WWW.ICBP.ORG MARCH 2012

NEWSLETTERNumber 13

Note from the Director

Thank goodness the forecast long cold winternever materialised, and we were very relieved,the only seriously cold day we had was February11th, on our Valentines Owl Evening when it wasbitterly cold, it made for a magical evening, butwent down to -9 C which caused us a fewproblems. We had new heaters in the Hawk Walkand each compartment was fully insulatedincluding the floor which was quite anundertaking, but still we got two cases of wing tipoedema. We think both birds will pull through withtheir wing tips, but we are going to rethink theheating.

I did what I usually do - stand and look at theproblem physically, and I think the mistake I madewas to design the heating round the perches, andin fact it should have been the other way round.This time we are going to design the perchesround the heating and I think it will work.

Otherwise the winter went and Spring is here withus. The wild Daffodils are out, the wood looksamazing, it has been cleared, we are in the throwsof raking the whole thing now, the trees have beenthinned out so the remaining ones will do better.The hedge has been laid, and we cut down thehuge hedge at the bottom of the field, I was goingto have it laid as well, but it was too old, so wefelled it and it will re grow and then be laid in afew years, when it will look stunning, and give usthe more open view that we have now.

The breeding season is upon us with its usual upsand downs, breeding birds is not fun whateveranyone says, you get all excited because youhave eggs and then desperately disappointedbecause they fail, you get all excited because theyhatch and then miserable because the chicks donot survive, its a roller coaster and not fun at allwhile it is happening, Its OK afterwards though!

We are up to six dogs again, although the newesttwo were not really planned, but very much lovedand very welcome, and I have a new horse whois perfect, although he is probably better than Ineed, but I think he is great.

We are open again, the birds are flying well, theplace is looking great and it is our 45thanniversary year! We have a Royal Visit on May15th when we will be closed for the day, so don’tcome then! Plus other special events, see insidefor these.

Autumn came and went and wasbeautiful. The forecast bitter Winter,

never came

NEW WALK IN FREEZERA while ago our very old freezer died, so for thelast two years we have coped with chestfreezers, and it did not work. They take up ahuge amount of room and do not hold enoughfood for us to have a back up. So I went to oneof the very good friends of the Centre, we havesome very special ones, and asked him if hecould help us. And he did, Bless him!

So work started, after the last five day coursein December we moved all the freezers out intovarious places still running and took down allbar the roof of the freezer shed, and replacedthe external walls, insulated the whole thing,lined the inside and painted, Richard did theelectrics and the freezer arrived, it was in in aday and although we had a couple of blips justbefore Christmas, it has been a joy to have awalk in freezer again.

It also meant that had the dreadful winterarrived, we would have a backup supply of foodfor the birds, which is crucial. We kept two ofthe chest freezers and sold the other four andput the money in the new Bird Hospital Fundwhich we have started and which we areplanning to have raised £45,000 by the end ofthe year!

DANNY’S WOODThe wood to the right hand side of the field was planted many yearsago and has desperately needed thinning for some time now, soDavid Kenworthy and his brother started to come in and cut andclear, he is having the timber for doing it, and there is a bit of it.The wood is now almost clear, just a few trees to sort out in thehedge, and a couple of Willow’s that have to be pollarded, but it hasmade a huge difference and the remaining trees will do very muchbetter now. This was the only snow we had this winter!

At about the same time and to improvethe view from the flying ground, andopen up the field which was beginningto feel a little hemmed in, Nathan’sDad, Dave laid the hedge between thewood and Green Farm, and Richard whowanted the timber cut down most ofthe trees in the bottom hedge betweenus and Boulsdon Croft. I wanted to layit, but it was too big, so we cut most of it down, it will sprout atthe bottom and in a few years we will lay it and it will look stunningbecause the one Dave did in the wood does!

