A moment of fame

A great article in the western morning news

3000 displays at Bovey Castle

Well this week I did my 3000th display at Bovey Castle hotel, quite an achievement as I started contracting there when it opened in 2004, coming in to cover for a couple of months whilst they got their own falconry set up going, but for some reason they never got rid of me.(apparently someone did laugh at one of my jokes once)
It is one of the most fantastic places to be doing displays, the setting on the terrace is stunning, made to have hawks flown round it, and the views over the golf course gives the eagles a chance to spot potential targets!
We've been using the Hotel for lunches for our falconry days and hunting days, and have never been disappointed in the top quality food, the only problem being getting clients out again if the weather is a bit Iffy, and quite a few of our clients have decided to stay there during their visits to us.
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The Dartmoor Falcons

After a disorganized couple of years, only flying falcons from horses occasionally had become the norm, but with the arrival of the spotty pony, and a more settled life it's time to  get organised mounted falconry back and so I'm planning to breathe new life into the Dartmoor Falcons, our old mounted falconry/ crow hawking club.

This will be flying pursuit falcons at Corvids, on Dartmoor, our main quarry being the carrion crow,

This is, in my mind, the most spectacular form of falconry, and because of the way it's run opens up the spectacle of the classical high flight of falconry to many who would never be able to see it.
Our main afternoon will be Fridays, others by arrangement, starting in August, Non riders are welcome to come and watch (especially if they bring cake)

Anyone interested please contact me 

A view from Puddaven

Looking at the fantastic sky this evening it made me really appreciate the beautiful part of the world we live in.

Crow hawking is running down as with the snow most of the crows have rolled off the more into the agricultural land at the edges, so only Morguasse is still in action for a few final days.
We're in quite exciting times now as we are discussing planning permission for a new venture which is going to be a huge bonus on what we already have going on at Dartmoor Hawking, among other things making the hunting days even more exciting,  possibly making the experience days better (though we'd be the first to admit they are very hard to improve on ) a great improvement for the evening with owl sesions (which are turning out to be very popular) and making expansion of the business easier (Have no fears we're not opening to the public) as we're growing nearly faster than we can keep up at the moment.
Last year, apart from a couple of minor blips was a great one for us, this year is looking even better.
we never like to rest on our laurels, we think what we offer is already excellent, but excellence can always be improved on

Boxing day Jollies

 Boxing day is one of the busiest days of the year for us here, and this year was no exception.
It started with our daily display at Bovey Castle Hotel to a good size audience, Strait from there to Gidleigh Park Hotel, Our first Christmas display from them Gladamir decided that flying next to the river teign was to scary for words (but Christmas displays would not be the same without one of the large owls letting me down), everyone else behaved perfectly.
Back home for a bite to eat when I spotted a pair of magpies in our end field so I grabbed Mordred and had a very nice flight, with the magpie finally besting us in my neighbours sheep.
Back to Bovey castle to drop off the ferret racing team, then on to the Two Bridges Hotel right in the middle of the Moor. Yet again every one behaved well, despite the heavens opening on us (See Agravane doing his verp p***** off soggy Harris' on a lamppost impression)

Luckily it did not last long.
I was winding up there when I noticed that somehow Morguasse had got herself on the cadge (don't no how, Honest) so it seemed to good a chance to miss as I had to go back via some of my best crow hawking ground.
She had a nice flight catching her crow in a nice sheltered spot, so I joined her with a cup of coffee,and we relaxed, listening to the Mid Devon Hounds in the distance.
I may be Bah Humbug about Christmas, but Boxing day has to be one of my favorite days.

