Sadie began her career by teaching environmental education to school groups who visited an environmental centre in Berkshire, during my work experience for my National Diploma. Since then she has taught in a wildlife park and environmental centre in Devon and done further work experience in Dorset. Finally she moved to Somerset to work as a School’s Liaison Officer at a falconry centre.  At the same time she was offered the chance to train as an assistant Falconer and this was a turning point of her life. She discovered her passion for Birds of Prey. During the next two years she flew, trained and hunted with a number of hawks, buzzards, falcons and owls.

Having received an excellent grounding in falconry, she decided to broaden her horizons and went to South Africa, where she volunteered at ‘African Dawn’ - a bird of prey and wildlife rescue centre. Here she was fortunate enough to work with Black Eagles and many birds of prey native to South Africa. She would have loved to stay but was offered a permanent position with one of the best falcon breeders in the UK and returned during 2006.

She loves sharing her knowledge of falconry with others and demonstrating the unique bond between hawk and human to people who may never have had an opportunity to get so close to these amazing birds.

Tom (female), Sam (male) and Jack (male) were all born in captivity in 2006. Once reared by their parents all three have been manned and trained by Sadie. Tom is predominantly used for hunting due to her aggressive nature (females tend to have the aggressive streak!) whilst Sam and Jack are our two Hawk Walking birds.
Harris hawks have been bred successfully in the UK since the 1960’s when their potential was finally recognised. They are highly intelligent which makes them very quick to train coupled with their speed and formidable hunting ability. Until then the most popular birds used in Falconry in the UK were Falcons including Peregrines, Gyrs and Hybrids, then the short wings such as the Goshawk and the Sparrow Hawk. Other birds flown for sport include Eagle Species and in some cases larger Owls. The introduction of the Harris Hawk opened up new ideas in Falconry due to their gregarious nature, offering the chance to fly more than one bird at a time (this is know as a cast). In the wild Harris Hawks will stay together as a family group and have been know to hunt together - a unique occurrence in the raptor world.

"Harris Hawks are found in southern USA and South America, particularly in arid conditions, preying on small birds, small mammals, lizards and insects. Harris Hawks are now captive bred in the UK and are favoured by both amateur and professional falconers alike, they are used predominantly to hunt rabbit and game birds such as pheasant. There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk. The austringer often flies short wings and broad wings and will sometimes use ferrets in order to flush rabbits from warrens.

The instructors will always be on hand to help you, but will remain as unobtrusive as possible so that you get that 'living in the wilderness' feeling.

The course costs £175 and is open to anyone who wants to join us for an amazing time in Devon.

Please call us on 0871 222 7304 for more details.

Foraging and Falconry Course