This Christmas my wife bought me a gift voucher to go on a falconry experience – and in advance of booking myself onto the day, I’ve been doing a bit of research on the internet, only to discover falconry’s a whole new world with its own vocabulary, there hundreds of falconry forums out there giving advice and lots of blog sites too.

 It’s not just a case of getting yourself a bird of prey (or ‘bop’ as they are referred to by those in the know!), a leather glove and some bait to try and get your new friend to fly to and from you. Falconry training (or ‘manning’) is a painstaking process that needs time for the falconer and bird to build up a relationship but what a sight it is when you actually see for yourself how these birds work so closely with their owners.

 From what we can gather, the aim is to increase the distance the bird flies on the creance (the light cord used) to 50ft, before you can move on to letting the bird fly free. Of course, the lure is always a bit of food, so amazingly the weight of the bird is really, really important. If your eagle weighs too much, they won’t be interested in food, so probably won’t care less when you raise your gloved hand showing a tasty bit of chicken leg – he just won’t be hungry enough to fly to you.

 Interesting stuff indeed and we can’t wait to get ourselves booked up and confirmed for our falconry day experience – we’re hoping to be able to have a go at flying the birds as well as watching the display to see if it’s as easy as it looks!