HawkTalk Issue 90 Spring 2022

SPRING 2022 ISSUE 90

As COVID restrictions have lifted and the promise of spring is on the horizon, at the Hawk Conservancy Trust we are feeling excited about the months ahead. Over the past two years it was necessary to suspend, modify and replace some activities, both within our research and conservation work and also onsite at the park, due to the pandemic. We are delighted to be returning to our pre-pandemic activities. Our team will be returning overseas in 2022. It has been a relief to have our UK-based field staff safely at home over the last couple of years, but our team are itching to get back to Africa. At the park, we return to a full daily timetable, all year round, with activities paced throughout the day. Our eagles will be flying across the valley once more, something we have all missed! Danebury, our Bald Eagle, is already flying on some days and we are planning for others to join him throughout the year. A measured return to normal

There will be some new activities appearing from Easter, including ‘Nifty Nest-builders’ an interesting insight to nest-building with a chance to take part. There will also be ‘A Mindful Moment’ which will give you the opportunity to take some time out in our tranquil surroundings and hear a little about how proximity to our birds and nature can positively affect well-being. The timetable will begin with a ‘Good Morning with the Vultures’ which will be your chance to get your Dolores fix, which we know many of you need from a visit to the Trust. And don’t forget, your day can always begin early, with something from the delicious breakfast range in Feathers Restaurant and an amble around the park, often the quietest time on the grounds. While the restrictions have lifted nationally, we are listening to feedback and have chosen to keep a capacity limit in place to provide ample space for all, while the virus is still prominent. Pre-booking your visit is advised if you would like to guarantee your visit for a chosen date, although it is possible to visit without pre-booking, subject to spaces being available. Book your visits and come and see our beautiful birds as many times as you can!

A message from our Chief Executive Penny Smout CEO

In this issue

The Marvels of Moulting Egyptian Vulture Project 04 Marion Paviour Award 2021 06 Lights, Music, Owls 08 … Action! Winter in the National 09 Bird of Prey Hospital™ It’s o-FISH-al … 10 Owlets 11 Biodiversity Breakfast , Saturday 7 May Exclusive Members’ Event , Saturday 11 June BioBlitz , Saturday 18 June Flight at the Movies , Saturday 25 June African Sunset Safari , Saturday 9 July and Friday 29 July Top Trumps , Saturday 16 July and Friday 5 August Sky Hunters at Sunset , Saturday 17 September Tickets for above events all on sale at www.hawk-conservancy.org/events or call us on 01264 773 850. 03 Dates for your diary

I am writing this as we are in the process of recovering from the impact of Storm Eunice. After that trauma, the arrival of spring flowers and the occasional glimpse of the sun does rather lift the spirits!

The storm was a very scary experience for those at the park, and also worrying for those of us at home concerned about their safety. While we have lost some of our major aviaries and other structures, I am so thankful that no one was hurt, and all the birds affected were swiftly and safely relocated. Volunteers and staff have been working hard to clear up the debris and make the site safe. Our crack team from Saqqara IT managed to get us up on a wireless link after our broadband went down which impacted our emails, tills and web shop. The team’s response, across the board, has made me hugely proud. It has certainly added some extra challenge to what was already going to be a busy year. We have so much to catch up on after the last two years. We have a number of development plans on the park and are delighted to announce that we were successful in securing the grant I mentioned last time. It will support several areas: our education programme will benefit from a proper outdoor classroom, our sustainability and appeal to electric vehicle drivers will be enhanced by installing charging points, and, of course, we have some plans to improve our displays. These will all be appearing over the rest of this year, so keep your eyes peeled to spot the changes! With the lifting of restrictions, we are so delighted to be able to invite you all back for our favourite activities. The highlight of the calendar is always our annual big event, this year themed a Flight at the Movies; it will be such a tonic after being kept apart for so long. While embracing our ability to reunite, we do have news of a departure to convey. Judy Lewis, from our Feathers Restaurant team, has decided to retire after nearly 15 years at the Trust. We will certainly miss her but definitely want to celebrate all that she has done for the Trust and hope she will visit often. We are keen to ramp our conservation work back up and get going on some exciting new projects. We have research and conservation projects lined up in South Africa just waiting for the UK team to return, and new projects in the UK we are eager to launch. While work in South Africa was limited by travel restrictions, our UK Raptor Nest Box Project has been struggling to keep up with demand! It has been really exciting that so many land owners are keen to engage with us, and we have enlisted the support of kind volunteers, including John Hanson school, to build some of the boxes. We are always on the lookout for handy carpenters to help with this, so please do get in touch if you have both talent and time on your hands! You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve provided a comfortable home for our favourite owls and Kestrels, and more importantly, their chicks! Have you been following the travels of our three Uzbek Egyptian Vultures? Such a fascinating glimpse into their early lives. They are currently in Yemen, India and on the India/Pakistan border. The one on the border, my favourite as it is coincidentally shares its name with our Finance Manager, Anya, is not far from the Vulture Safe Zone in Sindh, Pakistan, that we have been supporting. Just shows what a small place we all live in and how important is it to work to protect the natural world everywhere. I hope we will see you before too long and that you are looking forward to our Members evening in June. See you then!

