May 2011
1 post
HELP!!!!
We have had some stunning weather this weekend and our birds thought so too!
In fact “Pilgrim” our male American Bald Eagle enjoyed it so much, he’s still up there??
Last seen heading west toward Callendar
We have been out until dusk yesterday and from 5am this morning and nothing……..
Had to nip back to base to feed babies and let the dogs out, so posting a...
April 2011
2 posts
Anonymous asked: Dear Adrian,
i have a euro kestral which am trying to enter on starlings i am have no luck could you please advise how i can acheive this?
Regards
i have a euro kestral which am trying to enter on starlings i am have no luck could you please advise how i can acheive this?
Regards
March 2011
1 post
As one door closes another opens!
28th Feb saw the last day of our 2010/2011 hunting season.
It only seems like yesterday that we were getting the Harris’s out in hopeful expectation of the season to come.
Our season was poor i f i am honest, with a distinct lack of game on our own ground, and the adjacent 800 acres that we rent to hunt got busier than pica dilly circus on some days with random gun shooters,...
February 2011
5 posts
A Bad day at work
Time for a story which might or might not have happened and illustrates how a lifetimes work can simply run down the gutter….
Rottler was a hybrid falcon, a cross between a desert Saker falcon and a Peregrine falcon. She started life being produced by a well known captive breeder, who for logistical reasons hand reared her. After an unscheduled visit to the breeder to see some other stock,...
Anonymous asked: I fully undestand your position on dogs. I am trying to arange a 3 day trip camping etc with a friend and her 2 dogs and would love to visit your centre. Do you know of any kennels in the area that would accomadate 2 dogs for 3.5 hrs?
Jack Barbour
07856381494
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Jack Barbour
07856381494
07856
5 tags
5 tags
First fur
Ensuring the school and birds are kept to the highest standards is a big part of the job, so today was mostly about cleaning and maintenance.
Despite there being a lot to get done, Tom and I managed to sneak out for an hour this afternoon with two of our hunting hawks (Caine and Cobalt) and a ferret. It seems like a lifetime since Cobalt and I were sharing so much time together as I took him...
January 2011
2 posts
WatchHaving returned from a lovely holiday with my wife, the chaos continues….
A great relaxing week was what the doctor ordered and i have come back invigorated!
Its the magical time again, when the birds and bee’s are buzzing and some of our earlier breeding falcons are starting to come up to their windows and chat us up! (its great for the fragile ego..LOL)
On returning a friend...
Help!!!
Today started with a bang!
Paul, my assistant falconer rang early today 7am to kindly let me know he wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t coming into work..
Not only had we clients booked for both morning and afternoon sessions, but i had taken the liberty of arranging a weeks holiday with my wife, starting today!
He had had the previous day off anyway, but this left me tied to the...
December 2010
1 post
Light at the end of the tunnel...
Well after what can only be described as a living hell, the worst of the unseasonal snow is now over. The deep drifts are thawing and life here at Phoenix Falconry is returning to normal.
The birds have had to suffer a short period of inactivity, but thankfully their daily flying routine is back in place and certain individuals are loving it.
We are flat out busy with our Christmas promotions...
November 2010
2 posts
WatchAnother day in the life of a Phoenix Falconer
Global Warming
What is happening to this planet??
The life of a professional falconer isn’t always fun and games. In fact sometimes it boils down to the simple choice of life and death!
Here we are at the end of November and were experiencing incredible weather with snow drifting up to 5 feet in places. After what can only be described as yet another epic battle into work this morning, i find myself...
October 2010
1 post
4 tags
Getting there
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve managed to sit down long enough to pull together my thoughts and record what’s been happening with the training of my first Harris Hawk. It’s not that I’ve not wanted to, just that all my free time is taken up training Cobalt (for that will be his name!).
Cobalt
It seems a lifetime ago since he took that first food from my hand...
September 2010
1 post
4 tags
Early days
Well it has finally come to that point in my falconry career. Adrian has entrusted to me the care of one of this year’s juvenile Harris Hawks, for training.
While I’ve been handling and working with birds of prey most weekends since January, and consider myself to have a good understanding of the process involved in training a bird, this is a big step.
I feel quite a burden, because this is...
April 2010
8 posts
playing catch up
So what’s happening in the wonderful world of Falconry this week?
Well, I suppose the first big news is that we are currently incubating somewhere in the region of 25 eggs from our first clutches, and initial looks (by a process we call candling) indicate quite a high infertility level, especially amongst the A.I birds. I had hoped our fertility wouldn’t suffer this year as a result...
famine to feast!
Goodness, where are the days going at the moment??
I am jumping around jobs like a cat on a hot tin roof at the moment so please forgive my lack of entries over the past few days.
So what’s been happening?
Where do i start….. we filmed a few sequences last week for a show reel for an excellent production company who may or may not be making a program about us (very exciting)
...
Wonderful Wallace
In my line of work there always too many factors that can contribute to a terrible day, primarily the birds themselves.
There can be any number of reasons why they simply don’t do as expected. Perhaps the environment has changed and there may be something as simple and subtle as a different coloured bobble on a hat that they are scared of, or maybe they haven’t regurgitated the...
Soar Point
Finally Sunday brought us some good weather at long last.
After finishing with the guests session in the morning we had the chance to play around with some of the birds in training. Whisper our new barn owl is progressing very well and is now flying on a creance (training line) to us around 30 feet.
