Falconry Displays

I found this buzzard’s tail feather in a field I walk through with the dog. It may be from a rather scruffy looking buzzard that has been hanging about for most of the summer. It is certainly is from a buzzard that hatched last year – by its look( light brown and slightly tatty at its end indicating it had been in a nest last year) – and is therefore experiencing its first moult. 

Our own birds Frank and Sprite are both moulting albeit slowly because they are in flying condition. Although I do fly them at top weight or the highest condition possible with plenty of energy to grow new feathers. In fact Frank dropped a very similar tail feather to the one above mirroring its wild cousin.

I do remember having my own trained buzzard back in the 1970s and the fun we had with him hawking along the brook and then in the summer at rabbits. A bit of a come down after flying a Sparrowhawk but there you go. If you can get a common buzzard hunting you can do anything.

As I say in my book ‘Falconry-aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk’ summer rabbit hawking is an option for those birds in good condition – in fact they can be flown all year round. I had some of my best evenings ever summer rabbit hawking.