Falconry Displays

It is not too long ago that the Christmas period was a busy time for me. Working at various Country Hotels on Christmas Day, Boxing day and then into the New Year. I always enjoyed it – the main concern at this time of year is the weather. We did a display at the Cotswold House Hotel in 2010 with a foot of lying snow  – it was -10c when we arrived. I find it hard to remember an occasion when we could not fly the birds during the festive season.

Christmas morning was always the most fun. I would peel the potatoes at home before going off to do the display. Coming back home was always lovely as the house had woken up and the cooking of the turkey was underway. Great! So working over the festive period as I explained to my neighbour was part of the job – that is when guests want to see me.

Sadly I no longer do this but even so habits die hard and I found myself on Christmas morning down at the field where I fly my birds with Jarvis the lanneret. He is of course the falcon I trained for my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ by me Michael Davie.

I am determined to get him fit and this requires daily flying to build both muscle and cardiovascular fitness. This takes time but once once cardiovascular fitness is attained a residual fitness in the bird will always remain. Jarvis is doing well and flying way beyond the level he achieved in the book diary. Due to bad weather I was left frustrated at the end of his first season. As I explained in the book the primary concern with a first year hawk or falcon is to get the bird through its first winter and then beyond this to the first moult. In that sense things went well and I was very happy to pick Jarvis up after the moult. He looked very smart with his new mainly blue livery and was soon flying again.

When it it comes to comparing falcons – peregrines though a similar size to lanners visually are in fact quite a lot bigger. They are very compact muscular falcons and when you have one on your fist you are impressed by a feeling of density, weight and power.

I will finish this news blog with a picture of ‘Sprite’ our male peregrine falcon know as a ‘tiercel’. This word apparently means ‘roughly a third’ in ancient French signifying the size difference between the falcon – the female and the smaller male or tiercel. It is a fairly accurate.