have been trying to organise since last year have been majorly funded and organised by another member.
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My computers are now networked and mostly behaving (!) Plus
THE YEAR SO FAR 1998 – So far this year………… •
Filmed with a Kestrel and Falcon for the BBC Really Wild Show, Mark Parker had to dress up!
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Started the filming for Performance Films, the hour long programme on British birds of prey, directed by Jemima. This will continue for the next 18 months.
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The Falconry Experience Days are very, very popular. Thank goodness!
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John and Bollinger, the Great Grey Owl visited Newent School for a talk on “feathers & flight”.
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The Courses for Police Wildlife Liaison Officers started again, and will run for the rest of the year.
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Filming in our studio with Wilde, the Bald Eagle for Greek Telecom, the film company was called X-rated Films!
Sarah and I now have a new portable computer which we are both using -thanks to a member.
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A CD with photos of the owls is in planning as are some special prints.
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And work at the Centre such donating prizes and selling raffle tickets
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Also helping with the car parking and gardening.
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Plus some printing work on some of our leaflets;
All this has been mainly achieved by members. As I am not sure if all those who have helped want to be named I have not done so. But I do thank you all very much, because much of what you have done for us I would not have been able to get round to doing for some considerable time.
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Larry Pillard, Managing Director of Tate & Lyle visited Jemima to discuss a Barn Owl release project in the United States.
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All the staff (well nearly all!) went to the Country March in London to support falconry.
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We have had nearly 200 people join as Members of the National Birds of Prey Centre, this year.
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Denis Salvador from the Philippine Eagle Foundation stayed at the Centre for a week to discuss captive breeding and endangered species.
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Mugwort the Tawny Owl opened the Veterinary Conference at the NEC, Birmingham.
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Filming again for the second series of ITV Noah’s Ark.
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Lots of babies hatch before Easter and the Centre is shown Central Television News.
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Jemima and Mark did a flying demonstration with Falcons, Harris Hawks and an Eagle for Gloucester Rugby Club at Kingsholm before the match, that was fun!
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Started filming a new Owls Video.
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On the 27th April a Golden Eagle hatched and this new arrival is the 51st species bred at the Centre!
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JPJ to the Zoo Federation AGM at Chester Zoo
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Two Spectacled Owls hatch – 52 species
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Hen Harrier comes to stay and be trained for film
NEWS FROM ABROAD A Forest Owlet – Athene blewitti – which is a relation of our Little Owl, has been rediscovered in India. It was first found in 1872, but not seen again after 1884 until November 25th 1997. You would be very surprised at how many species of owls are described from only seeing one specimen years ago!
Also in late 1997 the first Egyptian Vulture was born to a captive pair in South Africa. The Vulture Study Group have two pairs for breeding as the Egyptian Vulture has not bred in Southern Africa since the 1926. Now they have had their first success let us hope they have many more. This young bird is unlikely to be released as it would be a little lonely – It will probably be used for further captive breeding.
SPONSORSHIP OF BIRDS
A number of our members have sponsored birds here at the Centre. This works quite well for us and hopefully interests the people who ‘take on’ the birds. We used to do it here years ago and I let it slip, but now thanks to encouragement by Ashley from The Hawk Conservancy and Sarah Jane, my assistant, we have reinstated it. You can either sponsor an aviary bird – i.e. one of the breeding team or go for one of the flying birds – known as personality birds. If you are interested let Sarah or me know and we can send you the form. It does make quite a good present for people, but then so does a Falconry Experience day or a membership!
In Italy Simone Scoccianti who spent some time at NBPC also managed to breed an Egyptian Vulture in the WWF captive breeding program. We did partake in the set up of this program and we are delighted to see it start to work.
The Mauritius Kestrel once thought to be down to only four birds has topped 540 in the wild – the best count this century. All this has been achieved by a captive breeding and release programme.
In one area in Spain the Spanish Imperial Eagle population has dropped from ten known pairs down to only one. This eagle, which
looks very similar to our Golden Eagle, but with much more white feathering, has been declining for some time. Viral Hemorrhagic Rabbit Disease (VHD) a new killer rabbit illness has swept through Spain in the last four years and brought the rabbit to an all time low – this in turn has affected the Imperial Eagle. Add poisoning to the problem and the Spanish Imperial is now a highly threatened bird.
The Californian Condor, the most endangered species of vulture in the world which dropped to only 17 individuals left have now been bred at LA Zoo, San Diego Zoo and at The Peregrine Fund in Boise Idaho over the last decade. Recently 15 birds were released into the Vermilion Cliffs in northern Arizona. The previous release site was not very successful as California is very much more populated. Imagine in years to come, visiting the Grand Canyon and seeing the Condor flying below you in stunning scenery
FIRST POLICE WILDLIFE LIAISON OFFICERS COURSE
Warwickshire Police has just run their own week long course for PWLO’s. Mark and myself went up with a couple of birds to give a talk. Although we are running the two day handling courses, this one covered the whole gambit of work from badger bating through to illegal poisoning. Our own course is now getting accepted by the police and they even kindly gave us an old Riot Shield and Helmet to use when we go into the aviaries with the more difficult birds. One such is the African Fish Eagle who has managed to put five staff down to the doctors needing stitches – she is not very nice
CONFERENCES Some of you may know that I usually attend one or two conferences per year. I went off at the end of last week to Chester Zoo for the Zoo Federation conference and AGM. I am the Taxon Advisory Group Chair for diurnal birds of prey and so have to be at the first two days, although I usually skive off the last morning. I am also going to a very large raptor conference in South Africa in August. Its really bad timing for us being our busiest month, but at least the breeding season will be over and done with. It is run by the World Working Group for Birds of Prey and Owls. This group only meet about every five years. The conference is six days and there are various excursions before and afterwards, however I don’t to on the excursions.
