On the Park - October 2007

So here I am, thinking about what has happened in the past 6 months or so. Well lots of staff changes for a start, from Clive moving from birds and now doing membership and gift aid and plenty more things throughout the winter (wait and see!), to Paul and Gareth becoming new full time members of the bird team (they have had a real steep learning curve but have done incredibly well and are both invaluable members of a really hard working and dedicated staff). The staff have also coped well with other changes e.g. a couple of weddings, a new child and a few days off ill for one of us!

Our volunteers help is, as ever, invaluable and I, with all the staff, am so very grateful. The work that has and is being done by them may not all be seen and I will try to remember some. Our outreach education trial has been a huge success; also visits to nursing homes and talks to certain groups are increasing month on month. Day to day help on the park with the maintenance like grass cutting, gardening, repairing fences and aviaries, cleaning aviaries, cleaning water bowls, car parking. Also the help on the courses, displays and corporate days. I have not completed this list with the help we get in the coffee shop, reception and office too much to mention, the trips to the vets, releasing birds, fetching and carrying all manners of things, the web-site, help in the hospital, the help with the post-release studies etc. etc.

So I have covered staff and volunteers (sort of). What about the birds! Lots of changes as ever. Sadly we have lost one or two favourites, Duffy being the biggest miss! But that is one part of life at the Trust that won’t change. Birds coming and going is what happens. We have a few new members of the flying team and hopefully you can see them in action throughout the winter! Planning the winter opening has taken up lots of time; this will have a big impact on how much work we get done through the winter. The lack of staff Monday to Friday because they are working at the weekend (apparently you have to give them some days off) will reduce what we can achieve.

Having said that I will give you a sneaky preview of some of the changes that are about to happen; the tree surgeon will spend a fortnight continuing getting rid of those awful leylandii trees, mainly from the car park. We don’t want any visitor’s car with the odd dent in the roof! We are going to build a few large aviaries on the left hand side of the grounds to balance the park up a little, making paths to the new aviaries. Our biggest projects will be removing the grass from the car park, and re-shaping the top flying grounds to help our visitors see more of the Valley of the Eagles display (we have never known a year when the wind blew more from the east).

As I write this article I realise I have forgotten we have Faisal with us; he is the key worker from Pakistan on the Gyps restoration project. This visit is very important for the project and Campbell has made great inroads in securing this work for the future. We also have had people from France, Hong Kong and all over the UK staying with us.