Apart from editing this magazine for the Trust, I have been pretty busy in a couple of other areas in the past year to 18 months.

In autumn 2006, alongside falconer Jane Robertson, I started a Foundation Degree course in Zoo Resource Management, at Sparsholt College near Winchester. This is a two year course (basically it is the first two years of a full degree), a pre-requisite of which is working at least 20 hours a week for a zoo/wildlife park/nature centre.

Fellow volunteer Jon Scott with Marley the Kestrel, and me with Tawny Owl Chestnut

Providing I remain on track, I will finish the course in May this year (there is the option to extend into a third year if necessary). We have covered a wide range of topics. In year 1 there was a lot of biology - reproduction, nutrition, anatomy and physiology, as well as science (including lab work, which I had never done before and was great fun – white coats, goggles, rubber gloves and all). Also we covered taxonomy, teamwork, behavioural studies and zoo animal health, for which we had to give our first of several presentations for the course; a bit nerve-racking.

Year 2 is conservation and education, breeding programme management, staffing, business planning and finance. And our ‘big’ thesis-style assignment which is an environmental enrichment project that Jane and I are conducting for the large African mixed-species vulture aviary at the Trust.

We’ve made posters, written reports and essays, done lots of research, and given presentations. Hopefully by the end of this course I will have learned a range of new skills that will stand me in good stead for the rest of my natural.

With barn owl Avon at Portway Junior School (photo by Debbie Foynes)

One of the most concentrated areas we have had to work on is our own personal development within the work place. And with that in mind I went to Ash and asked if I could get involved with the education side of things. So, since the summer term last year, I have been visiting primary schools in our area to do talks with power point slides to different age groups. I take a bird along too, one of our owls, who is always the star of the show of course. These visits are going well so far and more interest is being generated from a wider geographical range of schools. I go to other events on behalf of the Trust too; for instance last summer Jon Scott and I took two birds and talked to groups of school children as they spent the day on a woodland trail owned by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

I have also started going to BIAZA (British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) educators’ meetings, which are both useful and fun – we share information, give one another new ideas, and get to see different collections all in one day.

I have had great support and encouragement from everyone at The Hawk Conservancy Trust for my course and would like to say a big thank you for the time various people have spent with me, being grilled for information on all sorts of subjects.