The Hawk Conservancy and Country Park run out - July 18th
The Hawk Conservancy is buried just off the A303 near Stonehenge and was recommended to us by Carl as a location for our rally ride out next year. This was a fact finding mission to see what we all thought and to help plan the most interesting and easy to marshal route. So with a bacon sandwich and a coffee 21 bikes set off into Hampshire…
On arrival at the venue I heard those fearful words…”who’s in charge?” So without further ado I introduce “us” and we arranged to push Carl’s 650 Dragstar into the park for a photo shoot with a big mean real Vulture.
All was going well until the handler Mike Riley got a nasty nip on the face when the Vulture got a little over excited about his first motorbike ride! After much of the usual p*ss taking we wished the Vulture well and hoped that Mike hadn’t infected him with anything horrible...
We learnt a lot about birds of prey or Raptors this day and that Vultures, despite their bad press for their messy eating habits of carrion are clean & very social creatures that often bathe after eating. There are 23 species in the world and they represent one of the most successful group of Raptors. They range in size from large to immense and a 10 foot wing span is normal on a large bird. Vultures are also very lazy and wont fly unless they have to or are hungry, but with the right thermal undercurrent they will cruise the sky’s all day long which with their large wingspan involves no effort...
So they eat dead meat, tend to be lazy but highly social, like cruising and like a bath at the end of the day, sounds like me to a tee!
We were treated to two flying displays, the later one taking part in Reg’s meadow a 7 acre chalk grassland area which is a mini eco system in itself for 19 species of flower, 7 species of grass and all the creatures this attracts. This area takes careful management to keep it in condition. It was a really wonderful field to just sit quietly and dream an afternoon away in. Instead we were dive bombed by some of the larger Raptors including Eagles, Kites, Falcons and, yes, more huge Vultures! Just great. The finale was two American bald Eagles flying in from miles away, one minute they were dots on the horizon and the next they were on us with talons extended!
I think we all came away with a very positive feeling about the Conservancy, Andy, Mike and the gang were most helpful and good sports and I personally can’t wait to get back for another visit asap. I think the opinion of most of us was to sponsor a Vulture or at least make a donation to the conservancy after the rally, they run several sponsorship schemes for us to consider. If you are reading this in Clatter or on the web site be sure to click the link at the top of this page. Or just come to our rally and we’ll show you around personally!
Dave
With thanks to Keith Channing and The Hawk Conservancy for the use of the top Vulture photo.
