I first started to visit Weyhill Zoo in the late sixties when I was seventeen, after seeing Reg on Television programmes such as How! and Country Ways. In fact it was one of the first trips I made after I passed my driving test. From then on I visited most weekends and eventually started chatting to Reg and Hilary. Reg was very knowledgeable about wildlife and the countryside and his enthusiasm was infectious. I started to help Reg with various tasks around the zoo. During a coffee break one morning, Reg mentioned that the family had not taken a holiday for a long time. I offered to help look after the park with Dave Flowers - the zoo keeper at the time.

Roy Dennis fitting a transmitter to the Osprey, assisted by Mike Wallis and Campbell Murn. Phil and Andy Hinton observe

I also progressed from being a member of the Young Ornithologists Club to becoming a member of the RSPB. One day I spotted an advertisement in their quarterly magazine for volunteers to help out at various RSPB reserves. I applied in 1970, at the tender age of seventeen, to work on the Osprey operation at Loch Garton in Scotland, and was accepted. I remained involved with this project for twenty years, working alongside many people including Roy Dennis who is regarded as the world’s expert on Ospreys. I was very pleased to meet him again when he visited the Trust in 2004 to fit a transmitter to an Osprey prior to release.

1976 was the year of the famous drought. The zoo had many species of animals including wolves, brown bears, lynx and otters. We had to ask the fire service for a loan of their fire hoses, they obliged and supplied us with some second-hand hoses which were connected to the water hydrant at the bottom of Sarson Lane. The hoses came up the land, across the fields and into the seal ponds, which were where the 3.30 Woodlands Owls and Hawks display takes place today. Good plan. The only trouble with the second-hand hoses was that periodically they would sprout a geezer. It was quite a sight driving up Sarson Lane seeing water sprouting everywhere.

In 1980/81 when the Hawk Conservancy was formed, I started to help behind the scenes with the flying demonstrations and with the holding birds. I remember on one occasion Reg phoned Ashley’s headmaster asking if Ashley could be picked up from school early – a falcon had escaped! And could I go and pick him up. Many other occasions I was called upon to go and find a lost bird.

African Grey Parrot, Captain Flint

As the animals from Weyhill Zoo were being sent to different zoo collections, I asked Reg if I could have Captain Flint, an African Grey Parrot. We agreed a price – I had to work for six weekends for free! I still have Captain Flint and although he has a cataract and a touch of arthritis, he is in fine fettle.

From the mid 1990’s I started to work in the gift shop at weekends and holidays. Where the gift shop is now sited used to be the wolf pens and the entrance was where the coffee shop now is. I am sure I can say that these forty years have flown by and have been a big part of my life, the highlight of course was being allowed to take Captain Flint home. But first and foremost, meeting Hazel who came to work in the shop eleven years ago and we have been together ever since. Another happy ending to a Trust romance in more ways than one!

Click here for previous Behind the Scenes articles