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October 2007

Hopefully many of you will have seen the BBC and ITV news coverage of our Hobby release on Tuesday 11 September. It went straight off hunting and hopefully is now getting fitter and more skilled each day, ready for its long flight south this autumn. Mike Riley wrote about the early stages of the training of this bird in the On the Park feature of August’s issue of The Accipiter.

Training of birds has come on well, with some of the young owls that were bred at the Trust now having their own aviaries. Gucci, the Malay wood owl being trained by Gareth, is already flying to guests during their experience days and has been trialled in the 3.30pm Woodland owl and hawk demonstration. Kym’s training of Tolkien’s younger sibling, Cavelli, is progressing too. And the three black kites, named Gabanna, Jimmy Choo and Radley, which are being trained by Gary, Cedric and Jane respectively, are all flying well and will hopefully soon be joining the rest of the team, to come out and fly in the large group at the daily Valley of the Eagles display.

The pair of Gymnogenes have a chick which hatched in May, although we have only recently started to see it emerging from the nest site. It is thought to be a male since it is the same size as its father; in fact apart from the obvious colour difference, it is pretty much an exact replica of him!

We have two new children’s hides for you all to enjoy. Both are at the top of the grounds near the Steller’s sea eagles’ and European griffon vultures’ enclosures. One looks out onto the adjoining fields and the hedgerow where a family of little owls live. The other, recently built with help from the Army, is situated at the old Raptor Safari entrance gate. Many thanks go to them for their hard work in constructing the building.

Two international visitors have spent time with us during September. Leo from Kadoori Conservation Park in Hong Kong, where Ashley and Gary went earlier in the year, came for 2 weeks to learn some of our techniques and has been flying various of the Trust’s birds in demonstration. Campbell Murn has visited the Gyps Vulture Restoration Project at Changa Manga on several occasions, and Faisal Farid from WWF-Pakistan, who is the primary supervisor on the project, is currently spending time with us.

Lou Richie, Editor

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