Falconry Displays

I think we are all partial to meadows particularly those that are permanent pastureland – grassland older than 5 years. I did a lot of work on grassland when I was a student and was quite good at identifying many species of grass – not so good now!

This Spring has been a strange one with drought conditions. After ‘I may say’ continuous rain for many months.

This has made the grassland for hay making very thin favouring many of the traditional herbage grasses over the rye grasses. It does produce grassland ideal for rabbit hawking.  It allows them to sit out feeling protected away from cover but also allows the falconer to ‘walk them up’ hawk held high ready for a slip. The only problem with this is that there are no rabbits at the moment. This is a great shame and a strategy. I have discussed the reasons for this is an earlier blog. Needless to say it has nothing to do with the field sport community.

But the grassland this spring is unique with drought conditions playing a huge part. Yesterday -see photo below- I noticed the first common orchids of the year which is great – they have done so well in recent years. In the background you can see red clover and a diverse sward of differing grass types.

This week I managed to get a hold of a book that I read when I was a young falconer. I used to borrow from the library. It is called ‘The Noble Hawks’ and was written by Ursula Moray Williams in 1959. I could not remember the title but by chance I found  it on an American website under a different name. Once I knew the original name I tracked it back to the UK and a bought a copy. I will report back when I have read it for the first time in 50 years.

I continue to fly my 3 birds Jarvis and Frank the 2 lannerets and Sprite the peregrine. It keeps me active which is very important and the love for the sport is still there.

In fact I flew the birds this morning and ended with Sprite by which time any pigeons in the area are long gone – hopefully – because he will chase them. I stooped him to the lure and when he was on the lure on the ground after the catch he started to get very agitated and started to  ‘heck’ loudly looking skyward. There was a buzzard above us at some height but it was making Sprite nervous – particularly sitting on the ground. I could not believe what happened next because the buzzard started stooping at us! with me there. Anyway I felt that “discretion was the better part of valor” and we made our way to a narrow strip of woodland. We could see the buzzard circling above the tree tops trying to find us. I fed Sprite up and hooded him before we ventured out. The buzzard was no where to be seen but out of the corner of my eye I saw it land in a tree around the back of the wooded strip.

You hear of buzzards attacking members of the public – runners and so on – this is the first time I had experienced it myself. I fly my birds there everyday and we have three breeding pairs of buzzards nearby – they are so common now. Up to now we have all rubbed along just fine and this is the first interaction we have had.

Years ago we had an eagle owl bowled over by a wild buzzard at a corporate event. Unknown to us there were a pair of wild buzzards nesting in wood and they simply were protecting their patch from a dangerous intruder they had not seen before. I say in my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ – available on Amazon and other outlets – that falconers should stay away from areas adjacent to where wild raptors are nesting as quite rightly they will not tolerate it.

But today – because we are such a familiar sight – was quite extraordinary. We will see what happens over the coming days. We do not want is a rogue buzzard! I will report back.