Falconry experience.

this is an excellent place. Been there and my youngest girl did a week w/e there years ago. Its wonderful. Not far from me either.

What a privilege to get so close to these majestic birds! I'm pleased you enjoyed your birthday present!

Thanks Eileen, Julia and Dawn.
Yes it is close to you too, Eileen. Your daughter must have had a fantastic week there! It’s such a great experience and the staff are really knowledgable and friendly. They really do have a special bond with the birds.
Julia, or was a nice birthday present, I must say! I wasn’t sure about putting pics of me in! OH encouraged me to.
I bet the red kites were lovely to see too!
Yes, thanks again Dawn. They really are truly majestic creatures! I did feel very privileged to get so close to them.
:-))

We have tawny owls nesting in our garden most years Kate, we feel very privileged.

Wow! That’s really something special, Dawn! Truly lovely to hear :)

Lucky you Kate. What a wonderful experience. Happy Birthday.

Many years ago while returning to my car from trout fishing a stream in the mountains of Pennsylvania I met a man who happened to be an ornithologist who had a juvenile hawk in a cage. This young raptor had fully recovered from an injury and was going to be released. I noticed that the eye color was blue and I asked him if this was the result of a genetic anamoly. He said no and that the eye color would eventually change to the adult color. He explained that the reason for the juvenile eye color being different from the fully mature hawk was that the difference in the juvenile color repressed the adult from attacking and killing the young bird for territorial reasons thus allowing it to reach maturity. I believe that the bird being released was a Red Tailed Hawk. I was so astounded by what I had just learned that I never asked the ornithologist as to what kind of hawk it was. I never saw its return to the wild since he asked me to put some distance between the bird and him in order to be out of sight and not excite the hawk when it was removed from the cage and released. This encounter happened about fifty years ago....both the hawk and time flies:)

Occasionally a Red Tail Hawk will swoop down and snatch a sparrow from my bird feeder. They do it at lightening speed and with such stealth, it's over before it starts. There is no way I'm going to get between a hawk and his prey. They are huge powerful birds ...and majestic!

I really enjoyed your blog Kate and your photos. What a wonderful experience that must have been.

What a lovely birthday present, made even better that you had good weather. The birds are so beautiful.

Hi Kate, what a great birthday present, beautiful birds, and beautiful photo's, happy birthday, {belated}, Derek.

Karen, thanks. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Loosestrife2, fascinating..plus a really great memory for you.

Thanks Bathgate, the other 2 people in the pics are staff who work there - lovely, interesting people who care deeply about wildlife. I’ll have to google your red tail hawk to have a look. I have to agree, I love to see the sparrow hawk in action here, amazing when they swoop down like lightning!

Thanks Marjorie, the weather did make it a better day. It would have been postponed if it had been raining.

Thanks Derek, that’s kind. My birthday was end of November, but, we couldn’t get booked that weekend and we had other plans. It was a blessing as the weekends prior were pretty wet!

:-)

What a magical experience I'm glad you enjoyed your day Kate :o)

Lovely blog Kate ... looks like a great place to go.

Enjoyed this blog Kate. What a lovely way to spend a birthday.

What a lovely experience Kate, did you have it flying round and landing back on your hand, if so that must be fantastic, I always think back to that iconic film from the early seventies when I see these falconry displays, it’s about a lad who flys a kestrel, if you have not seen it then I would highly recommend it.

The name of the movie is “Kes” Make sure you have something to dry your eyes with at the end of the film:(

Thank you Amy, Shirley, Feverfew, Julien and Loosestrife2!
Very kind of you all.
Yes, Julien, I had the pleasure of the bird flying around and coming back to sit on my gloved arm to eat. It was beautiful up close. I know what you mean about the film “Kes”, so very sad..there was a documentary on only recently about the film and the actors all grown up and the making of the film etc. Really was sad.

What a lovely birthday present ! I don't think I would have been brave enough to hold a Hawk ! It looks a really lovely place to walk through.

Thank you, Rose. It was a really lovely birthday experience! I know what you mean - I was a bit wary. It was actually way better than I thought it could ever have been. Xx

Hope you enjoyed your Birthday Kate. That's an amazing gift! I'm sure you'll never forget looking into his eyes. They are graceful, cunning, powerful, calculating, precise and gentle when they want to be.

Thanks Bathgate, it was a really fantastic day. Absolute dream to get up and close to her, all of them in fact. The chap and the young lady in the pics were great, their knowledge was amazing! Can’t wait to get the chance to do it all again!