Jack is back!

I have, over the past couple of days, started to train Jack, the Peregrine Falcon, up again for flying displays over the deer paddock. Some of you may have seen me over the past couple of days at the back of the paddock with him, and I am pleased to say he is flying well and will be on display everyday from tomorrow (Saturday) at a scheduled time which will be on the reception white board.

I am sure this news will please many of you, especially the photographers out there. I have on almost a daily basis been asked about Jack since I rested him due to the heat of the Summer and him moulting. You will have to bear with me and Jack over the first couple of weeks while he gets his fitness up again and I get used to his speed, but I am sure it will not take too long.

Come the Autumn half-term I am thinking of adding a trial bird display in the mornings to compliment the owl display in the afternoons. This will just give me a feel of what and how it can be done, which will give us the opportunity to fine tune it over the Winter before adding it to the full schedule next year.

Successful Summer

Just a reminder that this is the last full week that we are open to the general public. After this we continue to be open for weekends, bank holidays and school half terms only while looking after of private school visits, photographers and film crews during the week.

This Summer has been extremely successful seeing many new faces visit the Centre for the first time, as well as many members too. Bank holiday Monday yesterday was a really good day, blessed by the weather, which saw us reach a record number of visitors for this time of year.

Of course our walk-through red squirrel enclosure has been a huge achievement, as mentioned in the last blog post, but equally as successful has been our new flying teams of birds and owls.

A scheduled owl display at 4.00pm (which will continue on weekend openings) has seen many visitors crowd in around the dell to get a close up view of these awesome, silent flyers. Our team of owls have been rotated around to provide different displays most days, and with new owls joining the team in a few weeks and earlier next year this ensures the displays will only get more varied and better.

The raptors are also proving to put on a good show. Many of you have seen me fly "Fin", one of our buzzards, over the deer park in recent weeks, and Jack the Peregrine is back in training after his moult and will make his first official public appearance this coming Saturday, the 4th of September.

Hoping to add another kestrel to the team this year as well as a sparrowhawk and a bit of a surprise bird (stay tuned) for next year, again this promises to only get better and I hope to have an official bird of prey display up and running for next year in the mornings to compliment the owls in the afternoon.

Lots of plans for over the Winter months. New enclosures, moving animals around even more photographic opportunities!!! Keep in touch with all this here on the Keepers Blog. On the quiet weeks I will update you all with videos and photos of some of the individual animals as well as animal profiles to tie us over until the new arrivals start to appear again.

Red Squirrels

Our Walk-Through Red Squirrel Enclosure is going from strength to strength. The squirrels we currently have in there are settling down extremely well over the Summer opening period, and many of them come up really close to see what is going on.

I am planning on introducing a further batch of squirrels out there next week, this should bring the total up to around 30 ish which we believe is the capacity of the Copse. Included in these will be a few females, so you never know, next year may bring a few litters of kittens for you to see out in the open.

If you are planning on visiting over the end of the Summer school holiday, or over the coming weekends, then the best times of day to see the squirrels are for the first and last hour we are open. We feed the squirrels during the morning keeper talk which sees a number of them coming up to hand feed from the keeper, they then stay around feeding for a while before resting up during the middle of the day. They are still visible, but you have to be more patient to see them. Then they start a second burst of activity from around 4pmish till we close at 5pm, and this has seen many good photo opportunities from budding photographers.

Red Squirrel eager to come and see what I am up to...

Owner David Mills saying hello to one of the residents

David Mills feeding one of the many friendly squirrels in the enclosure

Our new enclosure provides some great photo opportunities