Enjoy some quality flying and training time with an expert falconer on our Essex falconry days based at the superb Barleylands Farm Park – a fully-fledged farming and craft centre near Billericay that offers a full array of winged activities from short show-stopping sessions.
Starting at the shorter end of the steely-eyed scale our falconry taster session in Essex lasts an hour and in that time you’ll get a full introduction to and description of the birds on the display lawn their natural habitat and behaviour explained in full so you get a real understanding of these impressive birds. Then you will have the thrill of flying a bird to the hand seeing it swoop and soar through the air before flapping calmly to the glove.
If you fancy the idea of getting know the centre’s wide-eyed owls our two-hour course concentrates exclusively on this popular type of bird. Your heart will melt when you meet Ollie the White-Faced Scops Owl – weighing in at just over three ounces he’s the smallest cutest owl you ever did see! You’ll also say hello to Essex’s impressive European Eagle Owls which weigh over six pounds each.
A falconry half-day gives you three hours on site with the opportunity to both handle and fly a variety of raptors to your gloved fist including hawks owls and falcons. You’ll soon learn that each bird has its own personality and as most of the falconry birds have been raised by hand at the Essex-based centre you’ll hear all about their development from egg to fully-fledged adult bird. Head falconer Nigel is bound to want to introduce you to Mika the African Fish Eagle who likes nothing more than to gobble down a tasty morsel of fresh fish – quite a rare sight in the UK.
These Essex falconry experiences are flexible too with various start times for the one-hour hawk-handling taster and morning and afternoon sessions for the bird of prey half-day.
