Tag: birds of prey

weekend 22-23 May 2010

eagle owl

Both Pete and I have a great fondness for birds of prey, so when we saw there was a falconry display on today at Burnby Hall Gardens, in Pocklington, we decided to visit; it’s a pleasant drive of about 25 miles from here.

It’s a really nice place – two ponds chock full of water lilles (although they’re not out yet) and some of the fattest koi carp I’ve ever seen, together with an occasional duck. The place was packed out with families, and yet had a really nice tranquil feel to it; lots of people had chairs, blankets, picnics, the Sunday papers etc, and were clearly set in for the long haul. We’ll be visiting again, I think.

The falconry display wasn’t great – it’s just too hot for the birds to want to work, and the gyr falcon really didn’t want to play and kept flying away – and who could blame him? Still, an enjoyable afternoon sitting in the (too hot) sun – we took a small picnic, and indulged ourselves in an ice cream too – I couldn’t decide on flavours, and so was Bad, and had a double of ginger and cherry; delicious.

Tonight there will be feta stuffed chicken breast, Yorkshire asparagus and Jersey Royals, although I’m dreading actually cooking, as it is Far Too Hot.

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the Zacharia Pearson pub with a subset of Hull twitterers for the #hullmeetup, and most enjoyable it was too. We may have made some business contacts as well. However, too much wine (in my case) and beer (in Pete’s) was consumed.

we went out


tawny eagle
Originally uploaded by ramtops.

we set off from home late morning, intending to have lunch at Barry Island. Unfortunately, so had everyone else, it seemed, and there wasn’t a parking place to be had.

our intention was to visit Barry Hawking Centre and what passes for their web site says that there’s a cafe, so we knew that *some* sustenance would be available, so we pressed on.

the cafe was closed. The grounds were incredibly dreary, there were hardly any bits of information about the birds, there weren’t all that many birds, in fact – well, not birds of prey (apart from quite a few eagle owls), but lots of hens and swans. I guess the chickens are there to produce chickies for the raptors to scoff, and the swans … well, your guess is as good as mine.

I’d phoned to see what time they were doing flight demonstrations; 12.30 and 3, they said, so we made sure we were there in good time. We hung about the flying area, where absolutely no sign of any birds or flying was going on, so we returned to the kiosk to enquire. “Oh no” , they said. “The falconer didn’t turn up.”

what sort of hawking centre doesn’t have its own falconer, FFS? You have to fly your birds regularly. The place really is a shambles – run down, untidy, and very disappointing.

so, should you be looking for somewhere to go on a day out, may I strongly recommend that you don’t bother with this place .

but there was this beautiful tawny eagle, so not all was lost.

we did other things too – more on that story later.