Hi everybody!
So, I'm sorry it's been about a month since i last e-mailed. I knew that would happen. Anyways, this e-mail is on the subject of what I've had to deal with when the birds act up. It includes escapees, birds catching animals when they're not supposed to, and birds just plain being a nuisance.
My first experience with an annoying bird was on my second day here when I had to sit with a bird that was still in training. This is called 'manning' a bird, and just means that you have the bird tied to your glove and you sit with it for 45 min or and hour to get it used to sitting on the glove. This bird is now flying free when we exercise him, so he's progressed a LOT, but It was quite annoying that first day when he was still jumping off my hand almost non-stop.
The next day, we had a bird escape. Birds very rarely actually escape. This was the first one for the year. It was a 4 month old falcon who was still in training. He just totally ignored the lure with the food on it, and flew off. That day was rather boring for me, since i was mostly just inside the center with not much to do, and no sociable people around. We got the falcon back after chasing him for about 7 hours. Needless to say, most everyone was in a rather bad mood by the end of it.
Then, the Sunday after the falcon escaped, we lost another bird. As i said before, this is normally a rare occurence, so it was really bad to lose two in one week. What was funny with this bird (A Turkemanian Eagle Owl named Cleo) was that she flew off during a demonstration. Demo birds are some of the most trusted birds we have. I wasn't there the day she flew off, but even i was surprised to hear that she had flown off. Cleo was also a bigger deal because she was gone for most of a week. She was also more dangerous because it was possible that she would try to attack the tethered birds if they were outside at night. So we had to bring them in every evening and back out every morning. She just randomly came back into the center about a week after she left. A couple of the more experienced falconers were able to get close enough to her to get her jesses. She's now back in the demos just fine, so we don't exactly know why she disappeared.
A couple of weeks ago I got permission to start taking Hawks out into the arboretum by myself. The first two i did went great, my only problem is that i tend to walk to quickly if I'm by myself, so i'm learning to pace myself. Then i had the experience of one of the Hawks (His name is Brian) going to hunt a pidgeon. Luckily, I had been out with more experienced people before when hawks had decided to hunt when they weren't supposed to, so i knew what I needed to do. It was just totally scary to see the hawk fly in the totally wrong direction. I didn't know my heart could beat that fast! Luckily this hawk is very well trained, and is more interested in the chick that i show him than the pidgeon that he caught, so i was able to pick him up w/o too much difficulty. He wouldn't let go of the pidgeon for quite awhile, though. While the experience shook me up a bit, i got through it fine, and was able to deal with the hawk. I don't especially like taking that hawk out anymore, though, b/c he caught another pidgeon the next time i was out with him.
Those are the more exciting stories i have. the other stuff that's happened is pretty small, like a hawk who tried to fly in the opposite direction to where i wanted him to go. I still don't know why b/c he was trying to fly TOWARDS machinery not away from it, and he didn't try to catch any animals or anything. He only came the right way when i called him down to food, so i just gave up on him for that day. Another time a bird did something weird was when an owl suddenly decided he didn't like me anymore. For the first month and a half that i was here this owl, Morris, flew for me quite well. He would fly a really long way for his food, and behaved really well around me. Then I tried to fly him a week ago, and he wouldn't fly even half the distance he did before. He just totally wouldn't fly for me, though he flew fine for the other girls who came to help. Apparently he just decided he didn't like me anymore. I do know that he's done this before, which is why he's being sold right now. He's rather a temperamental owl. Sophie had me feed him from the fist in his aviary to try to get him to associate me with the food. I don't know if it worked b/c i haven't flown him since.
So, those are my stories of the annoyances of birds who don't behave (in the more extreme cases: most of them are always being a bit annoying). Oh yeah, a piece of news: I'm now able to hood the falcons myself. yay! The skill of hooding takes longer to learn than other things that I've done. So, I can now get all the birds ready for the demonstrations by myself. I feel much more useful now that can help with a lot of things without needing someone watching over what I'm doing.
One last thing, If you would like me to send you an owl from England, I need to know within the week, because I'm leaving England next weekend. Make sure you give me your full address and everything.
~Nettie
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Thursday, October 5, 2006
North Yorkshire #5--My Days with the Birds
hi everyone!
Okay, so I'm really sorry that i haven't written in forever. I'm just getting over a cold which has made me basically do nothing but go to work, eat, and sleep for the last couple days.
Anyways, what should i write about...You know, it's really hard to think of good subjects for e-mails, since what you guys want to know is mostly everyday stuff. So, I will try to describe a 'normal' day at the falconry center.
But first, I will make a list of the people at the falconry center.
Tom Graham--the owner of Falcons of Thorp Perrow. He doesn't do a lot of the actual work with the birds anymore.
John--The second-in-command. He is basically the top person, since Tom's not always even at the Center. He's there six days a week
Sophie--Another experienced falconer. She's 16, but has been working there for 4 years. I like to tease her on how I have a driving license and she doesn't, because you can't get a license until you're 17 here.
David--Another full time volunteer like me. He's here 5 days a week.
Terry--Another experienced falconer. He's in 1 or 2 days a week.
Gary--Another experienced falconer, but still a volunteer I met him for the first time last Friday. He's in once a week, but he won't be here for the winter.
Holly--A volunteer 1 day a week. She's been here over a year, but is not especially far along since she's not here much.
