Zoo Trip #66: Hawk Conservatory Trust (Wed 22 May)

Both Refna and I have birthdays this week and so went on a joint celebratory outing. Last year we went to Slimbridge for the day, this year it was the turn of the excellent Hawk Conservatory Trust near Andover in Hampshire. The guides were all saying that this was the best day of the year so far for the flying conditions and quality of the birds' performances in the three displays. The first bird we saw was their African fish eagle, Othello, who swooped from a great height of 2,000 feet at 60 mph, and later this was trumped by a peregrine tiercel whose descent was measured live on a GPS gadget at 133 mph.

Refna had not been there before and rated it very highly, particularly liking the sections when groups of birds flew together (vultures, white storks, sacred ibises, yellow-billed kites, all soaring or swooping low just above the audience). We had a picnic lunch by a vulture enclosure, watched by one on a ledge and with a Steppes Eagle on a log in front of us.

The blip shows Danebury, a North American bald eagle who had just flown back during the second display from East Cholderton, from where he had been released a few minutes earlier, a journey he had been enjoying for twenty years almost daily. The final display took place in a woodland and featured my favourite owl, Troy, a ten-year old tawny owl still making baby calls to the flyers who he regards as his parents.

A great day.

L.
24.5.2019 (1455 hr)

Blip #2931 (#2681 + 250 archived blips taken 27.8.1960-18.3.2010)
Consecutive Blip #002
Blips/Extras In 2019 #108/265 + #047/100 Extras
Day #3345 (761 gaps from 26.3.2010)
LOTD #2075 (#1916 + 159 in archived blips)

Zoo Trip series
Hawk Conservancy Trust series
Falconry series
Hampshire series
Birds Of Prey series

Taken with Nikon Coolpix P900 (24-2000mm equivalent bridge camera)

Hawk Conservancy Trust, 22 May 2019 (Flickr album of 70 images)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Johnny Flynn - Detectorists Theme (Series 3 Version) (2014-2017)
As well as being a hill fort in Hampshire, Danebury is also the name of the fictional village in The Detectorists. The field where Andy and Lance of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club did their detectoring was threatened with a solar farm development. Johnny Flynn (who plays Johnny Piper in one episode) contributed the theme tune, which had an extra verse in the third and final series).

One year ago:
Zoo Trip #64: Slimbridge