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Hi Everyone
Been updating the website and seen our last blog post was in 2020, safe to say this is a little overdue!!! Been a few changes here since our last post as the business has grown. Darren is now with us full time which is great , Most of his work is on the Pest control side, and having achieved his level 2 technician we have expanded the services we offer. It is that time of year so Darren is currently out in a park somewhere working on moles!! Our bird abatement work continues to be busy and we are lucky to be working with some great local businesses. Started training the pest control team so they will be ready to go for the season ahead. Its always a great feeling to get these birds back out after their moult and see them flying again. We continue to be busy with the private experiences and continually try and improve these to provide the best experience. As we grow the business our working days and hours on the experiences have changed and we are running the experiences om wednesdays Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. We are hoping to add a new addition onto the display team this year but it’s a wait and see if the breeding is successful. Our Educational visits with schools are finishing for the summer, we are focusing on these visits over the Autumn winter period August through till February/March. I love our educational visits and being able to encourage a keen interest in birds and nature We added a couple of kittens into the family early last year, they have settled in great The youngest is now 4 and we are slowly introducing her to the birds, Lana our smallest owl is currently the favourite. I am hoping to get back into the blog posts this year to keep everyone updated with what we are up to and send out some info on the conservation side of the birds and future plans we have
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Happy New Year everyone!!! 2019 was a pretty amazing year for us as a business and a family. We had grest success with our Pest control, doing bird abatement work and moles, and are looking forward to starting back with that in the next month or so. our private experiences continue to be popular with people from all over the world and we are already taking bookings for across the year we welcomed our daughter Olivia just before christmas and she is just perfect, people will no doubt meet her on bookings with us, be a wee while before she officially joins the team though All our birds are doing great. Our Christmas with the owls was another huge success and the families who joined us had a great time 2020 has lots of exciting things in store for us, we are officially back at work after enjoying the holidays with our family, we will be updating the events page on the website soon with details of all this years events. you can find details of all our services on our website and we keep our facebook page updated reguarly with news of what we are up to What a summer, its been super busy here but thats meant we have not had much time to update people on the goings on here at Speyside Falconry This years youngsters Bruce, Ron and Lucy are doing great and will be a part of the team just shortly hopefully I will get some good pictures of them posted up We have welcomed visitors from all over the world enjoying sessions with the birds. As we are not a public centre booking is essential for these experiences so if you are looking to visit just give us a quick call to check availiability Angus and Alice two of our Harris Hawks have had a busy season working Bird Abatement on the pest control side of the Business and are now enjoying a well earned rest period Simon and Peggy our two Barn owls have had some very important jobs this year delivering wedding rings, it is such an honour to be a part of someones special day and the lovely couple and their guests have all enjoyed having the birds We have attended a number of events over the last few months its always a great day and lovely to speak with visitors who have enjoyed the birds previously. We already have a number of events and weddings booked in for next year so lots of exciting things to look forward to Now schools are back after the summer our school sessions are on again and we have a number of visits coming up as well as running a 6 week programme with secondry schools Last years Christmas with the Owls was such a success we will be running the sessions again this year, spaces for these sessions are limited so booking is essential. we are working out the dates so keep an eye on our events page for information We are looking at running some more photography sessions but would like to have a professional photographer working with us so if you are interested or know of anyone then get in touch Darren & Clare Its been a while since our last blog post, we have been so caught up with day to day jobs with the birds we just havnt had time This year we had a succesful breeding season and a lot pf our visitors have met Bruce, Lucy and Ron who are growing incredibly fast We have had a number of shows this season which have been great fun, all the birds have been amazing and last years youngsters peggy and wesley had their first arena performances In May we also had our first wedding of the year with Justin and Kelly such an amazing couple it was an honour to be part of their special day the summer holidays are now in full swing and we have private experiences daily, sessions dependant on availiability. Our meet the owls has been very popular and is fun for all ages, enjoy getting hands on flying some of