Simon--A volunteer who's here on Friday's. He's really fun to talk to, though we've gotten into debates about the strangest things.
Jo--Terry's daughter. I haven't met her yet: she's just coming back from her seasonal job at Woburn Safari Park working with the birds of prey there. She's back on Saturday.
Onto my day at work...
My first alarm goes off at 7:30, my second at 7:40, and then I get up by 7:45. I get dressed, go downstairs, put on the kettle for a cup of tea or coffee (depending on if I'm feeling sick or not), and make my packed lunch. My lunch is usually some type of sandwich (cheese and hummus has been my favorite lately), a yogurt with fruit jelly to mix in, maybe an orange or a banana, and something for dessert (or 'pudding,' as it's called here). My ride comes to pick me up between 8:20 and 8:40.
We arrive at Thorp Perrow (the falconry center) between 8:40 and 9:00. The first thing we do when we arrive is put the kettle on for tea. btw, when I talk about the kettle its actually an electric kettle, so you don't boil water on the stove. It's kind of like using a coffee pot just to heat up water. While one person takes orders for and makes the drinks, the others will check all the aviary's to make sure all the birds are alive, take out any birds that were inside overnight (because of rain, et cetera), and prepare the food. As I've already described in one of the other e-mails, we yolk some of the chicks and pull legs off others. After these jobs are finished, we pause for some coffee/tea, and plan a little bit of what is happening later in the day.
Often we will take out the 3 young falcons that are being flown to the lure at this time of day. David and I bring the birds in to be weighed and readied to be flown. We help carry and hold the birds for one of the more experienced people to fly. This week we've been learning how to hood the falcons. Soon we won't need any help to get them ready. Sophie said that she will show me and David how to swing a lure sometime soon, but I won't be able to actually fly a falcon before I leave, because you really need to learn the timing of it with an inexperienced falcon that will get better at the same rate you will.
Anyways, after flying the falcons, or instead of flying the falcons, depending on the number of people working, we spend some time doing gardening or cleaning aviarys. The aviary's get cleaned every 1 or 2 weeks, or more if needed. We mostly just rake when needed and scrub out the birds bathes when they go green. When I say gardening, I mean that we are either trimming some of the bushes that have gone crazy over the summer, or raking up grass after John has mown the lawns. If there's really not much to do, we will sometimes take out a Harris Hawk into the arboretum. Or we'll just spend 10 minutes talking before the first demo, if there's not enough time to fly a hawk.
There are 3 displays during the day, normally, they all have 3 birds in each. To get ready for the first demo, someone has to weigh Toby the barn owl, and someone has to weigh Thaine the Jackal Buzzard, and remove his mews jesses. These two birds have to be done before the demo. The last bird in the demo, Tango the lanner falcon, can be hooded and weighed during the owl demonstration if needed. If he is weighed before the start of the demonstration, he usually has to be held instead of put on a perch or in a box. This is because he likes to jump around even when hooded, and is in danger of damaging his wing or tail if not watched. He's an amazing flyer though.
After the first demo we eat lunch. The demo is done at noon, and we don't need to get ready for the next one until 1:00, so we have a nice long lunch hour. I usually bring a book to read during lunch, because half the time nobody talks the whole time. Of course, half the time there's a really interesting conversation that goes on, so I don't always read the book that a carry around with me.
at 1:00 we get ready for the second demo. The demo's are changing a little bit, so the birds flown are varied. We usually fly Victoria the vulture first, but we've started flying Minch the common buzzard some. Second we have Cleo the Turkemanian Eagle Owl, which is the second biggest type of owl, or Sage the white-faced Scops Owl, who is my favorite owl. He sounds like a cat, and is so small that his claws don't hurt, and he won't bite you. He's just the best little owl. Last in the demo is Tuesday the lanner falcon. She's a pretty awesome bird, and is one of the calmest falcons in the whole center. Her only flaw is her habit of getting poo all over her jesses and leash. Yuck! When Sage, Cleo, Minch, and/or Tuesday are flown, they all need weighed, and the non-owls need their mews jesses removed. During the displays the volunteers get to help by letting out the owls, calling the buzzards down to a chick, and bringing out the falcon. If not much needs done, the volunteers can sit in the stands and watch the demo.
After this demo we sometimes finish a job we started in the morning, but more often we fly some birds. When there are two volunteers and two more experienced people are working, one pair can take out a Harris hawk while the other flies an owl. Then they can switch. I'm now allowed to fly Morris the Bengal Eagle owl and Roo the Turkemanian Eagle Owl by myself. I really like Morris, even though he's not reliable enough to be let off the creance (a long, thin string used to stop the birds from flying away while in training). Roo, on the other hand, can be really bitey. He is a really good flyer, and sometimes used in demos, but you have to keep your eye one him. Oh yeah: If Sage the scops owl isn't flown in either the second or the third demo, he can be flown during this time period.
After these birds are flown, it's time to set up for the 3rd demo. The first set of birds is a pair of crested cara-caras called George and Mildred. These are a type of scavenger, so we place chicken legs under up-side down, plastic flower pots. The cara-caras can flip these pots over to get the food underneath. The owl used in this demonstration is often Roo, but on John's week off we've been using Sage or Cleo instead. For the falcon we use Tattoo the Saker falcon, or Guen(ivere) the Lugger falcon.
