Following a successful breeding season this year, we have now got two fully fledged Black Chested Buzzard Eagle chicks. We are extremely pleased about this. Two years ago, the pair had a single chick, Tango, that had to be foster raised by other birds due to his biological parents' inexperience. This year is the first time that our adult pair, Lulu and Saus, have hatched and raised chicks all by themselves.

Due to a large difference in size, we can deduce that we have one male and one female chick. The male has been removed from the aviary and is now being trained by Amy. His parents used to do spectacular flights in the demonstrations, so he's got a lot to live up to. Amy has called him Blue and is already pleased with his calm disposition.

Our White Tailed Eagle, Donald, has been flown free and in displays for the first time in the past week. Donald has been a somewhat challenging (and very heavy) bird to work with but with hard work and dedication, Chris has made some excellent progress with him and we are looking forward to continued success.

We are proud to say we were the first falconry centre in the UK to breed Red-Backed Hawks and are excited to introduce their latest chick. Pictured on the left is dad and on the right is the fifth Red-Backed chick to be raised here. As protective as dad looks in the photo, a week later he was very happy for the youngster to move out of the aviary.

A small bird, he is likely a male and has been named Pedro. Some regular visitors may know that Pedro has a very successful older brother called Diego, who does a brilliant job flying to people in Flying Starts. We are hoping Pedro will follow in his footsteps.

A new addition to our flying team is Donald the White Tailed Eagle. Currently we are training him behind the scenes, but we are hoping he will be on show to the public and in our displays very soon.

The White Tailed Eagle is a large, impressive eagle that was reintroduced to the UK in 2019 when three pairs of birds were released in the Isle of Wight. 

As spring begins to bloom, we welcome the first chicks of the season. Monty is a Milky Eagle Owl, also known as a Verreaux's or Giant Eagle Owl. In the wild, Milky Eagle Owls usually have two chicks at a time but often only one will survive because the larger chick will push the smaller chick out of the nest. With this in mind we have removed Monty from them so they can focus their attention on raising the second chick by itself.

We are currently hand raising / imprinting Monty, in an effort to create a confident bird that will feel very comfortable around people.

We anticipate Monty becoming part of our displays or our Owl Experiences and will make a choice after we get to know Monty a bit better. The Milky Eagle Owl is the largest owl species in Africa and the only species to have pink eyelids, so Monty should be a very unusual and impressive owl to have on the flying team.

As seen in the above picture, Monty's pink eyelids are already visible and on the tip of the beak you might be able to spot the 'egg tooth' (white blob) which is a temporary sharp projection used to break the eggshell during hatching. It usually falls off after 3-4 days but Monty is two weeks old now and still has it.

If you haven't already visited this year, come and see our new shop! Our old gift shop will be converted into an indoor flying area, which is a great way to make use of our tall stable building.

Odin is a 9 month old Long Eared Owl from the Isle of Wight. This unique little owl is one of the few owl species capable of long distance flights, using the wind to their advantage and floating around beautifully. Currently, Odin is still practicing inside our building, but we look forward to bringing him outside in the future.

Long Eared Owls don't actually have long ears. Their ears are located in the facial disc adjacent to their eyes and the "ears" they get their name from are actually their eyebrows. Unfortunately, we could not get a picture with Odin's eyebrows raised so you'll have to come to the centre to see them for yourselves! :)

Hare is a 24 year old Indian Tawny Eagle from ICBP.  He is not new to flying in front of an audience and after only a week of training he can now be seen regularly flying in our 3pm displays. The Indian Tawny Eagle has large broad wings for soaring around and done some beautiful flights in the blustery conditions we've had lately.