We continue to be busy with Experience Days, as well as our Owls by Torchlight evenings at the weekends, and also hosted our first Corporate Day of the season in March. The Vulture Restaurant continues to attract much attention, with two of the African species, represented by 14 individuals, coming down from their perches to be given their daily meal. Kym Kirkbride’s article in On the Park this month tells you more about these amazing birds.

We also have a new pairing in an aviary adjacent to the large vultures; these two are Egyptian Vultures, one of which had been with us for some months. We hope they will eventually breed. They are a species which in the wild eat eggs, particularly of ostriches, and gather a stash of sharp stones to use as tools to break into the eggs, before devouring the yolk with their ideally-shaped bills. We give them chicken eggs to supplement their normal diet, which they enjoy; their task is obviously relatively easy when it comes to breaking into a chicken egg!

A recent addition to our ever-increasing technology is the sponsorship by Arquiva and installation of surveillance cameras in all of the recovery bays in the bird of prey hospital. There are two screens for monitoring the individual bays; one of them is in the hospital office and the other is on the outside of the building. The monitors automatically switch views continually so that all the different bays can be seen. This is a fantastic new tool which means that the Trust staff can monitor birds in the bays, without having to lift the screens on the doors and disturb them, so limiting stress and hopefully speeding up their recovery. In addition, interested visitors can now see what is going on inside the hospital.