Ah here i sit with a cup of tea late in to the wee hours of the night with a cocker spaniel buried deep beneath the blankets on the sofa and a rather tubby Lab at my feet, what a perfect scene, Well this month has been a VERY busy month with sessions both on site and off site, I made a grown woman cry (with joy) when i walked into her living room with a Barn Owl as a surprise and spent a wonderful afternoon at a care home in Woodley with the wonderful patients, it was hard to tell who got more fuss Lady or Willow.

Sadly the 3 eggs that Tom my Harris was sitting were all infertile and she is now off them, but on a happy note Lu my Volunteer / Lifeline is anxiously waiting for news from a Barn Owl breeder whom we are hoping to get a youngster from.

Two little points for this month, I have recently become addicted to a website showing live streams of a pair of peregrines nesting in London – Wildlife Whisperer. Here is the link so you too can sit for ages just staring at a sitting hen and get all excited when she lifts off and you get to see the yummy cute chicks!!

Finally, something that i talk about alot……poo. I just wanted to share with you the wonderful discovery a friend on mine made on a trip to the supermarket…….Owl Toilet roll!!!! LOVE IT!

Well its been a very busy month following the horrid break in, including two school visit, brownie and cub visits, lots of Hawk walks with Roxie and Jack (one of which turned into a nightmare with Jack catching a baby rabbit which he promptly was able to pick up and carry in to the thickest buckthorn hedge and i had to commando crawl under to retrieve him!) and we have also had a new addition to the team, Beth, an 8 week old Labrador.

One of the high lights of this month was a trip to Andover to the Hawk Conservancy with Lu and Tabitha. Obviously in a whole different league to Feathers and Fur, it was wonderful to see the birds and get some fab ideas for things such as the photography settings and designs on aviaries. It was also nice to see the displays and listen to other falconers. I think i much prefer my personalized sessions though as i feel it’s nice to get to know the bird’s individual personality. That was one of my biggest surprises when i first got into falconry, the fact that birds have personalities and how very different they all are and how they manifest themselves, I think that comes across in the Feathers and Furs sessions. It was lovely to spend time on the other side of the Falconry bag though and I partook in a hobby that im not very good at, taking photos, but i thought i would put up a few that i was particularly proud of. One is of a white Headed Vulture and the other a Kite.

Our Groupon Sessions have been filling up very quickly and the days have been fun filled, i can honestly say its exhausting doing a show for so many people but i LOVE the fact that i have helped teach everyone something that they in turn will teach someone else.

Spring has also been causing a few problems with poor old Billie Jean our European Eagle Owl. She started to get broody a few weeks ago but last week she was happy enough to lay an egg! Obviously its not fertile and its not fair to allow her to sit on it knowing full well it wont hatch – also diary is full and she needs to earn her keep!- so i removed it and tethered her for a few days to get rid of the broodiness and luckily its worked, but not before she showed me her displeasure and refused to fly!! Never work with birds and children!!

So I am off to eat dinner since birds, dogs, animals, even the pot plants have all been fed before me and hopefully you might stop in to visit us this Easter Weekend and have a go at handling an Owl (£1 towards our ‘Owl Project’ – (not towards chocolate for Falconers I promise!!)

Lu has been working very hard with Roxie to bring her back into work and the picture is of her first free flight, she is massive, flying at 2.5lb which is even bigger than Tom. We tried her on the dummy bunny and I can honestly say i would NOT like to be on the receiving end of her power in hunting season!!!

Finally on a horrid note some awful low lives broke into our shed for the sole purpose of stealing our CCTV hard drive which wouldn’t have even recorded them as it was not pointing the right way as they broke into Berkshire Exotics. Thank fully all they wanted was the hard drive but I can honestly say as i saw the door open and the gate all smashed i felt my heart turn to stone and sheer panic. All the birds were safe, sitting on one leg looking at me all peacefully but this is the mess that surrounded them, I can only imagine the fear they must have felt as it almost mirrored mine at the fear i had lost them. These birds are not just birds i use to teach with but they are my life, my friends and my purpose of every day.

Sorry that was rather heart felt. Any how i have been researching Medieval Falconry for a trip to a school i am doing tomorrow and i came across this quote, bear with me its rather long but i really like it. It is also in old English so i will roughly translate here but you’ll get the gist!

“The element wherein the Falconer prefers to trade is the Air, and though he deals sometimes with water, yet he prefers the air before it, that yields him the most recreation. For it is unable to stop the high soaring of his falcon. In it she flies to such a height, that being lost to the sight of mortals , she seems to converse with heaven alone, and like Icarus endangers her wings to be scorched by sun beams and yet is fearless. Cutting the fluid air with the nimble pinions, making her high way over the steepest mountains and deepest rivers, and in her loft career looks down with seeming contempt on the greatest glories we most estimate. And yet such is her loyalty and obedience to her master that a word from his mouth shall make her swoop and condescend. Nicholas Cox 1677

(this author obviously never met Jack –my Harris Hawk!!)