A good weekend

Having dug out  all my thermals we've had a really good weekend here, we had snow in sunshine for yesterdays display at Bovey Castle, making it a very festive one  (along with my Bah Humbug Christmas hat, thanks to Ffyona at Galloway Falconry )
 Myself, Max  and Mordred took a very well known couple out for a bit of snipe hawking, Mordred missed the first two and caught the third after  very good solid points from Max (and luckily they were holding well to point for once).
In the afternoon Georgies Cousin Charlotte helped exercise Charlie and did really well with him

A hawk walk this morning followed by a belting (unintentional)flight at a crow from the flying field by Morwenna made for a very enjoyable day today

A full team

Well we filled our vacancy for a display falconer to join our team today(welcome aboard Neil) which is great news as we now have a full team People wise, and with  the arrival of a young Feruginous hawk and a replacement for Sebille next summer will have our full compliment hawk wise.
Talking about the Hawk team Charlie our Male Peregrine saker got his moment of glory today, he normally only does display and private group work, but I finished up a bit early today with only him left to exercise so decided to slip out and see if he fancied a play. I found a single which did not hang around for long enough to let him get a look in (being a display falcon he's not very focused at times like this). Anyhow a quick driv on and I slipped him at a flock, this time he powered into them, and I saw a spectacular stoop , he did not reappear so I walked in to find him sat proudly on................... a piece of silage bag

A few thoughts

Well I've been stuck in all day sorting out accounts, and as always at times like this my brain drifts off to anywhere except the job in hand, and looking at tthe diary I realised that apart from an odd space on things we already have going we are completely booked up until the 10th of January, the busiest Christmas season we have had. Richard Lammin, came over the other day to discuss the work we had in,and where he'd be able to help out, and he started telling us about some of the going's on when he lived in Basingstoke,  this was quite an eye opener for someone like me who's always lived the quiet rural life,some of it was very funny ..

For those of you who have met richard I found this great photo of him from when he was helping us out a couple of years ago, with Annous and Borris

A light hearted day

Well after yesterdays upset it was cheering to have such a change in the weather. Typically with the weather come good I had no clients in so sloped off for a bit with Mordred,Morguasse and Morwenna. to see what we could find..
Morwenna and I managed to make a complete hash of her first slip with me fumbling the hood. and when I did get it off she missed the slip and took off after a flock of rooks in the distance.
I retrieved her from this and found a lovely slip for Morguasse Who was beaten to cover after a hard flight by a very good crow.
Then I spotted the perfect slip at a magpie for Mordred in a loveley open area, no cover for a long way in any direction, he took the slip perfectly, the magpie took one look at him and shot down a rabbit hole.
I was running out of daylight by then so headed for home, nothing in the bag but a really pleasant afternoon with well mannered Falcons, and what a change to be out in shirtsleeves

Highs and Lows

Today was one of those days that started of really well, working out details off some work i will be doing with the BBC, quite a challanging project to say the least, which left me buzzing away with ideas, and on a real high.
Unfortunatley I was exercising Sebille later this morning and she took off after a crow she sighted at the top end of the farm. She did not return so I jumped into the truck and tracked her down, to find her dead on a lane where she had been run over.
Accidents are always a possibility every time I let one of my birds go, but they are incredibly rare and all efforts are made to make every thing as safe as possible for them, When it does go wrong it's devastating, , but the only way of putting them at no risk would be to leave them sat at home never flown.

A bit of time on the farm

With yet another miserable day forecast i postponed the falconry day we had in (good call), so put my time to good use, and slipped out with gawain to catch a rabbit so I had a carcass to use with Bors, our potential hunting owl. That took 5 minutes and a walk of at least 30 yards from the hawk barn.
With a bit more time to spare Aly and I spent a hectic aftermoom starting on the endless task of tidying some of the hedges om the farm, and now I have the joyous job of pulling black thorns out of various bits of me :-)

A fun afternooon

Having not been needed at Bovey Castle this morning I took the luxury of a lie in and did not get up till 8am, half way through the day by my standards.Any how I used the morning to catch up on something my solicitor had been working on for me and one of those conversations with the Inland revenue so thought I deserved a little playtime this afternoon anbd slipped out with Morguasse , Sebille and Mordred.
The two Girls both flew well, with Morguasse cathing her crow in the air after a nice flight, and Sebille lost hers in a flock of sheep when the flight slid off the moor.
Great fun with Mordred (aided by Danny) as we rat hunted a magpie up and down a gorse bank, before it made good it's escape when he slipped out of position. Next year I'm hoping to fly a cast of male Prairie/Barberies at magpies as my magpie hawking has been some of the best fun I've had this Autumn. No photo's as I'd left the Camera at home

Plans

Due to yet another day of fantastic weather I postponed the group I had booked in for an introduction, so I gave everyone a good work out (crow hawking on a sunday is no fun, far to many ramblers getting in the way even in this weather) and thought Danny, Gawain and I could go and have a wander round the swamp, our 15 acre marsh and see how it was as I had not been out there properly since early summer.