NEW BIRDS ARRIVE AND SPRING IS HEREWe were lucky enough after some effort with the King Vulture Stud book to find a mate for our lonely King vulture, he arrived along with two young White-tailed Sea-eagles in December. Our King vultureseemed pleased to have company again, as indeed was out Turkey Vulture who now has a new wife. I don’t like the birds that can have mates to be alone, so it is nice to know they are both paired up again.I wish I could find a mate for our Lappet-faced Vulture, that would be wonderful. However we also have a new arrival on loan in the form of a Eurasian Black Vulture female and I think I can get a mate forher by the end of the year, and she has laid eggs before, so that would be great. Of course the breeding season is here and we are delighted that so far we have three baby Indian Tawny Eagles, one beingreared by the African Fish Eagles who did lay a fertile egg, but we lost it, however knowing they will rear is a huge bonus. The other two will be reared probably by the Steppe Eagles and the Steppes by aGolden Eagle belonging to a friend of ours, as it is good for her to have young before she gets her new mate. The Steller’s have two babies and the pair of Grey Buzzard Eagles, also on loan to us have twobabies which they are rearing, which is wonderful. Various falcons have eggs, we have one Griffon Vulture egg, and so the breeding season goes on apace. The owls are also breeding and we have oneSavigny’s Eagle Owl, with lots more babies still to come, including we hope the Tawny Owls as it would be lovely to have one to fly here again since Mugwort died three years ago.

We were lucky enough after some effort with the King Vulture Stud book to find a mate for our lonely King vulture, he arrived along with two young White-tailed Sea-eagles in December. Our King vultureseemed pleased to have company again, as indeed was out Turkey Vulture who now has a new wife. I don’t like the birds that can have mates to be alone, so it is nice to know they are both paired up again.I wish I could find a mate for our Lappet-faced Vulture, that would be wonderful. However we also have a new arrival on loan in the form of a Eurasian Black Vulture female and I think I can get a mate forher by the end of the year, and she has laid eggs before, so that would be great. Of course the breeding season is here and we are delighted that so far we have three baby Indian Tawny Eagles, one beingreared by the African Fish Eagles who did lay a fertile egg, but we lost it, however knowing they will rear is a huge bonus. The other two will be reared probably by the Steppe Eagles and the Steppes by aGolden Eagle belonging to a friend of ours, as it is good for her to have young before she gets her new mate. The Steller’s have two babies and the pair of Grey Buzzard Eagles, also on loan to us have twobabies which they are rearing, which is wonderful. Various falcons have eggs, we have one Griffon Vulture egg, and so the breeding season goes on apace. The owls are also breeding and we have oneSavigny’s Eagle Owl, with lots more babies still to come, including we hope the Tawny Owls as it would be lovely to have one to fly here again since Mugwort died three years ago.

I-ZONE!Our education room was done20 years ago, and actually hasheld up really well and theinformation is still relevanttoday, however the time hascome………..!

So with the able design ideas and talents of Angie Davis (whom I have knownsince she was a child!) who runs Pinkfrog Creative, and Robin and Michelethe plans started.

Mark and Robin have just about finished working on the ceiling, which wehave altered and covered, and it looks much nicer. All the old stuff has beentaken down apart from our migration map, and the walls have been painted,guess what - Magnolia!!! The outside has be tidies up and the timber re-stained so it is starting to look good. Next Robin is going to build the variouscases, we have all been involved in choosing the banners and Robin has donethe text for each of the new information zones.

We aim to have it all finished by May 15th when we ARE CLOSED for our Royalcelebration for our 45th anniversary!

As well as the IZONE, a few other jobs have been done. Adam did a great jobon a major refurbish of the Pavillon so now if you want any information oncourses etc, or you want to know about the Art courses that he runs, or seea couple of his paintings, there is the place to go and look.

We took out the twisted hazels at the top of the HawkWalk, they had got too big and people could seenothing past them, and extended the two middlelawns, one with sand to stop the kites from ruining thelawns and the other with grass, it is looking goodalready. We changed the angle of the roof on the oldstables so that we could get all the machinery inside.Holly did a wonderful fund raising board for the newhospital for wild injured birds and we already haveover £6000 towards the £45000 that we are aiming for.She also went to a zoo conference and saw asponsorship tree - and we now have one! We also have some life sizedsilhouettes on the outside of Mozart’s aviary which people are very muchenjoying.

I sometimes wonder how we get done all we achieve, bearing in mind thatwe are also dealing with our visitors, courses, experience and photographydays, training and flying birds, keeping the aviaries clean, dealing withpaperwork, government consultations, endlessemails wanting this and that, the breeding season,dogs, horses, and still staying sane - just about!