My name is Andrea Bogdánné Viszkok and I have been living in Scotland for almost 12 years. I have always been passionate about animals, I loved to take care of them, teach them all sorts of little tricks. I had a dog, a guinea pig, a horse, and now I have a cat and a hawk. How did I come to the decision to have such a bird? It has a rather interesting story… Because I didn’t want such an animal.

Here in Scotland, there is a long tradition of falconry. There are those whose main job is to visit sites with their falcons and drive away so-called “pest” birds, such as pigeons, gulls and crows. On one occasion, a falconer was called to my workplace to drive away gulls.. and that was the moment.. the strong realization of how fascinating these birds of prey are, the power they have over other birds.

Every time the falconer came, I would watch the whole operation with admiration, how he would prepare the bird for work, how he would fly it, how he would communicate with it and how the bird would cooperate with the falconer. And that’s when I decided that I wanted to do this too, I wanted such a wonderful bird. Luckily, here in Scotland it is relatively easy to get hold of such an animal and start falconry. So last September I got Afur, a 1-year-old male Harris Hawk, and my adventure as a falconer began.

At first it was very difficult, I didn’t know the bird, I didn’t know when and why it behaved the way it did… of course I knew the basics after reading the falconry manual, such as daily weighing, feeding, getting it used to people, etc., but I suffered every day with the challenges. I was often afraid that I would harm it, or it would harm me? But after overcoming and surviving the initial difficulties, we can now work together perfectly, he listens to me, follows me, I fly him freely… and of course I have already taught him a few tricks. I really love working with him, I dedicate all my free time to the training… But it’s worth every minute.

If you’re interested in videos and posts, follow me on Facebook, you’ll find me as “Lady with the Hawk”.