More and yet more birds

More specifically, more owl. Just one, the little burrowing owl. He didn't do much burrowing, but like Molly and Tolkien he didn't do much flying to order either. And when he did it was pretty quick and I got a lot of blurred blobs in this session. However, he posed beautifully and on one of his blindingly swift flits, landed with a mouthful of something. Rather suits him :)
And he does look very small and sweet, all alone on the ground. (That's looking firmly away from the falconer who was waving some delicious little something around for him to fly to)
In case you're thinking it's not surprising that the owls didn't want to play because they're nocturnal, it seems this isn't true of most of them. Many are diurnal and most will fly at dawn or dusk. Further, they are not in the least blinded by daylight though they do have extraordinary night vision and phenomenal hearing (Molly tracks her undersnow prey by hearing)

While we ate lunch, we were able to watch the public display from a balcony (didn't eat much lunch). The Lanner falcon did some spectacular fast swooping and stooping to the lure and I've included one of the pics of him flying just because I got him in shot. Mostly, he was long gone by the time I clicked the shutter!Later we got our own private flying display by Ivan and the Harris Hawk. She was amazingly good-natured about the whole thing and flew backwards and forwards to wherever Ivan helpfully went to give us the best shots of her landing and flying. I really liked her, such a pretty bird and so completely unconcerned.At some time during the day, we got to see the Peregrine close up. Stunning bird and much feted as the fastest natural thing on two wings. (We did see him fly earlier in the day but I can't find any pics - I think he was just too fast)What amazing eyes:)

Last thing, we were introduced to the Sparrow hawk. Brought up by Gareth, one of the falconers, who's had him since he was a three day old chick. He was very shy and we only got to see him for a few minutes before he made it clear that he didn't want to be here any more.
I'm pretty sure that one or two other people in our group got better shots than I did. Probably the couple with one wheel chair and two matching cameras with the most enormous lenses, did a great deal better (I know he got one lovely shot of Molly flying - all eyes and wings). Still, I learnt a lot and gratefully, have pictures to remind me of the wonderful, powerful creature we share our skies with. And our rabbits and insects and mice and etc :) And I was continually touched and amazed by the trust and confidence shared between birds and falconers. My eternal thanks to Brenda, Paul and Ivan for showing as much patience to their customers as to their birds. And most of all, to the birds themselves. Just for being really :) The world is richer for their existence and we really need to understand how lucky we are to have them in it.