Background - In Brief

Born in1959 in South Staffordshire, England, I first became interested in falconry in my early teens, when a friend acquired a common buzzard and I followed with a kestrel. From there I went on to a deeper involvement in the sport, developing a passion for hawking mammalian game that has never left me. Not surprisingly, the birds of my falconry have been those more usually associated with this kind of hawking: goshawks, red-tailed hawks, Harris’ hawks, ferruginous hawks and golden eagles. Of these, the versatile and intriguing Harris’ has slowly come to dominate my falconry. This raptor fascinates me.

I have been lucky enough to travel a little, living and working abroad to experience the falconry of other lands. Very influential has been my tie to Central European falconry, and certainly the German golden eagle scene I entered in my 20s had a massive impact. This was a world of deer, fox and hare hawking and of expeditions behind the Iron Curtain. It truly was another world.

Away from the hunting field I have had a good deal of involvement with demonstration falconry. Most of this has been at German and Austrian castles where eagles and large vultures have been flown over valleys or in high mountain country. The dedicated hunter falconer often decries this kind of work, and while I would agree that entertaining the public can teach you nothing about hunting, it certainly teaches you how to get every last drop of potential out of a bird’s flying ability. Demonstration falconry has helped my field falconry immensely.

I began writing on falconry in the early 80s, first for club magazines, later for a wider audience. I have written for numerous sporting publications and regularly contribute to The Falconers and Raptor Conservation Magazine, and International Falconer. I have written seven falconry books, the first of these published in 1993.