Falconry Displays

Well, we have had some rain! Which is very much welcome with grass so yellow and straw like and so many trees showing signs of water stress. With the rain came the wind and blew many dry and dead leaves out of the treetops – it was like the early onset of Autumn.

The buzzard is still hanging around. Saw it at lunchtime and yesterday it had caught something on the farm track that runs alongside the stream – now dry. It lifted heavily off the ground carrying what was most probably a rat – which they prey on a great deal in the absence of young and half-grown rabbits.

In falconry terms buzzards can be useful hunting birds but as I say in my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ they need lots of encouragement and some knowhow to get them into hunting condition. Of course, with Harris hawks and red tail hawks now widely available which represent a more attractive proposition to the inexperienced falconer than the prospect of struggling with a buzzard. You could imagine the difficulty of trying to fly a captive bred buzzard these days with the number of wild buzzards around – who are strongly territorial. When I was flying a trained buzzard in the late 1970s, we rarely if ever saw a wild buzzard and so that problem did not arise.

We took a trip down to the River Severn at Wainlodes just out of curiosity to see the water levels. In 1976 it was so dry you could probably have waded across to the other side. The river on this occasion though low was no where near this point as can be seen by the barge making its way up from Gloucester to Tewkesbury.

I assume water is released into the Severn to maintain extraction at points along its course. I have checked this and indeed it is not only for extraction but to maintain the ecology of the river. This supplementary water is from reservoirs in mid-Wales as well as groundwater resources.

Back in 1976 the bank would have been busy with young and old anglers jockeying for the best fishing spots. Sadly, on our visit though conditions were perfect no one was fishing – such a shame as fishing is such an enriching activity – healthy for both mind and body. Getting out of the house, possibly with friends, testing your skills and patience to catch fish, learning from others on the embankment and then to return home happy – elated if the fishing has been good – but tired – having been in the fresh air all day. We had some wonderful times fishing at Wainlodes when we were growing up.