Falconry Displays

The weathering loft is the central theme to my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’. I have thought about whether this is an appropriate place for a step-by-step guide to build the structure with drawings and quantities provided. Other books include hood making and other items of falconry furniture and so I thought why not. Housing your bird properly should be the first priority and then to have it ready in good time for its arrival.

The weathering loft is a dual-purpose structure which can be used both as a weathering and a loft.

Lofting a trained parent reared bird in flying condition is the goal. This however is not always possible because they can be difficult to take out of the loft to be flown.  But the loft can be used at other times for the moulting or resting bird or during bad weather. It is possible to build up loft time with a trained bird in incremental stages. I have done this successfully. But with some birds this is never going to be possible. A realistic approach is needed.

It is important to say however that the loft is not an aviary. It can be defined as a place where a bird is not tethered.

My design shown above is based on a method that I have developed and used for over 30 years.

Anything we offer as suggested accommodation must be affordable. I have made sure that the construction materials are available from DIY stores.  This means the falconer can avoid the daunting task of visiting a builder’s merchants or timber yard where nothing is visible or priced up. At a DIY store it is all there – priced up sitting on the shelves. Often with a ‘certain spend’ delivery will be free and there may be a trade card available on reaching certain spend thresholds to further reduce costs.

Of course, you can repurpose a structure or use the foundations of a previous structure to build something new.

The main material for the weathering loft – the sheet material – is 11 mm OSB 3 board (3 meaning exterior grade) which is widely used in the construction industry. If sealed properly and subsequently maintained this material will last the course. If a panel is compromised these low-cost sheets are easy to replace. They should be fixed with 40mm screws to allow for this. Personally, I prefer OSB 3 board to equivalent forms of plywood because they are less likely to delaminate.

Ship lap or feather edge boarding can be used. It is important that the material is of a certain quality so as they dry out gaps and splits do not occur.

I have not tried ‘Stokboard’ which is recycled plastic sheeting. It is quite expensive and always needs to be delivered. I have a bird of prey colleague who has made hundreds of nest boxes for owls and kestrels out of the material. They are rot free and do not require maintenance. They are put together with a series of interlocking slots and wedges. For a larger structure it would need to be fabricated with the use of metal frames to make best use of its properties. It is certainly a material of great interest.

Metal cladding is another material that can be used. This is of particular  importance in breeding pens which in part may be open topped and be at risk of the weather incursion. Maintenance is also more difficult in breeding pens and so investment in the right material out the outset makes a lot of sense.

Buildings can be made of block or brick work but will require proper foundations.

The weathering loft as presented in the book has been designed with affordability in mind with materials that are commonly available. It will offer a long lived bird all its needs in the trained environment. The step-by-step guide is there to encourage and support its construction   Time must be allowed to build the structure. Everything takes longer than planned even without bad weather slowing things down.

All this can be found in the book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ by me Michael Davie. Recently published by the Choir Press. It is available online.