For us its makes the daily flying of our birds of prey more pleasurable with the warming sun accompanied by the sights and sounds of early spring.

Officially spring does not start to next week – but you cannot hold nature back.

Our falconry display bookings are going well – as I said before with a fragile economy it is difficult to predict the future but we had prepared at least for a downturn in corporate activity as well as fewer international visitors for our Hotel displays – this is what has happened.

Thankfully as an established company with a wide net we have found new opportunities as falconry and birds of prey displays are popular for so many different audiences . I remain a student of our sport and its history and in a way feel defined by this aspect – it does provide a driver for my displays.

I think it is important to point out that not only do we provide falconry displays for our own county of Gloucestershire but really birds of prey displays for the whole of Central England the ‘The Midlands’, South West England, South East England and London.

Some good news in that the filming we did for BBC4 last summer for the historical three part documentary ’She Wolves’ is in the process of being screened – it is wonderful seeing your own birds of prey on the silver screen particularly our Peregrine hybrid ‘Slick’ – it was only a very short piece but it was great! and in a way authentic too. I must thank Thornbury Castle for allowing us to use it as a location and  was pleased that in the end credits this was acknowledged.

Included is a picture of ‘Bo’ our Eagle Owl on the point of catching the dummy rabbit at a ‘tree planting event’ we did last autumn at Cricklade. It again shows the diversity of the events we attend. It is a great photo and I am grateful to Richard for sending it to me.

I think despite everything we have had a good year - it proves life goes on! I think for 2012 - well I do not know quite what to expect – but we are booking a mixture of events and happenings for the 2012 season which is good news and hope as the season progresses we will have more.  As always we look forward to providing our interactive and educational falconry and birds of prey displays at the events we attend.

The nature of falconry displays have changed over the years but our love of falcons has not and they frame every display as if to remind us all of their splendour and heritage – but of course with Harris Hawks and Eagle Owl ‘Bo’ there are new  opportunities for guests not just to be spectators but to handle and fly a bird of prey and for children we have ‘Jazz’ the American Kestrel who has been so popular in 2011.

The educational nature of our displays will never change - for me it gives the whole process meaning,

Bye for now. The picture above is a grown up picture of ‘Jazz’ our American Kestrel kindly taken by Mr. Neale Albert at Thornbury Castle last Christmas

I always say to people that owls are not really falconry birds – there is no history of their usage for this purpose – but people hardly hear my words as they are transfixed by her beauty and character. Owls are rather cat like in nature – difficult to train and easy to lose particularly doing falconry displays or should I say birds of  flying displays away from home. They have a multitude of senses and are easily distracted and naturally suspicious of all situations – this of course is survival!

Talking about survival perhaps falconers know better than anybody the gigantic effort it takes for a bird of prey to survive its first year  particularly in the winter with short cold days and prey becoming increasingly elusive. Falconers know from their own efforts how difficult it is to enter a young hawk at quarry and how demoralised the bird gets if it keeps missing - with their wild cousins this demoralisation means death and hence a depressingly short life span for many wild raptors. This darwinian stuggle for survival means stable populations for both predator and prey. For the falconer its case of subsidising his charge in its effort to hunt successfully and of course what you see in a falconry display is all those techniques employed in building confidence and style in a hawk or falcon.

When I was growing up these stable population dynamics of wild raptors  did not exist and one rarely saw a sparrowhawk and never  a peregrine. DDT and other pesticides used on crops affected the breeding success of these bird catching species.  This is well documented but  after a ban in the use of these chemicals peregrines numbers in the early 1980’s began to recover and now thirty years on recovery is complete and in fact is beyond complete as peregrines looking for new homes found in our towns and cities exactly what they were looking forward  – sea scapes in our cities with  artificial cliffs in the form of high rise buildings  providing  nesting sites with plenty of town pigeons feeding below amidst a sea of people - and of course a more than welcoming public who were delighted to see them. I where appropriate always try and include this success story in my commentary and I believe the educational aspects of falconry displays has lead to an increased awareness of birds of prey.

Even today for us ‘old timers’ seeing a peregrine is special and will always remain so.

Everyday I walk round our local fields with the dog – we live in a semi rural environment and to escape for a hour each day is wonderful and of course one is aware of the annual cycle of the seasons. The other day I found what I thought was a peregrine kill – a pigeon with its wings left on but the rest of the body neatly eaten away and plucked feathers all around. It was a feral pigeon one of a number who had been gathering on the field to feed on what the combine had  left behind. I checked the kill site the following day and all eveidence had gone apart from a few scattered feathers  - I suspected a fox had taken what was left particularly as there was some strategically placed feaces left on a small mound nearby.

