We’re delighted to share that Bird Team member Jennie Marshall has passed her Level 3 Zookeeper and Aquarist Apprenticeship with flying colours! A very well-deserved accolade for nearly two years of hard work. We chatted with Jennie to reflect on her time working towards this qualification, the skills she’s learnt along the way, and close bond with one particular bird she’s bonded with through it all…
I started at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in October 2021, where I began my Level 2 Apprenticeship qualification. After completing this, I then began my Zookeeper & Aquarist Level 3 Qualification in February last year, and after completing this in October this year I am now a fully qualified keeper!
Throughout my Apprenticeship I’ve really enjoyed learning how to care for the birds across all sections here at the Trust. As well as learning how to care for the birds in their aviaries, I love working with the birds during our flying displays, and learning about the ways of working with them and the training techniques that take place.
As part of the Apprenticeship, I’ve not just learned about birds of prey, but all types of different animal groups and species, and how to look after them. When we covered mammals, our Miniature Donkeys Mickey and Molly were the focus of my attention for a while! I really enjoyed this – they are such a fun pair of animals to work with, and I look forward to looking after them twice a week when my colleague Ryan Stephens (their best friend) is on his days off.
But, during my time here, there’s one specific bird who I’ve really bonded with…and that’s Burdock the Turkey Vulture! We obviously don’t have favourites here, but Burdock is pretty high up on my list! We’ve worked really closely together since I started at the Trust, both in flying displays and working alongside him on my Apprenticeship.
As part of my qualification, I had to demonstrate training techniques with our birds, so choosing a bird to work with for this was easy! Together, Burdock and I worked so that he would feel comfortable hopping into a transport box. This is a really important thing for our birds to be able to do confidently, as it means if he ever moves aviaries, needs to go to the vets or have a health check, it can be done really smoothly and as easy for them as possible. Burdock is a very inquisitive bird by nature, but can be a bit nervous when new things are introduced into his aviary or his daily routines. This training centred around building on the trust between us, not rushing things and letting him go at his own pace. There was learning for both of us to do!
His first introduction to the travel box was quite positive – he immediately went up to it, and spent time going in, around and jumping on top of it. After investigating it, he seemed content with it being in his aviary. We’ve gone through some trial and error with different training techniques – sometimes he would run into the box before I asked him to, and sometimes he would hop in and would refuse to come back out, seemingly content to stay in there of his own accord! We are currently trying Target Training – a method where Burdock will go to an area indicated by a target and receive his favourite tasty treat when he does so.
I’d like to think the feeling is mutual with Burdock – in fact, he’s made it pretty obvious he’s a a fan of me too! There was a period of time where if Burdock was flying with another member of the team and I was onsite, he would use his fantastic sense of smell to sniff me out! He demonstrated this fantastically once while I was running an Owl Experience session in our Woodland Arena – a gate-crashing Turkey Vulture was a bit of a surprise for everyone! There were times he would fly the entire perimeter of the site to try find me if he thought he could smell me. So I think the favouritism is returned – although I’m not quite sure how to take it really as his species is used to sniffing out rotting carcasses! We’ve now combatted this, but sometimes when he’s out flying I make sure I’m hidden out the way – just in case.
