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Although it may look like Roy has opened a pet pampering parlour, this is all part of
being a dedicated eagle falconer.
Just as their diet and weight needs constant monitoring so do all the other important bits
– you wouldn't take a racing car out without warming the tyres or an aeroplane up without
checking flaps and ailerons, would you, Ginger?
Likewise, you don't take a golden eagle out after hares without dry feathers.
But this comes with a serious health warning: Teflon coated stuff kills birds, be it a parrot
or a peregrine.
If your bird inhales the heated gas then that can kill them.
A lot of the parrot forums talk about it as well with people cooking in their houses with
Teflon pans.
And again the fumes from those can kill the birds, so if you are using something like
that then obviously be incredibly careful and make sure it hasn't got a PTFE or Teflon
coating on it.
From fluffing feathers to the beak bar for a bit of a trim.
In the wild they would be eating a lot more hard bone material than we currently feed
them when we are flying them.
So they are constantly wearing their beak down.
So they also do what we call feeking where they rub their beak on rocks and that trims
them as well.
When we are flying them a lot of the time they are eating reasonably soft food so the
beak can become overgrown quite quickly.
There is no discomfort.
It is just like trimming your nails.
Who's a pretty boy then.
Lincolnshire is well known for its hares and Roy and his friends have been coming to this
part of the England for years.
There's a promise of some serious action today and with four male goldies and one female,
our chances are good.
A female golden eagle, a male golden eagle.
So you can see the female is comparatively larger.
And that is pretty much all the way through with most birds of prey that the females are
normally about a third larger.
They are much more capable of taking fox and on the continent they obviously fly a lot
of roe deer as well with them.
The guys line up.
Roy choreographs the beating line.
It's going to be hard going today with the heavy Lincolnshire soil, but there are definitely
hares to be had here.
Gary has the first flight.
It's brown hares one, eagles nil.
Luckily it went down hill so he got a bit of steam up and took it.
Sat on it bold up and as it started to run it popped up out of his feet and ran off.
Which is hunting unfortunately.
The next drive flushes more hares.
Unfortunately, Mark's youngster doesn't have the juice to keep chasing this high speed
quarry.
It was a shame about Mark's young eagle there.
It was too much for it with the wind he has got.
The wind has picked up a little bit and expecting it to fly into that sort of heavy wind it
just took the speed out of it and the eagle knew that he didn't quite have the power to
catch up with the hare.
The guys walk field after field.
The hares at this time of year are properly match fit so are really testing the birds.
The most exciting flights of the day are in the afternoon.
Roy spots a hare in its seat.
Let's watch that again in slow motion.
Roy's male eagle, Baby, chases down the hare which at the last moment turns to face his
pursuer – Incredibly the hare judges to the nano second when Baby is going to commit.
He spins up into the air away from those razor sharp talons and makes his escape.
When you see the hares doing manoeuvres like that you really do have to question whether
that is an inherent behaviour that they know, how to avoid an air borne predator or if they
have run the gauntlet and avoided buzzards when they were a lot younger being predated
upon as leverets.
Which ever way round they really, really do demand a lot of respect as a quarry.
Next up for a decent flight is Gary's bird.
The fur flies, but again the hare slips through his talons.
There are more close calls and all the birds get some hunting.
It's really exciting stuff, but the hares have won today, and Roy finds it tough to
admit defeat.
No, no ... don't ... great misses ... right hang on ... oh you don't know how much this
hurts me ...
All in all we had a superb day.
Some brilliant sport.
Some very, very close calls.
How the birds didn't keep hold of some of those hares I don't know.
I think somebody must have come out last night and smothered them in grease because they
were definitely slipping out of the bird's feet on this occasion.
So we shall have to try harder next time.
With hunting there's always tomorrow and, after a misty start, the Lincolnshire countryside
clears.
Finally, the eagles find their targets.
Baby shows us how it's done.
We spotted another hare in a seat and walked it up and that one ran perfectly though it
ran down the field and gave him a little bit of an advantage and he made short work of
that and cut into it.
So again when you see an experienced eagle fly they will go at it.
Cut round to the side and then come back into it.
So it just puts the hare off.
On this second flight the experience of a bird with seven seasons under its wings is
clear.
Instead of crashing into the hedge after the hare, Baby bides his time, waiting for the
hare to appear the other side.
His patience pays off with a majestic 400 yard flight.
He has got it yeah!!!
Eagle falconers are a dedicated bunch, putting in hours of work and preparation for a flight
that could last just a few seconds.
It's a drug – and Roy can't give it up.
You find the best flights when it is a 50, 50 chance whether the quarry escapes or whether
the bird does well and I think that is what drives us and what keeps us going.
Just wanting to be part of the hunt, wanting to see it and having nature in its rawest
form played out in front of you.
And Nature has given both the predator and prey the best tools for the job.
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