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June 2008

May has been as busy as ever, with two bank holidays and school half term thrown into the mix to keep us all on our toes.

Experience days are very popular and fully booked for some time in advance these days. Many of the birds around the grounds are also busy, it being the breeding season. The Eurasian Griffon Vultures have a chick that is now quite big and can easily be seen in the nest site for much of the day. Also many of the owls are either incubating or have hatched chicks this month.

In the hospital there are three young Harris’ Hawks. These were hatched in our incubator in mid-April and are now, six weeks later, almost grown. They will be manned and trained over the coming months by staff to join the rest of the Harris’ Hawk team in due course.

Cédric Robert, our French falconer, took part in the Edinburgh marathon last Sunday, 25 May. Those of you who have visited the Trust over the past few months will probably have seen posters around the grounds and sponsorship forms in the gift shop and coffee shop, so that Cédric has been able to raise funds for some of the Trust’s work.

He trained hard for some months prior to the actual event (not that we think it was especially hard for a man whose idea of exercise at the weekend generally is to go for a 17 mile run!). We are all very proud of him, not only for completing the course in Edinburgh but for doing it in a very respectable time of around 3 hours and 50 minutes. We do not yet have his exact time as he is waiting for confirmation, but one lucky sponsor, whose guess was closest to his time, has won an experience day with birds of prey.

Details of the funds Cédric raised for the Trust and his exact finishing time will be published next month.

Bien fait, Cédric! And thank you to everyone who has generously sponsored him.

Lou Richie, Editor

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