New photos of the hawks

I just dug out these photos, taken some time ago by customers at North Devon Hawk Walks.  The top one demonstrates the gyroscopic effect, which means that once the hawk " locks on" to it's prey, it's head will remain still even if the rest of it's body is performing all sorts of strange acrobatics.  This is so as to minimise the chance of losing sight of the prey, of course.
The second photo illustrates the hawk's unofficial motto  " Height is safety". So although it's good to be on the upper slope of a hill, it's better to be on top of a car at the top of the hill.  It's even better to be on top of the bike, on top of the car, on top of the hill. 
I always remind customers of what I call " The pirate and the parrot effect".  If the arm on which the bird is perching starts to droop, the hawk will walk up the arm to settle on the shoulder, or sometimes the head.    People usually only need telling once.

South Molton

Just come back from South Molton, where the hawks from North Devon Hawk Walks have been part of the Seven Saturdays in South Molton, an attempt to liven up South Molton on Saturday mornings. It certainly needs livening up, closing as it does at 2pm on a Saturday.  There is a market, there are shops, there is everything a holiday destination in Devon needs, but come 2pm on a Saturday, down slam the shutters.  Quaint is one, nice, way of describing it.  There are others.


Anyway, a nice surprise today when Sue Mustin, who had been on a hawk-walk with us a year ago, presented me with a framed photo of one of the hawks.  It shows either Lady Macbeth or Cassius skimming along the ground and is a really great action shot. It won first prize in the "Action" section of the Nuneaton and Bedworth Festival of Arts, deservedly so.  Unfortunately, as it's framed I can't post it on here.  You'll have to come out with us, to see it in real life.

While I'm sitting in South Molton, with a hawk on my fist, as part of the 7 Saturdays, a lot of people comment upon how relaxed the hawks appear.  This is a product of their having been subject to a lot of manning during their early years.  " Manning" is mentioned early on in this blog, and is basically just getting the bird used to a range of different experiences, in a safe and controlled way, during their training.  Like much training, it never really ends.   This is why Lady M can sit on the fist, watching people trying to park ( we have possibly the worst parkers in Southern England, their natural skill at bad parking is encouraged by an absence of any coherent or sustained parking enforcement),  listening to the town band, ( very good) and visiting performers ( some louder, but not so good), and observing a busy town centre going about it's Saturday routine ( until 2pm, see above).


The moult is going well, all the birds have dropped huge amounts of feathers and are growing nice, clean new ones. In the early stages, the birds look quite scruffy and every shake releases a blizzard of fluff, dust and feather. Now they are beginning to look sleek and streamlined.  It should be all over in a month or so and we will be ready start hunting.  While the feathers are growing, they are vulnerable to being broken, so we don't hunt then.

Next weekend we are at the Tiverton Balloon Festival, as part of the Petroc contingent.  Petroc is our local college in North and Mid Devon and I sometimes run courses in falconry there.  Part of the day will involve introducing the birds to balloons.  I wonder what they'll make of them.