Falconry trip

Hi Everyone! It's Kit here. I'm giving Natalie the day off and will be writing this blog, yay! While my parents were visiting we went on a day-long falconry experience at 'Bird on the Hand'. Falconry is the use of birds of prey in hunting. People have been using birds of prey to hunt for thousands of years (since the Egyptians) and is primarily a sport, rather than done for food. Falconry involves all kinds of birds; owls, falcons, kestrels, hawks, and even eagles! In the past birds of prey were used for hunting and sighting enemies from long distances away in the Middle East. In Olde England they were a status symbol; kings had eagles, other royals had hawks and falcons, and knaves had the smallest birds such as kestrels. Today falconry is a very popular sport in the UK and growing in the US. If you have a chance to go on a falconry trip we highly recommend it!

The trip we went on was in the countryside a bit outside of Leicester. It was a great experience. Andrew, our guide, spent the day teaching use about the different qualities of the birds. We spent the morning having them fly to and from our fists and in the afternoon even took a few out hunting!

The first birds we held were owls. An interesting fact - owls have poor eyesight up close and can hardly see things a foot in front of their face. However, they're nearly silent when flying. Here's my Mom holding a long-eared owl named Winnie.

Andrew would let the bird loose once of it's cage. It would then fly to a perch or the nearby house roof. With a whistle Andrew would call the bird to fly over and land on our fist. As a reward the bird would get either a mouse (as you can see below), or a whole chick.

Next we flew a peregrine falcon. The fastest animal (not just bird), on the planet. It can reach speeds up to 218mph. It hunts by diving at prey from above and forcing it to the ground. Andrew showed us this by swinging a dead rabbit around in the air that was attached to a rope. It was hilarious!

Me with the peregrine falcon.

This is a Harris Hawk, one of the more common hunting birds. Here's my Dad with one...

Lunchtime inside! Normally they serve food the hawks have caught, like rabbit, but being vegetarians we had soup instead.

Waiting for a bird...

Sometimes the birds would miss your hand a bit but still have be partially latched on - the result was a thrashing pile of wings swinging off your fist. 

Here's Andrew our guide, and Natalie with two hawks on her arm.

This was a great horned owl named Elvis, it had the most beautiful orange eyes.

Eating a chick...

We didn't catch anything on our hunting trip after lunch but it was a great time anyway. The hawks swooped from tree to tree following us through the fields. Sometimes they would sight a rabbit and fly off for a bit but always came back. It was an amazing day, it was so unreal having a bird of prey fly from hundreds of feet away to land on your arm and a little bit intimidating! We had a great time with my parents and couldn't recommend it more.