I took on my role as Bird Garden and Farm Experience Manager in December 2015, joining Harewood from Edinburgh Zoo. As manager, it’s my responsibility to oversee the daily running of the Bird Garden and the newly created Farm Experience. It’s an exciting, busy part of Harewood which is at the start of a three year development plan to enhance this much loved part of the grounds.

My day begins at 8am when I arrive at the Bird Garden kitchen with the rest of the team. The Bird Garden is home to 37 different bird species which all have specific dietary needs. From the tall, elegant cranes to the critically endangered Bali starling, we make sure each bird has the right food. We also prepare buckets of chopped carrots, apples, pears and leafy greens for our rabbits, guinea pigs and farm animals.

Once prepared, we head to the Bird Garden and begin the task of feeding and cleaning all the aviaries. We check all the birds to make sure that they are in good health whist we’re in the enclosures before the visitors arrive. One of my personal favourites in the Bird Garden are our family of palm cockatoos. These are unusual birds and it’s the first time I’ve worked with them. The youngest of the three birds is very inquisitive and he will often fly around the keepers, watching them closely as we clean and prepare the large aviary.

At this time of year we often find nests full of eggs which we will leave with parents to look after. On some occasions it may be necessary to take the eggs carefully to our artificial incubation room. Here we place them in specially designed incubators and hand rear any chicks that might hatch.

Once all of the birds are fed and checked, we go for a well- earned cup of coffee!

The next job is to clean out the farm animal paddocks and give them their first feed of the day. At 12pm, one of the keepers will take a bucket of eggs, veg and fruit to the pig enclosure. Here we invite visitors to take an item from the bucket and throw it over the fence for the pigs to enjoy. They are full of character and, since their arrival in March, I’ve grown very fond of them. Once the pigs have had their fill, we move onto the next paddock. Once again visitors can feed leafy greens to our hungry pygmy goats.

After lunch, I often leave the Bird Garden and Farm in the capable hands of the team and head over to the office to carry out the necessary (and inevitable!) paperwork for the day. This includes record keeping, ordering supplies, planning for upcoming events, liaising with the vet, managing new arrivals and arranging transportation of animals who may be leaving our care.

A significant role for the Bird Garden is the care and preservation of endangered species. Many of the birds we manage are in captive breeding programmes which supports their ongoing survival. These breeding programmes exist to support the genetic variation of captive populations. Computer databases help compile studbooks that record the details of each individual animal in the programme. This includes the animal’s sex, date of birth, and full family history. No money changes hands when we exchange animals with other zoos. Our aim is purely to save and protect endangered wildlife.

We have welcomed several new additions including six Humboldt penguins which arrived in early March from the Cotswold Wildlife Park in Oxfordshire. We also took on an egg which our colony have adopted. We hope that this foster-chick will hatch soon.

Other new additions include a pair of cheer pheasants which form part of our Himalayan themed enclosures overlooking the Lake, and a large group of roul roul partridge, an appealing, ground dwelling bird from Borneo.

When I’m in the office, it’s also the time that I catch up with the rest of the team who work outside the Bird Garden. The team at Harewood have a lot to juggle from school groups to TV interviews!

At 3:30pm, I will head back to the Bird Garden to carry out the Daily Penguin Talk and often find myself introducing not only the penguins, but also the wild grey herons and red kites that visit the enclosure hoping they might help themselves to a sprat or two!

Once I have answered the varied and interesting questions from visitors, I will either head back to the office, or carry out a variety of tasks around the Bird Garden until it is time to close for the evening. Every day there are new and exciting challenges arriving, so no two days are ever the same.

By Nick Dowling, Bird Garden and Farm Experience Manager

2016 sees HRH Queen Elizabeth II celebrate her 90^th birthday. In recognition of her remarkable life and historic reign, a number of objects from Harewood’s collection relating to the Queen are being displayed in the Gallery.

A Young Princess

Born on the 21^st April 1926, the young Princess Elizabeth was not expected to become Queen. Following the heavily publicised abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, Elizabeth’s father, George VI, took his place on the throne. At the age of 10 years old, the young Princess Elizabeth become heiress presumptive.

The coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth took place on the 12th May 1937. The ceremony was attended by both young princesses.

‘We waited in the little dressing room until it was time to go up the aisle. Then we arranged ourselves to form the procession. First of all came two Heralds, then two Gentlemen Ushers, then all in a line Margaret, Aunt Mary and myself…I thought it all very, very wonderful and I expect the Abbey did, too. The arches and beams at the top were covered with a sort of haze of wonder as Papa was crowned, at least I thought so.’

Princess Elizabeth, 1937

The 6^th Countess of Harewood, Princess Mary, was Elizabeth’s aunt. Harewood is fortunate to be custodians of some wonderful objects, images and correspondence which are being displayed in honour of Queen Elizabeth.

2016 marks the second annual Tour de Yorkshire. The three-day legacy event began life after the Grand Depart of 2014‘s Tour de France which famously started on the front steps of Harewood House.

The 2016 route will again feature three stages. Here is a brief summary:

• Stage 1: Friday 29th April: Beverley to Settle
  • Total stage length: 185km
  • 2 x sprint points (Bubwith, Giggleswick)
  • 1 x King of the Mountain (Greenhow Hill)
  • Total ascent: 1,832m
• Stage 2: Saturday 30th April: Otley to Doncaster
  • Total stage length: 136km
  • Same route for men and women
  • 2 x sprint points (Scholes, Warmsworth)
  • 3 x King/ Queen of the Mountain (Harewood Bank, East Rigton, Conisbrough Castle)
  • Total ascent: 1,110m
• Stage 3: Sunday 1st May: Middlesbrough to Scarbrough
  • Total stage length: 198km
  • 2 x sprint points (Thirsk and Whitby Abbey)
  • 6 x King of the Mountain (Sutton Bank, Blakey Ridge, Grosmont, Robin Hood’s Bay, Harwood Dale and Oliver’s Mount)
  • Total ascent: 2,593m

Stage 2 will see riders tackle Harewood Bank. There will be rolling road closures which have been announced as per the below:

• Women’s race will be at Harewood 08:35 (road closed approx. 08:15 to 08:45 hrs, 09:00 latest)
• Men’s race will be at Harewood 14:55 (road closure approx. 14:40 to 15:15 hrs, 15.45 latest)

Access to Harewood should be largely unrestricted if you would like to visit on the day. If you’re watching the event from the roadside, why not come to Harewood and make a day of it? See where the 2014 Grand Depart began and enjoy everything Harewood has to offer. You can explore Harewood online here.

Read full details about the race here.

• Exhibition celebrating major contribution to public art in post-war Britain by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe opens at the University of Leeds on 30 March

She created the famous BAFTA mask trophy that has been awarded to the great and the good of the film and TV worlds for more than 60 years. But some say the work of sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe has been overlooked ever since.

Now the University of Leeds hopes to redress this by collaborating with the American artist’s daughter to create a new exhibition of her work from 30 March to 2 July: Sculptor behind the Mask: Mitzi Cunliffe’s work of the 1950s.

Painter and Royal Academician Stephen Farthing curated an exhibition of Cunliffe’s work in Oxford in 1994. He said Cunliffe, who lived in the North of England for much of the 1950s and 60s, was well ahead of her time.

“Mitzi Cunliffe wasn’t fortunate enough to live at a time when the art world was interested in a female American artist making sculpture in a garage in Didsbury, let alone the very real or possibly just imagined performative element in her work,” he said.

“Today, in my story of art, she would hang in the same gallery as Lady Gaga, Marina Abramovich, Jackson Pollock and possibly Barbara Hepworth. It was her ability to take a classical education and make it look towards the future that convinced me she should be part of the curriculum.”

Cunliffe’s elder daughter Antonia Cunliffe Davis has been working to raise awareness of her late mother’s artistic legacy for more than 20 years.

