The Accipiter - Online magazine from The Hawk Conservancy Trust

March 2006

Welcome to our free-view online magazine. The Accipiter is now in its 10th month, so if you have not seen our previous issues, you can read all the articles by clicking on the buttons on the left side of this page.

Our third and final members’ working day of the winter was held on the first Saturday in February and about 60 hardy members braved the cold to help with various jobs to give the park a final spruce up before opening. The picnic area was re bark-chipped, fences and aviaries painted and leaves which had fallen after our leaf-clearing day in November disposed of. Thank you once again to all who attended, for your hard work.

The park has now reopened and visitors will notice some changes. Around the grounds we have refurbished aviaries, many smaller ones have been given extra height and you can now see birds perched high up where they can look down on you, which is just how they like it! The eagles are enjoying their new extended mews with runners so that they can fly between their two perches. The tarmac path has been extended to the top of the grounds, making life easier for pushchairs, wheelchairs etc. The study centre has undergone complete refurbishment downstairs and is looking very smart as well as being much warmer. We have some new birds including various falcons, a female White tailed Sea Eagle to hopefully pair with our disabled male, Tropical Screech Owls and Ferruginous Pygmy Owls.

Our flying displays have undergone some changes too and you will see many new birds, including our youngsters born on the park last year – Kipling the Griffon Vulture, Tolkien the Milky Eagle Owl and Wordsworth the Gymnogene. There is a Red-backed Hawk, more vultures (including hopefully Mrs Simpson our Andean Condor), and a caste of Lanneret Falcons. Some of these birds will be flying to music. The Red Kites we released are all still living locally and we anticipate increasing participation from them. So the 2pm Valley of the Eagles promises to be even more spectacular than in previous years!

Our Activity Days have also been restructured – you can still book a whole day if you wish, however we are now also offering half day courses, owl experience days and children’s activity days. More information about these is on our main web site, and you can also buy vouchers online.

The park has welcomed three new members of staff over the winter; two of them who some visitors may recognise are Cédric Robert from France who came this time last year for some work experience, and Kim Kirkbride who also started the previous year as a work experience student and is now working three days a week on the park and two days in the coffee shop. The third is James Robinson, who was recruited from Yorkshire where he was working as a falconer.


James Robinson, one of our new falconers	And the other two new falconers Cédric Robert and Kim Kirkbride

Click here for previous Leader articles