Falconry

OVERVIEW

Scotland is the home to a fantastic array of birds of prey, and a great tradition of falconry. Our Falconry Experience complements any corporate or social event, offering exhilarating displays of eagles, hawks, falcons, buzzards and owls, including Hawk Hunts in natural vegetation where team members can learn how to handle and fly the birds before the hunt.

Falconry, quite simply, is the flying of a trained bird of prey at a chosen quarry. The bird is not tame or domesticated but chooses to work as a team with the man or woman in pursuit of that quarry. Each bird flies with particular skills: the eagle has power and strength, the falcon has breath-taking speed and the hawk has assurance and agility. All have undeniable beauty and grace and the experience of flying and working with one of these wonderful birds is one that will you always remember. BlueSky Experiences also has a selection of owls, that for sheer close up appreciation of beauty and grace is hard to beat.

To call an eagle owl and see it leave its block to glide effortlessly to land on your glove 150 metres away is just awe-inspiring. That huge wingspan and those two large orange eyes unswervingly fixed on the target.

BlueSky Experiences has a good selection of eagles, hawks, falcons, buzzards and owls that can be used for either demonstrations or hawking.

The Harris Hawk is the most common bird used today in Britain in the sport of falconry. It can be used for hunting, or for simply following on and flying to the glove from the trees. The females are more popular for hunting as they are larger than the males but they are a very social species with a calm disposition and adaptable to any situation.

The Common Buzzard is ideal for demonstration work and educational visits. It is a lovely bird to fly and to take out for a walk, calling it from the trees to the glove. Noted for its lazy attitude, it is smart enough to know that it does not need to hunt when there is a ready supply of food ‘to hand’. The Falcons are used for demonstration work, photo work and educational visits. Each has its own area of expertise: the Peregrine Falcon is known to have flown at 130 mph, the Kestrel for its agility and sense of fun and the Lanner for its steady temperament flying to the lure.

The Owls range in size from the Turkmanian Eagle Owl to the White Faced Scops Owl. All are great fun to fly free and to see in demonstrations, as they are undoubtedly some of the most beautiful of animals. None are used for hunting, mainly due to their size, which is either too big or too small.