Highs and lows

On Monday, I had the horrible discovery of my very very old female Peregrine, Molly dead n her aviary. The aviary had recently been cleaned out, and she was in perfect condition. She had begun scraping (making the shallow indentation in gravel on her nest ledge) despite her advanced age. Sadly it was all too much and her age combined with the drive to breed was too much. This bird inspired me, was the catalyst to my drive to learn and develop my understanding of birds of prey and develop my falconry ability. She has shaped my life, my career and my passion. She will be forever remembered through the indelible images she printed in my mind. A true one off, never to be repeated. RIP Molly.

As life ends, so new life begins. I discovered today that our Faldeggi Lanner Falcons are incubating their first two eggs. I had checked on Saturday, and there were none, so with two today, that means the first would have been laid on Sunday, the other today. And so the cycle begins again.

I’ll keep you up to date, but for now, I’m off to spend some time in the company of my memories of Molly.

Thanks for looking in.

 

slap on the back

Just a brief one today. We had confirmation today, that we are the chosen providors of the official birds of prey static display and flying demonstrations at the Royal Highland Show in June 2012.

This is Scotlands flagship countryside event and a global platform. Winning it last year was a fantastic outcome for Elite Falconry, and to be requested again, is a real compliment and affirmation of our service and our product, and a huge compliment to our team.

This might sound a bit like gloating, but we really are thrilled to bits. Thank you so much to the terrific team at Rural Projects who are again operating the countryside area, and especially to Charlotte who is our contact there.

Thanks for looking in.

Anticipating The Arrival Of Spring

Well here we are again. Trying to find a moment here and there to rest aching legs after many weeks in the hills during the winter. The lowlands certainly seemed to skip winter this year, but the upland still got a good whack of snow here and there! The winter highlight for us was probably 3,500′ up in the Grampians. The ground windspeed was recorded by the gamekeeper at 87mph. We flew the Golden Eagle who totally dominated the conditions and flew at great pitch. I can’t comprehend the wind speed at the altitude she was flying but I don’t doubt for a moment that it would have been over 100mph. The ability and perfection through evolution of this species to live and work in its domain is absolutely incredible.

The downsides were the decision after MRI, CAT scans, X-Rays and expert advice plus the financial assistance of kind people, to put poor old Methuselah (Golden Eagle) to sleep. 37 years old, and a victim of well-meaning, but ill written law. She’ll be forever remembered, and her ashes will be scattered over the mountains of Scotland from where she was taken in 1979.

We now look and listen forward. We look for flowering plants, swallows and warm sun, and we listen for chupping falcons and calling eagles. All harbingers of the coming seasonal change. We hope to breed Lanner Falcons, Barbary Falcons, Harris Hawks, and Great Grey Owls, with a couple of long shots being Verreaux Eagles and Peregrines.

You’ll notice I haven’t listed Golden Eagles there. Well we have kept the pair apart this year. They simply don’t get along and the risk of them injuring each other is growing. It is a personal thing! The female has been in courtship with a wild male, and has spent a great season with a male in the past. The male has spent several seasons with another female, and is very happy with another one we look after here for a friend. But, as a pair, our two are just not compatible. We have found a really positive looking male for our female though but have to find a new home for Stanley before we can bring the new one in. Fingers crossed for 2013!

We have a massive pest control season already booked up, and we’re sending new proposals all the time. We are also delighted to again confirm our 2012 summer season of flying demonstrations at the Falkirk Wheel. I’ll list the dates on the website shortly.

That’ll do for now, so as usual, thanks for looking in.

 

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

Phew!

Good grief, what a schedule. Manic pest control regime and just completed our 4 days at the Royal Highland Show. What an event RHS was! Huge pressure, but surrounded by great people and organisers. The whole event was tremendously put together, and the country side area was superbly organised by Rural Events, and most specifically by Charlotte Morgan who was supremely helpful and efficient, so hats off to those guys for a great job well done.

The baby owls were a huge attraction at RHS, and despite one bird getting a real kicking by both crows and gulls, and needing a quick pick up, the birds all flew really well. The feedback has been terriffic – some of which you can see on our facebook page.

So now we are raising two owls, the Brown Asian Wood Owl brought in to partner Jordan, and the young bird we bred and kept to partner Coco who flew at and did really well at RHS. Anyway, two imprinted owls = 1 x grubby kitchen!

We’re also manning the young lanner – Sneeze, who came out of his aviary and away from Mum and Dad at 63 days old. Hard penned and ready for training.

The big news…………………………..We have two new eagles coming in 6 1/2 weeks……………I’ll tease you with that for now.

Anyway, I promise RHS pictures and baby owl pictures over the next few days.

As usual, thanks for looking in.

Settling in to the summer regime

We’re just about settled into the new order of days that the summer brings. Early morning starts for pest control (we’re on site at hours of the day we’d rather not know existed) but that makes getting up for the early aviary feeds for the new clutches of chicks a little easier. The summer of course brings very heavy bookings for experience days. These guys are the life blood of the centre. Bringing the money that feeds these birds and allows us to continue our work so thank you all! We also meet some terrific and enthusiastic people, and when we get feedback the way we do sometimes, it really perks up our morale and motivation on those 1.30am starts! Thank you to john McNeil for his recent feedback and blog comments.

On the subject of chicks, you’ll be delighted to hear that the falcon chick is still alive and doing great! It eats quail just about as fast as Ruby (its Mum) can deliver it. We also have two clutches of Harris Hawk chicks. One lot at about 3 weeks old, the other – well the first chick hatched today! The great grey owls have finally finished laying at 9 eggs! I have candled 6 which are fertile. The other 3 are unknown. The earliest they might pip is May 23rd, so just a week to go. The survival rate of grey owl chicks in captivity is terribly low, but we have been gathering information and have the best possible plans laid to keep them alive  – if they hatch. We expect some heartbreak, but also some terrific times. We’re trying to get the video streaming live to the website, and if we do, you’ll be able to see the hatching in real time and live.

