Falconry Displays

Pictured below is the buzzard again in his usual area. I managed to get a photo of him – with my mobile phone – through the van window – sorry about the dirty windscreen. He looks miles away but actually he was quite close. I must invest in a little camera.

I was flying Frank and he kept peering over there – initially I could see nothing. Then I saw the shadowy form of a buzzard descending to the ground and then back up to a post in the security fence that surrounds Safran. I have also seen a kestrel in the same spot several times- it must be a good place for rodents.

The buzzard would not let me get any closer before he flew over the front of the van and away across the open field on the other side. He/she looked lovely and I think it is a buzzard of the year. It had that light brown/white looks of young bird rather than the deep chestnut colouration of the adult. We will keep an eye on it – he was back there this morning – to make sure it does not begin to struggle if we have an extended cold snap.

That is how we got ‘George’ the buzzard – the one pictured in the casting section of my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’. We had George for 6 weeks. He was very weak when I picked him up in the local park. He too had been hanging hunting off low fences and eventually during a cold spell where he could not hunt properly he got into trouble – that is where I came in. He had nearly made through the winter – it was February.

George had 6 weeks of rehab in a weathering loft – standard size – where he put on weight and got his strength back. When he was released he was in perfect feather condition after been in a loft for a trained bird – and I was surprised how strongly he flew out of the release box – directly into a strong breeze and up into a very large oak tree. He was soon joined by some of his old friends and they went off together calling to each other. ‘High Fly’ as Molly Burkett the writer would have said.

This morning was wet and windy. The rain stopped for a while and I flew Frank – who loves the wind. It was too windy for Jarvis so he had the day off. Some birds excel in the wind – Jarvis will improve. We had a lugger falcon called ‘Waqar’ and he was the equal of any bird in the wind – very acrobatic – he would appear to surf the breeze. The Falconry Centre had a passage lugger called ‘Jan’ and when it was not windy she just mucked about but in a high wind she was superb. We flew her at the Amberley Horse Trials in 1975/6 in a gale and she was out of this world. ‘Peggy’ our lanner-lugger was also exceptional in the wind. They learn to fly in it by  using it rather than fighting it.