Cool Thing Happening O/Side Work
 

Well I think its cool...

Those of you that work/live in London know how pesky the pigeons are. The ones where we work (Old Truman Brewery) are particulary rancid examples of their kind. The multitude of pipework and overhangs mean that there are loads of the buggers around and goddamn can they sure drop an enormous amount of poo on your car or head.

Brewery have hired a falconer with a lovely male harris hawk to scare them off :D

Any time a pigeon is seen, he's let off to chase them away. Theory is that although no chance of catching the pigeons, it puts the willies up them such that they decide they don't want to live where they are (just in case) and move home.

Beautiful to watch flying to/from the handler.

Also, couple of roosting crows chased it off when it got too close to where they were. Amusing to watch this big bird being buzzed by them.

Will try and get a picture if I can.



Suggested he came up to my place in Suffolk and sorted out the rabbits :D


[edited as I got the bird wrong :rolleyes: ]

We have a guy who comes to my work with a Harris Hawk several times a week to do the same thing. Really cool to watch, especially now I have an office with a window. It actually caught a pigeon the other day too. :)

I'll try and get a photo next time he's here.

Surely if it was allowed to catch a few that would scare them off even more? Lets face it they aint the brightest things. Problem not allowed in this namby pamby nanny state we live in - too many people would complain.

Simon.

If it caught them it would get all sorts of diseases. The falconer will not want that. We used to borrow one to put on the roof of our hotel overnight to scare the starlings. Works for a while but they will be back.
I'm used to seeing Golden Eagles etc where I was living but one day was walking the dog and a massive eagle came straight for me then settled in a tree about 25 yards away. Was a black sea Eagle and I did'nt realise it was being flown by a handler at the other end of the field.
When talking to him about it he said he'd been watching as he has to be careful it does'nt grab a small dog. Lucky mine was over 8st. Fantastic to watch these animals especially if you can see them up close.

I went to the Hawk Conservancy in Andover last year. Best £6 for a day out me and the mrs ever spent. Got to hold various birds and fly a harris hawk. Loads of demonstrations that were really impressive including an American Eagle that was just massive esp the beak.

If you like birds of prey and are in berkshire or hampshire then check it out.

Simon.

They let one fly around Woking every now and then, (or a similar bird).

Landlord at our office couldn't wait, hired some men to climb up top and they shot all the pigeons (rats with wings) with some kind of air gun, problem solved!

My sister bought me a days basic hawk handling course at the Falconry Centre in Stratford-on-Avon for my birthday last year, was possibly the most interesting/original present I've had. Highly recommended. :)

I've always been interested in hawks/falconry but don't have the time or space to devote to the hobby at the moment. Maybe one day though. I know Moses took it up a while back and AFAIK he really likes it too. :)

i've seen a man with a falcon in trafalgar square quite a few times

but you still get knobheads coming alongs with huge bags of birdseed to feed these vermin

They've had a falconer come in to the Millenium Stadium a few times a week for a while now, stops the pigeons coming in when the roof is left open, amazing to watch, what a job.

They also plan to use it to catch the pesky cockerill the French release onto the field before they play Wales in the Six Nations ;) that'll make good TV :D

Hope they don't use it if the Magpies ever play the Bluebirds in a footie final...carnage :D