Falconry Displays

Where I walk my dog, I saw in the same field yesterday (5th March 2025) a Sparrowhawk hunting and landing briefly in a tree, a kestrel hovering – my favourite bird of prey and a buzzard circling.

This is the time of year when birds are pairing up or are seen to be pairing. I once watched a Sparrowhawks nest, and they were already paired up in late January – so what we are seeing now is a confirmation of a process that has already happened. The warmer weather providing plenty of lift encouraging  birds to circle and display spurred on by raging hormones.

Buzzards were rare in the 1970s at least around here. The only one flying was a trained one owned by me. A very thin young wild buzzard had been given to me to look after by the then Falconry Centre. It had been picked up by a local farmer. It would not have survived had it been left..

Anyway, I had ‘Ted’ as I called him for 3 years. I have written about him in a previous blog posting.

I managed to get him hunting – which is no mean feat with a passage buzzard – and after 3 years and a lot of fun I released him in a good spot knowing he could care for himself. Job done if you like. Many years later I picked up another buzzard that had run out of steam right at the end of winter during a late cold snap of weather. He had survived up to that point and I  ‘fed up’ for 6 weeks and then with the warmer weather of Spring I released him close to where I found him. In fact George as he became known is shown in my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ by me Michael Davie just before I released him.

I will sign with a picture of a wild kestrel hovering. They are such wonderful birds.