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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HAWKTALK SPRING 2022 ISSUE 90

The Marvels of Moulting

Photo: Charles James Sharp

In the last edition of HawkTalk , we included an insight into feathers and promised to include a follow-up article to explore what happens when a bird moults; a truly fascinating process. Most birds moult their feathers annually because over time feathers wear out or may become damaged. Moulting is when a bird sheds those old feathers to make way for new ones. Damage to bird feathers occurs almost continuously, through exposure to UV light, abrasion against vegetation and occasional breakages that might happen when escaping a predator. The damage caused by these factors reduces feather efficiency, which affects not only how well the bird can fly, but also the protection feathers provide (insulation, waterproofing and camouflage) or how effective they are during displays. To keep all of these functions working correctly birds must replace their feathers. Moulting feathers and growing new ones requires a lot of energy though, because the bird has to change its general physiology and behaviour so it can produce the different proteins (amino acids) that help with feather production – all whilst having its flight performance reduced. Compared with a non-moulting bird, a Robin with a moult lasting around 54 days, needs to find an extra 3 percent of energy each day during the early and late parts of its moult, and up to 20 percent more during mid-moult. This is why moult usually occurs during the summer when food is readily available. Timing of moult is critical. A moulting bird will not fly as well or be able to keep as warm as a bird with new feathers, so it is important that moult is completed quickly before the onset of colder weather or migration. In most birds in the UK, moult of all the flight and body feathers usually occurs just after breeding, during late summer. They will also often have another, more limited, moult of body feathers in the spring, just before breeding.

Juvenile Blackcap moulting its head feathers into adult plumage

Non-moulting male Blackcap

Newly-hatched birds grow their first full set of feathers in the nest. These are kept through the winter before some of the body feathers are replaced during the spring to give a similar plumage to adults – just in time for breeding. After nesting, they will then undergo a complete moult, in which all flight feathers are replaced. Feathers are very worn by this time, so this full set of new feathers are essential to help them survive the coming winter weather. In subsequent years, the moult will follow the same basic pattern; occurring after nesting each year. This timing is the reason many birds seem to disappear and the countryside becomes devoid of birds in late summer; many are replacing feathers and staying in cover and inconspicuous to reduce the chance of being predated. In UK, songbirds’, moult is a sequential process starting with the replacement of the innermost primary. The new feather grows at the base of the old feather, forcing it out and growing in its place. Once around 30-40 percent of its full-grown length, the next primary starts to grow and so on until all primaries are replaced. Replacement of the tail feathers and the inner wing feathers (secondaries and tertias) usually starts when moult in the primaries reaches the fourth, fifth or sixth primary. Moult then continues away from the body in the primaries and inwards towards the body in the secondaries. This sequence helps to minimise disruption to flight performance. For many larger species, especially larger raptors, replacing all flight feathers in one go would cost too much energy and take too long. In these species, moult is usually partial and involves the replacement of perhaps just one or two primaries, five or six secondaries and three or four tail feathers each year. Moult then stops over the winter before resuming at the points they left off in the following summer. Examination of the different ages of feathers in these species’ wings can be used to work out how old the bird is. So, next time you see a Buzzard circling overhead, take a closer look and see if you can detect those feathers which have been replaced.

Buzzard wing – darker feathers are new replacements of those recently moulted

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Egyptian Vulture Project

First ever records of Egyptian Vulture migrations in Central Asia!

We are very excited to share the initial results from this project, showing the first recorded migration routes of Egyptian Vultures in Central Asia. Three tagged Egyptian Vultures surprised us with some fascinating results; they each took very different routes after they fledged in September 2021, with one traveling more than 6000km!