the owls as you learn about them we have had some great feedback from our sessions but of ypj have not already left us a review then please do, we are on Facebook, trip advisor and Google Darren & Clare Now that spring has sprung, breeding season is officially upon us. I love this time of year, light nights, nice weather and lots of babies (hopefully). This does however mean we are non-stop, always someone to feed or a job to be done so it’s all hands-on deck Our Shetland sheep are due to Lamb in April which we are really excited about, I mean who doesn’t love lambs??? Our newest member of the Speyside Falconry team has already arrived, Brogan is a female European Eagle Owl, she is currently 11 days old and still small and fluffy but they grow at an alarming rate so it won’t be long before she is a big beauty. The females are always larger than the males and we would expect to see Brogan once fully grown weighing in at between 3-4 lbs with a wingspan of 5-6 ft. One of our female Sakers has started laying and sitting on her eggs so we shall wait to see if they have been active, and our Snowy owls have started their breeding rituals of food passing and our male Jacko calling, (booming) The calling is said to be the most important part of the ritual. We also have some exciting things coming up, during the Easter holidays we have an offer on our Meet the owl sessions where kids go free with each paying adult, although days are now limited for this. On Easter Sunday 16thApril we will be at the VSA Easterton Anguston Farm Open Day with 2 sessions 12-1 and 2-3. In May, we will have a stall at the Gordon Castle Highland Games where we will be promoting our business and the services and experiences we have on offer, so if you are there come over and say hello and meet some of the team. Darren & Clare Hope everyone has had a great Christmas? We had an amazing few days off and Santa was good to us all. The New Year is almost upon us and I have been thinking back over the past year, it’s hard to believe we are almost at the end of 2018. This year has been amazing for us here at Speyside Falconry. Our business has continued to grow beyond our expectations and we owe a huge thankyou to all our friends, family, customers and visitors for your support. This spring we welcomed new members to our flying team who are all doing amazing and will be joining us out and about in 2019, Peggy our female Barn Owl and Wesley our Great Horned Owl are both big characters and have made quite an impression on everyone who has met them Our care home sessions continue to be popular with the residents and we have had some successful flying display for some care homes through the summer This summer was pretty much non-stop we attended a number of events which were all fantastic and we got some great feedback on our displays. We welcomed visitors from all across the world enjoying falconry experiences with our birds. We already have a number of events in the diary for 2019 so some exciting times ahead for us In October we were finalists in the Rural Business awards which was an amazing achievement for us as a business and as a family We attended quite a number of schools with our Meet the Owl sessions. These are great fun and the children all get involved flying some of the owls whilst learning about them, it’s a fun way for children to learn about birds of prey and raise awareness for indigenous species This year was our first-time doing Christmas with the Owls which was a huge success, all the children who attended the sessions were amazing and enjoyed flying the owls, followed by decorating their own Christmas tree decoration and refreshments, we will certainly be running these sessions again in the future We finished up for Christmas on the 23rd after a very busy time and it was nice to be able to relax and enjoy some family time, Jessica and Kate have worked hard alongside us so they are now enjoying some well-earned time off We are now back working and look forward to our bookings over the weekend, we are now fully booked for Hogmanay, a great way to end the year!! Darren and Clare Autumn has to be my favourite time of year, for lots of reasons, I love the smell outside first thing in the morning, having my fire on, I love being outdoors this time of year. Whats your favourite time of year? It doesn’t seem to long ago we were seeing the kids back to school and in 2 weeks they will be out on Tattie Holidays This term has been busy with school visits, the school sessions are so much fun not just for the kids but for us as well. The children enjoy hands on learning with the owls and fly some of them which is always a huge success, I get asked lots of questions which keeps me on my toes as kids have a knack of asking Questions us adults would not normally think of. As always the end of term is the most popular for school bookings and we have limited avaialiabilty left and are already taking bookings for next term, so if your school or your child’s class could benefit from a visit pass on our details or send us an email [email protected] We have had a few Photography sessions recently, this week I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Donna and Ian from Gairloch Marine Wildlife Centre and Cruises, despite the rain we had a great afternoon and the birds were amazing, I love seeing people’s different personal style and shots of our birds. We have had a few enquiries recently checking when we close for the season, we don’t, we operate all year round apart from Dec 24th, 25th and Jan 1st which are family days, so whether it’s a school, photography or family session you can book