It's Mine

Today I attended a Falconry Photographic Workshop at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens.  19 keen photographers spent the day pointing their cameras at Birds of Prey while the Falconer, Paul Manning, regaled us with facts and figures about the birds and the 1500year plus sport of falconry.

Throughout the day we were reminded that these birds  are at heart wild creatures, so much so that if he were to take a 2week holiday, it would then take him a further two weeks to re-build the relationship of trust between them. 

Part of the day was given over to flying the birds, starting with the relatively slow hawks workinh up to Gyr Falcon.  These were rather hard to catch, but I managed the couple of almost sharp shots in extras out of the 50 odd taken!

The day ended with the "posing shots", though you may not want to look large at what this Eagle Owl has in her beak!