The Joy of Falconry

This is getting to be quite a year of firsts for me - sledging, punting, and now falconry. (Oh no, that sounds far too like hunting, shooting and fishing. I'm not posh! Honest! I went to a state school! I live in Croydon!)

Anyway, my wife bought me a half-day falconry experience as last year's birthday present but as it was down at Escot Park in Devon it didn't actually happen until last week - just after this year's birthday in fact.

Top right is Tigs the White-Faced Scops Owl.

Below is J.J. the Harris Hawk, who wasn't too sure about landing on me and made about 15 abortive attempts:

And this is Marmite the more obliging Barn Owl:

For the more ornithologically pedantic, I know neither of these are falcons but I did get to fly a Lana Falcon and a Kestrel as well. 

The birds are absolutely beautiful, and handling raw chicken meat was good for my OCD tendencies though may put off vegetarians. All in all, I totally recommend the experience if you have £65 or so to spare (help, I'm sounding posh and rich again! Stop!). Face to Face Falconry who run it are fantastic - friendly, extremely professional and incredibly knowledgeable.

If you go to Escot (which happens to be an anagram of Tesco in case you're interested ;-), do also try out the Drop Slide. You climb steps to a height of about 20-25 feet, and then have to launch yourself off essentially into thin air for several feet of free fall before the parabolic curve of the slide takes you the rest of the way down. Nearest I'm likely to get to jumping out of a plane.