National Birds of Prey Centre, Newent Gloucestershire

...

The national birds of prey centre is based in Newent in Gloucestershire, the nearest motorways are the M5 J11 or the M50, but as I mentioned the roads leading up to it are seriously narrow but it is well signposted from Newent, the roads are just longer than you would expect. It has been running since 1967, but the last couple of years have been subject to some uncertainty as the original plan was to move the whole lot over to S. ...
...is moving to. However, there were some exportation issues with some of the birds and they have now managed to sell the centre in Newent, so it will now be remaining open in the UK and they have strong links with the centre in the States.

The first pleasant surprise I got was the price, we paid £18.50 for a family ticket, which I was very impressed with as tourist places usually go for as much as they can get, but the NBPC’s main interest ... more

‘So where are we going today mummy?’

‘You’ll see!’

So we wended our way down narrow country lanes, not particularly well signposted and with absolutely nowhere to go should an over enthusiastic local come zooming around the corner.

‘Are you sure were not lost Mummy?’

‘Well no actually, not 100% sure, but we’ll keep going for a bit’

Then we saw it! The girls reaction when we turned into the car park was amazing, Ellen my 5 year old is a huge bird lover and when we went to Centerparcs last month she chose to donate the money that her choice of activity would have cost to the RSPB, as long as I took her to the hides they have there. So when she realised where we were, well!

The national birds of prey centre is based in Newent in Gloucestershire, the nearest motorways are the M5 J11 or the M50, but as I mentioned the roads leading up to it are seriously narrow but it is well signposted from Newent, the roads are just longer than you would expect. It has been running since 1967, but the last couple of years have been subject to some uncertainty as the original plan was to move the whole lot over to S. Carolina in the states, as that is where the owner is moving to. However, there were some exportation issues with some of the birds and they have now managed to sell the centre in Newent, so it will now be remaining open in the UK and they have strong links with the centre in the States.

The first pleasant surprise I got was the price, we paid £18.50 for a family ticket, which I was very impressed with as tourist places usually go for as much as they can get, but the NBPC’s main interest is not the visitors, it is the birds. It is because of this that they only open for 9 months of the year which gives them the opportunity to give the birds a rest, and to concentrate on their primary job of conservation and rehabilitation of Raptors (birds of prey) in the UK and overseas. So because of this I certainly don’t begrudge the extra £2 for the guidebook, which completely shocked the girls as they don’t even ask any more because they are so used to me saying no!

We walked in, with umbrellas in tow, (well this was summer) and the first area that you see is the Hawk walk. Now these animals are all in captivity but are used as part of flying teams, or as part of a breeding pair, so they all are well exercised but are all kept outside tethered to a post. This prevents them from hurting themselves as they get so excited when they see the staff coming to fly them they would fly at the cage and hurt themselves.

They are flown during flying demonstrations which happen 3 times a day and during these periods the birds are flown free. They do sometimes fly away, but have small transmitters attached on their leg rings so they can be easily traced. This happened while we were there and the staffs first concern is first and foremost for the birds, a fairly large, young falcon had flown off and it was due to be followed by a sparrow hawk, which would pretty much have constituted food for the larger bird. So they didn’t think twice about cutting the demonstration short as some of the other birds were unsettled by what was going on.

The birds are fed on supplies of dead chicks – now you can imagine a 7 year olds reaction to this, before I realised what she was doing she had gone up to a member of staff to advise them that there was a dead chick in the cage with a vulture, then when she explained to the girls that the chick was his lunch the poor girl got a barrage of questions from my kids, and she gave them undivided attention and certainly made them feel very valued and they talked of nothing else for ages. Although Emily didn’t like the answer to her final question ‘when can I come and work here’ which was 16 (raised to 17 by me because she has to be able to drive herself first)

From the Hawk walk we moved down to the Eagles, I have always been fascinated by Eagles and the size of the pens increased dramatically, we walked pass a few that we thought were huge empty cages, then noticed a solitary bird in the corner. For the most time the birds are happy just watching the passers by and they get their exercise from the flying sessions – because of the size and weight of these birds, the seemingly short flight is more than enough for them on a daily basis, because of the energy they use doing it.

The owls are in a separate area again, and the girls were completely fascinated by these the centre do often allow advertisers and film companies to use their birds so naturally the first thing Emily did when she saw the Snowy owls was to check to see if any of them had been used as Hedwig in Harry Potter, they weren’t but it didn’t quash the enthusiasm. The owls I think were possibly the girls favourite as they have some great species, including some with really big googly eyes – 20 minutes later the girls were still watching them.

There is a lovely nature walk at the far end of the centre that you can escape from the people, although it certainly wasn’t crowded by any means. This takes you down through the woods where there is a hide looking into a field, and round the lake.

Now my original intention was to spend the morning at the centre then come home for lunch, however, even though at first glance the centre isn’t huge we reached lunch time and had to do something. There was a small café there so we thought we’d get a cup of tea and maybe a sandwich for the girls. Checking our pockets we had the princely sum of £6.00 between us, no chance in a tourist café I hear you cry – well for that we managed to buy – 2 kids meal boxes containing a sandwich, bag of crisps drink and bag of sweets, two rolls, 1 bag of crisps and 2 cans! Fantastic value! Then hubby found a tenner in his pocket, so I made him buy us an ice cream!

The owners also own a number of Black Labradors, all of which are free to roam around the centre, although you are not allowed to take your own dogs in. Apparently the birds are quite familiar with these dogs and can recognise the difference between one Labrador to another, whereas strange dogs would upset them.

Whilst we were there I also noticed that the centre do birthday parties, which again is great value - £7.50 per child and that includes a guided tour, watching the flying displays, dinner and the birthday child gets to hold a bird.

They also run experience days from £125 and professional courses for anyone thinking of taking up falconry on a private basis (having said that some of their birds have been rescued from some people who couldn’t cope) they also run courses for the police for Wildlife Liaison officers.

The centre is currently closed for its Winter break which gives the birds chance to rest and moult and will reopen on February 1st 2005 and open between 10.30 and 5.30. they are running some winter evening Owl flying evenings in the run up to Christmas details are available from 0870 990 1992 and cost £15 for Adults and £7 for children and includes guided tours of the owls by torchlight, flying demonstrations and Refreshments.

More information on the centre can be found on www.nbpc.co.uk and the site is well worth a visit.

We had a fantastic day and stayed much longer than anticipated, I for one will certainly be returning and it is a great day out for the children.

Thank you for reading
 

...less