Naids, my second littlest sister and her French boy, Axe-L, were determined to try out falconry. So after a rather big night out, we headed down to Kinnity Castle in exciting Co. Offaly to check out the burds. It was pretty cool having these massive birds perched on your arms though terrifying at the same time as I was sure they were going to peck out my very hungover eyes. And Kinnity Castle is only lovely.
The whole falconry practice is quite interesting. The birds are trained from a young age by rewarding them with some tasty chunks of raw meat – bits of cute little bunny rabbits mostly. Initially, they are tethered to the trainer. As the training progresses and they learn to hunt, the length of the tether is increased. When they are confident the bird will not fly away, they remove the tether altogether. The birds are weighed every day and if they’re even a few grams under or over weight, they’re not allowed to hunt as they’re pretty thick and very unloyal. They never form a bond with their trainers and will disappear off for good if they’ve had too much to eat.
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