Falconry Festival
After a tip-off from Blair in the office, we decided to take Shona to a falconry festival just a few miles from home, in Theale. We wern't quite sure what to expect but we were very impressed.
It was a magnificent site in the Englefield Estate. We were amused that the resident swans didn't seem to get on with the visiting Canadian geese.
There was a large section of the event sponsored by Abu Dahbi. They went to great lengths to share the atmosphere of traditional Arabian falconry.
Our friends from the Hawk Conservancy in Andover were there in force, manning three separate stalls. Here Jimmy demonstrates how to break an egg:
Since Kathleen, Andrew and Shona are equally childish, we all had a go on the fun fair.
There was, of course, a magnificent selection of birds:
And, as usual we tried our best to photograph them in flight:
We don't know much about falconry but the falconers from Korea caught our attention. Due to quarintine restrictions, their bird was borrowed from a local group for the weekend but through calm, unhurried, delicate movement, they had gained it's trust and co-operation - you could be mistaken for thinking that they had been working together for years.
But the Koreans were only one deligation from a huge number of international guests.
In front of the grand house, there was a demonstration of horseback archery. It makes a challenging but rewarding subject for photography and we will be looking out for opportunities to shoot it again.
And finaly, other shenanigans...
