Dame Juliana Berners wrote, in the Boke of St Albans, of the allocation of species of hawk and falcon to their corresponding human ranks in mediaeval society: And yit ther be moo kyndis of hawkes/Ther is a Goshawke and that hauke is for the yeman/Ther is the Tercell and that…
The merlin, Britain’s smallest raptor, is doing well on managed grouse moors. The respected British Trust for Orni-thology maps the bird’s distribution in England regularly, while the Moorland Association (MA) assiduously keeps records of where gamekeepers work in the uplands. A neat, comparative study commissioned by the MA and conducted…
There’s an ancient beauty in witnessing a falcon or hawk take quarry. “One of my most memorable days in the sporting field was on a soaking, blustery day one October,’’ recalls a hardened countryman. “A peregrine was hanging in the sullen skies above a field of Lincolnshire sugar beet, while…
