Seeing a colossal white-tailed eagle swoop towards you at speed at Elite Falconry is slightly terrifying but absolutely exhilarating.
The moment she lands on my hand is one I will never forget.
I’m at Elite Falconry in Fife for a birds-of-prey experience where I fly a range of birds, culminating with this impressive creature called River.
Falconry is a centuries-old practice involving training birds to hunt and catch wild prey.
I’m there to learn about the sport and for what host Roxanne Blyther describes as an afternoon of “glorified birdwatching”.
Before we begin, we’re shown a six-day old African hawk eagle chick. It was rescued by a breeder in England after its father tried to eat it.
Roxanne and husband Barry, who run the centre at Cluny, near Kirkcaldy, hope one of their steppe eagles will foster it.
The fluffy chick squawks noisily as it is kept warm until it is switched for the unfertilised eggs the eagle is sitting on.
Conservation at heart of Elite Falconry
Conservation and bird welfare promotion are, Roxanne tells me, a big part of what Elite Falconry does.
After a safety and instruction briefing we’re driven with our first two birds to a picturesque spot by the River Ore.
We meet the delightful Spock, a long-eared owl. He’s a real character and watches us from the trees as we walk through the woods. Every now and again he takes flight and swoops closely round us.
I lift my arm when Roxanne tells me to and he glides towards me and gently lands on my glove.
He’s lighter than I expect.
Roxanne regales us with a series of owl facts.
The tufts on their heads aren’t ears they are plumicorns, which are purely ornamental but aid their camouflage.
A wise old owl? Not so much, actually
Owls’ real ears are asymmetric which helps them locate their prey, like triangulation.
And most surprisingly, owls are not wise as reputed. In fact they’re pretty stupid, Roxanne says. I hope Spock doesn’t hear her.
A family from Ohio is with us for the first part of our outing. Their little girl’s face is a picture of delight as Spock lands on her hand.
Next up is Harris hawk Isha.
As she is let loose we see her respond to her natural instincts. She spots some ducks and takes off.
But she returns a couple of minutes later on Roxanne’s whistles, the ducks having thwarted her efforts.
Harris hawks are like ‘flying Labradors’
Flying Labradors is how Roxanne describes this species. They like company and Isha follows us closely as we continue our stroll among the trees.
Harris hawks are popular among falconers as they are quick to learn and easy to train.
Rarely for birds-of-prey, they hunt in packs. Some will drive out prey on the ground, almost like grouse beaters, for their airborne team-mates to catch.
Isha is much heavier than Spock but still lands gently on my raised hand.
She is a stunning beast.
Let’s go fly a kite
For our final two birds we drive to the top of a small hill.
Red kite Robyn is truly a delight.
It’s hard to believe his species was once considered vermin. They were reintroduced after being persecuted to extinction in Scotland in the late 19th Century.
He’s like the Red Arrow of our experience, dipping and diving around us like an airborne acrobat, his huge wings missing us by mere inches.
Elite Falconry’s TV stars
Like some of his fellow Elite Falconry birds, Robyn is a TV star. He appeared in the 2023 BBC drama Murder is Easy.
Indian eagle owl Sage appears in the opening scenes of BBC’s The Traitors, ‘delivering invitations’ for presenter Claudia Winkleman.
Other birds have taken part in filming for the likes of Landward and The One Show.
Roxanne tosses Robyn’s food into the air and he catches and eats it in flight.
I know we are concluding our afternoon with an eagle.
But I’m astounded and beyond excited when Roxanne brings out a white-tailed eagle.
As a news reporter, I covered the reintroduction of this species to east central Scotland in 2007.
I’ve been fascinated by them ever since.
‘We call them flying barn doors for a reason’
Also known as sea eagles, they are the biggest birds-of-prey in the UK. They are massive.
“We call them flying barn doors for a reason,” says Roxanne.
River is trained to fly high and uses the wind and thermal currents to do so.
We watch her soar majestically in circles higher and higher, showing off her immense 7ft 8in wingspan.
Then she descends and Roxanne tells me to raise my arm.
I feel nervous as I watch this 9lb hulk of a bird speed towards me and admit I let out a little scream as she closes in!
She puts on the brakes and lands more deftly than I’m expecting on my glove.
Still I struggle to keep my arm up against her weight.
She wolfs down the reward I’m holding in my fist.
Wow! She is a spectacular sight to behold.
White-tailed eagles’ perpetual ‘wild streak’
White-tailed eagles were hunted to extinction in Scotland in the early 20th Century. They were reintroduced in the 1970s, initially on the island of Rum and later in Fife.
These birds are falconer Roxanne’s passion. But also her greatest challenge.
“They will always carry that wild streak,” she explains. “Once a Harris hawk is trained, it’s trained. But white-tailed eagles in captivity, you have to be really consistent to keep that bird on side.”
It takes months of training and building a relationship to allow such a bird to fly free to over 3,000ft and rely on it to return.
Roxanne says: “Because I give her that opportunity to fly and express herself like a wild eagle there’s even more of a chance her wild streak will take over.
Tracking a wild white-tailed eagle’s flight path at Elite Falconry
“For me, the ultimate success is to have that bird at 3,000ft with all the choices it has at that height and for it to make a conscious decision to come back to me.”
Today the wind is light so River reaches only 325ft, travelling at around 40mph.
We can see these statistics recorded by her GPS tag on Roxanne’s phone.
Roxanne also shows us the wanderings of a wild white-tailed eagle, Lachan, which Elite Falconry is monitoring.
Lachan has covered astonishing distances over the north and west of Scotland and Skye.
Roxanne tagged the bird to allow researchers to study the species’ flight patterns.
This is another element of the conservation work done at Elite Falconry by Roxanne, Barry and their team of staff.
They regularly post photos and videos of their birds and chicks being reared for their 100,000+ followers on Facebook and Instagram.
A happy ending for us – and the chick
The bulk of their work is providing demonstrations and bird-of-prey experiences at five-star venues across Scotland, including castles and hotels.
They also run hunting expeditions and provide pest control. Sage was among a team of gull scarers for The Open in St Andrews in 2022.
Their owls are often hired to deliver rings at weddings.
Just before we leave we learn the chick we met earlier has been accepted by the steppe eagle foster mum as her own.
It’s a beautiful ending to a magnificent afternoon.
Elite Falconry offers a range of birds-of-prey experiences which start at £55.
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