The Accipiter - Online magazine from The Hawk Conservancy Trust

September 2005

As I write this, high summer is upon us and the silly season is in full swing, with 300-400 visitors to the park most days. All hands are busy with the extra holiday-time attractions such as ferret races, tractor and trailer rides, picnic hampers in the meadow, and the lunchtime barbeque.

Our resident students are getting on well with the Tawny Owl release project they are carrying out on our behalf. As well as their tracking duties in the mornings and evenings and writing up their findings, they can be seen around the grounds in the afternoons displaying a board with the details of the project on it and answering visitors questions, at the same time as showing off our new Griffon Vulture, Kipling to the public. The first part of their article about the project is in this month’s Research section.

Jon Scott continues his Bird of the Month slot; this month he tells us about the Cinereous Vultures – we have three of them on the park, all disabled and living happily in one of our ‘open-top’ enclosures. Vet John Chitty’s article is not about raptors for a change; instead he gives us details of his involvement with the reintroduction of the Great Bustard to the country, a very exciting and worthwhile project.

Sonia Unicombehas written a fun piece about one of our more unusual visitor groups in Behind the Scenes, while Clive Chester’s view of some of the birds he looks after is that it’s ok to grow old disgracefully, in our On the Park feature. Monica Johnson continues her Meadow Muses with wonderful photos and notes of Reg’s Wildflower Meadow in full bloom, and Bob Rogers is in full verbal swing in Helping Hands with the first instalment of his experiences at The Trust.

As well as all these articles we have the usual monthly update of happenings in and around the Hawk Conservancy Trust from Tracey Smith in Monthly Diary, plus details of our latest patients in Hospital Update from Michael Wallis.

We hope you are all having a happy and relaxing summer.

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