Richard and Tawny Owl Chestnut

Hello, My Name is Richard Doling, I’m 21 and I am currently undertaking a degree in Environment & Coastal Management at Bournemouth University. A major part of this course is a 6 week work experience placement between each year. After trouble finding a placement in a coastal area, I looked closer to home and, as I live locally in Andover, the Trust seemed an ideal solution.

I started in July and have to say that both the staff and volunteers immediately made me feel at home. During my first few days I did many different tasks and learned the daily routine which would last the duration of my work at the Trust. I had to get to grips with preparing food for the birds, lots of cleaning, gardening, and many other general park duties. As you may expect, I found handling the birds some of the most interesting jobs. I enjoyed letting the public hold and get a close look at a British owl species after the 12:00 and 3:30 display, trying to answer their questions and sound as though I knew what I was talking about.

Driving the rabbit (Frodo has just landed on it in the background)

I was certainly enjoying myself, so much so that after the six week experience period was over I volunteered to carry on for a few more weeks. In total this was about another three or four weeks and lasted until I had to return to university at the end of September.

Richard with Frodo's remote rabbit

One of the tasks I was asked to do during this time was to help at the 12:00 display when the American Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures were flown. This involved climbing the mound at the top of the lower flying ground, calling in the birds with a signal and rewarding them with food. I don’t think anything could have quite prepared me for the sight of eight large black birds with huge beaks like bolt croppers flying towards me. I didn’t escape this encounter unscathed, coming down from the hill bearing several scratches.

Probably the funniest job I was involved with was driving the remote controlled rabbit during Frodo the Tawny Eagle’s display. The problem was that I couldn’t drive it straight. I nearly crashed into the fence the first time, and the following time ended up well towards the back of the flying ground. At least I managed to keep it out of the pond, and Frodo managed to grab his lunch.

Helping train Cinnamon

I had the pleasure of helping to train a few birds, the most memorable being Cinnamon the huge Siberian Eagle Owl, giving the muscles in my arm a workout, and at the other end of the size range, the lovely Burrowing Owls were nice to work with as well.

I must say a huge thank you to everyone I worked with, both staff and volunteers; they made my stay so enjoyable and put up with me for what seemed like the whole summer. As has been mentioned previously in the Accipiter, volunteering here can become an addiction and I certainly hope to be back again in the near future; in fact I will probably have done so before this article is published. See you all soon!