Falconry World

Well its finally here.
For those of you not familiar with Ed Pitcher, he’s a bit of a legend from the US who has dedicated his life to flying falcons and Ricardo is one of the most respected bell and knife makers in the world and a true falconer in every sense. Ed gained his fame back in 1978 for a Prairie Falcon that he got to wait on at field meets at over 3000ft!!!

This book reflects the passion of a falconer, in a manner that has only been captured by very few authors about anything. I can’t help but smile, as I read a paragraph that reflects an obsession I can truly understand, though I have much to learn and still feel after 15 years like an apprentice. I can’t help but feel relieved in some way, that there are others with such an addiction and dedication to falconry that it almost becomes an introspective practice that teaches us so much about the world around us and our place within.

Indeed Ed rights, ” We are all entangled in this web of life. It is inescapable. Falconry is a link to our past and a guide to our future; and for some, it helps illuminate the mystery of a purpose on earth.” For me, falconry transcends us from our modern lives and modern way of thinking back into our past, as we must have existed long ago, not like the physical re-enacting of some past historical event or procedure, but our mental and spiritual past, all the things we learned over centuries that we have lost but some of us are still drawn toward through bushcraft and falconry.

The book seems to have its heart firmly in native American philosophy, which would be similar to our pagan pasts which celebrated hunting and was focused upon a connection with animals mentally, so you think, or after several servings of peyote cactus, become the animal.

Many cultures believe that not showing respect for your prey will cause you to fail as a hunter. Well here Ed shows us that having respect for your falcon and your quarry can make just as marked an effect. I met Ed and Ricardo when I visited Utah as the guest of Robert Bagley and Dave Marshall my new bosses as it was to turn out. Meeting Ed was one of the highlights of the trip so I’ll retrospectively re-visit that with you at some point as well. For now just know this; if you’re aware that this book exists, you should have it in your hands. Not on your shelf with the other books doing nothing but showing your enthusiasm for the sport, but in your hands, showing your willingness to learn, no matter how long you’ve pursued this thing that is falconry.
You don’t need to agree; that’s not what it’s about, but you might just learn a thing or two about yourself and your birds through your passion for falconry. Ed states, “This is not the only way or the right way, but just a different way.” Sometimes different is good, very good.

Falconry season is very nearly over for those of us that fly game, so what better time than now to reminisce about the past season. I said before that I was going to go through my training regime with this year late purchase tiercel. My Jerkin from last year had to be pulled out of the pen early after discovering that he had a swollen foot which ended up resulting in some rather expensive surgery. [Read more]

Here is a great film cooperatively made by the British Falconers Club and the GWCT formally known as the Game Conservancy Trust. There is some great camera work in the film and some excellent information for all those with an interest in one of the UK’s best falconry quarry. Now the season is all but over I shall spend some time putting up the video’s and pics taken over the hunting season and spend a little more time in front of the Imac rather than starring at the sky, well sometimes the sky, sometimes my feet.

Enjoy the film

Well I’ve been flying a sparrowhawk with Simon Higham for a few weeks now. The young bird is a captive bred imprint that belongs to another friend that doesn’t have time to fly so we stepped up. For two weeks now she has caught a magpie every day, some days even nailing two in succession.

Yesterday we spotted a magpie near the area we hunt Partridge, sitting on top of a thorn hedge. As we approached the magpie slipped off but as we looked around, we found what the magpie was after. A late brood of partridge huddled together no bigger than wrens, the magpie must have got a taste for them. No wonder our grey partridge is in such decline. We shall of course be doing all we can to try and protect our game. Sparrowhawks on magpies give classic falconry slips and you can appreciate why Jack Mavrogordato and many others before him rated this courageous little bird so highly.

The picture shows my son Aidan holding the two magpies we caught that day, wearing Simon’s jumper to keep out the cold. I think at least if he gets a realistic appreciation of nature in his early years he can make up his own mind about nature management when he’s older. So far the Sparrowhawk has killed well over fourteen magpies. She’s giving great long slips now as she gets stronger and fitter. I’ll keep up on the posts.

Trying to find the ultimate BOP is much like trying to find the ultimate…
Your going to get many different answers, but the truth is unless you’ve tried them all you won’t know…

When you first start, anything will do… you want the easiest and the quickest to enter and you’re not to fussy about the looks or how many people have flown her before you. This is OK for a while but after seeing a friends bird go, you decide you want more…

Then you get a little more adventurous. You try something faster with beautiful plumage which has a fast temper, and is hot off the mark, exciting to watch and gets lots of stares from passers by. But many bad habits appear like sulking after a missed flight that had you satisfied but not her. She demands lots of manning and expensive equipment to keep her and then she starts self hunting and you move on to something else.

Next you try a bird that takes a while to get up! but when she comes down its worth the wait but it takes years to train and even then they never perform as well in a crowd. When you fly alone its amazing but you want someone else to acknowledge how good she is. You start taking her for granted and you stop putting as many hours in with her. Then like the other she starts wondering around and after chasing her about you move on.

Then you get really into one and find you can’t try others without getting into a huge amount of trouble because of the friends you’ve made whilst flying this bird and flying two at once is really difficult as you can never give one your full attention and you end up flying the best one and only flying the other when the she is fed up or injured. Eventually you decide that the best BOP is the one you’ve got and if it puts up with you, it has to be good. After all the ultimate BOP is the one your with.