Migration is an extremely dangerous time for birds, and populations of many migratory species are in rapid decline; as is the case for the Endangered Egyptian Vulture. A big challenge with conserving migratory species is that birds often encounter different threats in the different areas where they spend their time. The variation in the threats Egyptian Vultures face is well studied for birds in Europe, Middle East and Africa, but very little is known about the threats to Egyptian Vultures that migrate in Central Asia. The Egyptian Vulture project aims to address this critical gap in knowledge, so enabling us to understand the threats they face and how to implement effective conservation actions for this Endangered species.

The project is run by Dr Robert (John) Burnside at the University of East Anglia, Vladimir Dobrev (Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds), Anna Ten and Valentin Soldatov (Institute of Zoology, Uzbekistan). We are thrilled to be involved in this important research, by funding satellite tags to fit to some of the vultures and sharing exciting updates and news on the project. This research is being carried out in Uzbekistan, which is an ideal location to focus on migratory vultures from the central Asian population. Uzbekistan is also at the crossroads of two major migration flyways used by many bird species, so research on migration routes and the major threats along them is beneficial for a number of species using the flyways.

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In August 2021, the team successfully tagged three juvenile birds, Arys, Anya and Timur. The project will take place over several years, with plans to tag multiple birds each year to gather as much data about their movements as possible. The tags use cutting-edge satellite telemetry technology to track the birds’ movements, give us multiple GPS points per day, and will last for more than three years. This will provide us with a wealth of extremely valuable data and information about the timings and routes of their migrations. Each of the three birds took very different routes after leaving their nests, with some surprising results! All three birds moved south initially, through Turkmenistan. Anya then popped into Iran and moved south through Afghanistan and Pakistan and into India, flying around 2300km. Arys travelled approximately 1500km, south through Afghanistan and Pakistan, and both birds ultimately concluded their journeys to winter in northern India. It seems Arys is quite the tourist, as towards the end of December he visited all three cities in the Golden Triangle in India: New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. He then flew over the India Gate and came within just 200m of the world-famous Taj Mahal! Timur, on the other hand, took a very different route, with an incredible 6200km journey in total! After leaving Uzbekistan and passing through Turkmenistan, he made a much longer journey further to the west with several stops, pausing in Iran, then continuing around the Persian Gulf through Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, eventually reaching Yemen in late November 2021. This was quite unexpected and a major finding for Egyptian Vulture biology, and establishes for the first time that the central Asian populations are connected to the western Egyptian Vultures that live in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. As so little is known about central Asian populations, we are unsure whether birds often migrate as far as Yemen, or whether they would usually spend winter in Iran and Timur’s especially long journey is nomadic behaviour that is sometimes observed in younger birds. So far, we have learnt that the picture is much more complex than we anticipated. Although these three birds are just the beginning, the results from this ground- breaking research are absolutely invaluable for their future conservation.

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Marion Paviour Award 2021 We are thrilled to introduce Jaime Carlino, our 2021 Marion Paviour Award winner.

With the support of the Hawk Conservancy Trust, I am looking forward to another season in the field to collect data and learn more about Barn Owl reproductive success!” On 1 January 2022, Jaime featured as a guest on our podcast Nature’s a Hoot. Tom and Hannah had a fascinating discussion with Jaime, who shared that the favourite prey of the larger Barn Owls in the USA is gophers, and that the average Barn Owl family in the Napa Valley can eat around 3500 rodents a year! She also told them more about the views of wine growers and that Barn Owls are seen as a great species to have around, both in terms of their use to help keep rodent populations in check, in turn protecting their crop, and because the investment in conservation of Barn Owls reflects positively on their businesses as wildlife-friendly wine producers. We recommend you have a listen to find out more about Jaime’s fascinating work. Jaime will continue her field work in March 2022 so watch this space for updates!

Jaime is a graduate student at Humboldt State University (HSU) in California, USA, and the award will go towards her project studying Barn Owls. Jaime’s research project is investigating Barn Owls that live in the Napa Valley, California. It involves finding out where Barn Owls prefer to nest, how healthy they are and what effects these have on how successfully they reproduce. This work is particularly fascinating for us, as it aligns with our British conservation work providing nest boxes for owls and Kestrels. Jaime was born and raised in California’s Central Valley, an area well known for industrial-scale agriculture. Her interest in owls all began when she became involved with a local raptor rehabilitation centre at school! Jaime explains more about her project: “I am extremely passionate about raptors, and have a unique fondness for owls. Working at the raptor rehabilitation centre inspired an interest to study how raptors interact and function in agricultural landscapes. I study Barn Owls occupying nest boxes in the winegrape vineyards of Napa Valley, California. For some context, winegrape growers in this world-renowned wine producing region install nest boxes to encourage Barn Owls, which are thought to provide pest control services by eating rodents. I am studying the effects of habitat preferences and the quality of individual owls on how successfully they reproduce each year. Previous students on the team found that Barn Owls in this area prefer wooden nest boxes at least 3m high, with grassland habitat surrounding the nest box. I am interested in whether these preferences are associated with increased reproductive success each year. In addition, I am also interested in the relationship between reproductive success and individual quality, by measuring variation in breast plumage, morphometrics (body measurements), and age.

