UVA & UVB

 

Huge thank you to Mark Rankin today. I’ll explain. Birds see light and colours much more vividly than humans into the UVA and UVB ranges produced by natural unfiltered light. For example. We look at a hawk in daylight and we may see a bird of two shades of brown. A hawk however will see reflected blues, reds, purples etcetera. This colour data gives the hawks an idea of the condition and thus bree…ding suitability of a potential mate. If the hawk is in good shape, breeding is much more likely. Also, photo period – the amount of natural daylight time induces breeding condition and behaviour and the annual moult. You can now obtain specialist bulbs that create light with the natural amount of UVA and UVB. Install these via a time switch and you maximize your chance of breeding birds and you speed up a clean quick moult. While I do most jobs required myself, I am not qualified or confident with electrics. Mark is and he installed half of the lights today over the breeding chambers, with the other half planned for next week.
The light quality is fantastic. We’re delighted, so a big big thank you to Mark. Top bloke

Still here

Wow, what a long time since I updated this!

So, what’s new. Well, the most exciting thing is our late summer arrivals. Take a look at our webcam, and you’ll see something which, if you know your birds, is very exciting.

The baby owls both made it, and are now settled in fine. The wood owl is part of most of the experience days we run each day. The Great Grey had such a tough start, that we decided to give him a long period in an aviary before we add the stress of training.

Sadly, and despite an MRI scan, CT scan, and expert input from the Royal Dick vet school, and two raptor specialist vets, the 36 year old Golden Eagle, Methuselah, had to be put to sleep. Her imbalance problems that have plagued her for some time had been getting significantly worse. The scans on top of all her previous test highlighted nothing that would cause her clinical signs, so, considering her rate of decline, she was put to sleep on humane grounds. With luck, the PM results will show something to help further the knowledge of experts, and help treat other birds in the future.

The wind has been pounding us relentlessly over the past few weeks, especially yesterday when we suffered some structural damage. No injuries or losses though, so compared to some, we’re lucky!

2012 is going to be a tough and competitive year, but I’ll try to keep all the significant details, good and bad noted here. Remember though, we also have a facebook page now – just search elite falconry and we have a twitter account @elitefalconry so you can stay in touch there.

Good luck to you all in 2012, and with luck, we’ll meet some of you.

Elite Falconry