Two days later I was out again and as I walked around the side of the field something caught my eye – this was the falconer in me – it was a peregrine  out on open ground feeding on a kill. I froze  – but despite my best efforts of concealment the peregrine gazed at me and in a moment  was airborne carrying the carcase with it.

Often a raptor will drop its kill if disturbed but not this one – maybe it was a hungry young falcon. It gained altitude and flew away towards and over a high hedge to I assume the fields beyond – it disappeared and then reappeared as if in a quandry as to what to do next. I was rather hopeful it would wheel round and land back in the field – it clearly thought about it but settled on gaining height and heading towards a pylon where it appeared to land. I bothered it no more and continued my walk.

I felt elated and privileged to have encountered the scene something that I had longed  for for so many years. I felt like J A Baker but this time I was not reading about it in his book  ‘The Peregrine’  but seeing it for myself in real life.

Everyday now when I am flying our own birds of prey we see swallows flying with purpose often in a south west direction rather than due south which I always find rather strange. I am assuming they are on migration as they are passing through - following ancient lines from in-built forces. Of course ‘man’ marvels at the feat of migration – sad that they should go but always so happy to see them again next spring.

It is not just swallows that pass through. I saw an Osprey passing overhead last week- at  typical raptor height and with a typical raptor wing beat and proceeding unlike the swallows due south. Identification is a process of elimination but the idea that it is some type of bird of prey is the first deduction in the process of ID. It  was wonderful to see and nowadays could have come from a number of places as their breeding locations in the UK are increasing.

Of course I continue to see our local birds of prey notably buzzards and sparrowhawks but sadly fewer kestrels – although I did see one yesterday. I also saw a wild sparrowhawk try and catch a green woodpecker – which was a very noisy affair with the woodpecker adding a running commentary to the whole proceedings and clearly put the sparrowhawk off – but it was an amazing moment of wildlife action and it reminds me of a wild Cornish Peregrine Falcon that flew over my father’s house near Newbridge – we did not see it initially but heard the whoosh! as it passed overhead at some incredible velocity chasing a pigeon which despite this amazing show of speed and three stoops the pigeon made good its escape - the peregrine then appeared to climb and join a fellow peregrine that had been watching the whole proceedings from above! amazing and true!

J A Baker who wrote the book ‘The Peregrine’ which is an amazing read states that peregrines do have the habit of chasing  prey without the intention of catching it only turning up the boost when their hunger dictates that they are ready to dine!

The title of this post is ‘Migration’ with Peregrines we call it peregrination as the word peregrine means ‘wandering falcon’ – how apt!

The picture is a scene from summer of me stooping ‘Bella’ one of our lanner falcons to the lure at Whitemead Forest Park.

Our summer season is drawing to a close and looking at photographs that are often sent to us reminds me of our many visits to often very interesting locations- this one is by photographer Edward Taylor at Whitemead Forest Park which we visit one day a week during the summer. I always enjoy these displays the setting is fantastic – the Forest of Dean – need I say more! and the displays themselves are so well received – which is of course lovely.

The forest is so wonderful and often during our displays we see a lot of wild birds from ravens to goshawks which add so much to the displays - the best bird spotters in the business are our birds of prey themselves! who have also been wonderful all season.

I would like to thank all those events who have booked our display this summer and of course we will continue to be available through autumn and winter.

The weather has not been particularly brilliant but falconry displays are amazingly durable and unless it is blowing a gale or raining hard we are normally able to fly the birds of prey. Some of the birds are very experienced and take it in their stride just like their wild counterparts.

Our American Kestrel ’Jazz’ has been doing particulary well – her small size and happy deposition make her very popular but we are always keen to tell guests that happy and small does not mean easy. A bird of this size takes a lot of looking after and careful management. Her flying too has improved and she is dashy and manoeuvrable - a bird of this size is also prey for other birds of prey – and she knows this – so one is always on the look out for other raptors before attempting to fly her. As I have said before the Sparrowhawk is probably the most feared. We are not fearful of her been caught but flying away to save herself and running after her!

Lets not forget the other birds that are the mainstay. ‘Bella’ one of our Lanner falcons is flying well and in a small way is filling the shoes of ‘Duke’ with her versatility and reliability.

So all in all it has been a typical English summer as someone once said to me we do not have a climate we just have weather!