Right, much to do today, so more soon, and thanks again for looking in.

New technology – for us

I am not a fan of social networking! Bold statement, but while I may not wish to either publish my, nor read of the minor details of other peoples lives, I understand the popularity, and I can’t deny the power. That’s why Robin has launched the Elite Falconry Facebook page (you can click the link from the icon in the main website) which I have to say will be more regularly updated but with less detail than the blog, so read and enjoy!

On the subject of things new, we are also launching some web video streaming which will go live on the website probably over the weekend. The idea for this was Roxannes, and was driven by the amazing developments in the Great Grey Owl eggs. Right now, the only way I can describe what we can see in the eggs, is that they look like tiny red dragons swimming inside tethered to the inside of the shell, by ropes made from blood vessels. It’s just incredible, and we figured it’s something that might be good to share. The software has been added to the website, and we’re testing it now. After the eggs, we’ll add video which will run live in real time of the eggs hatching, then later, the owlets through their progress. Isn’t technology wonderful? Watch this space!

Back to what I am better at – birds! The young falcon chick is doing fine, so we’re chuffed with that. We’re over the most critical stage of the return to Mum, so with luck, that’ll be a nice young falcon to work from late summer. We’re not so sure about a Harris Hawk chick. It keeps laying with a leg kicked out behind it. It’s hard to see if it’s a problem through a tiny spy hole, so unfortunately, I’ll have to go in and see if it’s in need of help. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We’ve lost the really nice sunny days, but while we have cloud and rain, it’s patchy, and in the clear spells it’s roasting hot! We’ll be trying to hit those gaps in the cloud with the thermalling birds. I hope to give the altimeters a good workout.

On all days we’re not with guests or at other venues doing bird of prey flying demonstrations, we’re building towards our displays at the Royal Highland Show. It’s a showcase event in our 2011 and 2012 calendar. We won’t be doing stunts or tricks with the birds. We don’t want to encourage ‘pet keeping’ of birds of prey, and we don’t want to cheapen falconry! The aim therefore is traditionalism, with education, but served with an element of humour. I really hope what we perceive as high standards and professionalism, along with respect for falconry suits the crowds!

 Just a final note, it’s worth noting that someone drove into the back of our Land Rover Defender while at a roundabout last week. We’re being offered an equivalent substitute as a courtesy car while repairs are carried out. Last time that happened, we were given a BMW X5 which was about as useful off road and for our job as giving a cow a gun and telling it to go deer stalking! The Land Rovers may be uncomfortable, expensive and often difficult for guests to get in and out of, fact is, for what we do, in fact anyone who needs to know they’ll get on the hill, they really are the only choice!

That’s all for now, so thanks for looking in!

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• Falconry and Hunting in the Middle Ages (brighthub.com)

So far so good………

for the baby falcon. Still alive! I figure Mum must be feeding it. If not I’d say it would have died by now. As I type it’s 102 hours and 20 minutes old, but hey, who’s counting

We also have 4 fertile Great Grey Owl eggs, and another two that I haven’t candled (candling is the process where a concentrated light can be shone through an egg and reveal any development inside) yet. If we get all these out, late May will be a busy time for feeding baby owls.

We had another terrific day at The Falkirk Wheel yesterday (Monday) where Robin stepped up to the plate and managed his first commentary with demonstration. The boy did good!

The dynamics in the eagle aviary have really changed. The male had been the dominant figure, very much in control of high perches and the nest. However, over the past few days, the female Golden Eagle has exerted her power and dominance and without doubt has taken the lead role in the aviary. This turnaround may bode well for next years breeding season as his pressure had been suppressing her breeding instinct. This change may have her hormones racing at the right time next year.

Our first pair of Harris hawks are rasing young now, with the second pair having their clutch due to hatch in about another 10 days. I love all the new life.

I reported in an earlier blog about the sad demise of our superb old male Redtail Hawk (Buteo Jamaicensis) at the end of the season – killed by a hare. Well we find out in about a week if his very old Dad has sired any new males and if so, we’ll be having one. The place really isn’t right without him here, and his half brother (his Mum died a few years ago) would make it feel right again.

I think that’s all for now. I have a week of pest control (early starts) physio (sore shoulder) and another consultant peering into my dodgy ear (best reach for the tweezers, or strimmer to clear the path), but I’ll keep you all up to date on the progress of the babies and the eggs.

Thanks for looking in.

Big day for a small bird

Well, today is a big day for our first falcon chick of 2011. In about an hour (1pm) I’ll be putting it back with mum and Dad. They are first time breeders this year, and the males commitment to his eggs has been poor. We’re hoping the sight and sound of a cheeping chick will awaken some latent paternal instincts and he’ll do his bit to raise the youngster. I suppose that even if he doesn’t have a hands on role in raising it, we’ll be pleased if he simply resists the urge to kill it!

To explain that, the adult male did nothing to help incubate the eggs. This meant the eggs were cooling too much when the female came off them. So to avoid them all dying, we took the eggs away and left the adults with dummy eggs to keep them brooding. We hatched the only fertile egg, but we do not want it hand reared. We want a naturally raised well balanced bird. So we breed birds in seclusion, so when we take the youngsters out, we have a domestically produced wild bird! The imprinting stage – where the young chicks starts to be affected by its surroundings begins at around 5 days old. So this chick goes back to Mum and Dad today, at 3 days old. Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for looking in.