I was approached by a wine maker at Eaglevlei Wine
Estate. Her name was Clarise Langeveld and she knows Dawie Burger the manager
of the Driehoek farm where Meg Murgatroyd has accommodation. The world is a
small place and luckily Clarise found me on FaceBook. She asked if I would be
interested in having a fund raising event at Eaglevlei and I jumped at the
opportunity. Later Marinda from Socially Unforgettable joined the fund raising
team and we had an event planned.Wines and art would be auctioned off with the
proceeds going to the project. We needed an invite for the event and Clarise
wanted something that would catch the viewer’s eye, something impressive. We
decided to film an invite with a Martial Eagle on my arm. It would give the
viewer a feeling of how big, beautiful and bold these creatures are.
I called Hank Chalmers from Eagle Encounters to see
whether the idea could become a reality. Hank is extremely supportive of
students doing studies on birds of prey. He has allowed both Meg and Rowan to
practise placing GPS tags on eagles at Eagle Encounters. I have received as
much support from him and Eagle Encounters as both Meg and Rowan have.
We would film the invite with Goliath a powerful
Martial Eagle at Eagle Encounters. Goliath is a 6kg eagle, with a wingspan of
2.3 m. Female Martial Eagles are bigger than males and Goliath is not exception.
Goliath is not a timid eagle and she doesn’t hesitate to let you know who is
boss and so naturally I was pretty nervous about the whole affair. I went for a
visit before the shoot to test the waters with Goliath. Hank took her off her
perch and immediately she started to bait (she was flying away from Hank’s
glove hard and fast). It takes a lot of strength to tire out a Martial Eagle in
order to get it do obey you.Luckily for me when Hank placed her on my glove she
was calm and tired. I held her nervously, as far away from my body as I could.
She looked at me as if she would eat me. She was very well behaved and after
5minutes of holding her I had to put her down. She was heavy!
My mother came along for this visit and she was in awe
of Goliath. She soon realised the reason I had wanted to study Martial Eagles
so desperately.
A week later I came back with my dad, Marius de Vos and
his son from Socially Unforgettable to film the video invite. This time I was
confident holding Goliath because she was very well behaved when I first held
her. Hank placed her on my arm and then thefilming began. I had to tell the
world about my project and why it is important and also keep things concise. It
was really difficult giving an “elevator speech”, while holding a 6kg eagle that
was moving about on the glove.
Holding Goliath was a special moment for me. I looked
into her eyes and I felt like the luckiest person alive to be studying such a
beautiful and powerful predator.This project is an absolute dream-come-true.
I would like to say a big thank you to my mom and dad
for supporting me, Clarise for recognising my passion, finding me, helping to raise
funds for my project and working tirelessly behind a computer organising
sponsors for the event and handling ticket sales. I also want to thank Marinda Holtzhausen
and Marius de Vos for recognising my project as a worthy cause to support,
advertising it and for organising artists to donate works to the project.My
thanks also go toHank and Tracy Chalmers for advertising my project, letting me
hold Goliath and for their support. Another surprise for me was Janet Forrest
of Radical Raptors offering to do a painting of a Martial Eagle at short
notice. It has turned out really stunning and I am so grateful to her.
In the end unfortunately the event was cancelled, but
we are putting our minds together to plan a new fund raising event.
Goliath
Goliath and I - filming the video invite
She is as big as my torso
Large wingspan
Hank and his Eagle
Invite
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