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!