Falconry is one of the fastest-growing country pursuits, with 25,000 people (5,000 of whom hunt with hawks) involved, who between them keep about 75,000 birds of prey. There are more than 35 falconry centres and five national clubs (of which the British Falconers’ Club is the largest and oldest) plus…
Dame Juliana Berners wrote, in the Boke of St Albans, of the allocation of species of hawk and falcon to their corresponding human ranks in mediaeval society: And yit ther be moo kyndis of hawkes/Ther is a Goshawke and that hauke is for the yeman/Ther is the Tercell and that…
The merlin, Britain’s smallest raptor, is doing well on managed grouse moors. The respected British Trust for Orni-thology maps the bird’s distribution in England regularly, while the Moorland Association (MA) assiduously keeps records of where gamekeepers work in the uplands. A neat, comparative study commissioned by the MA and conducted…
There’s an ancient beauty in witnessing a falcon or hawk take quarry. “One of my most memorable days in the sporting field was on a soaking, blustery day one October,’’ recalls a hardened countryman. “A peregrine was hanging in the sullen skies above a field of Lincolnshire sugar beet, while…