Variation in breast plumage spots

Barn Owl chick and adult in a nest box

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100 Club The 100 Club has been going from strength to strength over the past few years, and we are so thankful for the continuing support of all our 100 Clubbers, particularly during the upheaval of the past two years. At the time of writing, our 195 Members hold 262 shares between them, and there is £13,000 in our bank account ready to hand over to the Hawk Conservancy Trust. In March we met with Penny Smout (CEO) and Andy Hinton (Head of Development and Bird Team Mentor) to learn of the Trust’s plans for 2022, about damage caused by the three storms in February and necessary improvements to infrastructure on the park. We have agreed the 100 Club will make donations towards a new Outdoor Classroom and two “launch pads” for the vultures and other large birds to help them get airborne. Andy explained about a drainage issue in front of the Discovery Barn which needs urgent attention. Due to the demand for builders and supplies, it is proving difficult to cost and staff these schemes, but we will keep everyone advised as and when we make donations to the Trust. If you are not yet a member of the 100 Club but would like to learn more, please visit the support section of Hawk Conservancy Trust website, to find “The 100 Club” which gives brief details of how we fundraise for the Trust’s vital conservation, research and education work. John and I will be at the Hawk Conservancy Trust Members’ Evening on Saturday 11 June so please come and have a chat. Finally, invitations are going out to 100 Club Members to attend an exclusive evening at the park on Friday 20 May , so please mark the date in your diaries. James Knight (Bird Team) has agreed to give us a presentation and it is hoped that Jennie Marshall (Bird Team Apprentice) will be presenting a flying display, along with Ben Cox and/or Tom Morath (Bird Team). Tea, refreshments and a raffle are included. These special evenings are always enjoyable, we look forward to seeing as many of our members as possible. Thelma and John Cobbold Members’ Event Book your tickets for Members’ Evening on Saturday 11 June, from 5pm We would like to invite you to our exclusive annual event for members to thank you for your continued support. It will be a fun-filled evening with some exclusive behind-the-scenes insights, updates on our conservation and research work, announcement of the overall winner of our 2021 Photographic Competition and a delicious Barbecue (£5.50 per person) There is a limited capacity, so please pre-book your place on our website or by calling us.

Welcome Lauren

We’re excited to introduce you to our newest team member! Lauren Collins joined our Marketing Team in February. Name: Lauren Job role: Marketing and Communications Executive Favourite thing about working at the Trust: Getting to know all the incredibly passionate people working towards the conservation of birds of prey. Greatest achievement: I didn’t go to university, so working my way up from part-time work at 16 to a career in conservation marketing is a dream come true! A keen environmentalist, Lauren is passionate about protecting and conserving the natural world around us and is looking forward to inspiring others to do the same in fun, new, creative ways. When she’s not at work, Lauren can be found cuddling her rescue cat Pepper, and is looking forward to hopping on a plane again soon to continue travelling and hiking on new adventures!

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Lights, Music, Owls … Action! In January, the Trust presented something unique and magical. A never-before-seen (perhaps even a world first of its kind) event spanning 17 nights throughout the month and offering over 3500 visitors the chance to step into our woods and be immersed in a place of natural magic and mystery.

In the summer of 2020, amid fears for the future of our entire organisation due to the pandemic, we began development of our Winter Woodland Lights event. Our aim, for this new event, was to merge nature and technology to create an evening that would leave anyone who experienced it feeling uplifted and inspired by the natural world. Tom Morath, Events Manager and Bird Team Member, tells us about his creation and development of this event. Sound From the start we didn’t want ‘just another Christmas lights event’. Education is at the core of everything we develop for the visitor experience, and this was no exception. We wanted our visitors to come away from the experience having learned something and, hopefully, with a new- found appreciation of nature and wildlife - especially owls. To do this I set to work writing and recording a commentary – a voice that would accompany the visitor through each part of the journey as they walked the lit grounds, ultimately leading to the heart of the woods where the owls would fly. Viv Broughton, a deeply valued volunteer at the Trust and highly creative member of our team, took my concept and wrote and recorded an original soundtrack for us. This tailor-made music brought our woods to life and set the tone for each area of the story.