Well Tabitha and I worked our way around the centre clearing a path and then set to work on a very important task….snowman building with Holly.

Our brand new aviaries are all up and running (even caught Tom, Sam and Poplar sitting at the front of them with small piles of snow on their heads!!) I cannot believe the transformation in Poplar, he just loves being at head height and is much much calmer. They are all enjoying a yummy diet, rat is on the menu tomorrow.

Very sad week though in the passing of my favourite mouse Mr Jingles. He was the father to all the mice we bred for food and he had a wonderful life. Mrs Jingles has now moved to my house as apose to the shed as i worry that her tissue and hay bed is a little chillier without Mr Jingles to snuggle up too!! And who said i was a ruthless hunter.

We also bought 3 new Ferrets this week, Ringo, Mischa, and Poppy, we adopted them from a wonderful centre called Star Rescue Ferrets. I shall post some pictures next week.

For now i shall finish on my picture of the week……Wingnut.

You’ll be pleased to know that spring is springing here at Feathers and Fur, with Willows hormones all over the place and the birds starting to drop feathers left right and centre. It’s been a busy few weeks with the construction of 3 new aviaries well underway. At the time of writing I am hoping to finish the whole lot in two days time and then Poplar, Tom, Sam and Tilia will relocate to their posh new accommodation. I’ll get some pictures up next time. For now I thought I would mention the Valentine Special on the Hawk Walks – 2 adults for the price of 1, perfect for a romantic stroll in the country and Gents it’s the only time that you can safely have a bird on each arm (admittedly ones got feathers!!) I also wanted to show you a few of my favourite photos of the last few days.

I was trying to get a picture of our now adult Gambian Pouch Rat, Bella to show you how she has grown since i took the first wine bottle picture. But as you can see she is not impressed with the camera and only wanted to show her bum!!! 

This is Lady playing with her best friend, a Golden Retiever ‘Molly’. Its so funny to watch them play and you can often see the pure joy they have on their faces when they are together.

And this photo of Mouse was taken by a wonderful customer during his Hands on Session, Mouse is a total angel!

]]> http://www.feathersandfur.co.uk/2012/01/22/rats-and-angels/feed/ 0 http://www.feathersandfur.co.uk/2012/01/06/happy-new-year-2/ http://www.feathersandfur.co.uk/2012/01/06/happy-new-year-2/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:20:09 +0000 Sadie http://www.feathersandfur.co.uk/?p=1029 Happy New Year, I hope that everyone has made their new year’s resolutions and since we are well into the first week I hope not too many have been broken, I lost out to the cutting back on chocolate at around 1pm on New Year’s Day!! I was however chasing Ariel who decided that she wanted to stop out over night and watch all the fire works!!!

Any way I was drawn to the topic of this blog following both Ariel’s escapades and the recent bad winds. I want to talk about commitment and sacrifice that comes with owning animals. I consider my position to be a little extreme as I have chosen to surround and base my life with animals but even if you simply own a rabbit or own a complete menagerie the sacrifices are the same. If I had a pound for each time someone has told me they would love to own a bird I would be a very rich lady but my first question is do you have the time and then to point out that in the 2 years that I have owned Feathers and Fur I have had 9 days off! (Thank you Lu!)

I can’t just up and leave on a romantic break away with my better half, I can’t lay in bed all day with a bad head after celebrating the new year, I can’t down tools and run to the aid of friend in emotional need with pots of ice cream! I made a total commitment to my animals and they have to come first, they cannot get their own food or water or clean themselves out.

With regards to sacrifice I stayed home on New Year’s so I could be up at the crack of dawn to search for Ariel, and in the past strong winds both I and Robert were out in our pyjamas at 4am checking that aviary roofs were still intact, and giving up sleep is not something I do easily!!!!

But you’ll be pleased to know that Ariel returned home safely, not before I got to wonder around some huge and wonderful garden on Scarlett’s Lane and all the roofs stayed safe and sound in place and two days on I have caught up on lost sleep!!!!

I would just like to take a moment and thank Ethan and his younger brother Robert for Ethan’s wonderful kindness and skill when he bought along a new dog toy he made for Lady. As you can see she totally loves it and spent the rest of the afternoon showing everyone that came to visit her favourite new toy. Thank you Ethan, woof!!!

