A PASSION FOR BIRDS OF PREY
A love of birds saw Sarah Worne swap a job in education for falconry, writes Lisa Letcher
FIVE owls, three hawks, one woman – and a lot of enthusiasm. That’s how Sarah Worne, who lives near Lostwithiel, describes her birds of prey world, which might seem like an unusual lifestyle to some, but it was what she waited her life to do.
In 2015 after decades of dreaming and being lovingly referred to by friends and family as ‘the bird lady,’ the 58-year-old was offered redundancy from her community education role with Cornwall Council and finally took the plunge.
Now six years later she has a business travelling and teaching about the birds of prey, offering experiences to anyone who will listen and sharing her passion with the people of Cornwall.
Sarah is so enamoured by it all that her children, Hayley, 30 and Cameron, 25, even joke that she replaced them with the birds when they grew up and left home – but she’s just grateful she could make what she does a reality.
“My fascination for it really came from watching birds, growing up in Polruan, and seeing all the birds of prey about and one day seeing a show at Restormel Castle with a falconer,” she explained.
“That was the first time that I realised people actually had this communication and could have this communication with wild birds.
“I thought that was fascinating and a friend got me an experience for my birthday and there on after I would always go to these events and shows and try to make friends with falconers.
“My first job ever was painting ceramics and I would paint birds but it was actually even back then blatantly a way of getting close to falconers and their birds. “
She laughs now, saying: “I would paint but it was really about being able to hang out for a day with all the birds.
“But I really thought that the best I could ever hope for in reality and the real world was to have one buzzard, or a hawk, which was my passion, when I had retired,” she said, having no idea she would have a host of birds.
“I thought just sitting in the garden with my one bird and that would be it. I would have been happy with that”.
Fast-forward to when she was 52 years old and Sarah got her first – a burrowing owl called Peanut, who is such an important member of the family that he can sometimes be seen ‘bird-watching’ in the window at home.
Today she has eight birds in total from a Eurasian eagle-owl to Harris Hawks and they are a huge part of everyday life.
“I knew that the redundancies were my opportunity and so I looked up a falconry course, took my redundancy and enrolled ,” she said, and by the end of that year she was a qualified falconer.
“I just knew it was for me. I like giving people this experience and I like working with these birds. My manager definitely said they had never had anyone else give that reason for redundancy though, because they want to go and buy owls.”
From there she took the birds around to local schools and hotels trying to gain traction and interest in what she was trying to teach the world about these birds and the public interest took her by surprise.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing and what direction I was pursuing by having these birds and I was sitting having lunch one day and realised I just like sitting with these birds and thought maybe people would just come and do that.
“I had found out how hard it was for me to find these falconers doing experiences with birds when I was younger and I just thought there
must be more people like me out there interested in this so I will try and find them, and I have.
“My friends already always called me bird lady because I was just always going on about birds and painting birds and following people with birds. So hence the name Bird Lady of Fowey. I think after the redundancy my friends weren’t actually that surprised, they knew me.
“People would also always call me chick, or bird, so it was always the way. I think it’s quite fun actually and it could be worse.
“My brother recently bought me my own pair of wings and although
I’m not really a wingwearer, we have them at the field where we do experiences now so people can wear them for pictures.”
She likens her birds to dogs saying in many ways they have similar characteristics and that people who visit often notice how the birds – particularly the hawks – seem to keep their eyes on Sarah.
“I’ve always been a dog person and I do liken them to dogs – although we don’t call them pets. It was actually working this farm with my father who had a working sheepdog and from seeing falconers work it is really a similar bond that you have.
“The hawks are very much like collies, that relationship, they keep close and they like the interaction and they look for it. If I got a stick and the hawk is flying free and I start hitting the hedge the bird will come closer rather than sneaking away. “The little owls, like Gracie, are really part labrador, they are
quite hollow and they will just eat anything and everything. They are really greedy.
“Then barn owls are like spaniels they don’t sit still and I think that’s very similar to a relationship one might have with a dog,” she says, adding they also “know her” and “look for her” over other people who visit.
“When visitors are in the field they often say how the birds are watching every move I make and the first time I went away for a few weeks I thought I would have to do some work to get them back used to me but they didn’t need it,” she said. “I think animals pick up on your confidence.”
On occasion she says she can get a “sad face reaction” on social media for keeping birds in captivity but the truth is, if they weren’t with her they would be in captivity somewhere else.
“I would always welcome those people to come and have a chat because all of my birds are captive bred and most of my birds and definitely my hawks have got a longer pedigree than local dogs and cats.
“Harris Hawks, even though they are native to South America, they have records of working with man to hunt for food in Europe pre-BC so they have a long pedigree.
“I have no birds kept from the wild and it is also illegal for me to release them into the wild. It’s just the way it is but keeping birds of prey is older than farming,” she explained.
The Bird Lady of Fowey experience days have gained quite the traction in the six years since she started them from kids and families to groups of adults taking part. Recently someone celebrated their 80th birthday party with a session.
For more information on The Bird Lady of Fowey visit the website https://birdladyoffowey.com/