Here we (I) go in 2015

adrian1963

adrian1963

Well-Known Member
Here we go another year and as I have said before I want to try and see as many Eagles & Vultures as I can.

Have you got any aims for this year and how would you achieve tem, my problem as stated before is I have to use public transport and over the last couple of weeks have been planning my trips so here we go with a list of places I will visit this year and how

Dudley Zoo – Bus
Birmingham nature centre – Bus
Hagley Falconry Centre – Bus
London Zoo – Train & walk
Blackpool zoo – Coach and Taxi
Bristol Zoo – Train & bus
Cotswold Falconry Centre – Train & walk
Birdland Park & Garden – Train & bus
Slimbridge WWT – Coach
Chester Zoo – Train & bus
Cotswold Wildlife Park – With Family
West Midlands Safari Park – With Family
Twycross Zoo – Coach
Hawk Conservancy Trust – Train, Bus & walk
Liberty’s Raptor & Reptile Centre – With friends
Warwick Castle Falconry – Coach
Centre for Birds Of Prey – Coach & walk
The Shorelands – With Friends

Plus 4 Private collections (2 in Norfolk, 2 in the Midlands)

My aim is to clock up at least 25 species of vulture and 35 species of eagle this year

Will add other locations when I have more information from the collections as to whether they still hold the species they say on Zootierliste or not.

All the ones visiting by Train or bus will be visited on a Saturday as it’s much cheaper to go by public transport on Saturdays (example Cradley Heath – London Marlebourne mon-fri return £128.00 sat £30.00)

Add to this my days out with the Stourbridge RSPB group and other visits birding I hope to have a great time with my beloved bird species.

Have a great year everyone and I hope you see what you have gone to see on your visits.

So there are my plans for 2015 what will you be doing

Have a great year everyone
 
Unfortunately I have heard many bad reports of this collection on other birding forums and chat sites and I have no or never will have any intensions of visiting this collection.
 
Arizona Docent said:
If you wanted to take the Eurostar and then regional trains to France, you could rack up multiple species at Rocher des Aigles raptor center near Rocamadour. However, the one and only review on TripAdvisor gives a very negative impression. Disgraceful exploitation of raptors - AVOID! - Review of Rocher des Aigles, Rocamadour, France - TripAdvisor
Click to expand...

The place may or may not be poor, but far from there being only one review on Trip Advisor, there are currently 204, of which 115 rank the place as excellent (not that I would necessarily trust the Trip Advisor verdict in a zoo....).
 
adrian1963 said:
Unfortunately I have heard many bad reports of this collection on other birding forums and chat sites and I have no or never will have any intensions of visiting this collection.
Click to expand...

That is good to know. I would like to visit Rocamadour one day for architectural photography and prior to this I would have gone to the raptor place since it is close. Now that I know birding forums give it a bad report I will stay away even if I do make it to the village.
 
Arizona Docent said:
That is good to know. I would like to visit Rocamadour one day for architectural photography and prior to this I would have gone to the raptor place since it is close. Now that I know birding forums give it a bad report I will stay away even if I do make it to the village.
Click to expand...
assuming this is true (the embolded bit) I wouldn't put any emphasis on it. Birding forums are not at all a good judge of captive facilities. The majority of members on Birdforum, for example, are actively anti-captivity for birds.
 
I have noticed that on Bird forum as I did post a picture once of a captive Golden eagle and the place went mad and the abuse I received through the pms was a little over the top.

Must admit I do agree most bird forums do dislike any bird collection no matter who they are but I still read reports just to give me an idea about a visit if the collection is along distance away.
 
I don't know about public transport to The Raptor Foundation, near St Ives (Huntingdon), but it is worth a visit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top