Falconry, the hunting of quarry with trained birds of
prey, has been a sport and pastime for thousands of years
and several species have been trained by humans to utilize
their innate skills of agility, speed and reaction, to
pursue their natural quarry for sport and food for the
table.
Traditional falconry birds include the peregrine falcon,
the goshawk, the golden eagle and gyrfalcon. Cheshire
Falconry fly peregrines and many other species of bird
of prey all trained using much the same techniques as
were first employed over three and a half millennia ago.
Although it is possible to provide experiences with birds
that are trained to hunt we aim to show with most of
our falconry experiences the types of birds that can
be trained using traditional techniques, and these include
a much greater diversity of species. However, certain
species , for example the harris’ hawk, is both
amiable enough to be suitable for everyday hands-on work
with guests at the centre but also able to show-off its
hunting prowess in the field too.
Falconry equipment is a mixture of the traditional and
state of the art. The leatherwork jesses and anklets
(aylmeris) have remained essentially unchanged for hundreds,
if not thousands of years. However, we use highly sophisticated
radio transmitters and receivers in order to track errant
birds meaning that losses are extremely rare.
Falconry relies on appetite management and the building
up of a relationship with the bird through a process
called manning. This is where, by gentle exposure to
a variety of new experiences the bird becomes increasingly
confident. In this way the hawk can become extremely
relaxed around stimuli that would scare a wild bird significantly
such as dogs, cars or groups of people. You can aliken
this process to the training that a police dog or horse
must go through in order to go on active duty.
Falconry has been practiced in the British Isles for
many hundreds of years to our knowledge. It was once
the reserve of the gentry, possibly because in feudal
Britain, you would be unlikely to own the hunting rights
on a particular piece of land unless you were a member
of the aristocracy. However, it is also likely that you
would be unable to afford some of the birds of prey used
in falconry at the time.
Today the UK is home to falconers numbering a few thousand.
These are people who train their birds and hunt them
at quarry rather than those who keep birds of prey in
aviaries or as “pets”. Falconry is a time-consuming
labour of love and cannot be taken lightly but at Cheshire
Falconry we take on the hard work and let you enjoy the
spoils!
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