Light Developing this event felt like a venture into the unknown. Technology was at the forefront, showing off the trees and owls at their best, so we needed to call in some experts with some lights! We worked closely with the team from Yes Events (who are no strangers to working on huge lighting projects across the country) to create our lighting plan. Although a smaller site than the Yes team are used to, the precision timing and flexibility required to accompany both our soundtrack and our owls in flight was quite a challenge. We knew that every night would be different, depending on what the owls wanted to do, and needed to allow for that. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a vision finally realised as the lights dimmed, a huge suspended globe was lit and our woodland was bathed in ‘moonlight’. And still the best was yet to come… Owls The stars of the show were the owls. Prior to the event, our Bird Team spent weeks working closely with them, preparing them for the event, familiarising them with new lighting, bit by bit. We thought they might be a little put off by the glittering lights or the artificial moon, yet they didn’t give two hoots in all honesty! The owls were wonderful and have never looked more inspiring than they did flying through the sparkling, colourful woodland. I loved developing this event. If you were there in the Woodland Arena, with our pair of Barn Owls gliding on the golden ‘sunrise’, you’ll know how special it was. To share that space with those owls, among the trees we so often taken for granted, was magical. If you didn’t manage to make it, a word to the wise – we’ve just begun production on Winter Woodland Lights 2023. Watch this space …

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Winter in the National Bird of Prey Hospital ™

We were delighted in 2021 to form an official partnership with Investec to help support the vital work in our National Bird of Prey Hospital™ and conservation projects. On 23 November, a Common Buzzard that had been admitted to the hospital was fitted with a tracking unit before being released back into the wild. This buzzard had spent around 12 months in the hospital, after being found grounded in a field in a village local to the Hawk Conservancy Trust, with broken tail and wing feathers. Sadly, a number of these feathers were completely lost, leaving the bird unlikely to survive in the wild in that condition. After a long and careful rehabilitation process by our skilled hospital team, the bird was able to moult and regrow the missing feathers. After its long rehabilitation, we were thrilled to release the Buzzard in Reg’s Wildflower Meadow and follow its movements for several days. It stayed close-by, moving back towards the village where it was found. Unfortunately, however, the tracking unit was found detached from the bird after 10 days or so. It is difficult to know what may have happened and we are hopeful that the bird survived. The transmitter was still attached to the tail feather, so the bird may have simply moulted the feather. However not being able to track it for longer is quite a frustrating outcome for our team. Our hospital remained closed to new wild admissions during December and January to due to Bird Flu (Avian Influenza, AI). AI does tend to peak in wintertime, and in order to protect the Trust birds, we follow a variety of biosecurity measures, such as using footbaths.

Tracked Buzzard on arrival in the hospital

Tail mounted tracking unit

Hospital patients released in November, December 2021& January 2022 Species Buzzard* Kestrel Sparrowhawk Buzzard Reason for admission Trauma Exhausted We are hopeful that AI cases will start to decrease soon so that we can reopen to new admissions, just in time for Tawny Owl chick season! In January there were three birds in recovery in the Hospital, two Red Kites and a Buzzard, all of which are recovering very well. We expect to release all three of the recovering birds within the next few weeks.

Wing injury Wing injury Trauma Car collision

Tawny Owl Tawny Owl

Buzzard released in December

* Released with tracking unit

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It’s o-FISH-al … British fishing birds of prey are awesome!

Species: Osprey Scientific name: Pandion haliaetus

DID YOU KNOW? Most British Ospreys migrate to West African countries such as Senegal, which is a distance of around 3000km!

UK Conservation Status: Amber Wingspan: 145-170cm UK population size: 200-250 breeding pairs

WHAT DO THEY EAT? Yes, unsurprisingly, they mostly eat fish! Ospreys are piscivores, which means they are fish specialists. They are perfectly adapted to catch them and can dive feet first into the water. They use their powerful talons to pierce the fish and pull it up to the surface. They have a reversible outer toe, an adaptation which they use to point the fish forward. Slightly different from the Osprey, White-tailed Eagles primarily catch fish, but also eat mammals and birds such as gulls. They also often scavenge at carcasses. White-tailed Eagles are opportunistic and regularly steal other birds’ food; this is called ‘kleptoparasitism’ – or just plain old-fashioned piracy!

