Thursday 30 October 2008

Falcon Flying - Joan Lennon

My brain is full to the brim with interesting facts about birds of prey and diamond clear images of Squeak the Harris hawk coming in to my glove. I even have a tiny scratch of honour on my arm where the Bengal owl took off a little to the left of the leather. I have had such a FABULOUS morning!

A birthday voucher for a 2-hour Falconry Experience is what brought me to the Scottish Deer Centre on a beautifully blue-and-gold autumn morning - that, and the excuse of research for a book about a Viking boy and an eagle.
Please don't wait for any such excuse - go now and be as happy as when the writing is going really, really well - yes, flying falcons is THAT good!


You would not believe how beautiful her plummage is close up!



Squeak - a prince among birds.





Bengal owl - she of the fluffy pantaloons. (That's the bird I'm talking about.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely, lovely pics! What a great experience, too...

Mary Hoffman said...

It was a day like that which I gave my husband for Christmas one year that produced the phrase "the falconer's knot" which I used as the title of my first historical novel!

He loved the experience too.