Last summer was pretty busy at North Devon Hawk Walks, (www.NorthDevonHawkWalks.co.uk) which is my excuse for not having any new blogs posted for months. It's not much of an excuse, but it's the only one I have.
In spite of the recession, every year I get more customers coming to Exmoor to experience falconry. Many are there for the first time, but a significant number are returning customers which is nice. There is something addictive about messing around with hawks.
We are also on Trip Advisor now, and although we've only got six comments, they are all in the "Excellent" category, so we must be doing something right.
The sparrowhawk, Artemis, has been earning her keep chasing away starlings from dairy farms, and as a result her tail is a mangled mess. The tail feathers of the sparrowhawk are very long and very stiff. This is great for manouverability ( the tail is the rudder of the bird), but not for longevity.
Over the next few months, she'll be growing a new set of feathers, and by the end of the summer, will have a new tail. I'll be posting pictures of the tail as it grows.
Last October I had a scare with Artemis as she went missing. She had been on her perch on the lawn, tethered, when a visiting dog scared her, her leather jesses snapped, and she flew off. After five days, I was connvinced that I'd never see her again. A hawk that has escaped and reverted to the wild is called a "haggard" ( probably origin of the word " hag"), and is lost forever to the falconer. However, on the sixth day, she re-appeared, sat on her perch and started shouting for food. To have survived that long, she must have killed and eaten something, which made all the more unlikely that she would come back. After all, why should she? But she did, much to my surprise and that of all the other falconers I know. Such a return, especially of a sparrowhawk, is very rare.
All part of the emotional ups and downs of falconry.
More pictures soon.
