festival of falconry

Nice  blog post about the 2nd Festival of Falconry taking place near Reading, England. James Marchington, editor of Sporting Shooter magazine in Britian, writes:

“One thing always strikes me about falconers in this country. When it comes to presenting an image that’s acceptable to the public, they just ‘get it’, in a way that so many shooters and hunters don’t. On Friday, they invited 500 local schoolkids to visit the show and learn about birds of prey and falconry.”

Click here to read the rest of his post and to see some photos of the event.

barn owl as wedding accessory

Here’s the latest example of bringing falconry into a public sphere — hire Mike Roberts to bring his owl Ollie to your wedding, hand your best man a gauntlet, and let the barn owl deliver the rings. I guess it’s not that different from walking around with a bird on your fist at a renaissance faire but it does make me wonder what’s next. Here’s the story from The Guardian.

Ollie the barn owl with Mike Roberts