How Falconry Helped Me
My story starts in the 70s when my parents ran a 500 acre tenant dairy farm. My dad used to take me to the old stone barn to see the (back then, fairly common) wild barn owls nesting there. That was where my fascination with birds of prey began.
In 1982 aged 7, I contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma - a type of cancer. I was in Bristol Children's Hospital & Exeter R D & E Hospital for some time. In the two years I was on chemo I would be studying Falconry books, as well fighting the Empire for the Republic with my Star Wars toys!
When I had time in between chemo sessions - I would go out, watch and photograph the wild buzzards and kestrels on the farm. They simply amazed me.
Aged 9 and on remission, my parents took me on my first falconry course. After meeting more falconers and participating in another course, I eventually got my first bird which was a male Kestrel named Kessy.
As I continued to learn more about falconry, me and my dad had an aviary set up in the old stone barn where, with a trained bird ringer Geoff Pierce, we would keep a pair of barn owls in the barn and help them to breed in the Summer months. Once the chicks were rung then they would all be released into the wild on the farm. We would take on a pair of barn owls which had been injured in the wild, who were first checked by vet to make sure they could be returned to the wild, and put them in the barn to breed.
In 1989, aged 14, I went to Kent with my dad to buy my beloved Red-tailed Buzzard named Red. Red gave me valuable experience in falconry and hunting with a bird of prey, and I still have him to this day currently aged 30! Sadly in 1993 my Dad passed away, aged just 54.
It was a massive blow to both my Mum and I, but we had a job to do running the farm. When things got tough for me with losing Dad as well as the pressure of running a large farm, I and my beloved Red would go hunting together and it would take the stress away!
Quite simply I can say a massive thank you to falconry for partly saving my life, giving me direction and getting me through some really tough times!