After this Demo is finished, we finish jobs from earlier, fly owls or Harris Hawks, or just get the food ready, and feed all the birds. When John's here we usually finish jobs from the morning, or fly a couple Harris Hawks if we didn't do them earlier. When Gary's here we usually just start feeding and take out hawks later if we have extra time. When getting the food ready, you just put the chicks left over from the day before, and the legless/headless chicks into buckets to be used first, and the rest of the chicks in a bucket to be used second. Then one person feeds all the tethered birds (an experienced person b/c that's where most of the flying birds are) and one person to feed the aviarys, which I am now able to do. When there's a lot of people, the extras start on the food room. The yolk bucket gets emptied, the containers that held chicks get cleaned, and the floor gets swept and mopped. If it is raining or going to rain heavily, or if a dangerous bird is on the loose (like Cleo; I will write an e-mail on escapees soon), most or all of the tethered birds need to come inside. After all that is done, you are ready to leave.
So, that is my day at the falconry center. In case your wondering, on average, I get to fly 1 or 2 Harris Hawks a day, and 1 or 2 owls a day. Once John gets back, I should be allowed to start going out with Harris Hawks on my own. On days like yesterday when there are a lot of people working and not much to do, I can fly up to 3 hawks, and 2 owls, and help with the falcons and the demos. So, I'm getting a lot of flying time in, if your wondering, even if i do complain about the rakeing. Mostly I'm just joking around about that, since that's an ongoing joke at the center.
Anyways, I will end this really long e-mail here. Some of the subjects that I will soon write about are escapees and school groups, so If you are dying to know, and I forget that I was going to write about them, remind me!
As always, I love getting e-mails from everyone. My special request is that anyone in Joshua Force tell me what's been happening! I really miss youth group and I want to know everything thats happened in the last month, lol.
Lots of Love,
~Nettie
P.S. Dad, while I'm sure my vocabulary is going a bit U.K., I happen to know that my use of 'lovely' dates back before coming here, and I'm still the only person I know who uses the word much. I will try to send you an e-mail soon, but there is a 'queue' for the computer right now, so I need to get off. Bye!
Okay, so I'm really sorry that i haven't written in forever. I'm just getting over a cold which has made me basically do nothing but go to work, eat, and sleep for the last couple days.
Anyways, what should i write about...You know, it's really hard to think of good subjects for e-mails, since what you guys want to know is mostly everyday stuff. So, I will try to describe a 'normal' day at the falconry center.
But first, I will make a list of the people at the falconry center.
Tom Graham--the owner of Falcons of Thorp Perrow. He doesn't do a lot of the actual work with the birds anymore.
John--The second-in-command. He is basically the top person, since Tom's not always even at the Center. He's there six days a week
Sophie--Another experienced falconer. She's 16, but has been working there for 4 years. I like to tease her on how I have a driving license and she doesn't, because you can't get a license until you're 17 here.
David--Another full time volunteer like me. He's here 5 days a week.
Terry--Another experienced falconer. He's in 1 or 2 days a week.
Gary--Another experienced falconer, but still a volunteer I met him for the first time last Friday. He's in once a week, but he won't be here for the winter.
Holly--A volunteer 1 day a week. She's been here over a year, but is not especially far along since she's not here much.
Simon--A volunteer who's here on Friday's. He's really fun to talk to, though we've gotten into debates about the strangest things.
Jo--Terry's daughter. I haven't met her yet: she's just coming back from her seasonal job at Woburn Safari Park working with the birds of prey there. She's back on Saturday.
Onto my day at work...
My first alarm goes off at 7:30, my second at 7:40, and then I get up by 7:45. I get dressed, go downstairs, put on the kettle for a cup of tea or coffee (depending on if I'm feeling sick or not), and make my packed lunch. My lunch is usually some type of sandwich (cheese and hummus has been my favorite lately), a yogurt with fruit jelly to mix in, maybe an orange or a banana, and something for dessert (or 'pudding,' as it's called here). My ride comes to pick me up between 8:20 and 8:40.
We arrive at Thorp Perrow (the falconry center) between 8:40 and 9:00. The first thing we do when we arrive is put the kettle on for tea. btw, when I talk about the kettle its actually an electric kettle, so you don't boil water on the stove. It's kind of like using a coffee pot just to heat up water. While one person takes orders for and makes the drinks, the others will check all the aviary's to make sure all the birds are alive, take out any birds that were inside overnight (because of rain, et cetera), and prepare the food. As I've already described in one of the other e-mails, we yolk some of the chicks and pull legs off others. After these jobs are finished, we pause for some coffee/tea, and plan a little bit of what is happening later in the day.
Often we will take out the 3 young falcons that are being flown to the lure at this time of day. David and I bring the birds in to be weighed and readied to be flown. We help carry and hold the birds for one of the more experienced people to fly. This week we've been learning how to hood the falcons. Soon we won't need any help to get them ready. Sophie said that she will show me and David how to swing a lure sometime soon, but I won't be able to actually fly a falcon before I leave, because you really need to learn the timing of it with an inexperienced falcon that will get better at the same rate you will.
