About six years ago Stuart and myself were inundated with birds of prey. We had nowhere to house rehabilitating birds as our suburban back yard was already taken up with three large aviaries and several small ones, all of which were full. We are volunteer wildlife carers and both of us work full time.

Through a contact of Stuarts we were given the name of a person in Donnybrook, Peter who was having terrible problems with parrots on his orchard. We approached him and suggested that maybe we could help one another. If he could provide an aviary for a rehabilitating Goshawk, it may help his parrot problem. We explained to him that usually the mere presence of a bird of prey is enough to make the parrots disperse. He took us up on the offer as he was desperate to try and rid his property of parrots. He had an aviary up in a week.

Several years later after having released approximately seven Goshawks on his property he has found that they have helped enormously to keep the parrots away and he now has a much smaller parrot population, and the damage to his crop is minimal.

Stuart and I do not advocate that this will immediately solve your parrot problem. There are many variables. The Goshawks are wild creatures and will not necessarily remain in your area that you have released them into. Provided you follow our guidelines and discuss the steps with us you have a greater chance of keeping the birds in your area and a greater chance of keeping your fruit.

We now have aviaries in the Donnybrook and Capel region that are proving to be successful. The people who have built the aviaries have a caring and respect for the Birds of Prey that we send them and are not just focused on the benefits that they will receive from having them on their properties.

More information can be gained by speaking to us and we will put you in contact with orchardists who have been dealing with us. You can then discuss the details and the benefits with people down South who have already had the aviaries up for a while.