Falconry Displays

We had a trip to Worcester on Saturday to see the John Singer Sergeant exhibition – his association and friendship with other artists in the area. We really enjoyed it – not too big – an hour of intensive viewing and reading. What a brilliant artist! then a bacon sandwich and then a good look round at the other exhibits – very interesting – and then we made our way to the cathedral.

It was raining quite hard and it vindicated not taking the sports car – that we are looking after – it is 36 years old and does not like the rain. We decided to take a tour of the cathedral which was so interesting. It reminded me of the book ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ by Ken Follet that I am currently reading. I noticed on looking up on the way in the shape of a peregrine falcon sitting up high on the tower – huddled like a little old man in the rain. At the end of our tour in the herb garden the sun was out and as I looked up a peregrine flew over head.

Worcester was a lovely city – never been there before – with the river, the race course and some lovely railway arches with many house martins hawking insects. It was race day and place was really vibrant despite the weather. In fact it helped because some race goers decided to stay in town and watch the racing from the various bars. It was Ladies day and the place was very colourful.

On our way home we went past the cathedral and Patricia took a short film on her phone of two peregrines chasing each other  around. The female telling the male that the rain had stopped and to go hunting! Here is a still from the movie. The two dots upper centre right are the falcons! Subsequent to this posting I learnt that the falcons nested on a nearby Church and then returned to the Cathedral – where they had nested last year – once the chicks had fledged. This means that the two falcons in the picture could well have been youngsters having fun and chasing each other about.

And here is our own trained peregrine ‘Sprite’ taken after flying. He is peering down at the meat on my glove. As I say in book ‘Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ it is important that the hawk or falcon feeds properly on the fist – sitting the right way round and not snatching or trying to rob the fist of food.