Urban Falconry

[tobes01]

As I trundled head-down through Paternoster Square this morning, I bumped into these guys outside the London Stock Exchange.



Lovely to see them tearing around, surprising all the other commuter drones - they were clearly loving the experience of winding people up. A chat with the falconers taught me something about how they work: of course the Harris Hawks scare the pigeons, but they come out early in the day to get the hens off their eggs, and to keep them off for half an hour or so. That's long enough for the eggs to cool down in the morning air and die.

Would love to get to see them in this setting again.

 

[robin wood]

Last weekend I was working in Lincoln Cathedral, there is currently a pair of peregrines nesting in the belltower with 4 young to feed. Every now and then the pery would bop out snatch a pigeon amid a cloud of feathers and return to screeching young.

 

[Loenja]

Last weekend I was working in Lincoln Cathedral, there is currently a pair of peregrines nesting in the belltower with 4 young to feed. Every now and then the pery would bop out snatch a pigeon amid a cloud of feathers and return to screeching young.

sound great, ive never had the opportunity to see a wild peregrins

 

[wattsy]

i've seen the lincoln peregrine's a few times (i live there ) you can hear them calling sometimes when you walk past. what were you doing there robin?

 

[santaman2000]

When I was stationed in the UK (RAF Fairford) I was impressed with the way the falconers used their birds to clear the sky over the airfield before we began flight ops to prevent bird strikes to the aircraft. I was so impressed that when I returned to the states I contacted the Florida Department of Game and Freshwater Fish (now the Dept of Wildlife Conservation) to learn what was involved in keeping hawks and falcons here. It was fascinating to say the least.

Raptors generally have a lifespan approaching 40-50 years in the wild and often 60 or more in captivity. Because of the long term commitment involved and because of raptors' unique place in the environment the regulations require a prospective prospective falconer to 1st get a permit then apprentice with an established falconer before attempting to capture a bird. I was willing to go through the process but I realized that it might not be best to make such a long term commitment at my age. Hats off to those who do.

 

[TomBartlett]

I remember a visit to the Foreign office there was a guy in the car park with a hooded falcon doing pretty much the same thing. It is interesting to see what I view as a rural occupation in such an urban setting.

 

[Paul_B]

There's a guy in a landie near where I live who I used to bump into at a certain petrol station (now de-commisioned) who had a nice, newish, red landie with a tiny sign on the back and side. While waiting behind him to get to a pump I read it (squinting frantically as the sign was so small). Turned out he was a professionaly falconer!! Looked inside and he had a series of small wooden boxes with holes in near the top of the sides. I thought the boxes were quite small. Certainly for the Harris which is not exactly a small hawk. Not sure what he had but they were unlikely to be Harris Hawks in such a small box. That was in Lancaster so there must be a business for folconers right around the country too. How many are out there doing the business I wonder??

 

[Paul_B]

I still remember a walk I did with me Dad around Ingleton area IIRC. We were walking up through some woods and a guy was working his falcon up there. Fascinating and the only time I've seen it. He was a private individual who kept a hawk and worked it with permission of landowner. Not a professsional falconer.