FALCONRY - ASPECTS OF CARE OF THE TRAINED FALCON AND HAWK: Including a step-by-step guide to building the 'weathering loft', foot care, beak care, food preparation, the first winter, and the diary of training a lanneret. By Michael Davie.

Davie (Michael).

ISBN 10: 1789634857 / ISBN 13: 9781789634853

Published by The Choir Press. Gloucester. 2024, 2024

About this Item

ALL UK PARCELS SENT TRACKED! ALL OVERSEAS PARCELS SENT AIRMAIL, TRACKED! (New, Paperback, 2024). 2024 1st edition. Large 4to paperback (207 x 296mm). Ppxii,332. Colour photographs throughout, line drawings, foreword by Graham Watkins. Fine new copy. A wide-ranging and comprehensive introduction to keeping and flying raptors in the UK with detailed photographs and plans for building a weathering loft and travelling box. Chapters include: Getting your bird; Diary of training Jarvis a parent-reared lanneret; The development of the falcon; The swung line, how it is made; The development of the hawk including buzzards; The hood; Foot care; Wing tip oedema; The first moult; Tail belling; Aspects of handling; Feather management; Water; the health of the bird and ailments to look out for; Mutes and pellets; Foods and food preparation; Feather plucking in Harris hawks; Dogs; Imprints; Use of telemetry and lost birds; The accomodation we offer our birds, the weathering and the loft; The weathering loft; Drawings; Materials and quantities required to build the weathering lofts; Travelling box and night quarters. .

Seller Inventory # 62144

Bibliographic Details

• Title: FALCONRY - ASPECTS OF CARE OF THE TRAINED FALCON AND HAWK: Including a step-by-step guide to building the 'weathering loft', foot care, beak care, food preparation, the first winter, and the diary of training a lanneret. By Michael Davie.
• Publisher: The Choir Press. Gloucester. 2024
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789634857
• ISBN 13: 9781789634853
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Falconry - aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk is a distillation of fifty years of falconry experience by leading falconer Michael Davie. This generously illustrated book concentrates on the daily care needed to maintain the trained hawk and falcon in good health, and includes planning for the new arrival by having suitable accommodation ready for the bird. The book provides a comprehensive construction guide to building the ‘weathering loft’ - a dual-purpose structure giving the falconer options of management. The book describes the training diary of a falcon covering its first-year journey including getting it through the winter, avoiding wind tip oedema and on to the moult the following spring. There is guidance about the general maintenance of the raptor including foot, beak and feather care, and notes on the development of the falcon and the hawk beyond the point of flying free. For falcon flying there is a guide to making a lure and learning to swing it. The book presents an insight into the conditioning and use of the weighing scales and record keeping to guide the falconer in the management of the trained bird. The are invaluable sections on food preparation, use of the hood and looking for a lost bird.

About the Author

Michael Davie ‘the falconer’ was born in the village of Freshford in Somerset in 1960. His family moved to the Stroud Valleys where he attended a rural school and first encountered falconry. After moving to Gloucester he was in cycling distance of the newly opened falconry centre which allowed him to watch and observe professionals at work. His skills during this period greatly improved and he became an apprentice falconer. He became a professional falconer in his mid-twenties and remained so for 35 years running his own falconry business. Along the way he took a degree in biology, a teaching certificate in rural science followed by a carpentry and joinery qualification. The latter skills being important in the guide to building the ‘weathering loft’ which is a central theme to his book.
His book Falconry – aspects of care of the trained falcon and hawk is a distillation of all these skills to produce a reference and resource for others to use.