I am often asked by visitors to the Trust, how long have you been at the Conservancy? It’s a scary thought when you sit and work out how much time has passed, and what changes you have seen since the start. I first visited in 1993, just for a quick visit after spending the morning at Cholderton Rare Breeds.

First contact

Like many visitors I thought a falconry centre would only have enough to entertain me for a few hours, and how wrong I was. I was instantly struck by the passion, care and willingness to share knowledge to anyone who was interested. I was enthralled by Reg’s commentary, and his wonderful way of saying just what everyone in the audience was thinking about rowdy children and rude adults. The flying displays were unlike anything else I had ever seen, and everyone on the staff was so friendly and welcoming. The following weekend I came back to see what I had missed on my first visit and I was hooked. Several more visits followed that year, and Christmas meant gifts of membership and a hawking day.

I used to visit the Conservancy every weekend, and when the opportunity arose for members to come on a working holiday I jumped at the chance. I had been given so much fun and enjoyment on my visits; it was great to be given the opportunity to give something back. However I almost changed my mind because being very shy, on my first day I sat in the car park for 30 minutes trying to pluck up the courage to come in. I often wonder what would have happened if I had started the car and driven off, but I didn’t and with a deep breath I came in. Immediately I was welcomed as an old friend, and quickly set work to do!! Nothing changes.

Scrubbing out the pond

One of my first jobs was to help staff catch the Black Swans on the pond that were going to another collection. Several attempts had been made, but the birds just sat out of reach in the middle of the pond. So off came the shoes and socks, trousers rolled up and I paddled out into the middle to chase them out. I have always been someone who mucks in, and had been brought up to work hard giving everything you do 110% and at the end of the week that attitude seemed to be appreciated when I was asked if I would like to come back as a volunteer. They probably wished they had not said that as I was here every weekend, Bank Holiday and a week’s holiday every year. I have to say over the years I don’t think there is anything I have not done at the park (Except commentaries!!! Never in a million years) from my regular Bank Holiday Monday jobs of car parking, toilet cleaning and drain unblocking to being in charge of the Conservancy’s own mouse farm when Ashley complained about the price of mice and decided we would breed our own. This didn’t last long as no one had the heart to kill them, and there were often notes on the pretty ones cages asking for them to be saved.

For many years Jane and I were the Trust’s nest builders, and every spring many happy hours would be spent mixing just the right consistency of sand and sawdust to make a scrape and threading branches through old breadbaskets. Some of my happiest times were scrubbing s**** off aviary walls (although you could do without the comment from every visitor of “That’s an unusual bird”) or wielding a sledgehammer demolishing old aviaries. As time went on I became more involved with the birds, both in holding birds and working on activity days - although I had to battle a little chauvinism from Ashley at the start. He would not let women hold the eagles in case they got bitten and scarred! It did not worry him about male volunteers, and in the end we were only allowed to help if we wore sunglasses and a hat.

Tracey exposes the public to a very young Cheyenne

Then, unexpectedly, after many years of friendship, Cupid fired his bow, and I became what Ashley called his gold star volunteer (awarded for going out with the director) and eventually we married. I then started to get more involved in the day to day running of the park, helping to take some of the pressure off Ashley, mainly putting together Hawktalk stories and taking over the role of membership secretary. When the Conservancy became a Trust the Trustees looked at everyone’s job roles and responsibilities, and my role increased to include Sales and Marketing.

It has been a learning curve to take on this position, but I think I’m finally getting there although I still have problems with advertisers asking me in August about Christmas Gift adverts! My job mostly involves working in the office, but we have a great and very happy team of girls in there, only occasionally being interrupted by Ash & Andy. I think they feel a little intimidated at times, being surrounded by all these organised and slightly bossy women! However I am allowed time out for good behaviour, and Sundays is spent with the other man in my life Bob being the Sunday activity day team. It’s a wonderful chance to meet lots of new people, and share our passion for raptors and the great work the Trust is doing.

Its also amazing when you look back what has changed over the years: no more once a week emptying out the pond and scrubbing it clean, the Saturday morning water round trailing around the park with buckets cleaning every bowl on the park, the feed round with the mule piled high with food and everyone taken a bucket and feeding the aviaries. Even more amazing the people I have met and how some of their roles have changed: Jane who started as a volunteer at the same time as me and spent many a cold winter morning trying open frozen locks and break frozen water bowls, Clive and Keith (webmaster) being the Saturday morning water round boys and Gary, Mike, Andrew and Samuel all coming on work experience and who all kept coming back.

Tracey and Jane with medieval vultures and Clive, the mad monk!

There have also been many amazing experiences like: the first time Danebury landed on my fist, watching the Red Kites hatch, be released and watching three young birds happily playing on a hay bale in the summer sun; seeing young birds progress through training to soaring high on their first thermal, to winning the visitor attraction of the year award. However this has also been tinged with some of the saddest upsetting moments in my life: watching Gandalf be electrocuted during the flying display and a few years later finding the bodies of two Red Kites who needlessly died the same way; the sad story of Ossie the Osprey, and nursing birds that have become part of the family only to watch them die. This of course will always happen when you work with livestock, but it never becomes any easier, and in some ways it becomes harder each time you have to pick yourself up and carry on for the next visitor.

However I think myself so lucky that I plucked up the courage to walk into the Trust all those years ago, it is wonderful to be part of an organization that does so much good work and means so much to so many people. Along the way I have had some great times, lots of laughs, made lots of friends and best of all found a wonderful husband and best friend. Long may it continue.