Falconry Displays

I was sad to read this week that Molly Burkett had died at the age of 93. She was a writer and wildlife rehabilitator who played a significant part in my young life. Reading her obituary, she did many other things in her life, but it is the recollection of my mother – who is of her age – reading Molly’s wonderful book ‘High Fly’ to me which is the standout memory.

Her writings inspired I think a love of the natural world, birds of prey and falconry that has remained with me for life. The story of their first bird a kestrel called ‘Cully’ inspired me and many others too. Of course, kestrels have played a huge part in the lives of falconers of my generation. They remain my favourite bird.

One always responds to passion and great story telling and Molly Burkett did both so well. One must not forget that she was a part of a team with her husband John Burkett a was a well-known falconer in his own right. A falconry colleague once told of the joy of meeting John Burkett at a British Falconers Club meeting. He had read ‘High Fly’ too at a similar age as me!

John’s Goshawk described in ‘High Fly’ was used in David Cobham’s1968 film ‘The Goshawk’ based on the book by T H white to provide the flying shots of a hunting hawk. Below is an adult female Goshawk from the Falconry Centre back in the 1970s.

I recently re-read ‘High Fly’ and thoroughly enjoyed it. I once read a review of the book by the British Falconers Club, and the feeling was that there were too many mistakes in it. I think that is fair comment, but Molly’s technical knowledge should not be underestimated, and I found myself nodding along as I read it.  I think the basis of my knowledge has in some way come from this book. It was so impressionable in a good way. Many of my friends also read it. Borrowing it in my case from the local library.

T H White was an interesting character – a very well known writer of ‘Arthurian’ novels and later films. I did not realise it at the time that he had been a schoolteacher at Stowe School – Buckinghamshire – where I used to provide falconry displays for OISE foreign language students for several years during the summer.

I came across this when I read it in either Helen MacDonald’s book ‘H is for Hawk’ or ‘Looking for the Goshawk’ by Conor Mark Jameson – they both mention White. Nor did I realise he was living in a nearby cottage possibly in the grounds of the school when he acquired his goshawk to train. It is a small world!

We had a visit to see the new film ‘H is for Hawk’ based on Helen’s book. Claire Foy played Helen and it was a marvellous bit of casting. She did a great job of learning to handle the goshawks in a fairly short period of time.

I wanted to see the film ‘having read the book’ but also because I worked with Helen for a short time in the late 1990s when we were both at the National Birds of Prey Centre, Newent, Gloucestershire. I must admit I had forgotten all about it until I read her book which contained the account of the release of a wild goshawk into the local woods after a period of rehabilitation that I realised that I was there! and then remembered Helen.

The goshawk had been chicken raiding in the Forest of Dean and had managed to get herself caught in the chicken coup. She as I recall had sustained some minor wire damage and was put into the quarantine section at the Centre and allowed to recover. She was a fine-looking bird – similar to the adult female above, and it was something of a celebration when we released her into Newent Woods.  As staff we all got on well together including Helen.

On release the goshawk flew strongly away up into a tall tree – she suddenly looked small against the background of the dense woodland – but she was back home. Of course, this was some years before Helen got her own goshawk Mabel. So that is my claim to fame!

In fact, one of my first encounters of falconry was with a goshawk a passage male and I will never forget how striking the bird looked. Of course, the goshawks used in the film were likely to be what is known as social imprints – a process where a young goshawk is reared in a busy household environment ideally with dogs around, so they habituate to these sights and sounds from an early age so reducing stress including during filming. This is important consideration for a nervous bird like a goshawk. This makes them less at risk from aspergillosis – an in-part stress related disease. Moreover, the falconer can fly an imprinted hawk in a higher condition than a parent reared bird because they are tamer. Mabel Helen’s goshawk which was a parent reared bird and in its first-year plumage would have looked that this parent reared goshawk in first year plumage in the photo below. This a male though and would have looked smaller than Helen’s hawk.

I touch on the process of imprinting in my own book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’. Otherwise, the book is mainly about the care of parent reared falcons and hawks.

I am very keen to talk about Dorothy Yglesias two books ‘The Cry of the Bird’ 1964 and her follow up book ‘In Answer to the Cry’ 1978 about the running with her sister ‘Pog’ The Mousehole Hospital and Sanctuary for Wild Birds. It is a fascinating read and no doubt Molly Burkett, and the two sisters would had have a lot in common. I will talk about these two books in a future blog.