The summer display falcons are now once again flying free and it’s a real joy to see them...
Kris
After the snow flurries of last Wednesday the Perthshire weather has settled down once more, in fact the sun is high in the sky today and trying it’s very best to melt the snow and frost covering all around.
With no guest’s today we are able to concentrate on the free flying the collection and their on-going training programs.
With less than 8 weeks until we start the summer...
March 2010
24 posts
7 tags
very egg-citing!
Today brings us egg no 4 of our Inseminated hybrid eggs and a quick inspection of the natural pairs chambers reveals that we have a few Harris eggs and a couple of Hybrids too.
In the normal scheme of things a parent bird will not start to incubate her eggs until nearing the end of her clutch, so that ultimately there wont be a vast difference in the ages and appetites of her offspring. The...
new bird
welcome another little stunner!
Whisper, is our new barn owl and i have to say she is immaculate in every respect.
she spent the first two years of her life in the hands of an enthusiastic young man in Cheshire who for whatever reason was a little worried to fly her free.
We have no such concerns and her training is coming along nicely.
I hope to be in a position to post some footage of her...
perfect
last thursday evening, i watched as the bbc pronounced the peregrine falcon to be ‘the perfect predator’. in an eye-popping, jaw-dropping documentary, in-depth comparisons of four top predators were made. the cheetah, the great white shark and the nile crocodile were all in there alongside our beloved peregrine falcon. at the end, the narrator concluded:
despite their challenges...
Things come in threes....
Despite my cynical nature, i am a bit superstitious.
I won’t walk under a ladder, won’t sing Christmas carols out of season and have studiously avoided many a black cat!
And it appears my run of bad luck must be over:
Firstly, the return of my special big boy Pilgrim yesterday from his wanderings. Secondly, the hopeful recovery of my mother from her recent operation. And now the...
To Hell and Back
After the tragic loss of Stiffler on Sunday, more devastating news arrived at my door on monday morning with a phone call from England telling me my ageing mother had fallen from her wheel chair and broken her hip!
She was undergoing surgery and a plan was made for me to travel south.
Then Tom (my asistant) decided to fly Pilgrim (our male Bald Eagle) in very strong winds and as Sod’s...
Only the good die young.....
I lost a dear friend and work mate yesterday, long before his natural time was due and if I’m honest I know I was ultimately to blame for his loss. For this I feel devastated.
“Stiffler” was a 6 year old male Harris Hawk which I bred and flew from an early age. He and his brother formed a formidable hunting partnership along with one of my dogs Spencer. If I close my...
And they're off!
Today finds me humping and lugging (no not the falcons!) incubators…
After 8 months in moth balls it’s that time once again to get them out, sterilized and up to temperature once more.
Either I’m getting senile or someone is out to get me because every year no matter where I look I am always missing some important piece of equipment or item from my incubator room and this...
participant
at the tender age of one-and-bit, otis is much younger than me. and that’s not the only respect in which we differ: i’m a man and otis is a gyrfalcon. there’s one thing we do share, however: i’m an apprentice, and in way, he is too. we’re both in the very early stages of our careers, and on tuesday, otis’ learning curve and mine arrived at a momentary...
Watch“Jet” getting down to business
Come the hour come the man!
As i head into the breeding corridor this morning I am greeted with an ungodly din.
Walking along i can see through each chamber window and if i’m very honest I really enjoy this part of my morning, it’s exciting to see which birds are starting to come into breeding condition.
It’s honestly like magic! one day a female will be disinterested in my approach and completly...
“Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes…… by then you’re a...”
– Adrian Hallgarth
WatchThis afternoon kissie fed confidently on the fist, and her training can really start to progress
Every day is a school day!
Yesterday morning we had clients enjoying our free flying collection on a “Phoenix Experience”
After an educational session about captive breeding, ecology and biology, they found the joy and instant addiction of what birds of prey in their many forms and guises can be like, and who can blame them for their simple parting comments of “Superb day, we will be back..”
For...
Training day
In between jumping in and out of love (going in and out of my falcon pens) today, my mind is set on another task in hand.
This task involves a rather glamorous young Kestrel I collected last week we have named “Kissie”
Kissie is 3 years old and has never been trained, so training begins today in earnest. We equipped her with the necessary furniture (a generic name for falcons...
And so the breeding season begins....
Today found me face to face with the first of my imprinted female falcons to start this years breeding cycle.
Stood with head down in her artificial nest scrape she has one thing on her mind, and that the production of a new family for the coming year.
I’d better explain that “Mo” is a hand reared or “Imprint” falcon who see’s me as her nesting partner and...
trust
to become a falconer, i’m discovering, is to climb a mountain. on tuesday afternoon though, i reached an important (for me) milestone on the foothills of falconry. for the first time, i was permitted to perform the task of ‘feeding on the fist’. now, i can appreciate that maybe this ‘feeding on the fist’ doesn’t sound like much at all to you, but believe me when...
1 tag
“Attillae Hunnorum hominem truculentissimo, qui flagellum Dei dictus fuit, ita...”
– Aldrovandus, a celebrated naturalist of the 16th century tells us:
to Attila, king of the Huns, the most truculent of men, who used to be called “the Scourge of God,” the goshawk was so pleasing that he bore it crowned on his badge, helmet and cap.
Hello from the wonderful world of Falconry!
Hi
What we hope to do over the coming months is to share with you the highs and lows of a modern falconry business, our staff, birds and apprentices!
So keep in touch and enjoy!