Dorset Falconry Park

[puddleshark]

Belle, a Chilean Blue eagle.



Yesterday a visit to the Dorset Falconry Park, which only opened in 2019. It's rather hard to find, tucked away along narrow back lanes near West Stafford, but just as I was losing hope, I came across a sign pointing the way down a narrow lane.

Parked in the little gravel car park, and passed through a little portakabin, where they collect the £12 entrance fee and give you a little photocopied map of the site. Out through gardens, to aviaries with owls and eagles and vultures:


Barn Owl.


Little Owl. We do get these in Dorset, but I've never seen one in the wild.



Siberian Eagle Owls. We do not get these in Dorset.


Hiding, the charmingly named Boobook.


Spectacled Owl, which looked rather sad to me, but which probably just "fed up" (in the old falconry meaning of "fed up" - too busy digesting its lunch to want to fly for the falconer).




Hooded Vulture.


Bald Eagle.


Bateleur Eagle. Native to Africa. "The Bateleur eagle is the most famous of the snake eagles. Bateleur is French for 'tightrope-walker'. This name was probably chosen because of its distinctive aerial acrobatics." https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_bateleur_eagle.html

I'm always ambivalent about menageries. I understand they can do a lot of good in terms of conservation and education. It's a privilege to see these creatures. And all the birds at the park are either captive-bred or rescued from the illegal trade in wild birds; and the falconry park, which has a rehabilitation centre, regularly helps the RSPCA and the Wildlife Crime Unit.

Yet still how can anyone be anything but sad to see an eagle in an aviary rather than soaring?

From the aviaries to the mews, where eagles, hawks and falcons are tethered to perches.




Black-chested Buzzard Eagle.


Ferruginous Hawk, I think.


Common Kestrel.


"There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads –"

Ted Hughes.


The tack room: hoods and jesses and leatherworking gear.

If I was ambivalent about the aviaries, the display of flying birds was fantastic. There's a little cleared field surrounded by woods, where the displays are held, and a few dozen wooden benches arranged in a semi-circle for the audience, and the birds swoop down from one platform, over the heads of the audience - really quite close over the heads of the audience in some cases, or weaving through the audience in the case of the small quick hawks - summoned by the handler's whistle to another platform.





Harris Hawk diving. The owner of the park said that Harris Hawks are the only birds of prey that hunt cooperatively, in packs. Because they are gregarious, they're much easier to train than other hawks.

The owner of the park is something of a showman with his cropped red hair, and his gold earring, chatting with the crowd to find out where they all came from (mostly Dorchester), and telling entertaining stories about his battles with planning to establish the park. (One of the objections raised by the locals was that a falconry park "would attract the wrong sort of people", at which the owner smirked at the audience and pointed out that we were all the wrong sort of people).

He said that during the recent heatwave, he had been hosing down the birds to keep them cool. And how his pet tortoises had revelled in the 30 degree temperatures - cue an impersonation of a tortoise strutting and saying "Bring it on!".


One of the owner's young daughters helping out with the display, swinging a lure while Dinx, the Peregrine x Merlin, made unbelievably fast passes - far, far too fast to photograph.

But for all the patter and the jokes, the owner's depth of knowledge is extraordinary. I thought I knew a bit about birds of prey, from encountering buzzards, kestrels & sparrowhawks, on my walks. But I actually learnt a lot from the display about different types of birds of prey, and their hunting techniques, and how they've adapted to catch certain types of prey.


Solo the Milky Eagle Owl, after his flight display.

Birds flown:
- Bella, a Chilean Blue Eagle, huge and beautiful, skimming fearlessly over the heads of the audience
- tiny swift Dinx, peregrine cross merlin, making unbelievably fast passes to the lure.
- Solo the Milky Eagle Owl.
- another small falcon whose name I forget. The owner fired food into the air with a catapult, and the falcon snatched it mid-air.

Comments

[larryhammer]

Ooooo! So jealous. Wanna go!

One interesting thing about Harris Hawks is that they're gregarious only in the northern limit of their range, in north Mexico and just across the border in the US (including here in southern Arizona). The rest of their range, down central and into South America, they're solitary like more raptors -- it's an adaptation to being close to the limit of being able to live sustainably. They're regulars in falconry and free-flight demos in the area because of the ease of training.

Also, boobook!

[puddleshark]

Ah, I did wonder how Harris Hawks had evolved to hunt together - just not something you expect in birds of prey.

Yes! Boobook! Wonderful word and wonderful bird.