I chatted to this Nottinghamshire animal lover to find out why she simply can't get enough of birds of prey
Animals are all loveable . . .. but perhaps some or more loveable than others.
It’s a subjective decision of course with every person finding beauty and something different to love whether the animal has two legs, four legs or gets around by sliding.
If it was Family Fortunes then cats and dogs would certainly be the top two answers from the 100 people surveyed on what is the nation’s most loveable animal?
But for Cerys Clarke there’s only one winner with her favourite animal having two legs and two wings.
Cerys has been working for Mercer Falconry now for around nine months where she is responsible for caring for birds of prey and educating people about these beautiful birds.
And for Cerys, who can be found at her aviary on the animal farm at Wheeglate Park, the graceful predators instantly captured her heart.
"I did some work experience at a local falconry when I was at university. As soon as I stepped foot in that place it just clicked,” she said.
“I originally wanted to work with big cats and obviously birds are completely different, but as soon as I started working there I just knew it was the rest of my life. It was all I could think about basically.
“It has been up and down. With free-flying birds they sometimes go for a wander and it’s not very fun tracking them down. That’s probably the low point.
“It’s not the easiest thing to get into and then working with animals is never predictable. We have had our highs and lows, mostly highs, and I absolutely love my job.”
As Cerys readily admits, working with animals is challenging to say the least with a tremendous amount of time and patience needed in order to train these majestic birds.
It also needs a tremendous amount of trust to be built up if the birds are to happily come to their trainer.
“We have to make ourselves look like the best option,” revealed Cerys. “They know we have food in our bags and if they stick around we are going to feed them. Every time they return to a perch or gloves, they are choosing to do so. We don’t force them to do anything, they just know we are the easiest option.
“They don’t fly to us because they love us. It is purely a relationship based on trust that we will feed them, that we will take them back to a nice secure aviary, they trust that we won’t hurt them.
“We don’t ever starve our birds of prey, a starved bird wouldn’t fly. We need them to have a bit of an appetite. They won’t fly for free, even out in the wild, they will only fly for food.
“We use positive reinforcement as well, so every good behaviour is rewarded with a piece of food. It’s a lot of patience and hard work needed.”
But during her nine months with the company the passionate bird lover has got to know her animals in much the same way as we would our own pets.
“With some birds you can get a feel straightaway for their personality,” she said. “When I first joined, working with new birds, it took a few weeks to really understand each bird. Each bird is totally different and has their own boundaries, their own expressions and different ways of showing us with their body language.
“With the kestrel, I needed to put a bit more work in. She did not like me at first so it took until maybe a month ago for her to finally tolerate me.
“Hours and hours of work goes into it. At no point is the bird fully trained, there is always something new you can work on with them, but just to get them flying takes quite a long time and patience.
“We take it at their pace and each bird is different. Some birds you click with instantly, other birds you will need to put a bit of extra effort in.”
A typical day involves checking on the birds’ welfare, making sure they have fresh food and water, maintaining the aviary and delivering informative talks to visitors flooding into the popular Nottinghamshire attraction.
“We pride ourselves on reading bird behaviour,” added Cerys. “Because we know these birds so well we can pick up very quickly when something is off. As soon as something is not right we carry out a proper health check and we have got vets if we need to go to them.
“There really is a lot to it. I haven't really thought about how much needs doing, it has just become life.”
Visit www.wheelgatepark.com for tickets and more info on animal experiences.
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