Falconry and Pest Control

Harmful to Humans Is pigeon feces dangerous to touch or breathe? It is never a good idea to come in contact with any animal or bird droppings, and proper hygiene is a sure-fire way to make sure that no infection is ever experienced. That being said, there are some concerns when it comes to pigeons, as they tend to move into buildings easily. There are three human diseases that have a link to pigeons. They are Histoplasmosis, Psittacosis, and Cryptococcosis. Histoplasmosis   is an illness caused by a fungus that is found worldwide in certain soils and yes, in pigeon droppings. Normal activities can lead to a person being exposed to the fungus; however, you would have to breathe in a huge amount of the fungus for it to cause infection. Symptoms  generally manifest within ten days of exposure and include fever, fatigue plus chest pains. However, most people don’t develop infections even though large amounts of people are exposed to this fungus through normal activities...

Well its been a while since our last blog but been a very busy start to 2019 as you could see from our last blog  we have been working with Changing Step North East  Since our visit to the National Memorial Arboretum    Dave Tindale along with Wayne,Gary,Liam and Gary came down to Peterborough to help take down and move an Avery that we had been given. This was a mammoth task and between us all including Sally my other half we did this in one weekend. before Saturday just starting Sunday midday  As you can see from the above photos this was a the mammoth task but was a fun weekend. For anyone reading this that might have served you will understand when I say the weekend was full of fun squaddie banter and hard work, Also this last month we had a road trip with our birds to the coast. Myself and Swampy packed up the birds in the van and set of early one Thursday morning heading south to go and visit another group of Veterans near...

Last Thursday 31 January 2019 we took our birds to The National Memorial Arboretum to meet up with Changing Step North East, Help a Squaddie and Roma Guard. This was a meeting of a great partnership of companies working with veterans’ organisations to help veterans in need. Changing Step North East is a not for profit, Social Enterprise Company, Limited by Guarantee and aims to provide a transitional service to former members of HM Forces and their dependants. This will be achieved by offering advice, support and training to assist with reintegration back into the civilian community. We will also offer our services to members of the local community, which we believe will help to promote the reintegration of former service personnel and their families. There is soon to be an announcement made by Changing Step which we at Spitfire APC are very excited about.  They are based in Crook a historic market town in County Durham. Changing Step from here also run The Veteran...

I spoke with The Raptor Awards Community Interest Company today about the new regulations coming in on 1st of October to do with Falconry and its Licencing as there seems to be a lot of different things being said. The Raptor Awards have been working with DEFRA to offer training days for bird of prey businesses requiring a licence. In a nutshell for those of you doing pest control using birds of prey here is the conditions that will determine if you need to apply or not. 1. You are based in England OR you are based outside of England but exhibit commercially in England 2. You use birds of prey on a commercial business for one of these activities, or similar:  A. Educational visits M XL L S ​ ​  B.Displays (static or flying)  C. Wedding ring delivery  D. Corporate days  E. Experience days  F. Photography days  G. Film, video or other media work  H. Breeding birds of prey for sale  I. Oth...

The Indian eagle-owl, also called the rock eagle-owl or Bengal eagle-owl (Bubo bengalensis), is a species of large horned owl restricted to the Indian Subcontinent. They are found in hilly and rocky scrub forests, and are usually seen in pairs. They have a deep resonant booming call that may be heard at dawn and dusk. The average size a a male bird is as follows: Length 50-56 cm. Wing length 358-433mm. Tail length 185-227mm. Weight 1100g Females bird are larger than the males but this gives you a rough idea of size. They are seen in scrub and light to medium forests but are especially seen near rocky places within the mainland of the Indian Subcontinent south of the Himalayas and below 1,500 metres (5,000 ft) elevation. Humid evergreen forest and extremely arid areas are avoided. Bush covered rocky hillocks and ravines, and steep banks of rivers and streams are favourite haunts. It spends the day under the shelter of a bush or rocky projection, or in a larg...

The barn owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as the common barn owl. Barn owls living in tropical regions can breed at any time of year, but some seasonality in nesting is still evident. Where there are distinct wet and dry seasons, egg-laying usually takes place during the dry season, with increased rodent prey becoming available to the birds as the vegetation dies off. In arid regions, such as parts of Australia, breeding may be irregular and may happen in wet periods, triggered by temporary increases in the populations of small mammals. In temperate climates, nesting seasons become more distinct and there are some seasons of the year when no egg-laying takes place. In Europe and North America, most nesting takes place between March and June when temperatures are increasing. The actual dates of egg-laying vary by year and by location, being correlated with the amount of prey-rich forag...

Falconry is the hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an Austringer flies a hawk or an eagle. In modern falconry the Red-tailed Hawk and the Harris hawk are often used. The words "hawking" and "hawker" have become used so much to mean petty travelling  traders, that the terms "falconer" and "falconry" now apply to all use of trained birds of prey to catch game. In early English falconry literature, the word "falcon" referred to a female falcon only, while the word "hawk" or "hawke" referred to a female hawk. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a "tiercel" as it was roughly one third less than the female in size. Many contemporary practitioners still use these words in their original meaning. The practice of hunting with a conditioned f...

A female Harris Hawk will mate with two males & the nest may be made in cooperation of several other birds. Nests are made in the tops of trees or on the top of a tall Yucca or Cactus. Up to 5 eggs are laid & incubation is done by the female (33-36 days). Sometimes two clutches of eggs are laid in a season, between early March to late June. Feeding of the young is done as a joint effort by the female & both of the males. The young are fully fledged in 7-8 weeks from hatching, though the young may stay with the parents for up to 1 year. One study has shown that the polyandry (mating with more than one male) exhibited by the female Harris Hawks is not due to an imbalance in the ratio of males to females, the ratio is roughly 50:50. Whilst it is not certain why the polyandry exists, one theory suggests that the amount of available food may be an issue. Some studies have shown that in areas of large amounts of food, the males (who usually provide most of the food dur...

All falconry practised for leisure purposes had to cease during the Second World War. Most falconers were called away for military service and either had to leave their birds behind or release them into the wild. S L XL M ​ ​ Huge areas of countryside traditionally used by falconers were sequestered for military use: barbed wire prevented access and legislation to protect allied carrier pigeons that where carried in boxes in Allied Planes to be released if they were shot down behind enemy lines all spelled danger for any free flying falcon in British skies. The Air Ministry ordered that the wild falcons on the South coast should be destroyed between 1904 -46, so around 600 were shot and many eggs and young were destroyed.  M XL L S ​ ​ Early during World War II The airborne Carrier Pigeon threat to Britain was believed to be the pet project of SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who was known by British intelligence as an avowed pigeon fancier and Hitler appointed him...