As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday 30 March 2015

Big Interview: What persuaded Jemima Parry Jones to buy Newent's birds of prey centre three times

For Jemima Parry Jones, The International Centre for Birds of Prey in Newent is more than just a visitor centre with a worldwide reputation. It's also her home.

The centre is gearing up to welcome visitors for the Easter holidays and spring is well and truly under way.

Baby owls are expected to hatch this week, and a Condor is expected to hatch in April.

"And the centre is looking wonderful right now with wild daffodils in flower. There's always something different to see every time you visit," said Jemima.

The International Centre for Birds of Prey has been the home that Jemima has returned to time and time again and she laughs when she explains she has bought the centre three times.

The birds of prey centre was founded by her father Philip Glasier in 1966, when Jemima was 17, and now half a century later it has become a leading conservation centre and visitor attraction.

But it hasn't been an easy journey to build it up to its world class status.

For a start it has involved flying more than 100 birds across the Atlantic, and back again.

Jemima worked with her father and the rest of the family to get the centre off the ground in the early days.

She later flew the nest, and moved to London where she studied musical drama at the Guildhall, alongside fellow students including Celia Imrie and Bill Nighy, and then spent three years at the Royal Academy of Music studying singing and piano.

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