Anyways, after flying the falcons, or instead of flying the falcons, depending on the number of people working, we spend some time doing gardening or cleaning aviarys. The aviary's get cleaned every 1 or 2 weeks, or more if needed. We mostly just rake when needed and scrub out the birds bathes when they go green. When I say gardening, I mean that we are either trimming some of the bushes that have gone crazy over the summer, or raking up grass after John has mown the lawns. If there's really not much to do, we will sometimes take out a Harris Hawk into the arboretum. Or we'll just spend 10 minutes talking before the first demo, if there's not enough time to fly a hawk.
There are 3 displays during the day, normally, they all have 3 birds in each. To get ready for the first demo, someone has to weigh Toby the barn owl, and someone has to weigh Thaine the Jackal Buzzard, and remove his mews jesses. These two birds have to be done before the demo. The last bird in the demo, Tango the lanner falcon, can be hooded and weighed during the owl demonstration if needed. If he is weighed before the start of the demonstration, he usually has to be held instead of put on a perch or in a box. This is because he likes to jump around even when hooded, and is in danger of damaging his wing or tail if not watched. He's an amazing flyer though.
After the first demo we eat lunch. The demo is done at noon, and we don't need to get ready for the next one until 1:00, so we have a nice long lunch hour. I usually bring a book to read during lunch, because half the time nobody talks the whole time. Of course, half the time there's a really interesting conversation that goes on, so I don't always read the book that a carry around with me.
at 1:00 we get ready for the second demo. The demo's are changing a little bit, so the birds flown are varied. We usually fly Victoria the vulture first, but we've started flying Minch the common buzzard some. Second we have Cleo the Turkemanian Eagle Owl, which is the second biggest type of owl, or Sage the white-faced Scops Owl, who is my favorite owl. He sounds like a cat, and is so small that his claws don't hurt, and he won't bite you. He's just the best little owl. Last in the demo is Tuesday the lanner falcon. She's a pretty awesome bird, and is one of the calmest falcons in the whole center. Her only flaw is her habit of getting poo all over her jesses and leash. Yuck! When Sage, Cleo, Minch, and/or Tuesday are flown, they all need weighed, and the non-owls need their mews jesses removed. During the displays the volunteers get to help by letting out the owls, calling the buzzards down to a chick, and bringing out the falcon. If not much needs done, the volunteers can sit in the stands and watch the demo.
After this demo we sometimes finish a job we started in the morning, but more often we fly some birds. When there are two volunteers and two more experienced people are working, one pair can take out a Harris hawk while the other flies an owl. Then they can switch. I'm now allowed to fly Morris the Bengal Eagle owl and Roo the Turkemanian Eagle Owl by myself. I really like Morris, even though he's not reliable enough to be let off the creance (a long, thin string used to stop the birds from flying away while in training). Roo, on the other hand, can be really bitey. He is a really good flyer, and sometimes used in demos, but you have to keep your eye one him. Oh yeah: If Sage the scops owl isn't flown in either the second or the third demo, he can be flown during this time period.
After these birds are flown, it's time to set up for the 3rd demo. The first set of birds is a pair of crested cara-caras called George and Mildred. These are a type of scavenger, so we place chicken legs under up-side down, plastic flower pots. The cara-caras can flip these pots over to get the food underneath. The owl used in this demonstration is often Roo, but on John's week off we've been using Sage or Cleo instead. For the falcon we use Tattoo the Saker falcon, or Guen(ivere) the Lugger falcon.
After this Demo is finished, we finish jobs from earlier, fly owls or Harris Hawks, or just get the food ready, and feed all the birds. When John's here we usually finish jobs from the morning, or fly a couple Harris Hawks if we didn't do them earlier. When Gary's here we usually just start feeding and take out hawks later if we have extra time. When getting the food ready, you just put the chicks left over from the day before, and the legless/headless chicks into buckets to be used first, and the rest of the chicks in a bucket to be used second. Then one person feeds all the tethered birds (an experienced person b/c that's where most of the flying birds are) and one person to feed the aviarys, which I am now able to do. When there's a lot of people, the extras start on the food room. The yolk bucket gets emptied, the containers that held chicks get cleaned, and the floor gets swept and mopped. If it is raining or going to rain heavily, or if a dangerous bird is on the loose (like Cleo; I will write an e-mail on escapees soon), most or all of the tethered birds need to come inside. After all that is done, you are ready to leave.
So, that is my day at the falconry center. In case your wondering, on average, I get to fly 1 or 2 Harris Hawks a day, and 1 or 2 owls a day. Once John gets back, I should be allowed to start going out with Harris Hawks on my own. On days like yesterday when there are a lot of people working and not much to do, I can fly up to 3 hawks, and 2 owls, and help with the falcons and the demos. So, I'm getting a lot of flying time in, if your wondering, even if i do complain about the rakeing. Mostly I'm just joking around about that, since that's an ongoing joke at the center.
Anyways, I will end this really long e-mail here. Some of the subjects that I will soon write about are escapees and school groups, so If you are dying to know, and I forget that I was going to write about them, remind me!
As always, I love getting e-mails from everyone. My special request is that anyone in Joshua Force tell me what's been happening! I really miss youth group and I want to know everything thats happened in the last month, lol.
Lots of Love,
~Nettie
P.S. Dad, while I'm sure my vocabulary is going a bit U.K., I happen to know that my use of 'lovely' dates back before coming here, and I'm still the only person I know who uses the word much. I will try to send you an e-mail soon, but there is a 'queue' for the computer right now, so I need to get off. Bye!
