We recently held our annual BSL Signing Day. This event for the deaf and hard of hearing community offers them the chance to visit us, with some additional support in place.
Our friend Natalie has been our BSL signer for a number of years, and has got to know our birds and staff during this time. Her ability to remember facts from previous years allows her to seamlessly sign for our unscripted talks and displays, despite our falconers best efforts to throw her off (anybody know how to sign Fat Ninja?)
Rio making our visitors feel like mice
This year we were delighted to welcome Sarah and Catherine from West Norfolk Deaf Association. Sarah has published a children’s story book which features an Owl, and they have been performing their interactive story time sessions to groups across the area since it was released earlier this year. We set up an area in SOS2 and welcomed approximately 30 young visitors and their families across two sessions.
An interactive story time features lots of different elements to immerse the audience into the story. Our Education Officer purchased a copy of the book, and is looking forward to offering this style of session in the future.
In addition to the story time sessions, our Education Officer was supported by Natalie to give a Guided Walk and Talk around our aviaries. This has proven very popular when offered to groups, and there were approximately 25 participants on the walk, who were able to ask questions about their favourite birds as well as receiving fun facts about them too.
Natalie in our new Meerkat Kastle
Since Covid, this event has been rather poorly supported, so we were very pleased to receive advanced bookings from several Deaf Groups from across East Anglia, many of whom made it their day out. It was lovely to see so many young families attending and enjoying the experience of having our birds flying so close during the displays.
Boris giving visitors a close up view
Great Greys make fantastic hairdressers
Rafiki showing off