Well this year has been an amazing learning curve for me as a business owner and such a busy year for a young business. We ran two very successful Groupon Deals, spent a wonderful summer holidays teaching children during their holiday club, spent many many perfect hours at Camp Mohawk with some amazing children and carers (and a very noisy wood pecker!), been to many exciting birthday parties and seen some wonderful owl and a falcon cakes! Spent hours looking for lost birds and mourning the loss of one. Made wonderful friends, taken thousands of photos, laughed, smiled, gesticulated wildly, met the very handsome Steve Backshall and talked to many hundreds of people that share in my immeasurable love of the amazing birds and animals that make up team Feathers and Fur.

Phew, could someone please pass the mince pies?

Merry Christmas Everyone x

Hello and welcome to all our new Group-on friends and thank you choosing to spend your time in the company of Feathers and Fur and gain an insight into the world of falconry.

Whether you’re joining us for Hands on Falconry session or you’re a budding photographer who’s snapped up a Photography session this page will inform you of everything you need to know to enable you to book your experience session.

On our website you will find a handy Group-on calendar that will advise you the available dates for your experience these date will be continuously updated dependant on volume with more to follow in January.

We ask that when you make a booking you e-mail us your copy of the voucher or vouchers obtained, your chosen date from the Group-on calendar, we will then e-mail you back to confirm your date and time and then all you need to do is sit back and look forward to your session

Unfortunately telephone booking cannot be made as we need to have visual confirmation of your voucher to register your session.

Spectator are welcome but will be charged at an additional rate of £5.00per person and we ask that this is kept to a minimum of 1 spectator per voucher.

We ask you to notify us 24hrs before your session if you will be unable to make your appointment all late cancellation are non-refundable.

Our hands sessions will start at 10.00am until 12.00 and our photography sessions will start at 2.00pm until 3.00pm we ask that you arrive promptly to ensure your groups session starts on time and sensible and appropriate clothing is worn.

Thank and we look forward to seeing you soon

The Feathers and Fur Team

Fear not Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre has the answer with 20% off our Half Day Hands on Sessions or 2 for 1 on our adult Hawk Walks.

Both the perfect gift for anyone. Now what to get my family??? I don’t think my mum has done a Hawk Walk yet but frustratingly my sister is afraid of birds!!!!

Well in terms of news it is all birdie, that time of year has come around when young Harris Hawks are ready to be whisked away from their parents only to be sold to inexperienced, irresponsible people whom after only a few days will lose their bird and then people like myself have to take on these birds with absolutely no way to locate or contact the owner as they were too stupid to register their bird with a IBR ring or microchip it. Sorry if i sound angry but this is an issue that I feel very strongly about. Weekly i come across people that want to own a bird and it is something that takes time to think about and time to actually learn what you are doing, this is a live animal not something you can read about in a book and guess at. Any way rant over, three weeks ago a friend bought in a Harris Hawk he had been called too in a local town, found sitting in a local patch of parkland. He bought it to me and I have to admit I had my fingers crossed it would be a male, a potential friend for Lilly (who has been with us for 1 year now, after being found on a roof top in Henley), unfortunately it turned out to be a ‘she’. Wonderful as she was I knew her stay with us would be short lived as I simply don’t have the space for another Harris Hawk!! However I got her flying free and really rather liked her but she most certainly had a hunting edge to her which made me a little uneasy when it comes to working alongside children. After posting on a forum about the atrocity of Harris Hawks becoming almost a disposable bird, i met a gentleman working in Guildford as a pest controller and he offered to take Mesha on for me (yes i have to admit to succumbing to X factor names!!). This week i drove to deliver Mesha and meet Jake, his 4 falcons and beautiful dog on his Landfill site. Now this was first for me, and although i have been offered pest control work before I have always turned it down as I was not sure about working the Landfill (i think i have seen too many CSI episodes!!). I was really taken with Jake and his team and although it was worlds away from the neatly manicured astro turf and white painted walls of my world, i was impressed at Jakes ingenious use of scavenged bits (a man totally after my own heart) and the wonderful fitness and condition of his birds – even if Jake is the king of Ace Ventura impressions!! (sorry Jake). I was honoured to see them fly and keep those gulls at bay waiting for the 4 o’clock hour that Jake headed home. I am totally convinced that Mesha has found the perfect working home and will be entered on quarry long before Santa starts his rounds.

Lastly, i would like to introduce you to Mouse / Halo – our new Common Buzzard. Now i will be the first to admit that the past two years have not been good for me and Buzzards what with Tilia and her brain damage and then Otis and i simply not settling together. So i have taken steps towards the perfect Bird, Mouse nicknamed for his wonderful squeak but Halo as he has a pretty ring of white feathers on the back of his head is just a youngster and has been crèche reared at a wonderful centre in Lancashire. Here is to knowing that he is going to be a stunner and a perfect addition to the team.

On a closing note Ladds Garden Village is having a Christmas Fair on the 11th of December where you will be able to meet owls and handle reptiles plus we’ll have hunt the Santa, pony rides and craft stalls all for charity.