Raptor Rambles by Raptor Aid CIO – Details, episodes & analysis

Apologies for the delay in bringing you another podcast and also apologies that once again Apple & Google Podcast's appear to be playing up. We are trying to fix this. You can find us on PodBean & Spotify though!

This episode I spoke to eagle falconer and anthropologist Dr. Lauren McGough from the USA. I've followed Laurens work with eagles and travels for a while now and since I have a former life working with captive birds of prey its always interesting to see other individuals and cultures perspectives on this ancient field sport.

Lauren is a fantastic ambassador for the world of falconry and she comes from a country that leads the world in using falconry techniques for the conservation and preservation of the worlds birds of prey. Lauren puts these skills into practice by training and rehabilitating Golden eagles.

She has also travelled to the remote regions of Mongolia to learn about the cultural significance of Golden eagles and the role they play in the nomadic lifestyles of the people in this region. Lauren didn't just go for a holiday though, she fully embraced and immersed herself in the culture by spending over 12 months with a family learning eagle falconry and the nomadic lifestyle first hand.

Lauren is very active on social media and anyone with an interest in falconry, birds of prey and anthropology should check her out on Instagram - @eaglefalconer 

www.laurenmcgough.com

A very special episode for our UK fundraiser for the Philippine eagle Foundation!

In this episode I am really lucky to bring together Neil Rettig and James Aldred, two amazing wildlife camera men who have both been lucky enough to film a wild Philippine eagle nest. 

Neil Rettig is an award winning cinematographer based in the USA and has been championing the Philippine eagle and its conservation since the very early days of science even knowing about it. Along with his Partner Laura Johnson and friends in the early days he has been a shining light for this species and its conservation.

James Aldred is an award winning wildlife cameraman based in the UK who specialises in canopy access. He has worked on some of the biggest natural history productions seen on British television, has pulled the great Sir David Attenborough into a tree to film and even been attacked by a female Harpy eagle whilst rigging cameras on a nest. He is also the author of the brilliant book "The man who climbs trees".

Thank you to both of them for taking the time to chat to me and support this fundraiser. If you can donate feel free to visit the fundraising page below.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-philippine-eagle-conservation-fundraiser

Ian Newton is widely regard as one of the leading ornithologist's of our time having spent a lifetime studying and writing about birds and their ecology.

His Sparrowhawk study which lead to the publication of one of his first books 'The Sparrowhawk' published by T&D Poyser is still recognised as one of the longest studies of a single species in the UK.

Ian's work has also included raptor ecology, bird migration, farm land and upland birds and if that wasn't enough he strangely knows a thing or two about apples!

He has supervised and/or examined many well known ornithologist's PhD's including a couple we have previously interviewed and has his name on countless scientific papers. His no nonsense and easily understandable writing style makes even the toughest scientific topic digestible to most readers.

His most recent book is titled Uplands and Birds as part of the Collins New Naturalist Range and can be found in all good book stores.

Thanks for tuning in!

In this Lockdown Live we are joined by a close friend of Raptor Aid, top nest finder and Honey Buzzard expert Steve Roberts.

Steve has been monitoring raptors for over 30 years and specialises in finding their nests to study a range of things. He is probably best known for his long term studies on one of Britains most elusive and rare breeding raptors the European Honey Buzzard. 

Every year Steve works across South Wales and the South of England monitoring this species and he has authored several papers on the species uncovering some fascinating insights into this shy elusive British migrant.

When Steve isn't working in his long term studies he can also be found behind the scenes on the BBC's nature series Springwatch as their chief nest finder - without Steve and the nest finding teams skill there wouldn't be a show as we know and love it.

He also loves travelling to find and observe rare birds in the wild and in 2017 Jimmi and Steve headed to the Philippines together to work with the Philippine Eagle Foundation.

Scott Mason is the pioneer behind the idea of Parahawking- flying with birds of prey. Parahawking started life out in Nepal where Scott took his passion of flying birds of prey as a falconer and took to the skies first with Black Kites and then a couple of rescued Egyptian vultures.