I'm hoping to put in a couple more flight ponds next year, they make a fantastic sight for wildlife as well as hopefully becoming a stopping point for the wild duck population in the area, The one we put in last year has been a great sucess, already gathering a fantastic dragonfly poulation.(Danny would like to add no Ducks there today)

Danny put 2 pheasants and a rabbit out of the same patch of Brambles, ( Gawain knowing it was a Sunday decided the rabbit was the best option for my supper), and this started me thinking on how much we don't use this area for clients. Unfortunately for 3/4 of the year if you dont have wellies you would not want to go very far into it, but the addition of a couple of small bridges would make it a lovely place to go into with the better equipped, The hawking in there is great fun, therre is a good population of wild Pheasants, always a few rabbits, and snipe galore.

So plans for any free time when the weather is a bit better is to open this area up and make more use of it as an area for clients to enjoy

The one that got away

Well I had one of the most visually stunning flights I've seen this season,
I'd gone down to the foxhound kennels to pick a few box's of chicks they had in their freezer room and by some funny chance Morguasse had stowed away in the back of the car (Aly still does not believe she put herself there).
Thinking it would be a waste not to take advantage of her presence I detored back via one of my favorite spots over the west dart valley. The river was still very high but a good strong wind was blowing from the river to me so not any real chance of a flight going across.
Anyhow I had a lovely slip at a crow about 150 yards out and she took it beutifully, but rather than trying to head back down wind to cover it was determined for some reason to go across the river, She fetched it as it go there, turned it but rather than coming back over my head it started climbing back out over the river.

Morguasse turned it 6 times, getting higher and higher, till it had worked itself into a position where it was ready to dive for cover when she was out of position, and it just beat her to a tiny patch of gorse on the other side of the river. Nothing I could do to help so I called her back, raised my hat to the crow and headed for home

A bit of a soaking

I sloped off with Sebille this after noon, found a nice slip for her, in bright sunshine.
She caught her crow about 500 yards away after a nice flight.
I started to walk over to where she was, with that little smug feeling you get when things go right When the heavens opened,by the time I'd picked her up I was soaked through, wellies sloshing with the amount of water that had run into them,
By the time we got back to the car all feelings of smugness had been washed away (actually sebille was still very pleased with herself).
The joys of Hawking on dartmoor

Wildlife

We're very lucky here with the fantastic amount of Wildlife we have on the farm here, this was brought back to me as I walked Sunny up the drive to turn him out this morning and bumped into 3 roe deer coming the other way, A mature female Peregrine flew over as I walked back (an immature one came and mobbed Galahad as he was doing the daily display at Bovey castle this morning as well).
Our bog area is mannaged pureley for wild life and is a site of international importance for the Marsh fritilery and other butterflies,and we had hobbies hunting over it during tthe summer we have Ravens nesting at one end of the farm , buzzards at the other, two pairs of sparrowhawks, and last month we saw a goshawk passing through.
All in all it's not a bad place to work

The joys of wind

Flying fit  Falcons in strong winds is one of the real joys of working with birds of prey from the unbelievable dorn wind stoopps of Morguasse and Morwenna to the delicate manoeuvring of Little Faye as she hovers overhead.

Any how Anyhow due to meetings with solicitors over problems we've been having recently I was not planning to get out in anger today, but when I took Mordred out to exercise him I saw a flock of Jackdaws messing around across the valley, not in ideal country (by any stretch of the imagination), but I was bored and am easily lead astray, so I slipped down to the boundary hedge and slipped him. Chaos erupted and with Jackdaws going every where and I lost track of where he was very quickly.

I scrambled over the hedge (which took a couple of minutes) accompanied by the ever present Danny and spoted him waiting on at about 70' above the next hedge.
In goes Danny and after a quick rumage around out comes a jackdaw, He missed on the first stoop but then nabbed it as it turned to go down wind.

Not classical falconry but great fun, and I even remembered to take a photo