Falconry Displays

It is with a heavy heart that I have to report the loss of Jarvis while flying just over a week ago.

I bought Jarvis as a lanneret( a male falcon)  to create a training diary for my book. I think there was some confusion because I am pretty sure Jarvis from the flying weight data was actually female. They are bigger than the males. It did not matter one way or another.

The book was published at the end of 2024 and since then I have continued to fly Jarvis for fun. She has developed into a very fine falcon.

As I say in my book the loss of a falcon or hawk is normally a combination of human error and bad luck and I think in this case it was largely bad luck.  As I have also said – it always happens when you least expect it.

On that morning I flew Frank first – my actual lanneret – and then when on to fly Jarvis. I had noticed a woodpecker feeding in the field but as I unhooded Jarvis I thought it had gone. It had not and Jarvis chased it as it ‘sprang up’ from the grass in front of her – with no hope of catching it up into a tree. In the tree she found herself sitting uncomfortably on spindly twigs with slightly spread eagled wings.

She made several attempts to leave the tree and come into the lure – but could not get through. Then suddenly she went out the other side of the tree and I hoped she would swing  back round into the flying field. Unfortunately though she flew away across a freshly planted corn field to a line of trees. Actually not far. There was an instant commotion as the local crows took umbrage and mobbed her and as I made my way over I could hear her ‘kecking’. Then she appeared as if ejected from that direction and landed on the ground in the corn field.

It should have been fairly straight forward to call her into the lure at this point but the whole incident had spooked her and she was no longer in the familiar setting of the flying field.

She took no notice of the lure and as I approached cautiously she spooked again and flew up the field and disappeared. I went back to get the telemetry and soon found her sitting on the ground only for her to spook again.

I then spent the next two days following her around finding her quite easily and also in some very good spots to call her down. I was impressed how strongly and powerfully she flew. The weather was against us in that it became increasingly wet and very windy and Jarvis became restless and began to shift downwind. At no point did she show any inclination to come into the lure – I tried every trick in the book.

This situation may seem extraordinary but it is not unknown for a bird to be phased or spooked and seem to lose all its training and any sense of hunger.  Bear in mind she was at her correct flying weight and picked up well before flying.

Eventually as she drifted further down wind – pursued from ‘pillar to post’ by crows, magpies and the frightening presence of buzzards I lost the signal from the transmitter. I searched for a further few days but nothing. As I say in my book often a falcon or hawk on running out of energy and increasingly hungry will ‘hole up’ and stay in one area – sitting on roof tops and therefore may be noticed by someone who may make that all important phone call.

Jarvis has my ID tag on her and I have contacted the Falconry IBR to report her as lost with all her details and hopefully a combination of the ID tag and the ‘lost’ listing represents my best chance now of getting her back. You do realise as a falconer there comes a point that you are not going to find the bird yourself and you are relying on others and luck.

I think losing Jarvis has hit me quite hard.  I am longer a professional falconer preparing birds for shows – where you build in a certain adaptability in the bird. This means the bird does not just habituate to fly in just one place. Of course the conditioning for event work has to be far more accurate than the amateur falconer flying for fun. Having said this demonstration birds can still get spooked, get disorientated or just wander off at shows

I am hoping Jarvis might appear somewhere out of the ether.  In the meantime I wait for that phone call – like waiting for Godot.

I hope I have some good news for my next blog.