WHERE CAN WE SPOT THEM? Ospreys breed in the UK in summer and migrate to sub- Saharan Africa in winter. In the UK, most Ospreys nest in Scotland but they are also found in parts of England and Wales. They nest close to lakes, rivers and along coastal regions and tend to prefer sheltered areas where waters are calmer for easier foraging. Ospreys are often seen along the south coast during their spring and autumn migrations. White-tailed Eagles are found along rocky coastlines, estuaries, and lakes near the sea. Most of the UK population are found on the west coast of Scotland. However, reintroduction programmes on the east coast of Scotland, in Ireland and on the Isle of Wight, along with their tendency to range widely when young, mean it is now possible to encounter this incredible ‘flying barn door’ almost anywhere in the UK!

DID YOU KNOW? Due to persecution, White-tailed Eagles went extinct in the UK in 1918, returning to our skies 60 years later when reintroductions began.

Species: White-tailed Eagle Scientific name: Haliaeetus albicilla

UK Conservation Status: Amber Wingspan: 200-245cm UK population size: 150 breeding pairs

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What species am I?

Can you identify which bird of prey family these chicks belong to? Use the helpful hints or u nscramble the letters below each picture to work it ou t!

A

B

D

C

t

L

t

l

o

i

w n

o

w

l

y

l

w

e

a

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s

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hint This bird has one of the most recognizable calls of all British birds of prey – a distinct ‘twit-twoo’ of the male and female pair.

hint When fully grown this bird of prey is one of Britain’s smallest, at on average 22cm tall with a 56cm wingspan.

hint This bird will typically nest in holes in trees, or undisturbed buildings such as barns.

hint You may spot this bird hunting by its unique pattern of hovering above fields and roadside verges.

Bird is the Word Can you find the 10 different birds of prey in our wordsearch?

Guess the nest box

Use our helpful hints to work out whic h type of baby bird of prey, Barn owl or Kestrel, should stay in which nest box.

N I L

R Q V P

H L I

Z

Y F L

V

F

D S

L

P W N R

B U Z

F

Z G J J

E M Y

W V F

E

A L

E

J Q F

T D N L

P C A X

R

K W A H S E R B I

R

L O E P

G X

G J T

B

Z A R

W V Z

A W X R

E M

T N S

X N D R

M L L I

G A A B V

R W D Y F

H J I

D A F

M H

K

B

D Z

O

A

R

R H J

E

Q Y

M K J

O N D

V J Q H

P M K

Q P

T M V

Y

F

Y

E O L F

E J

L Y S

G P I

R O X

Y O T

O J L

V D W C

H

T

O H S

N E

H V

N J

H

X O X P

Z M H V

M K

C Q M

T A E

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G W U

G Q T

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kestrel These birds are active during the day, and fledglings will often perch on the edge of the box or on nearby branches.

K U

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Barn Owl This bird is most active at night, and most species stay out of sight during the day.

Answers

Bird is the word: Buzzard, Eagle, Falcon, Harrier, Hawk, Kite, Merlin, Osprey, Owl, Vulture

What species am I?: A. Tawny Owl, B. Little Owl, C. Barn Owl, D. Kestrel Guess the nest box: Barn Owl - green nest box, Kestrel - brown nest box

FUNDRAISING EVENT

FEATURING LIVE BAND OF MUSICIANS AND SINGER

SATURDAY 25 JUNE

We’re delighted to bring back our biggest event of the year. This time, we’ll create a spectacle you simply won’t experience elsewhere. With the accompaniment of a live band of musicians playing and iconic music and singing familiar songs you’ll know and love from some of the best movies of all times, our birds will grace the skies above Reg’s Wildflower Meadow, while you sit back and savour them in flight as they glide in time to the music.

We’ll bring firm favourites alive in true Hawk Conservancy Trust style. You’ll experience moments inspired by movies during the evening with a combination of music, birds and costume that will be uplifting. Whether it’s a line from a film, a piece of music or a song you can hum or sing along to, we’ll transport you into the movies such as Lion King, Mission Impossible and Harry Potter, as only we can, with our beautiful birds flying overhead. As this will be our largest display of the year, you can expect us to fly more birds in one display for this night only!

Sky Hunters at Sunset

16 JULY & 5 AUGUST

17 SEPTEMBER

FUNDRAISING EVENT

7 MAY Biodiversity Breakfast

9 JULY & 29 JULY

BOOK ONLINE NOW

www.hawk-conservancy.org/events