I had a two hour falconry experience kindly bought for me at Christmas, so yesterday I was Hawking for two hours !!
Wild Wings at Worsley Old Hall was the venue, and I joined another seven people lined up in a field ready to handle raptors.
We were given a variety of birds to hold.
Owls, large and small, the most beautiful being the Barn Owl, although the markings on the American Barn Owl were darker, you can't beat a British bird !!
The largest and heaviest being the European Eagle Owl at about 2kg,
that made your arm ache after 10 minutes !!
Falcons including a Saker, which was just awesome in it's power, and Harris Hawk.
After a couple of hours passing them around and learning about the way they are trained, we got to fly a couple.
A little Kestrel, which really did seem tiny compared to what we'd just been holding, and the 'falconer's standard', Harris Hawk.
A very interesting day, although I'm sure how I feel about it.
Training wild birds of prey is, perhaps, a bit like training Dolphins, maybe they should be in the wild ??
But many are bred in captivity and are extremely well cared for.
Wild Wings at Worsley Old Hall was the venue, and I joined another seven people lined up in a field ready to handle raptors.
We were given a variety of birds to hold.
Owls, large and small, the most beautiful being the Barn Owl, although the markings on the American Barn Owl were darker, you can't beat a British bird !!
The largest and heaviest being the European Eagle Owl at about 2kg,
that made your arm ache after 10 minutes !!
Falcons including a Saker, which was just awesome in it's power, and Harris Hawk.
A little Kestrel, which really did seem tiny compared to what we'd just been holding, and the 'falconer's standard', Harris Hawk.
Kestrel which flew free
Training wild birds of prey is, perhaps, a bit like training Dolphins, maybe they should be in the wild ??
But many are bred in captivity and are extremely well cared for.
Eagle Owl
Saker Falcon
Still it makes you think.
No comments:
Post a Comment