As our winter season draws to a close, the pace of work on all the building projects is increasing and, despite the inclement weather, lots has been achieved since the start of the new year.

The first floor refurbishment of the study centre is nearly complete, with a much bigger indoor space on the first floor and a vast and very elegant balcony with large double doors leading onto it (one set of which is shown in the photo – there is now a second set). This will be the venue for many corporate days and other events in the coming years. The Trust shop is also looking spectacular and Sonia is busy planning the layout for the counter and all her stock in its new space.

Training of new birds is coming on a treat, with the Harris’ Hawks now flying free and the Black Kites progressing well too. The 20 African vultures which arrived in December have settled into their new aviaries well and are looking very relaxed with people around them now – the Hooded vultures which are known to be shy, come down to the ground for food now before whoever is feeding them enters the enclosure; and there is some serious nest building going on amongst a couple of the White-backed vultures in the big aviary. Hopefully many of you will have seen the story of their arrival aired on Inside Out on Friday 12th January. The two Turkey Vultures who recently arrived at the Trust are settling well in their new home.

The two Burrowing Owls are living in their new aviary (it is very smart with sand burrows, tree stumps for perches and lovely planting), where they spend most of their time sitting together allopreening and making a wide variety of amazing calls. They should be quite an attraction this year.

The new aviaries on Clive’s section are coming together well, after mammoth efforts from all concerned. These enclosures are extremely large and putting them together is no small task. Thankfully we have had the help of various work experience students for this work.

As I write this, it is only a month until we reopen, and we hope to see many of you at the Trust in the coming months.

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