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Random English Phrases
"So, how are you? Or, as they say here, "Are you alright?" That has to be the phrase that most confuses me here. I still don't know how you're supposed to answer it."
--just to add in to this post: Some other English phrases that I remember...
'pants' - means really bad or disgusting
'magyk' - John always used this phrase basically instead of saying perfect or good
'lass' and 'our lass' -John used lass when talking to any girl, and our lass when talking about his girlfriend
'bobbles' - ponytail holders...I found this one out after a lot of confusion :)
I'll Come back and edit if I think of any more ;D
--just to add in to this post: Some other English phrases that I remember...
'pants' - means really bad or disgusting
'magyk' - John always used this phrase basically instead of saying perfect or good
'lass' and 'our lass' -John used lass when talking to any girl, and our lass when talking about his girlfriend
'bobbles' - ponytail holders...I found this one out after a lot of confusion :)
I'll Come back and edit if I think of any more ;D
Thursday, September 21, 2006
North Yorkshire #4--My new home
Hi Everybody,
I decided that, before I write another e-mail on falconry, I would say a little about what I'm doing in North Yorkshire.
But first, I would like to explain about jesses. I got some feedback from my last e-mail in that people didn't totally understand what jesses are. jesses are the strips of leather that are hooked onto the birds feet so that you can hold them to prevent them from flying off. Each bird wears an anklet on each foot that rarely comes off, and a pair of flying jesses that are attached to the anklet. These are also left on at all times, unless they get damaged. There are also mews jesses, which are slid through a hole in the anklet that secures them and is also used for easy removal. These jesses are much easier to hold onto. Anyways, I will try to send pictures of all the equiptment so that everyone will understand what I'm talking about.
Ok, Yorkshire. When we first drove up to Bedale from London we stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Green Dragon. The morning after we arrived, we scheduled to meet the pastor of the Methodist Church of Bedale. Before we went to meet the minister at 2:00, we visited the falconry center. This was when I first met John Sigrove, who's second-in-command at the center. I also met Sophie and Terry, who are some of the other people i work with. We just had a short meeting in the morning, and arranged to come back after closing time to talk over transportation, et cetera. That evening we met with them again, and settled that John and Terry would take turns driving me, and that I would start on Monday.
Earlier that same day we went to the pastor's house. This was my first experience at being invited inside for a cup of tea! Very nice... So, we basically got to know each other a little bit. The pastor's name is Fran (she's a woman by the way ). The Methodist Church of Bedale is actually a circuit of seven churches. Fran normally pastor's four, while another minister pastors the other three. We asked Fran if there was any way someone could act as a host family for me. She said she had a couple of people in mind, and could we come again the next morning before we went to York to sightsee. So, the next morning she said she'd found a potential family, and that she'd arranged for us to meet them the next morning. She showed us how to get to their house and sent us to sightsee. On Saturday, we met with the family. Their names are Wendy and Paul Arrowsmith. Wendy is Scottish, so she has a cool accent. They have two children: Kirsty who's 7 next month, and Peter, who's 5. They have a wonderful and huge chocolate labrador who's about 17 months old. He still enjoys jumping on people and doesn't know what "down" means. He's really sweet though. They also have a big fat cat named Bumble who looks a lot like Garfield, but is much nicer . So, after talking to them, and explaining my situation for aobut the 3rd time (It was getting a little tiring), they said that it would probably work out, and that they would give it a try.
So, after a couple days work, We found a great home for me to stay in, transportation to and from work, and a church for me to go to. A little about the church: It's really nice, and I enjoy going there. The two small problems i had were 1, They don't play quite the music I'm used to, and 2, I apparently need to sit near the back so that I can get the cue on when to rise and sit from the people in front of me. So my little dissatifactions are not a big deal. Actually, the music thats played as background music before and after events is just the sort of music I love, so even that is not too big of a deal.
So, that's my story of finding a home in North Yorkshire. Now you all know what happened to me, lol.
Lots of love,
I decided that, before I write another e-mail on falconry, I would say a little about what I'm doing in North Yorkshire.
But first, I would like to explain about jesses. I got some feedback from my last e-mail in that people didn't totally understand what jesses are. jesses are the strips of leather that are hooked onto the birds feet so that you can hold them to prevent them from flying off. Each bird wears an anklet on each foot that rarely comes off, and a pair of flying jesses that are attached to the anklet. These are also left on at all times, unless they get damaged. There are also mews jesses, which are slid through a hole in the anklet that secures them and is also used for easy removal. These jesses are much easier to hold onto. Anyways, I will try to send pictures of all the equiptment so that everyone will understand what I'm talking about.
Ok, Yorkshire. When we first drove up to Bedale from London we stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Green Dragon. The morning after we arrived, we scheduled to meet the pastor of the Methodist Church of Bedale. Before we went to meet the minister at 2:00, we visited the falconry center. This was when I first met John Sigrove, who's second-in-command at the center. I also met Sophie and Terry, who are some of the other people i work with. We just had a short meeting in the morning, and arranged to come back after closing time to talk over transportation, et cetera. That evening we met with them again, and settled that John and Terry would take turns driving me, and that I would start on Monday.
