Ireland is a wonderful country. This weekend was not the first time I have travelled to Ireland with bird of prey onboard to fulfil a booking but this one was a bit different. Over the last month, we have attended the Lumina Drones tour - an evening event with a funfair, entertainment including live music and stilt walkers and the memserating drone show at the end of the night - 600+ drones animating animals including geckos, giraffes, snakes and much more.
We have provided a flying show with two owls and a hawk before the drone show begins. The audiences have been over 5000 people at each event, the microphone we use allowing everyone to hear the facts about owls and other birds of prey as part of our presentation.
At most flying show venues, the arena where we perform is rectangular, with the audience surrounding. In the case of these Drone show events, which are all held at race courses, the audience is spread across an area of approximately 300 meters!
Therefore, the flying method is to have the birds follow the falconer as they walk down to the end of the filed and then return back again, so that everyone in the audience will see the birds fly reasonably close at some point.
This weekend, I drove to Loch Ryan (great name - same as mine) in Scotland to catch the ferry to Belfast. The security were amazed to see my Ural owl during a quick inspection, which was followed by an array of questions.
Once I arrived at the venue, I setup the static display with the help from a falconry friend who lives in the republic of Ireland called Trevor and the daughter of one of his friends, Evie, who at just 16 years old impressed me with her knowledge of owls, birds of prey and falconry, (In her thick Irish accent) - I can see incredible potential there.
Everyone who came to see the birds were fascinated, asking lots of questions and holding the birds. At one point, during the flying show, the hawk (who's name is Renner) landed on the cameraman's shoulders. I wonder what the shot looked like.