Falconry Displays

We have been experiencing a very cold patch and along with Sprite our peregrine who is resting lofted to finish off his ‘very late’ starting moult – this was due to being flown through the Spring, Summer and into Autumn – I also decided to loft Jarvis the lanneret the one I trained for the book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ out of an abundance of caution. It is always low daytime temperatures  after cold nights which is the worry – so he remains in the loft – fed up – until the weather improves.

I like to feed the birds in the morning during the winter so they are not going to bed with a full crop so being better able to  concentrate on getting through the night boosted from the energy from an earlier feed rather than worrying about digesting a large crop of food when it is perishingly cold.

Jarvis is unlikely to get Wind Tip Oedema now at 3 years old so it is a ‘just in case’ management decision. Frank our other lanneret who is older is under a ceramic bulb rather than lofted for these very cold nights – this is for the management of this particular bird. These bulbs work very well and last many years. They just keep the frost off the birds and you can feel the warmth of the bulb when you pick the bird up and notice the bath water is not frozen or if so just partially frozen on the other side to where the bird is sitting.

So Sprite and Jarvis are resting in the comfort of the loft but I am still flying Frank each day – and enjoying it greatly. He is easy bird to handle, hoods well and his flying has really developed. His main problem has always been maintaining fitness but at the moment he is fit and flying with great style.

Today after putting him back into the weathering after flying I walked back into the house and through the kitchen window I saw a bird sitting in a tree at the end of the garden fanning its tail. I thought initially it was a pigeon but fanning its tail? that is hawk like.

So I got out my monocular – that I keep handy – and through the window I could clearly see it was a male Sparrowhawk known as a Musket – after the gun – preening, stretching and rousing  known in falconry parlance as ‘mantling and warbling’ a process of drying and feather care after taking a bath. He was really going at it.

Even though the day was cold there has been a slight uplift in temperature and falcons and hawks often take a bath in these conditions. As I say in my book if the temperature goes up and it is milder or you change their bath water. Clearly it is the same for wild birds.

The hawk reminded me so much of one of my own Sparrowhawks taking at bath on the back lawn at my parents house. Normally Sparrowhawks do not sit around for very long but when I took the dog out 20 minutes later surprisingly it was still there.

I tried to take a photograph of it through the kitchen door but as per usual the equipment I had was not quite up to the job. I must get myself a camera so I can properly record these moments.

Anyway here a  mobile phone photo of the hawk. Not very clear but you can see his tail fanned out to dry.

When I got back sometime later he had gone.