The Accipiter - Online magazine from The Hawk Conservancy Trust

Monthly Diary - January 2008

A general monthly overview of the park by Tracey Smith.

Although this page will always be retrospective, we shall seek to provide any important breaking news by a news flash on the front cover of the magazine.

6th Jan

Volunteer Jon Scott visited the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Portsmouth. This is an annual event for sick children organised by a hospital charity. Jon took along a Trust owl to meet the children.

7th
Jan

Falconer Jane Robertson attended Marwell Zoo for a two week work experience as part of her Zoo Management college course.

Pictured here, Jane is helping to feed hay to the giraffes.

12th Jan

Ashley gave his historical talk about the Conservancy in the corporate room. This was to have been held in December but had been cancelled due to ill health.

15th Jan

The first of the Strategic Planning meetings was held by Ashley and Trustee John Ellicock on the theme of education. Staff and volunteers were invited to attend and to give their opinions in order for the Trust to plan its development for the next 10 years.

16th Jan

Howard Kirby from Lain's Shooting school behind a Barn Owl nest box and holding a Barn Owl, with the Trust's Scientific Officer Sam Hunt holding a Kestrel

Representatives of the Trust visited Lain's Shooting School in Quarley to put up some nest boxes for the local owl and kestrel population. Howard Kirby from Lain's is keen for the school to be involved in conservation issues.

Pictured - Howard Kirby from Lain's Shooting school with the Trust's Scientific Officer Sam Hunt

19th Jan

Wildlife safari host and renowned photographer Mike Mockler gave a talk in the corporate room to help raise funds for the Trust. The subject of the talk was his trips to Africa.

20th Jan

A new baby burrowing owl (pictured right) hatched in the incubator. This was the only chick to hatch from the clutch of eggs that had been abandoned by the parents. He is named Buster (after the Great train robber Buster Edwards - as this year's theme is villains and outlaws) and will be trained by Kim and Cédric. We hope he will become a new star at the Trust.

21st Jan

Volunteer Lou Ritchie attended St Mary Bourne School as part of the Trust's new outreach service to local schools.

22nd Jan

A second Strategic Plan meeting was held with staff and volunteers. Today the Trust's vision and mission statement was discussed.

A lucky egg was laid. Staff working on the grounds heard a noise from the mixed vulture aviary. When they went to see what was happening, they had the unique privilege of watching a African White Backed vulture laying an egg. Unfortunately she decided to lay it whilst sitting on a perch, and the staff held their breath as it fell to the ground. By a miracle the egg fell on a tiny mound of earth and lay there unbroken, an inch either way and it would have been a different story. the egg was quickly placed in the Trust's incubator in the hospital (pictured left). There will now be a wait of over 50 days to see if the egg is fertile and hatches.

23rd Jan

Today the first of two meetings was held involving judges from the Test Valley Business Awards group and Trust management. The Trust has been nominated for two awards; Rural Business of the Year and The HSA Business Excellence through People Award. The Trust later learned that it had been selected as one of three finalists in the second awards category. The awards ceremony will take place at a reception hosted by South Today's Sally Taylor at the Lights in Andover on 2nd April.
The Trust held a corporate event for Le Creuset as part of their annual conference.

25th Jan

First Trustees' meeting of the year.
Lou Ritchie attended the BIAZA Ace meeting for zoo educators.

29th
Jan

Ashley and Tracey attended a course organised by Tourism South East for optimising your web site.
A third Strategic Plan meeting was held to discuss the care of bird stock and future development of the Trust's grounds.

Leaf raking and general maintenance work continues
The new large aviary for the Black Kites

Throughout the month work carried on around the grounds as normal. As we are still open at weekends the general maintenance work - clearing leaves etc. - still has to be done. Throughout the winter we have had a gallant team of volunteers who have given up their Thursdays to lend a hand. Work continued on the new aviaries, and the new Black Kite aviary was soon completed. It is spectacular; almost twice the size of the previous one with lots of flying space and new perching for the birds. The dry sunny weather has meant that work on the new amphitheatre has raced ahead. The digger has been in, ably driven driven by local man Barry, and soil has been moved to create a new tiered seating area for the Valley of Eagles display. All the basic ground work has been completed, and it is easy to see what a difference it will mean not only to the views of the display for the visitor but also to the number of visitors that can be seated. Next month work will be carried out to shore up the tiers by concreting in wooden stakes, safety barriers will be fitted, hard surface laid and the area grass seeded. It is hoped that the whole will be open for the first big crowd of the year at the Easter bank holiday weekend.


Progress on the amphitheatre seating

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