Lady Falconer
Aimee Kujawa
The author writes freelance copy for company newsletters, websites and local newspaper columns. http://www.cheshirefalconry.com
Tells us about swapping her life from being a waitress to becoming a falconer with Cheshire Falconry.
AWAY WITH THE BIRDS
It was a surprise Christmas gift which sent 20 year old Aimee Kujawa away with the birds - and on a fast track to becoming the North West's only professional lady falconer with a job at one of Britain's leading bird of prey centres.
A falconry experience voucher presented to her by her mum gave her hands-on experience with the range of wild birds owned by Cheshire Falconry at Blakemere Craft Centre near Northwich, and opened the doors to a new career. Now Aimee is a member of Cheshire Falconry's talented team of falconers who give displays in handling the wild birds to individuals, groups and corporate parties throughout the region.
'Clients are sometimes surprised when they arrive for a display to see a young woman in charge of events,' said Cheshire Falconry managing director Steve Birchall. 'But they soon realise that they, and the birds, are in expert hands.
'Aimee has a natural affinity with the birds that shone through from the minute she arrived here as a customer who wanted to enjoy the experience of handling our falcons, owls and eagles. She's worked hard to become the North West's only professional lady falconer and one of only a handful in the country.'
Aimee, from Runcorn, was employed as a waitress when she first visited Blakemere, and said: 'My mum deserves the credit because she bought the falconry experience voucher for me as a Christmas present. I'd always been fascinated by birds of prey but had not realised it was possible to get up close and handle them.
Days after her first experience, Aimee returned to Blakemere to ask Steve if she could be a volunteer helper. It was not long before Steve and other members of the team agreed that Aimee's natural affinity for the birds could be developed and she was offered the job of trainee falconer. She immediately accepted the post and within weeks was skilled enough to handle some of the birds without supervision.
Nearly a year on, Aimee is an able member of the Cheshire Falconry team responsible for taking clients through the Falconry Experience as well as taking part in a wide range of public demonstrations. So has swapping from being a waitress to a falconer changed her life in any other ways?
'Yes,' declared Aimee. 'I've got an even bigger circle of friends. Since my mates started finding out about my new job, they've been coming up to Blakemere to look at the bird collection and a few have invested in vouchers for themselves or for friends as Christmas presents. We've all agreed that falconry is cool.'
About Falconry
Falconry, the hunting of quarry with trained birds of prey, has been a sport and pastime for thousands of years and several species have been trained by humans to utilize their innate skills of agility, speed and reaction, to pursue their natural quarry for sport and food for the table.
Traditional falconry birds include the peregrine falcon, the goshawk, the golden eagle and gyrfalcon. Cheshire Falconry fly peregrines and many other species of bird of prey all trained using much the same techniques as were first employed over three and a half millennia ago. Although it is possible to provide experiences with birds that are trained to hunt we aim to show with most of our falconry experiences the types of birds that can be trained using traditional techniques, and these include a much greater diversity of species. However, certain species , for example the harris? hawk, is both amiable enough to be suitable for everyday hands-on work with guests at the centre but also able to show-off its hunting prowess in the field too.
Falconry equipment is a mixture of the traditional and state of the art. The leatherwork jesses and anklets (aylmeris) have remained essentially unchanged for hundreds, if not thousands of years. However, we use highly sophisticated radio transmitters and receivers in order to track errant birds meaning that losses are extremely rare.
Falconry relies on appetite management and the building up of a relationship with the bird through a process called manning. This is where, by gentle exposure to a variety of new experiences the bird becomes increasingly confident. In this way the hawk can become extremely relaxed around stimuli that would scare a wild bird significantly such as dogs, cars or groups of people. You can aliken this process to the training that a police dog or horse must go through in order to go on active duty.
Falconry has been practiced in the British Isles for many hundreds of years to our knowledge. It was once the reserve of the gentry, possibly because in feudal Britain, you would be unlikely to own the hunting rights on a particular piece of land unless you were a member of the aristocracy. However, it is also likely that you would be unable to afford some of the birds of prey used in falconry at the time.
Today the UK is home to falconers numbering a few thousand. These are people who train their birds and hunt them at quarry rather than those who keep birds of prey in aviaries or as 'pets?. Falconry is a time-consuming labour of love and cannot be taken lightly but at Cheshire Falconry we take on the hard work and let you enjoy the spoils!
See - http://www.cheshirefalconry.com/geninfo_ladyfalconer.htm for a photo of Aimee.
