Some simple thoughts and hopefully some entertaining / educational / useful / useless bits and bobs to help you get through the day.

go to pinkfrogcreative.com

Monday 7 April 2014

Bill Bailey and a takeaway owl...

I am lucky enough to have been involved for a number of years with the ICBP Newent (International Birds of Prey Centre) and Pinkfrog has been a part of their design team over the last few years. As such I was invited to attend Bill Bailey's official opening of the Charity Raptor Hospital recently.

Bill Bailey has been a great supporter of the centre since an experience in China left him appalled at finding a 'live Owl' on the menu. He subsequently purchased the owl from the restaurant and released it back into the wild.
After returning to the UK, sought further information on the Eurasion Eagle owl that he rescued and quite rightly went to possibly the most respected Raptor conservationist, Jemima Parry Jones at the ICBP to learn more. He learned about the Eurasion Eagle Owl and also the wonderful work that they do at the Centre and as such he has been a strong supporter ever since. You can see his 'Owl selfie' taken shortly after the opening, here>


The Raptor Hospital that Bill did such a good job of opening, is extremely specialist and takes a huge amount of resource to provide and run, let alone build. The project itself was been funded largely through public donations and The Forest of Dean LAG (Local Action Group) and has already enabled the ICBP to take in, and rehabilitate, more Wild birds than ever before, with custom built facilities to do so.

On the day of the hospital opening (5th April 2014) Bill did an amazing job and even added his own humour to the event itself whilst highlighting the plight of wildlife worldwide to the public assembled there. It was a great day and his low key visit was a very pleasant surprise to members of the public who happened to be there at the time – as only a few invited guests were aware of the planned events.

If you want to find out more or what you can do to help the ICBP continue their conservation work,  then simply email the ICBP But the best thing you can do is actually visit them and see for yourselves what's going on. Jemima doesn't gild the lily, she tells it how it is, which makes a pleasant change and the Centre is a wonderful place to spend the day for adults and kids alike, so it's a win win scenario. Visit their website here>

At the moment the ICBP are mid breeding and so if you visit during the Easter holidays you will get the added bonus of seeing and maybe meeting some of the new arrivals, from Owls to Eagles!

Tip: when you walk around the centre, go quitely and you will hear the 'squeaks' of the babies that are being parent reared in the aviaries - if you make too much noise you might miss out as the babies are usually out of site on nest ledges.




No comments:

Post a Comment