in give us a call on 01542 860766 Darren & Clare The summer has been busy for us, we have met lots of amazing people both local and from across the world enjoying sessions with the birds. We have had great success at Highland games and Agricultural shows with lots of great feedback on our displays and Brogan has gained quite a few admirers Peggy our young Barn Owl has now joined our daily flying team and is doing amazing. Wally one of our Harris Hawks decided to go on a Jolly last weekend but thankfully we got him home, all the help we received was very much appreciated and hopefully that’s not a weekend e will be repeating any time soon!! Now we are coming to the end of Summer things show no sign of slowing down, now the schools are back we have a few school sessions booked in over the next term which we are looking forward to, our school visits are great fun and offer a hands on learning flying some of the owls. Our Care home visits continue to be a huge success and Tor Na Dee Care Home in MIlltimber enjoyed an outdoor flying display at the start of this month which the residents loved Looking ahead we are excited about attending the North Rural Business Awards Ceremony where we are a finalist for Best Outdoor or Recreational Pursuit. The Rural Business Awards are a very prestigious award the recognises and celebrates Rural business of all sizes from across the UK. No matter what happens on the night we are delighted to have made it this far and look forward to meeting the other finalists and enjoying a fun evening celebrating. The winners of each category will go on to the National awards in February Last year we held a Halloween Hoot which was great fun and are considering doing something again this year if we have enough interest. If anyone thinks this is something their children may enjoy if you can note interest with us either by email at [email protected] or message 07921451952 Darren and Clare Hi everyone, been a while since our last post, its been a busy time for us here. We have some youngsters we have been working with who will be joining our flying team shortly At the start of the holidays we managed to squeeze in a quick trip up the West Coast to visit some family, such a beautiful place up there we stopped off at the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve to do the Buzzard Walk which was stunning highly recommend to anyone travelling up there We have welcomed a lot of visitors in the moray area enjoying Falconry experiences. Last month we received the most amazing news that we are a finalist in the North Region Rural Business awards for Best Rural Recreational or Outdoor Pursuits Business, delighted to have made it to this stage. We are up against some fantastic businesses and the winner will be announced at the awards ceremony in Bolton in October. The winner of each category will go up against the winners of the other regions for the finals in February. We finally got a sign made and got a sticker on the Jeep, Ricky Scott from Newmill who also runs thingymijigs in Keith with his wife did a brilliant job we are delighted with it and it looks great We got a mention in the Scottish field magazine in their archive 100 things to do this summer, great publicity for us We have a lot of sessions booked in already for the coming weeks and our Long eared owl is now flying so will be meeting some of our visitors. I am hoping to get a wee video of her in action to put up on our page Coming up we have Lochcarron Highland Games and Grantown Show We are working on our Animal Assisted Therapy page on our website, our sessions have really developed over the last few months and have opened up more possibilities for people so we will have a page with more details on the sessions, how they work and the different session we offer You can follow our Facebook page to keep up to date with how our youngsters are progressing and their flight training as well as what we are getting up to Darren & Clare Love this time of year, light nights, sunshine, great for flying the birds. Been busy here at Speyside Falconry had lots of visitors on experiences, including kate who enjoyed a birthday experience and kindly sent some photos, and we have been out and about with the birds. Darren is working with a couple of falcons we are adding to the team for the season ahead. we have updated our events page with some of the events we have coming up so you can have a look and see where you might see us on display. we got listed in a post for the top 15 falconry blogs and we ranked #9 which we are quite pleased about We recently became a Dementia Friend. We have regualr interactions with people with dementia on our Animal Assisted Therapy visits but we also meet people with Dementia who are on private expereinces visiting us with their family. Nowadays people are living for longer and people with dementia are living at home in their communities for longer and for some this can pose problems with daily life as people have little understanding of the illness. The Alzheimer Assosication are working hard to raise awareness so people in the community can understand better, help and support people with dementia in their community. Its a great thing to be part of and i would encourage anyone to sign up and become a Dementia Friend gain a better understanding and turn that into simple actions that can help people with dementia. https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk/WEBArticle?page=what-is-a-friend#.WtzVglDTW7M |
Darren and ClareHusband and wife and owners of Speyside Falconry Archives
February 2024
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