This is a very busy time at the Sanctuary, with lots of school visits, our daily spectacular flying displays and the numerous events that we have planned for our visitors this summer holiday. We also like to take time out to attend events elsewhere whenever we have the chance - this gives us the opportunity to spread the word about the work that we do here at the Sanctuary.
Last weekend presented one such occasion, as we were invited to attend the Westwood Park Summer Fair. It was a large affair, with around 5,000 people attending over the two days. Set in magnificent surroundings, there was everything from Walk on Water Balls and goats-milk ice-cream to heavy horses and live bands and of course the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary.
Talking the talk, Ashley-style. It’s true about about Mad Dogs & Englishmen ... but our visit to the Westwood Park Summer Fair proved very worthwhile
The weekend was spent handing out leaflets and talking to members of the public about the Sanctuary, the raptor hospital and our resident birds of prey. We were asked a whole range of questions, from people wanting to know about siting nest boxes to a chap who wanted to know about the proposed release of the White Tailed Sea Eagle in Suffolk. Along with us for the weekend, we had Auckland our little Boobook star, Nightshade our Barn Owl chick and a Malaysian Brown Wood Owl chick, both around 5 weeks old at the time. The sun shone all day so we made sure our young charges were well protected and though a bit tiring for us ‘umans, the event was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The next day we had another opportunity to spread our wings for a totally different occasion - a talk to the local Rotary Club. The members had been told that we would be giving a talk about the Sanctuary. We used a visual display to illustrate our presentation which featured pictures of the falconry team, the Sanctuary and some of our raptor residents plus information about the key aims of our Charity.
A night out with the birds - this time our hosts were the local Rotary Club who were treated to the dulcet tones of Baloo and the vociferous Bali
It was a surprise, however, that we took along a couple of raptors with us as well - Baloo our Indian Eagle Owl & Bali our Malaysian Brown Wood Owl. Both are very calm and relaxed in company and are extremely stunning to look at in their different ways, especially at an indoor venue but Bali the Talkative has a tremendously loud call, so both birds were kept safely in their travelling boxes until our presentation was over - otherwise he would have given the game away!