How to choose a Falconry Course

The following is a short guide to help you navigate through the vast array of falconry courses on offer today in the UK. It will hopefully help you home in on what matters to you and help to ensure you pick the right course to meet your personal aspirations.

1. What are you hoping to get out of the course – you need to be clear about WHY you want to do a course.
   1. To have a realistic, hands-on experience of learning to handle and work with a bird in order to help you decide whether of not you want to buy and keep a bird
   2. To gain knowledge and confidence in handling a wild bird and training it
   3. To learn field craft (including working with dogs and ferrets) in order to hunt with a bird

2. Why do you want to take up falconry – you should be clear about what you are going to do with your newly acquired skills:
   1. Do you want to take up falconry in order to develop all the competence and confidence necessary to buy, train and hunt with a bird?
   2. Do you need to develop competence and confidence to buy and keep a bird?

3. What are your personal circumstances – You should consider carefully the following
   1. Do you have time available daily to fed and care for your bird
   2. Do you have appropriate weatherings &/or aviaries in which to keep the bird (or have you the space to build them)
   3. Do you appropriate land (either your own or with a landowner’s permission) on which to fly and hunt with your bird

4. How do you prefer to learn – everyone has a unique style of learning and so it is important to understand your own preferred way. Learning falconry is a very practical; hands-on experience and whilst it is useful to read good quality texts, falconry is not a theoretical subject.

5. What time do you have available – There are wide range of courses available from 1 day falconry experience days through to intensive 1 or 2 week courses. There are even “apprenticeships” available which comprise a number of days spread over a period of a year. It is clear however that to gain enough experience to own a bird a full 1 week course is a minimum  and this must be with an untrained bird. Just getting to hold a bird and have it fly to you is simply not enough.

Questions to ask prospective training establishments

If you are complete novice then you can often find yourself in a catch 22 situation where because you don’t know what you don’t know, you don’t know what questions to ask. To help you through this here are some good questions to ask before you make your mind up which course to sign up for (answers in respect of Highland Hawking courses are detailed in the right hand column):

How often do you run courses	All year round
How many will be on the course	Maximum of 2
Who will be training me	Hugh Haggarty
How many years experience do you have (specifically in handling and training varieties of raptors)	Over 30 years in training and handling most types of raptors
How long have you been training people in falconry	27 years
What type of birds do you train with	Harris Hawks
Will I be working with an untrained bird	Yes, it is pointless working with a bird which is already trained as you need to experience the process of bringing a bird from a “wild” to a trained state
How long are your courses (& how flexible is your course schedule)	Basic course is 6 days Hunting & Field craft is 6 days We always tailor our courses to meet your needs and aptitudes
What will I be competent to do at the end of your course	Buy, train and manage the care of a bird
What post-course support is available	I am available by telephone or email for post course support, queries or advice you may need

Any reputable falconer will be only too happy to spend time talking through your requirements in order to ensure that what you need and what they have to offer are a good match. Be wary of any who are not prepared to take that time!

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