Earlier that same day we went to the pastor's house. This was my first experience at being invited inside for a cup of tea! Very nice... So, we basically got to know each other a little bit. The pastor's name is Fran (she's a woman by the way ). The Methodist Church of Bedale is actually a circuit of seven churches. Fran normally pastor's four, while another minister pastors the other three. We asked Fran if there was any way someone could act as a host family for me. She said she had a couple of people in mind, and could we come again the next morning before we went to York to sightsee. So, the next morning she said she'd found a potential family, and that she'd arranged for us to meet them the next morning. She showed us how to get to their house and sent us to sightsee. On Saturday, we met with the family. Their names are Wendy and Paul Arrowsmith. Wendy is Scottish, so she has a cool accent. They have two children: Kirsty who's 7 next month, and Peter, who's 5. They have a wonderful and huge chocolate labrador who's about 17 months old. He still enjoys jumping on people and doesn't know what "down" means. He's really sweet though. They also have a big fat cat named Bumble who looks a lot like Garfield, but is much nicer . So, after talking to them, and explaining my situation for aobut the 3rd time (It was getting a little tiring), they said that it would probably work out, and that they would give it a try.
So, after a couple days work, We found a great home for me to stay in, transportation to and from work, and a church for me to go to. A little about the church: It's really nice, and I enjoy going there. The two small problems i had were 1, They don't play quite the music I'm used to, and 2, I apparently need to sit near the back so that I can get the cue on when to rise and sit from the people in front of me. So my little dissatifactions are not a big deal. Actually, the music thats played as background music before and after events is just the sort of music I love, so even that is not too big of a deal.
So, that's my story of finding a home in North Yorkshire. Now you all know what happened to me, lol.
Lots of love,
Sunday, September 17, 2006
North Yorkshire #3--Falconry
Hello Everyone!
So, I decided to skip talking aboutYorkshire for now, and start an e-mail on falconry. If anyone would like a specific e-mail on North Yorkshire, et cetera, I would love to send one out, just e-mail me please.
So Falconry...
On my first day, which was Monday the 11th, my mum dropped me off at about 9:00 in the morning. We basically said goodbye right then (and cried) because she and my grandma had to drive back to London that morning.
So, the first thing that i got to do in the falconry center that morning was pull the legs of chicks. I did not have to yolk the chicks that morning, thankfully, because that is what we call it when we basically squeeze the chicks guts out to be able to pull out the yolk. By the way, all the chicks that they use there are the male chicks from hatcheries. All the chickens that you can buy in stores are actually female. So all the males are killed when they are just a day old, and frozen to be sent to places like the falconry center that use them. Anyway, we pull the legs off to use as the bait to get the birds to come back to the glove while we're flying them. The yolked chicks are given to the birds that are flown regularly, so that they don't become overweight from the extra nutrients in the yolks.
After that i got to try my hands at such things as raking in the aviaries, cleaning the bird's baths, and weeding. As must be obvious, the job of falconry is a lot more than just working with birds. I did get to start learning how to hold the birds, weigh the birds, amd remove the jesses from the birds a little later in the day.
so first, holding the bird. You basically just use a chicken leg to get the bird onto your glove, then tuck its jesses in between your middle fingers to keep a good hold on the bird. You then untie the knot in the leash that keeps the bird on its perch, and take it inside to weigh it. Birds are weighed every day if they are flown much, and all the non-breeding falcons and hawks are flown nearly every day.
After you weigh the bird you remove their jesses if you are ready to fly them. The birds all have two sets of jesses, actually. There is the mews jesses, and the flying jesses. the flying jesses stay on all the time, while you remove the mews ones often. The mews jesses have a metal swivel on the end that hold the two pieces of leather, one for each foot, together. this swivel is tucked through your middle fingers to keep a firm hold on the bird if it would try to fly off your hand when you don't want it to. The flying jesses are a little harder to hold, so you tuck them around multiple fingers when you're only holding the birds with them.
So, thats the basics of getting a bird ready for flight. I will cut off this e-mail here, because it past 10:00 England time, and i'm up by 7:30 tomorrow.
Thank you everybody who e-mailed me back, i really liked reading the e-mails, even if didn't send a reply. If you have any specific questions, or anything, then e-mail me... I love hearing from you, even if its only a short note. So e-mail me lots!!!
Anyway, i'm having a good time here, and i'll talk more about falconry next time.
Love,
~Nettie
So, I decided to skip talking aboutYorkshire for now, and start an e-mail on falconry. If anyone would like a specific e-mail on North Yorkshire, et cetera, I would love to send one out, just e-mail me please.
So Falconry...
On my first day, which was Monday the 11th, my mum dropped me off at about 9:00 in the morning. We basically said goodbye right then (and cried) because she and my grandma had to drive back to London that morning.
So, the first thing that i got to do in the falconry center that morning was pull the legs of chicks. I did not have to yolk the chicks that morning, thankfully, because that is what we call it when we basically squeeze the chicks guts out to be able to pull out the yolk. By the way, all the chicks that they use there are the male chicks from hatcheries. All the chickens that you can buy in stores are actually female. So all the males are killed when they are just a day old, and frozen to be sent to places like the falconry center that use them. Anyway, we pull the legs off to use as the bait to get the birds to come back to the glove while we're flying them. The yolked chicks are given to the birds that are flown regularly, so that they don't become overweight from the extra nutrients in the yolks.
