Falconry Displays

Archive for March, 2020

Well no surprise that we are experiencing cancellations on mass as the situation re. Covid – 19  is looking grim. But we are all hoping that  things will not escalate to what is happening in the rest of Europe – but it looks to be an increasingly forlorn hope. When all this over there will be an analysis of how the crisis had been handled.  Government having pressure from 100’s of experts chipping in. The truth is we have all been taken by surprise by this virus its contagion – even for those who predicted this would happen in January it is difficult in weeks to ready a system for the type on onslaught that is about to happen. Now we have months of isolation and restrictive measures while at the same time trashing our economy – business’s and putting thousands of people out of work.

If this had been an animal disease then the sick and contagious would  have been ring fenced for culling – for vulnerable humans to prevent sickness this would mean iron tight isolation and continual testing for them and their carers. A more strategic approach with limited resources. No doubt this strategy is flawed but we do have good knowledge of who is most at risk the elderly and the infirm. As I say to guests ‘judge me on my falconry’ and not on my knowledge of pandemics!

Hopefully we can keep the business going till such time as things improve and life returns to normal – the birds – I have the full team ready now! They will continue to be flown daily. Above is a picture of ‘Arizona’ our Harris Hawk.

Well what can we say – worrying times for all particularly if you have elderly parents or grand parents – knowing what to do or knowing ‘what you should do’ – but they are all ‘on balance’ decisions as we are discovering. As a keeper of animals and running a falconry business for many years we have encountered numerous disease threats along the way leading to measures to protect stock and the economy.  There is an ever present  worry of a ‘species jump’ of the pathogen into human beings. Which is what has happened with coronavirus or covid 19.

We have bookings ahead for the season but recently the enquiries have have slowed – which is understandable – to be expected in fact. Whether the bookings we have will happen ‘who knows’ – the decisions will be government led of but many business’s are making their own decisions of what is best for staff and customers and to manage a business through this difficult time.

We are all hoping that things may not be too bad – if people act responsibly. We do not have an epicentre of the disease here in the UK no city or town shut down to contain the virus – that may change but at the moment it is spreading everywhere and is becoming ubiquitous. The acceptance of this is part of the government strategy to slow the spread of the virus to flatten  its peak –  to spread out demand for medical intervention and push the virus into the summer when other respiratory conditions are less common and the coronavirus tank comes plainly into view. It will also buy us more time for therapeutic drug development and hopefully a vaccine.

Anyway we continue to fly the birds and have the full team flying. Our young falcon ‘Frank’ is out of his winter aviary and we are excited to see how he goes this season.

I sign off with a p[icture falcon of our oldest falcon ‘Leah’ who is 17 from yesterday on the lure after stooping at it.