Come fly with me (From Living Northeast)

Come fly with me

12:36pm Thursday 21st May 2009 in

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She runs her own successful birds of prey business – but is still only 18 years old. Julia Breen meets Sophie Abbott, who is often to be found with an owl on her arm at Swinton Park, near Masham.

H– the Harris hawk – is perched on the battlements of imposing Swinton Park on a bright, wintry morning. One whistle from Sophie Abbott and he suddenly swoops through the streams of sunlight to perch on her arm. She’s only 18 but is completely at home with this magnificent bird.

At the tender age of 12 Sophie began helping out at birds of prey centres and absorbing information like a sponge. Last year, aged just 17, she took the plunge and set up her own birds of prey business, using life savings as she was too young to borrow any money from the banks.

“I liked owls to start with,” she says. “I just had this fascination with them, probably from reading Harry Potter.

I begged my mum to get an owl, but she very sensibly said I had to go and find out how to look after them properly, so I volunteered in a local bird of prey centre.”

She spent most of her teenage years helping out at the centre, until the bird flu epidemic meant it was struggling and it decided to change its focus to mammals.

It was then that Sophie decided she should set up on her own. Her father is head gamekeeper and her mother a chef at Swinton Park Hotel, which is owned by Lord and Lady Masham, and she lives on the estate with her family.

She approached Lady Masham, who agreed to convert the ruined orangery behind the hotel into an aviary to start up her business.

“They have been absolutely brilliant,” says Sophie. “I couldn’t have done it without them. It was difficult starting the business because I was only 17 and couldn’t have any loans or grants until I was 18, so I used my life savings.”

Sophie’s typical day is getting her younger brother and sister, aged six and four, ready for school, as her mother works in the Swinton Park kitchens in the mornings. She then checks each of her 22 birds and lets them out to fly if the weather is good.

She does a 10am flying demonstration for hotel guests each day at the aviary, then spends most of the rest of the day flying her birds, walking her six German pointer dogs and caring for her six horses.

“At the moment I’m also doing rehearsals for the village pantomime, “ she says. “It’s a pretty busy life. But I wouldn’t be sitting in an office all day. I couldn’t survive in a town. My friends are all at uni now and they have really hectic social lives. But I haven’t missed that. I never even thought about going to university. This is exactly where I want to be. “Getting about and working with the public is so good. It’s fascinating to meet people from all walks of life.

“It also helps with the conservation of the birds – the more people that are aware and in touch with birds of prey, the more they care about the conservation issues.”

Sophie says that being brought up with a gamekeeper for a father means she is used to handling dead animals.

And as I watch her rip apart a dead male chick to feed to her beloved birds, I understand why a strong stomach might be necessary.

She says: “Falconry is so traditional. The way you train them and the equipment you use is the same as in medieval and Tudor times. I love the Tudors and have an interest in that period, so I know a bit about falconry from that period, but it actually started off in China 2,000 years ago. Humans are useless at killing stuff for themselves and need something to help them, whether it be a gun, a sword, a bird or a dog. That made falconry necessary.”

Sophie is very chatty, relaxed and approachable, with an obvious passion for her job. She is at ease in company – essential for mingling with hotel guests or doing flying demonstrations. But the sheer pleasure of spending lots of time outdoors with her beloved animals and birds is the reason she does the job.

She says: “I love birds of prey because they have their own free will. They choose to come back because they know their life is easier with me. They don’t like being stroked too much or being messed about with, though. You can’t stroke them too much anyway, because it rubs off their waterproofing.

“If you like owls, they tend to like you. But they’re not very easy to take hunting as the way they hunt is by sitting still most of the day.”

Instead, Sophie takes the hawks out on “hawk walks”. She also tries to get both the falcons hunting in the most traditional ways, together with her German pointer dogs, where appropriate. And she offers clients different experience days, or half-days, with the birds, where they can learn a bit more about them.

As for being a teenage woman in a mostly male-dominated discipline, Sophie shrugs off the novelty. “I think it is just a bit unusual,” she says. “Falconry is very maledominated.”

Sophie’s job even manages to put food on the family table from time to time. “I never waste prey,” she says. “Sometimes the birds play with it, but I’ll get straight in and kill it so it doesn’t suffer. If the birds get a pheasant, we eat the bits we want and feed the rest to the bird.

“If they get a rabbit, the birds get it all, though, as we don’t really eat rabbit in our house. But lots of falconers will eat rabbit. We also get ducks, which we will eat.”

On her way to becoming a fully-fledged bird of prey handler, Sophie has just completed an advanced national certificate in the management of zoo animals. She also has to have a full zoo licence for her birds.

At just 18, she’s fulfilled most of her childhood dreams. But she’s relaxed about the future. “I would like to expand the business a bit more and to have more birds, “ she says. “It would be nice to sit back one day and be the boss. But if for any reason it all went wrong, I would probably go to a safari park and work with parrots.”

■Swinton Park birds of prey centre is on birdsofprey.me.uk, or visit the hotel website swintonpark.com. Sophie also provides doves for use at weddings, funerals and memorial services.