After that i got to try my hands at such things as raking in the aviaries, cleaning the bird's baths, and weeding. As must be obvious, the job of falconry is a lot more than just working with birds. I did get to start learning how to hold the birds, weigh the birds, amd remove the jesses from the birds a little later in the day.
so first, holding the bird. You basically just use a chicken leg to get the bird onto your glove, then tuck its jesses in between your middle fingers to keep a good hold on the bird. You then untie the knot in the leash that keeps the bird on its perch, and take it inside to weigh it. Birds are weighed every day if they are flown much, and all the non-breeding falcons and hawks are flown nearly every day.
After you weigh the bird you remove their jesses if you are ready to fly them. The birds all have two sets of jesses, actually. There is the mews jesses, and the flying jesses. the flying jesses stay on all the time, while you remove the mews ones often. The mews jesses have a metal swivel on the end that hold the two pieces of leather, one for each foot, together. this swivel is tucked through your middle fingers to keep a firm hold on the bird if it would try to fly off your hand when you don't want it to. The flying jesses are a little harder to hold, so you tuck them around multiple fingers when you're only holding the birds with them.
So, thats the basics of getting a bird ready for flight. I will cut off this e-mail here, because it past 10:00 England time, and i'm up by 7:30 tomorrow.
Thank you everybody who e-mailed me back, i really liked reading the e-mails, even if didn't send a reply. If you have any specific questions, or anything, then e-mail me... I love hearing from you, even if its only a short note. So e-mail me lots!!!
Anyway, i'm having a good time here, and i'll talk more about falconry next time.
Love,
~Nettie
North Yorkshire #2--Youth Retreat
It was totally awesome today! We had this youth retreat sort of thing at the church in Aiskew. There were like twenty teenagers/young adults that came, with a few older helpers too. We played a whole bunch of games at the beginning, which was fun. I haven't played crazy games like that for years. We had a really random "pub quiz," which i don't quite understand the name for it. It was basically a quiz on every random thing you can think of, with a general knowledge section, a history/geography section, a music section, an art section, a couple tv section (theme songs and shows), and a sports section. It was amusing; though i don't know a whole bunch of the trivia sort of stuff. I did know most of the U.S. based questions, though. I did feel bad b/c i couldn't remember whether it was Neil Armstrong or John Glenn who orbited the earth first. oh well...lol.
The best part was the worship section. There were only two songs out of about seven that i didn't know by heart. They even played "Dancing Generation," which is one of my favorite songs that we do at the young adult worship groups every couple months. I can't remember what they're called right now...That's going to annoy me for a while...
Anyway, I totally loved it, and got to see a bunch of new people, and people i haven't seen since the Jam meeting a week ago Friday. The only annoying thing is that there isn't another one of these "NRG" (pronounced energy) things until the middle of november, by which time i will be gone.
The best part was the worship section. There were only two songs out of about seven that i didn't know by heart. They even played "Dancing Generation," which is one of my favorite songs that we do at the young adult worship groups every couple months. I can't remember what they're called right now...That's going to annoy me for a while...
Anyway, I totally loved it, and got to see a bunch of new people, and people i haven't seen since the Jam meeting a week ago Friday. The only annoying thing is that there isn't another one of these "NRG" (pronounced energy) things until the middle of november, by which time i will be gone.
Friday, September 15, 2006
England #1--Touristing
Hello Everyone!
So, I've taken just about forever to find a time to e-mail haven't I...Sorry.
To start at the beginning: I left Ohio with my mum and my grandma at approx. 7:20 on the Evening of Sunday Sept. 3rd, and arrived at about 7:00 a.m. on Monday Sept. 4th. That's about 2:00 a.m. Ohio time. Not surprisingly I was rather tired on my first day of sightseeing.
On Monday we saw Big Ben (the huge clock tower), the parliament buildings, and Westminster Cathedral. Westminster is a huge building, and its totally packed with statues and memorials to probably over a hundred different people, including quite a few royalty. Its amazing how much history is held in that one building.
After visiting Westminster we went to Trafalger's Square and visited an art museum there for about 20 minutes (we just wanted to see the impressionist paintings). We then rode on a double-decker bus to get down to Herrod's. We got to ride right in the front, so we felt like we were about to crash everytime the bus stopped. Herrod's is about the biggest store you can imagine. It has huge departments for perfumes, jewelry, shoes, even handbags. It also has amazing food halls that are spread between at least 4 rooms. We managed not to spend too much money there (the stuff is both good quality and expensive). We just bought a few delicious danish's (they were a plum danish and a pear danish).
We went home after that and I was in bed by about 5:00 in the afternoon. I woke around seven in the morning, so all of you were still asleep (expect possibly Marc).
On Tuesday our big activity was to go to the Globe Theatre. First we went to a market. Annoyingly, I really can't remember what it was called. Later we caught a bus towards the globe theatre, but left the bus too early, so we walked for quite a bit. We took a tour of the globe theatre, which was quite good. The tour guide was one of the best that I, or even my mum, had ever had. The tour told a lot about the history of Shakespeare's theatre, incl. how he started at the Rose theatre and eventually switched to the Globe theatre, and that the Globe theatre has not been rebuilt on the exact spot that the first one was at, because there are other buildings in the way.
