This year I have had the great honour of being involved with the Behind the Scenes Winter Experiences we offer here at the Hawk Conservancy Trust during the closed period in the winter season. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am as much of a people person as an animal person, so I jumped at the opportunity to be able to spend the day showing people some of our lovely birds alongside my colleague, Cedric.. I enjoy the closed period when we work on all the big maintenance jobs, however I do start to miss our visitors so the winter courses are perfect for me.

The general running of the day was very simple, our wonderful guests would arrive for 9:30am and I would meet them for a hot drink and catch up in Feathers Restaurant, then we would head outside to meet the first bird of the day. The most incredible thing about the Winter Experience is that it’s exclusive to two people and with the whole park being closed to general visitors, it gives us the opportunity to have free reign on which birds we could introduce the experience guests to on that day. This meant that we could choose from a team of birds that we were already working with at that time of year, those that maybe prefer a quieter time of the year and birds that we would never normally work with on an experience day. Which meant this really is a VIP Experience.

One of the things I loved most about doing these experiences was the really laid back style of the day. It felt like we had all the time in the world and therefore could spend an endless amount of time with the birds that we were meeting. The whole day would last until 3:30pm and in that time we would have flown and worked with roughly about ten birds and introduced our guests to many more as we would walk around the grounds seeing all the birds in their aviaries.

I love doing experience days here at the Trust because it makes me realise even more how special the majestic birds of prey we have in our care are. When you have a beautiful bird flying to a guest’s fist and the pure joy and elation on their face at that moment for me is just mesmerising. Those are the moments I treasure working at the Trust. I can honestly say that I had those moments everyday doing these Winter Experiences because it was such a unique opportunity to get so close to these magnificent creatures.

These experiences are also an important way for us to communicate and gain support for the vital conservation work that we do all over the world. I had a truly wonderful time with these experiences with beautiful birds and perfect people, a great recipe for a fantastic day at the Hawk Conservancy Trust.

You can book onto one of our VIP Behind the Scenes Winter Experiences with Ben or Cedric this November by clicking here.

We’re thrilled to welcome our newest member of staff, Lauren Collins. Lauren joined us as Marketing & Communications Executive at the beginning of February.  A keen environmentalist, Lauren is passionate about protecting and conserving the natural world around us, and is looking forward to inspiring others to do the same in fun, new, creative ways.

“I’m so excited to be joining the fantastic team at the Hawk Conservancy Trust! I’ve always wanted to work in some form of animal conservation, even at one point taking a course in Animal Management with the intention of going into zookeeping. I’ve also always loved creative skills such as writing and photography and found myself working in the field of marketing. So when I saw the job on the Trust’s website, it was an opportunity too good to miss!

This role is a bit of a dream job for me – combining my passion for creativity and communication with animal conservation. The Trust is such a unique place, where it’s intimate setting and friendly staff make visitors feel at home and inspired to support our vital conservation work across the globe, here in Britain, and on-site. I’m looking forward to getting really creative with the teams here to see how we can help spread information and awareness of the work the Trust is involved in in new ways.

My first few weeks have definitely been a bit of a whirlwind, with Storm Eunice disrupting my online work. However whilst offline, I’ve been incredibly lucky to be able to spend some valuable time with the Bird Team and around the Trust grounds, getting a better idea of how the different teams work on a day-to-day basis, and watching our incredible birds in action during the displays. I have even been able to take part in a Meet The Burrowers experience, and I’ll never forget the confident little Diamond Back landing in my palm for the first time!

I recently spent a morning shadowing Events Manager and Bird Team member Tom Morath on his daily tasks of feeding and weighing some of the birds in the middle section of the grounds. It was such a good eye-opener into the work that goes into caring for our birds, and thrilling to meet some of our birds up close. I’ll be working with the Bird Team quite closely to bring you all behind-the-scenes sneak peeks and previews across our communication channels, so keep an eye out for exciting things to come!

I’ve already learnt so much and although I still have a long way to go (and a lot of bird names to memorise!) I feel very lucky to be working alongside a bunch of passionate and friendly people, all so dedicated towards the conservation of birds of prey and the natural world around us.”