As I have said before she is a member of the falcon family and even though very small weighing in at only 125grams she has that unmistakeable falcon look.

It certainly was not a straight forward journey training her. Her size made accurate conditioning critical but as she was hand reared and very tame  this was not such an issue as it could have been.

The main problem is that not only is she a predator but also because of her size is a prey species as well. In America their main predator is the Coopers Hawk which is a little larger than our Sparrow hawk  and at times ’Jazz’ would press the panic or survival button and just ‘go’ if she saw one – as you can imagine it always happened at the wrong time – but thats falconry!

I had a loss of confidence regarding her future in terms of displays and moved her into a much bigger and more secluded aviary and this really seemed to settle her down - it’s as if she had room to hide when she saw a Sparrowhawk.

This new found maturity has helped in the flying field and she has been flying amazingly well both as an interactive bird allowing people to handle her but also as a lure flier – she has become a real star at events and of course we are delighted.

 We all knew that Duke was in the very final stages of his life – at 23 who could complain! but nontheless when I arrived home on March 26th to find Duke had lost the use of his legs I knew I was facing a very difficult decision.

But by some good grace Duke absolved me of this duty by quietly passing away that evening.

At 23 years Duke had lived a long time for a falcon. I was 29 when I bought him and one day off 51 when he died. My family too were sad and together we buried him the following morning.

Duke was a falcon of a lifetime – a gem and a star.

The weather here at the moment  is wonderful and makes such a difference to our daily flying.

With the warmth there is more lift and the birds of prey particularly the falcons begin to fly higher and ride the invisible air currents like wind surfers which is exciting.

We want to take that excitement into our summer events. We love our falcons here but we know how important our other birds are in bringing balance to our displays. Our displays are not just about falconry – although this is my particular interest – but the world of birds of prey out there which many people encounter in their gardens, out in the countryside and in our towns and cities.

Of course with a Harris Hawk or an Eagle Owl or even an American Kestrel there is that invaluable  ’hands on experience’ that guests can encounter – that ‘Hawk in the Hand’  moment which in a way is primeval but thrilling!

Will try to update as the season progresses – bye for now.

I, Michael Davie started my falconry/bird of prey display enterprise in late 1986.

Having what at the time was the best falconry education available coupled with a degree and a teaching qualification in rural and enviromental science I felt I could offer something positive to bird of prey education and falconry to the public eye.

Twenty five years on the above is still my intention – maybe more crafted in my presentation but hopefully still with that sense of enthusiasm and fun that I still feel for the subject.

However back in 1986 the captive breeding program was not as productive as it is now and buying birds of prey was more difficult and more expensive.

So as I travelled to the Midlands with a friend to look at a Lanner Falcon – a male know as a Lanneret. I was not sure what to expect.

Lanner Falcons are excellent display birds although other types of falcons will challenge their performave no one will ever deny that they are charming and eminently trainable falcons.

Although Duke’s feather condition was not brilliant he looked well and in terms of his feathers he would be moulting soon anyway as this was spring 1989 – So we took a chance and brought him home.

After a couple of weeks of readjustment I started his training and he was soon flying loose. He should have been trained in 1988 the year he was bred so he was rather backward and I was concerned that although he was a lovely bird to handle his flying potential was a concern.

Anyway I continued flying him and just let him do his own thing – we call this tame hacking – trying to substitute that period that a young wild falcon has to learn to fly while still being fed by his parents in preparation for independence.

Tame hack can do this and so Duke used to go off on his own and potter about on the wing – never too far and when he was ready he would dash back. This can get risky as the bird will begin to show independence and so can become wayward. So there comes a point when tame hack needs to end and proper training needs to begin.

Duke really began to blossom and actually never looked back from this point. For twenty seasons he graced events all over the country flying beautifully in a number of different styles to suit the wind and location always delighting audiences. He was always keen to fly – he appeared to love it! and was tame and easy to handle – the perfect falcon.

All things come to an end – we all know that! but after twenty years Duke’s powers began to fail him and I was becoming concerned that if I lost him away from home he would be in trouble and so I took the decision to retire him from events but continued to fly him at home.

A year or so later it was clear that he should retire – although I should say that he nearly retired himself at the age of 17 by chasing a wood pigeon out of the flying field that I use and was gone for a week! pigeons as many a falconer will testify are the achilles heel for falcons.

I cannot do Duke justice in terms of his contribution but if I say I have a real sense of love for him you will know what I mean.