We saw Comedy of Errors after the tour, and we had paid for tickets to be groundlings. This meant that we had to stand for the two hours on the floor in front of the stage. We got in line early enough that we were able to find space right along the stage to stand, so we could lean with our elbows on the stage. It was really awesome to be close enough to see the actors expressions and the nuances of their costumes. I found it amusing that the Duke's purple shoes were only painted tennis shoes. the play was quite good, though we were very tired of standing by the end of it.
After seeing the rest of Globe Theatre, we did a little more sightseeing. We walked down the Thimes(?) River to get to the footbridge across. At the footbridge we were able to look at some peregrin falcons who were nesting on the top of a building. Quite a coincidence, that. We saw some of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the front of it was being refinished, so we only saw a great big sheet that looked like St. Paul's. (St. Paul's is where the "Feed the birds" woman sat in the movie 'Mary Poppins,' by the way). We also saw the outside of the Tower of London, and some of the roman wall. We then went home and had dinner.
Wednesday morning we started heading towards Yorkshire. The only thing I want to mention in this e-mail is that we stopped at King's Cross station to see platform 9 and 3/4. I have a picture of me going to visit Harry Potter that i will send in a separate letter.
Lovely. This letter is long enough, so i will send a separate one on Yorkshire and eventually on falconry. (Don't worry, you'll be hearing a lot about falconry by the time I'm done in England).
~Nettie
So, I've taken just about forever to find a time to e-mail haven't I...Sorry.
To start at the beginning: I left Ohio with my mum and my grandma at approx. 7:20 on the Evening of Sunday Sept. 3rd, and arrived at about 7:00 a.m. on Monday Sept. 4th. That's about 2:00 a.m. Ohio time. Not surprisingly I was rather tired on my first day of sightseeing.
On Monday we saw Big Ben (the huge clock tower), the parliament buildings, and Westminster Cathedral. Westminster is a huge building, and its totally packed with statues and memorials to probably over a hundred different people, including quite a few royalty. Its amazing how much history is held in that one building.
After visiting Westminster we went to Trafalger's Square and visited an art museum there for about 20 minutes (we just wanted to see the impressionist paintings). We then rode on a double-decker bus to get down to Herrod's. We got to ride right in the front, so we felt like we were about to crash everytime the bus stopped. Herrod's is about the biggest store you can imagine. It has huge departments for perfumes, jewelry, shoes, even handbags. It also has amazing food halls that are spread between at least 4 rooms. We managed not to spend too much money there (the stuff is both good quality and expensive). We just bought a few delicious danish's (they were a plum danish and a pear danish).
We went home after that and I was in bed by about 5:00 in the afternoon. I woke around seven in the morning, so all of you were still asleep (expect possibly Marc).
On Tuesday our big activity was to go to the Globe Theatre. First we went to a market. Annoyingly, I really can't remember what it was called. Later we caught a bus towards the globe theatre, but left the bus too early, so we walked for quite a bit. We took a tour of the globe theatre, which was quite good. The tour guide was one of the best that I, or even my mum, had ever had. The tour told a lot about the history of Shakespeare's theatre, incl. how he started at the Rose theatre and eventually switched to the Globe theatre, and that the Globe theatre has not been rebuilt on the exact spot that the first one was at, because there are other buildings in the way.
We saw Comedy of Errors after the tour, and we had paid for tickets to be groundlings. This meant that we had to stand for the two hours on the floor in front of the stage. We got in line early enough that we were able to find space right along the stage to stand, so we could lean with our elbows on the stage. It was really awesome to be close enough to see the actors expressions and the nuances of their costumes. I found it amusing that the Duke's purple shoes were only painted tennis shoes. the play was quite good, though we were very tired of standing by the end of it.
After seeing the rest of Globe Theatre, we did a little more sightseeing. We walked down the Thimes(?) River to get to the footbridge across. At the footbridge we were able to look at some peregrin falcons who were nesting on the top of a building. Quite a coincidence, that. We saw some of St. Paul's Cathedral, but the front of it was being refinished, so we only saw a great big sheet that looked like St. Paul's. (St. Paul's is where the "Feed the birds" woman sat in the movie 'Mary Poppins,' by the way). We also saw the outside of the Tower of London, and some of the roman wall. We then went home and had dinner.
Wednesday morning we started heading towards Yorkshire. The only thing I want to mention in this e-mail is that we stopped at King's Cross station to see platform 9 and 3/4. I have a picture of me going to visit Harry Potter that i will send in a separate letter.
Lovely. This letter is long enough, so i will send a separate one on Yorkshire and eventually on falconry. (Don't worry, you'll be hearing a lot about falconry by the time I'm done in England).
~Nettie
Monday, September 11, 2006
North Yorkshire #1--First Day
My first day went great. I started by pulling legs off chickens, and ended by flying a harris hawk in the Arboredium(?). I've learned how to hold the bird, and where to put the jesses to hold onto it. I've also learned the falconers know which is used to tie the tether to the perches. It is made to be tied and untied one-handed.
Yeah, so my real reason for writing this letter has to do with the book The Sword in the Stone. You know where Merlin talks about how predators make the sound of their prey? Well theres this little owl called Sage (you saw him in the demonstration) who sounds just like a cat. He's only about the size of my stuffed owl, though, so what does the sound mean?
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