Members Newsletter February 2005

The Editors Page

As we go into a new year it looks like this year is starting as busy as last year ended. This is great news for the centre, lets hope it continues throughout the year.

We have already started to think about this years fund raising activity and any suggestions would be much appreciated. It needs to be something everybody can join in with so that we can beat last years amount raised.

Some of you may know that I am also a volunteer at the centre and I am now putting on my volunteer hat to beg for help. We have several large projects on the go at the moment including the building of an aviary for eagles, refurbishing a building to become a fantastic education centre and redesigning the hospital to give better care to injured birds of prey. All of these projects require specialist skills like carpentry, electrics and plastering. If anybody is willing to donate their time or materials or both it would be very much appreciated. Contact myself by email or the centre on 01487 741140.

Dave Blows
Newsletter Editor

Hospital News

Summary of all birds that passed through the hospital in 2004.

Total number of birds through the hospital in 2004 was 112. The average cost to treat each bird is between £200 - £300. This is why a large portion of funds raised goes into running the hospital and saving as many of the birds as we can.

This year has already been very busy with 9 birds through the hospital in the first few weeks of the year. Of those birds three Tawny owls, two Barn owls, a Kestrel and a Sparrow Hawk have already been re-released. Unfortunately one Kestrel and one Sparrow Hawk died. That's not a bad average in what is bound to be yet another busy year for the hospital.

The Training Of Troy

People frequently ask me why I like birds of prey so much and I have never really felt I was able to explain why. I used to just give the response “they just have an appeal to me”. I have been a volunteer at the centre for around one and a half years now and two months ago Liz asked me if I would like to take on the project of training a rescued Red-Tailed Hawk named Troy and I jumped at the opportunity. Troy is now a free flying bird and now when people ask me why I like birds of prey so much, I now tell them the story of Troy's training.

When I was first asked if I would like to train Troy I was excited because I had never really thought about doing something like it before, I was also quite nervous because I thought I would make mistakes along the way and also because I was unsure whether I had enough experience to carry out such a task. I knew I had to take the training slowly as I have heard in the past how training has gone wrong simply because of it being rushed.

The first thing I did with troy was manning, which is the process by which a bird is tamed by holding it on the gloved fist and feeding it on the glove. By feeding the bird on the glove it gives it a trust for you.

Troy was quite tame when I first started to work with him however he did bate off the glove, which is when the bird jumps off the glove trying to get away, quite a bit. With time however he got better to the point where he would jump on to the gloved fist with no hesitation and would just sit happily on the fist. He was then ready to have his weight cut down. By cutting down a bird's weight you will be making it respond more to you. While I was cutting Troy's weight back I fed him on the fist every night which meant he saw me as a source of food and again strengthened the bond that we were forming. By the time I had brought Troy's weight down by six ounces I felt he was really starting to respond to me. It was at this point I felt Troy was ready to make leash hops which are the early stages of training a bird to fly you get the bird to jump the length of its' leash for its' food. At first Troy was quite reluctant to jump for his food but as he began to do it automatically I reduced the food from being whole chicks down to chick legs which he would eventually be flying for. As soon as he would jump to the glove for the offered legs I put him onto the creance. The creance is a light nylon training line. The word creance is French for trust and a bird is on it because you don't trust it. When I had Troy on the creance I gradually moved from jumps to short flights for legs and ending every day on a longer flight for a larger reward, by doing this it meant that he felt he was rewarded for doing well. Within a week I had Troy flying the full distance across the flying area. After a few days of flying on the creance it was time for free flight. This was delayed by almost a whole week due to bad weather conditions. I was really excited when the time came to let him go but I was also really nervous because I no longer had a training line to stop him flying away, he could just fly off if he wanted to. I was reluctant at first to let him go but then I just bit the bullet and let him go. To my relief he flew to me just the same as he had on the creance. I then flew Troy every day so that he could build muscle to allow him to fly further and for longer. Troy now pops up in flying displays and will usually fly problem free, he is now starting to allow the wind to carry him so all he has to do is spread his wings and jump off the post he is on and glide.

I wouldn't have been able to achieve any of this if it wasn't for Liz and other members of staff at the centre giving me help and guidance so I feel the success is down to them and I am very grateful for all the help and support I was given.

Thanks.
Craig Henderson
Volunteer