Here we are at the end of another exciting year at the Burren Bird of Prey Centre. We had a great season with the new additions to the flying team; Our 4 young Harris Hawks arrived as bundles of fluff and in what seemed like only a few weeks were performing amazingly well on Hawk Walks, well, other than catching sticks and leaves. These social little beauts never fail to impress me. Our falcons, Bud the Lanner in particular seems to have a never ending ability to push his flying skills and with a bit of motivation his fitness. Some of his stoops in the wind this year have to be seen to be believed, it’s as if he has absolutely no regard for his own neck, probably the bravest little falcon I have ever flown. The new Rupples Griffon Vulture Henry arrived in full effect; this overly familiar character thinks nothing of walking into our shop to see if there is anything on offer! He has also brought Dyson our African White Back into line, flying them together has flicked his competitive nature and he will now just about do whatever we want, even when his not hungry; the old jealously trap works every time.

We have a new staff member; one of our previous volunteers Jamie Bailey stepped up to the plate and has fitted right into the team bringing his handy work with him. Cathal Mannion our normally seasonal falconer finished his degree in civil engineering and has been with us since the summer doing great work, well done to you both!

And that brings me neatly onto our volunteers, who with out there tireless energy and efforts we wouldn’t have the Centre that we do, a big thank you to you all. In particular young Declan Carney all 11 years old, who, amazingly has just had his first book on Raptors published with all the proceeds going to the Golden Eagle Trust. Written and illustrated by Declan, this neat book is an amazing accomplishment for someone of such tender years, well done young man; you make us all very proud! Thanks also to Declan’s Dad Hue for being able to do anything we throw at him from flying Vultures to helping building a brewery.

This year saw us more involved with the Golden Eagle Trust’s re introduction program. I was lucky enough to go to Wales in the early summer to collect the last batch of Red Kites for the re introduction program in the Irish east coast. It was amazing to see the program in action, from the swift climbing skills collecting the chicks, to the meticulous work of the field workers. Seeing the submissive downy balls taken from the Welsh hills progress into wild Kites in Ireland was one of the highlights of the decade for me. http://www.goldeneagle.ie/portal.php?z=13. We also had a big push this year fund raising for the trust and managed to take in over €4000 in donations; a big thank you to everyone who contributed. We are looking forward to seeing you back at the centre this coming year.

Now, with Santa in full effect in the cave, I feel a nice anticipation for the coming spring at the centre. We have two new falcons in training, Vultures flying off Aillwee, and plans for more conservation work in Ireland and Asia…

Happy Xmas,

James Irons

Driving West through the familiar Hereford countryside, I was reminded of the last time I went looking for Red Kites in Wales with my father as a boy of 13 . Back then there was only a small population around the Devils Bridge area of West Wales. I’m not sentimental, but, hear we where again, only this time to find Kites for the continuing reintroduction program in the East of Ireland.

The soft rolling farmland of the UK Shires soon morphed into robust, deeply forested Welsh Hills. As the miles ticked by we started to spot the odd forked red beauty, and in no time they were everywhere, lazily flicking around the bruised Welsh sky.  At one time in the UK Red Kites were everywhere, massive populations survived in London courtesy of the amount of rubbish and food waste left on the streets, Kites really will eat almost anything!  But, like allot of our native Raptors, Kites were persecuted and the population dropped to as low as 30 pairs.

The Town of Rhayader lies in the start of the River Why valley. Small and welcoming I found our digs for the week and took a stroll down the river eyes cast upwards and in total owe of the local Red Kite population. “this is how the sky’s of London must have once looked” I thought, happily heading back in anticipation of the coming days…

I’m back in civilization after an epic few weeks in the lofty air of the Annapurna mountain range. After a 2 hour bumpy bus ride out of Pokhara city my self and my walking buddy set of with rucksacks, walking sticks, 4.5 vertical kilometers to climb and countless valleys, swing bridges and bowls of rice to concur. The objective of the trek (other then it being amazingly beautiful) was to try and count vultures as we walked and plot them on our map. Its become apparent that with the loss of so many Vultures in the low lands that Himalayan Griffon Vultures are coming down from the mountains to fill the vacuum.

The first day was plane and simple pain and sweat, my soft Irish living caught up with me after the first 5kms walked, “why didn’t you get up and down Ailwee Mountin a few times you flabby fool!”.  Starting at about 1200m its was hot and muggy, probably 25-30′C around mid day, in no time I was gulping water to keep things flowing. It became obvious quickly that to look at the sky and tree line for Vultures plus place your feet where there isn’t a rock waiting to put you down was impossible, so short regular brakes were taken to scour the sky and eat nuts. Several Himalayan Griffon Vultures (HGV’s) were spotted  on the fist day as they crossed the river valley.  After eight hours walking we crashed down in a village called Jinu; a sweet little place squeezed into the valley between the mighty Himalaya and its foot hills (it also conveniently has hot spring pools, how about that, what luck!). Rest and a soak fueled us for an early start and another big push north closer to Annapurna Base Camp at 4200m. In this area of Nepal clouds soon build in the afternoon as the sun heats the range blocking the view of the ice capped behemoths. But early in the day its as clear as crystal and we had our first close look at Machhapuchharey and her taller sisters. This is my fourth time coming to Nepal and have spent the best part of eighteen months out here looking at this skyline from 60km’s away, and now I was standing at its feet, it was fantastic. With butterflies in my stomach, just like after a first kiss, I pressed on bino’s and map in hand.

more to come…

A five hour dusty road trip has delivered me to Chitwan National Park and the home of the Vulture Breeding Program. I spent the first day relaxing in the sweet scented air of the Nepali low lands. Its only 50m above sea level here, a stark contrast to the 8000m vistas I had a few days ago. The breeding center is found 25km in the heart of the park; so a guide and a rickety old jeep where hired for the day. It was obviously only right to make the most of the first steps into the jungle and en-route we saw Rhino, Bear and lots of Croc’s. The bird life is unreal, Chitwan boast’s a staggering 350+ species from bee eaters, hawk eagles and all sorts of very vocal locals. I arrived to find the breeding center and its birds in rude heath, the original 14 oriental white backed vultures I helped to rear and re-locate are now in the massive (photo’s pending..)  breeding pen. Two other pens hold the birds taken over the past two years, once mature they will be introduced into the breeding flock.

Today I’m travailing to the vulture safe zone (VSZ). This is an area we know  Diclofenac free where old unwanted cattle is bought of the local herders and left to live out there days. Once dead the carcass is taken to a feeding area providing safe drug free food for the last few breeding pairs of Asian White Backed Vultures in the area. From there its back to Pokhara to look at the planned VSZ site there and take a little walk into some big hills in search of big birds. More to come……

After hours of work, great generosity from the guests to the Center and a few thousand miles travel. I have arrived in Nepal to roll up mu sleeves and led a hand to Bird Conservation Nepal and its Vulture Conservation efforts. I’m currently held up in the foot hills of Nepal about to make my way down to the Vulture breeding center in Chitwan National Park. A few hours of power a day and transport strikes are getting in the way a bit but as they say here TIN “This is Nepal” More to come soon….James

We’ve got some beautiful photo’s for you to browse. Check them out here!