She said: “After all this time, I hope this mission will finally come to fruition and that the exhibition at Leeds will help get her the recognition she deserves.”

This year the University celebrates the 60^th anniversary of one of Cunliffe’s most important 1950s public sculptures – Man-Made Fibres, a huge Portland stone sculpture for a new textiles building, also called Man-Made Fibres. The sculpture features two monumental hands with a striking weave motif cradled between them, reflecting the exciting developments in synthetic fibres that the new building represented. The University remains proud of its roots in Yorkshire’s textiles industry.

At the same time she was working on this, Cunliffe was commissioned by the then Guild of Television Producers to design the BAFTA award, which was presented for the first time in October 1955. Man-Made Fibres was unveiled by the Princess Royal – then Chancellor of the University – in June the following year.

The new exhibition, at the University’s Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, considers Cunliffe’s career in public art and as a designer of ceramics and textiles in the 1950s, when she created the famous BAFTA trophy – on loan will be the very first iconic mask produced.

The show has been curated by art historian Professor Ann Sumner, the University’s Head of Cultural Engagement, who said: “The exhibition concentrates on Mitzi Cunliffe’s major public art commissions, including her little-known contribution to the Festival of Britain, which launched her career in this country, as well as commissions for other Universities such as Liverpool, for schools in Manchester, her frieze for the Heaton Park Pumping Station, also in Manchester, and the remarkable War of the Roses screen in Lewis’s department store in Liverpool.

“The 1950s were an extraordinarily prolific years for her.”

Sculpture specialist and author Ben Read said: “Mitzi Cunliffe was a lively contributor to British sculpture in the post-war period.  She was active in providing sculpture in the public field and prominent in her use of a wide variety of materials.

“Later in the 1960s, she specialised in creating mass-produced concrete relief panels to feature on buildings. In many ways she successfully expanded the nature of sculpture production.”

The Leeds exhibition will focus on the Man-Made Fibres sculpture, culminating in the 60^th anniversary of the building on which it sits, on 29 June.

Items on display – some for the first time – will include Cunliffe’s original maquettes (preliminary models), photographs, letters, drawings, textiles, ceramics and exhibition catalogues.

Arthritis and eye problems led Cunliffe to switch to teaching and writing from the early 1970s. She later developed Alzheimer’s disease and retired to Oxfordshire where she died aged 88 in 2006.

As part of the year’s events to celebrate Cunliffe’s association with the University, Man-Made Fibres is being conserved, and new public art will be commissioned in response to it.

The exhibition forms part of the University of Leeds Public Art Project and will be accompanied by a series of events and talks, as part of The Yorkshire Year of the Textile celebrations. It also coincides with the Out There: Our Post-War Public Art exhibition organised by Historic England at Somerset House (until 10 April).

Lord Harewood has generously lent his BAFTA award to the exhibition.

• Entries now open: www.brownleetri.com
• 20% discount from 9am Friday 25th until midnight Monday 28th March
• 2016 Brownlee Tri date: Saturday 24th September

The Brownlee Tri will be returning to Harewood House in Leeds for its third consecutive year on Saturday 24th September 2016. Alistair and Jonny Brownlee’s hugely popular triathlon will once again offer Sprint and Super-Sprint distances for individuals and a Sprint relay for teams around the spectacular Harewood course.

As an Easter Bank holiday special and to celebrate the launch, entries will be discounted by 20% until midnight on Monday 28th March.

The 2016 Brownlee Tri will build on the success of the 2015 event, when over 6,000 people descended on the beautiful Harewood estate. With over 1600 registered participants, the event was a huge success bringing together triathletes of all ages and abilities to experience the unique and exciting course. Alistair Brownlee commented “We are excited to bring the Brownlee Tri back to Harewood House again this year. The 2015 event was great and enjoyed by many. We can’t wait to do it all over again, this time even bigger and better.”

The event will once again offer a packed Entertainment Village and the opportunity for competitors and spectators to explore the grounds of the Harewood Estate, including the Bird Garden and Adventure Playground.

To enter online, visit the website here: www.brownleetri.com