![\"Happy](\"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/image26.jpg\")
<\/a>We finally get around to organising a somewhat belated birthday celebration for Gerald Durrell and her friends and we take her to the Hawk Conservancy nearby. \u00a0We had previously been members of the Conservancy so the Tribe, other than the Littlest, \u00a0know it extremely well. \u00a0Despite being world renowned for its work in the fields of conservation, education, rehabilitation and research, I still feel that it is not particularly well known locally; I know that it was only when Gerald Durrell had a summer outing with the Abbotts Ann Nursery School that I first visited and became aware of it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The founder was Reg Smith, a son of a butcher, born and bred in Andover. \u00a0From childhood he was always fascinated in natural history but his ambition was to become a farmer. \u00a0 In 1952 he bought Sarson Farm, the current site of the Hawk Conservancy where he and his wife took in orphaned animals. \u00a0As finances were tight he followed a second career as a broadcaster initially on the radio and then on television. \u00a0Everything changed when during a live broadcast on Blue Peter, where Reg was supposed to be showing a young albino badger that he was caring for before returning it to the wild. \u00a0Unfortunately the badger bit a researcher before going on air and wouldn’t let go, so Reg went on without it. \u00a0The presenter suggested that viewers visit ‘Sarson Farm near Andover’ where Reg would ‘happy’ to show them around. \u00a0The following weekend over 200 people arrived at the farm! \u00a0Despite this, Reg and his wife welcome everyone and the same happened over the next couple of weekends. \u00a0Knowing the narrow country lane that the Conservancy is situated along, I cannot imagine how chaotic things must have been. \u00a0However, on the basis of all the interest, Reg opened Weyhill Zoo in 1966 where more exotic creatures were gradually replaced with birds of prey – his son, Ashley’s passion. \u00a0In 1980 the Hawk Conservancy was formed. \u00a0A captive breeding programme began and one of their greatest successes has been the breeding and releasing of Red Kites into the wild in 2002. \u00a0Having been hunted and poisoned for centuries, they had been on the verge of extinction in the UK. \u00a0We see them above us frequently and the Tribe can spot their slight v-shape tail when they are soaring high. \u00a0Pretty impressive. \u00a0So, that’s the background.<\/p>\n We arrive and wait for her friends in the shop – I give each child a ‘passport’ with the names of 10 birds that they then get stamps for as they find the birds around the park. \u00a0They disappear off in high spirits and we arrange to meet them at the Valley of the Eagles display over Reg’s meadow – the wildflower meadow created in memory of Reg in 1995. \u00a0The only change that we can see is the impressive Feather’s Restaurant, a beautifully oak beamed construction with big glass doors leading onto a large terrace; Father\u00a0of the Tribe can spot that it’s been built by a local craftsman friend who always leaves the pegs long in the oak beam holes. \u00a0I would love to stop for a coffee, but there’s a gaggle of girls to keep up with.<\/p>\n After a quick stop at the playground, the Tribe find Madeleine, the splendid secretary bird. \u00a0They are fabulously exotic and I can remember when I was a child, my father driving the family through the game parks in Kenya (in a Datsun Cherry – funny what you can remember!) and seeing this glamorous bird in the wild strutting in the savannah. \u00a0Amazing. \u00a0The Tribe though, are wondering where Dave, the secretary bird that they can remember from several years ago during a display in which Dave ‘killed’ a ‘snake’ – the birds are tall with long legs and a crown of feathers on their head. \u00a0We later discover that Dave contracted a virus that killed him a few years ago. \u00a0The next highlight is Sweeney Todd, the completely stunning Snowy Owl. \u00a0He is large with an immense amount of soft feathers over his entire body. \u00a0\u00a0As we pass, he silently watches us with his huge round, yellow eyes.<\/p>\n As the rain decides to fall (how did the forecasters get it so wrong, it was supposed to be warm) we take our seats on the front bench for the eagle display. \u00a0First up is the fish eagle who spectacularly picks up a fish from the pond in front of us. \u00a0There’s also a sensational display from Sweeney Todd, the snowy owl – he is simply stunning. \u00a0Swooping silently low over our heads, he is barely inches from the ground as he flies to his handler. \u00a0The reason that we’ve never seen a snowy owl fly here before is that we’ve only been here in more clement weather. \u00a0Snowy owls need the cold. \u00a0We also learn that these owls fly during the day – the giveaway being their yellow eyes.<\/p>\n The vultures arrive and I wonder if the Littlest is going to be picked up and taken away – she’s refusing to sit with us having decided that one of the girls is her new best friend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the commentator tells us, the vultures expect you to move, if you don’t they’ll just fly into you. Their wings are literally stroking us as they fly past. \u00a0The photo at the top of this post was taken by the Eldest – it really is an ‘up close and personal’ experience. \u00a0And it is fantastic. \u00a0There is lots of laughter and shrieks from our party and even I forget how damn cold it is.<\/p>\n Following a fabulous display by the black kites, who are joined by a wild red kite, the weather clears enough for the peregrine falcon to take the stage \u00a0– she disappears into the distance and everyone laughs as a flock of birds scatters on the horizon. \u00a0Peregrine falcons can pick up speeds of up to 200mph as they dive for their prey. \u00a0as this particularly falcon flies back to the arena she spots a wood pigeon. \u00a0I’ve never seen a pigeon fly that fast and after an impressive cat and mouse chase through the trees, the pigeon disappears to survive another day. \u00a0Great entertainment and we’ve all learnt something too.<\/p>\n Our party is taken on a tractor ride around Reg’s Meadow before we are taken to the woodland arena.<\/p>\n Here Gerald Durrell gets a chance to fly a long eared owl – small and rather cute with long head feathers that look like ears and are raised when it’s frightened or disturbed. \u00a0The bird is light and like all owls, virtually silent in flight. \u00a0All the girls (and our Boy – you see what he has to put up with!) get the opportunity to hold the owl before the handler takes him back, although not before he flies and attempts to land on Gerald Durrell’s head!<\/p>\n We continue looking around the park and the girls collect the rest of their bird stamps before the display of owls back in the woodland. \u00a0Again we have front row seats and watching the owls swoop \u00a0low over the ground is fabulous. \u00a0They are stunning birds and incredibly silent in flight. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our day ends with Gerald Durrell starting the famous ferret race! \u00a0She obviously enjoys this immensely and it is a fun end to a lovely day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We finally get around to organising a somewhat belated birthday celebration for Gerald Durrell and her friends and we take her to the Hawk Conservancy nearby. \u00a0We had previously been members of the Conservancy so the Tribe, other than the Littlest, \u00a0know it extremely well. \u00a0Despite being world renowned for its work in the fields…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[243,76],"tags":[244,248,87,251,249,245,250,246,252,247],"class_list":["post-1401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawk-conservancy","category-uk-days-out","tag-african-fish-eagle","tag-black-kite","tag-featured","tag-ferret-race","tag-great-grey-owl","tag-hooded-vulture","tag-little-owl","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-reg-smith","tag-snowy-owl","wpcat-243-id","wpcat-76-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/image40.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4llmx-mB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1401"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>