HawkTalk Issue 89 Winter 2021

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HAWKTALK WINTER 2021 ISSUE 89

A message from our Chief Executive Penny Smout CEO

In this issue

Visit us this winter EVENTS Members’ Working Day – Sunday 5 December Winter Woodland Lights – 14-30 January 2022. Our newest event and one like no other. Find out more and book at www.hawk-conservancy.org/events/winter-woodland-lights/. CHRISTMAS During the Christmas holidays, book a peaceful visit outside, enjoying quality time with your loved ones, without any pressures. Please note that the Trust will be closed on 22, 25 and 26 December. We recommend booking your visit early to secure the date of your choice. You can also book a scrumptious Christmas lunch in Feathers Restaurant. Available 27 November - 21 December. Please email info@hawkconservancy.org for more information and to book. Take a look at the menu on our website: www.hawk-conservancy.org/your-visit/feathers-restaurant/. DAY VISIT ACTIVITIES Plan your next visit to us and enjoy a whole variety of activities, many completely different to a visit during the summer months. Here are our top picks of things for you to enjoy with us this winter:

Visit us this winter

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A perfect partnership Fascinating feathers The role of a Director

The change of the clocks in the autumn always takes some adjustment with the dark evenings, but it is not an idle time at the Trust. It is a time for change and development.

at the Trust New partnership

We have a whole new timetable – the Bird Team start preparing for this well in advance – and new birds in the displays. A welcome return of some of our favourite stars and of the British Bird Encounter. Winter chills are the perfect excuse for that luxurious hot chocolate and a hearty lunch. You can always walk it off with a tour of the park afterwards. While you are on your tour of the park, you will see that construction work is underway by the Woodland Arena. This is also the time of year when we typically start some of our bigger development projects on site. This particular project is going to stay under wraps for a while, so we can celebrate with a grand unveiling of what we hope you will agree is a fantastic addition to the woods. It is only the first step, and you will see pockets around this area transformed to create a beautiful setting. We are also going to be working on other parts of the park, and if we are successful in securing a grant (fingers crossed), will have some exciting news for displays in Reg’s Wildflower Meadow and for our school and educational visits. It is going to be a busy time, we hope. I hinted last time that we were in discussions with a prospective partner. I am delighted that we have been able to announce that Investec has become an official partner, supporting some of our education, research and rehabilitation work. We are pleased to have them alongside us. As we have had COP26 recently, I wanted to share that we regularly look at ways we can improve our sustainability. We have had issues with the heating in Feathers Restaurant for some time, and have taken the step of replacing it with electric heaters, which was the more sustainable option compared to oil. All our electricity comes from renewable sources and before too long we hope to have our own solar panels. We are also aware that we are not a very sustainable place to travel to. We are working on ways of improving this – please keep those fingers crossed for that grant! It is the time of year for budgeting. We are daring to hope that 2022 will not bring new lockdowns, and that we can renew and expand our conservation and research work. We have managed to keep things going in Pakistan; the birds in the breeding centre certainly didn’t notice a pandemic. However, due to travel restrictions, we have had limited ability to work in South Africa, but through our Project Officer Andre Botha and collaboration with Angus Anthony at Kimberley, we have managed to keep things ticking over there, too. We do have quite a bit of catching up to do though! The silver lining in all this is that the enforced confinement to barracks has given us the opportunity to look at ways we can do more in the UK, and we hope some potential alliances may take our work in a really exciting direction in 2022. I hope to see some of you at the Members’ Working Day on Sunday 5 December and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. While we are very much focused on 2022, there is a special time of year ahead with Christmas 2021. Our hopes are high that this will be a year to celebrate with our families, and that the familiar customs of the season can be honoured. At the Trust, we will be thinking of you and of your support through the last two years. We certainly couldn’t have weathered this storm without you behind us and know how fortunate we are that you are on our side. Thank you, we are deeply grateful. We hope you have the happiest of Christmases and the healthiest of years in 2022.

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with Investec What’s it like being a conservation intern? Get ready for Christmas

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Dates for your diary

Members’ Working Day , Sunday 5 December Winter Woodland Lights , Friday 14 to Sunday 30 January Owls by Moonlight , Selected weekends during autumn and spring Tickets for above events all on sale at www.hawk-conservancy.org/events or call us on 01264 773 850. At the beginning of every year we close in order to undertake vital maintenance and development projects. The dates that we will be closed for this work will be Wednesday 5 January to Friday 11 February 2022 . Feathers Restaurant and the Trust shop will remain open during this time and we will be open in the evening for our Winter Woodland Lights event (14-30 Jan).

Don’t forget that we will be closed Wednesday 5 January to Friday 11 February 2022. Feathers Restaurant and the Trust shop will remain open during these times. We’ll be open in the evening for Winter Woodland Lights, 14-30 January.

Arguably, the loudest member of our team, Sirius the Striated Caracara is back with his cheeky ways, to show off how incredibly intelligent this species is. You know how much we love vultures, so while our summer team enjoy a well-earned rest, our team of New World Vultures are back to fly the flag for this fantastic yet underrated group of birds. You can enjoy watching Chips and Pike our Black Vultures and Burdock the Turkey Vulture. Calling all owl lovers! During the winter, our Woodland Owls display takes place at 11:30am and, as ever, we try to squeeze as much adorable owl-cuteness into this display as we can! Teddy the Long-eared Owl and Wispa the Boobook Owl have recently returned to the team, and soon to join them will be Sage the Tawny Owl and Cinnamon the Siberian Eagle-Owl. We’re excited to introduce you to Melchett the African White-backed Vulture and Flashheart the White-headed Vulture. In fact, we’ve shared news about them in our summer edition of HawkTalk this year after they hatched in spring, but they have now been named according to our theme this year, Blackadder. Melchett is currently living in our large Vulture Restaurant aviary with its parents, and Flashheart is living with Cassius and Simba, two of our other African White-backed Vultures. For children, don’t miss our giant Top Trumps activity trail!

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Synonymous with winter, the return of Sweeney Todd the Snowy Owl to our displays team is something that we all look forward to every year. This winter, enjoy her characteristic low flying and adorable walking in our World of Birds of Prey display. New for this winter, in World of Birds of Prey, look out for the majestic silhouettes of our White Storks in the display finale! Our popular British Bird Encounter is back for the winter season. Each day you can witness a different British species take to the Hampshire skies to show off their very different flight styles, including Saxon the Golden Eagle, Lester the Merlin, Farah and Raj our Peregrine Falcons, and Charlie our Barn Owl. For our British Bird Encounter, we’ll also fly either a second British bird of prey or you may be lucky enough to get a glimpse behind the magic of our displays to see some training with one of our younger birds. This may include Cooper the Variable Hawk, Nutmeg or Willow the Lanner Falcon (they’re actually very experienced birds but they’re helping train Ben from our Bird Team in how to fly a falcon; a very tricky skill!), Wallace the Bald Eagle and Sarabi the Lugger Falcon.

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Hawk Conservancy Trust Visitor Centre, Sarson Lane, Weyhill, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 8DY T: 01264 773 850 E: info@hawkconservancy.org www.hawk-conservancy.org

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REGISTERED CHARITY NO: 1092349

youtube.com/user/hawkconservancytrust justgiving/hawkconservancy @HawkConservancy

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OFFICIAL PARTNERS

CORPORATE SPONSORS

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