Falconry Displays

Today I took Frank the lanneret down to another field to fly him. We are so congested with traffic re: road works and new development it forced my hand to try somewhere new. Our local authority are so keen to get people out of their cars to cycle and use public transport that they have forgotten that a lot of people actually do need to use their cars and will continue to do so even after the carriage way has been narrowed for a cycle path – that nobody really uses and certainly not through the winter. What do I know.

Since my time off I have pretty much restricted the flying of my remaining birds to one place – it has been so handy and there are no dogs. Of course as demo falconer – which I am no longer – your birds need to get used to flying at different venues and this requires preparation work at home.

They can easily habituate to flying in one spot and can behave quite differently elsewhere so  to counter this tendency several places are needed to get birds used to to flying in new locations. I mention this is in my book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ published by the Choir Press in Gloucester in 2024 –  available online to buy. In the book I do not concentrate on the technique of preparing birds for shows because it is a subject of interest to those few people who do it or wish to do it. It is a mentioned is an option of activity for a trained falcon and hints at what is needed. A well prepared bird with accurate conditioning.

As a result it was with some trepidation that I put Frank on his mobile perch with his flying jesses and telemetry  plus of course the all important bell and flew him in a new spot. I need not have worried although he ranged away and got some good height on the slope he flew quite beautifully. On his second go from a good position overhead he put in a beautiful vertical stoop – to which I allowed him to catch the lure and end the session. Just great!

When I get Jarvis out of the loft after his winter break I will fly him there too. I will be more nervous for him – I trained him for the book and he has only ever been flown in the one spot whereas Frank was flown at a few events before my enforced break. I look forward to it. Jarvis has developed so well over the last year.

Of course the dog needs her walk – she jarred her leg the other day so we have been taking it easy – no ball work. Here she is from the weekend with the weak rays of the winter sun shining down upon her.