We don't believe birds at our centre can be replaced. But after our late Snowy Owl, Crystal, passed earlier this year, we felt there was a gaping hole left behind. This summer we have welcomed a new Snowy Owl chick called Yeti. Snowy Owls are powerful fliers and we are looking forward to seeing her progress from simple A to B flights, to floating around over the Cotswold countryside.

The first Saturday in September each year is International Vulture Awareness Day. This year we celebrated vultures by including a rabbit feeding frenzy in one of our daily displays. While the vultures tucked in, Kellie did an interesting talk about the plight of old-world vultures and the conservation efforts we are making to save them.

We have been very successful breeding vultures over the 35 years the centre has been open and in recent years we have welcomed Hooded Vultures, Palm Nut Vultures and Turkey Vultures. We have also raised £25,000 for the Hawk Conservancy Trust International Vulture programme and have recently started raising money for the Horstmann Trust.

We were very pleased to have such great attendance at our vulture talk and hope to have sparked some interest over the cause.

Two Mackinder's Eagle Owl chicks have arrived as an exciting addition to our flying team. They have progressed from walking to us for food to flying long distance to the glove. We thought we had two male chicks and called them Amani and Simon. However, Simon developed into a much larger and heavier owl than Amani, leading us to believe that he must be a she. Simon is now lovingly called Simone.

Our Fantastic Four from 2022 have now become our Super Six! The 2 European Black Kites we bred last year (Bandit and Lucas) have graduated their training with flying colours and joined the existing members of the group. During one of our displays here at Cotswold Falconry, you'll get to see our amazing group of kites grace the skies and show off their acrobatic skills.

Breeding season has arrived at Cotswold Falconry. Our experienced pair of Bald Eagles, Wotan and Sioux, welcomed a healthy chick this month. Mum and dad are extremely protective over their chick, but we do sometimes get to see its head pop out of the nest. This chick is the baby brother or sister of our better-known Bald Eagle, Tuffrey, who has become a favourite in our displays.