THE PAVILION For ages I have wanted a small selling point in the field. Often people are waiting down there for up to half an hour, sitting in the sun before the flying demonstrations and so when Walls Ice-cream came up with a five year plan, my brain kicked into gear and I got a good deal from them. They were going to rent me a shed that they have for their customers to use, but it is a shed, it looks like a shed and I did not want it spoiling my flying ground. So on asking them how much they paid to have the sheds built in the first place, I suggested that if I could build something much nicer for the same money, that perhaps they would like to help. The planning permission is now through, and I have ordered the building, which is going to be about three weeks to delivery, with a week to put it up. So if you visit in mid June you should see something much nicer than a shed! It will be called the Pavilion and many thanks go to Walls Ice-cream for all their help. Now all we need is some bloody sun!
I am the International Convenor for a workshop on legal and illegal trade in birds of prey. I am just waiting for a whole load of figures to arrive from CITES to analyse on what trade and movement there has been over the last three years. I am also a signatory for the IUCN Conservation Action Management Plan for diurnal raptors (called the CAMP) and have a survey to complete for them, plus two articles for the workshop book that will be completed and got out to all government offices worldwide. So as you can see I will be a little busy. I am hoping to get the chance to see some vultures while I am down there – but it will depend on free time and I don’t think I am going to have very much.
JAPAN Last September a friend of mine brought over a chap from Japan who is starting and running a Centre over in Japan to teach people how to care for and treat domestic animals. These don’t always get as well looked after as they might be. It will be an animal park for dogs, cats, horses and the like. They approached us to put on demonstrations of falconry there. I
put in a quote to either train one of their staff over here for several months or to send a team over to Japan for a limited period to get things up and running and see how flying demonstrations would go down with a Japanese audience. I am very pleased to say that we got the contract and I, plus John Crooks and Mark Rich are flying out to Japan in late September. The team of seven birds will follow a few days later so we can check the facilities are OK for them before they arrive. I We will then get the demonstration up and running and after just over a week, then I fly back and leave John and Mark to give two demonstrations per day for six weeks. They finish on November 4th, when the birds will be flown back here and John and Mark will fly back via Australia having had a couple of weeks down under to recover before coming back to work. It should be an exciting project for us.
END NOTES I am delighted to announce that Lupin got officially married to a really nice Black Labrador called Rush, and the puppies are due of May 30th all being well., she is looking very fat! Mark Parker is also going to be a father again. He and Kirsty are expecting a child in October this year. It is unlikely they will have as many as Lupin who will hopefully produce at least six, maybe more! The gardens are starting to look good for this year although the late frost has caused some damage. The tree arbour which we planted last August is just coming out in leaf now and the climbing plants in the new Hawk Walk are showing great promise. The Golden Eagle Montana, nearly wrote off the young Indian Horse Chestnut tree in the Hawk Walk, but it was rescued and planted in the field. Montana has gone up to Fort William to a friend to be retrained and flown in bonnie Scotland. The next Newsletter will come out in December in time to remind you to renew your subscriptions. It will hopefully give you stacks more news on what has happened here between May and December which will be lots I am sure! I would like to put in some members letters, so if you feel like writing and getting into print, start sending – you can do it via the email if you like, but don’t send photos as it really clogs up the system. Keep any letters and suggestions fairly short please, and don’t forget the membership has to be of benefit to the Centre as well as to you! I hope you all have a wonderful summer and we will see you soon.
SUMMER BARBECUE -NIGHT WITH THE STARS! August 22nd come rain or shine at 6.30pm. Flying demonstration with birds who have started on TV or films! Possibly human star or two as well. Barbecue with grub – please help out by bringing a bottle of whatever you hope to drink – preferably wine! Members £5.00 and members guests £10.00
NEW NEW BOOK! You will have heard from Sarah about the Understanding Owls book which I have finally finished with all the editing, correcting etc. and I have to say I am pretty pleased with it. Well I have also slipped another book in while no one was looking! I was asked by Kingdom books to do a book on owls for children. I did not really want to do it as I do not want to encourage children to keep owls. However if I had not done it, the publishers would probably have found someone else so I have written it. It is to be called The Really Useful Owl Guide, as far as I know. It is illustrated with cartoons – by their own artist and I am waiting to hear from them that the text is OK – It was really impressive wages - £250 for 12000 words!!!! I am hoping that it is due out for Christmas.
CHRISTMAS DO FOR MEMBERS December 11th - 1.00 for members and guests. The will be closed to the general public, as that day is set aside for the members and guest only. £4.00 for members and £6.00 for guests. 1.30 there will be a flying demonstration – hopefully the new Golden Eagle will be at least partially trained and on view. Followed by – “TIME TO CHRISTMAS SHOP AT THE CENTRE!!!” The new children’s owl book should be out by then and I will sign copies. We have some nice stuff in the shop now – excellent Christmas presents and with entertainment and no problem with parking – how can you resist! At 3.00 there will be a lecture on something - I have no idea what as yet! – with hot chocolate or tea or coffee and mince pies. At 5.00 – home made Christmas soup and a roll, followed by an owl or two flying outside and leaving for home by 6.30.
Please fill in the following and return to us, to give us an idea of numbers. I will be attending on August 22nd and will be bringing…………..guests I will be attending on December 11th and will be bringing ……….guests I enclose a cheque/Credit/debit card number for the following amount……………. Card Number…………………. Expiry Date…………………… Tel number (if we have problems!)…………………………..