What Scott achieved by taking people on tandem paragliding flights with Kevin and Bob the Egyptian vultures shone an incredible light on the plight of these critically endangered birds. He has feature in National Geographic and the Discovery channel, carried Steve Backshall for Deadly 60 and reached millions of people with his footage and DVD's.

Now having moved to Spain after Nepalese officials turned their back on the great conservation work Scott was achieving Parahawking is born again with two American Black Vultures.

You can follow Scott on Facebook @theparahawkingproject or by visiting www.parahawking.com 

In South Africa there is an amazing charity working to save the most endangered group of bird the vultures. That charity is called Vulpro and in this episode we are joined by Ryno Kemp from the Vulpro team.

Every year Vulpro rescue and rehabilitate hundreds of vultures and other birds of prey from poisoning, collisions with power lines and other injuries. They have a breeding colony of Cape vultures made up of injured vultures which can't be released but who's off spring have every chance in the wild when released. They also work with local communities and students to monitor wild vulture populations.

We chat to Ryno to find out what its like to work for this amazing charity and an amazing group of birds.

www.vulpro.com

In this episode of Lockdown Live we are joined by one of the worlds greatest conservationist's! That might seem like a monstrous statement to make to anyone who hasn't heard of Professor Carl Jones but once you understand how many species he has saved from extinction and what makes this man tick you realise how special he is. 

Working all his professional life for the Durrell Institute Carl has probably saved more species from extinction than any other, the most notable or well known being the Mauritius Kestrel of which the population dwindled to less than 10 birds. Carl has won the Indianapolis Prize for his work, the highest recognition for conservationists.

In this chat we find out what makes this great mind really tick, how he brought species back from the brink and what the future holds for the conservation of species and ecosystems. 

https://www.durrell.org/wildlife/

Professor Alexandre Roulin is an incredibly gifted scientist who is widely regarded as one of the worlds leading experts on everyone's favourite species the Barn owl. Alex has been studying this species for over 20 years and continues to uncover new and fascinating facts about one of the worlds most wide spread species.

Did you know a Barn owls white plumage startles its prey making it easier to catch? 

Or that Barn owl siblings negotiate with each other over who is getting fed next?

These are just some of the incredible things Alex and his researchers have discovered. Alex has also become heavily involved with using Barn owls as messengers of peace in conflict zones and has recently authored the fantastic book titled Barn owls - Evolution & Ecology.

There are people in this world who really do go that extra mile for wildlife and in the case of birds of prey Nadeem Shehzad is one of those individuals. I first came across his work in a BBC wildlife magazine article which covered the amazing rescue and rehabilitation work Nadeem and his brother carry out in New Delhi, India.

Now several years on Nadeem has established himself as an expert in suturing and rebuilding the patagial region of a birds wings. His main patient is the Black kite who enter his facility with damaged wings due to entanglement and collisions with kite lines/string. Kite flying has a big cultural significance in India but this has a huge impact on many species of raptors. luckily for some they find their way to Nadeem's clinic.

Note - As this was filmed as a FB Live Nadeem tried to show us around some of his clinic and also how he performs certain procedures which doesn't really work for a podcast. The also apologise for the poor WiFi at times. You can check out the full video and chat over on our YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChpbjHZ9q2UAg0C0YnppkDA/featured?view_as=subscriber

Lester Hartmann founded Peak Boxes less than 5 years ago but already he and his nest boxes have become some of the most well respected and used on the market. A new comer to conservation Lester is no stranger to woodwork having been a master craftsman of joinery and making bespoke items out of wood for over 25 years.

This knowledge and professionalism shows in the quality of his nest boxes but also spills over into his desire to work with experts to make sure the boxes really work based on the latest science. We have worked closely with Lester helping develop some of his bird of prey boxes and are proud to use him as Raptor Aid's nest box supplier.

In this chat we find out all about how Peak Boxes came to exist, what its like to take BirdFair by storm on your first appearance and what makes a great nest box.

https://peakboxes.co.uk