Falconry, like music, exists both in the magical and non-magical worlds.
Falconry has a long history, not only in Albion, but back to the Egyptians and Romans who are among the further reaches of Albion's cultural heritage. However, by the Edwardian period, falconry had rather fallen out of favour in the non-magical community thanks to the range of hunting guns available.
That was not quite as true in Albion, where the training of falcons, hawks, and owls has long been considered a useful grounding for certain kinds of magical training and a way to build and maintain attunement to the
Land magic. Even in Albion, it's relatively rare for the Lord or Lady to be a falconer themselves, able to train a bird from a chick, but a number of families maintained mews and falconers even when the sport faded in the larger world.
(A number also find the hunting of animals for the Cook of the household useful at times.)
Mostly, falconry is done non-magically, but magical falconers do apply a few useful tricks. Tracking charm beads on the jesses allow them to attempt to retrieve a bird who has flown free (as modern telemetry technology does for modern falconers). There are a variety of charms to help discern the health of the bird in various ways.
And of course, some birds have a particular interest in
Magical creatures. Theodora, in
On The Bias, is noted for being interested in taking a star hare.
Geoffrey Carillon is a falconer who trained an eagle-owl (Theodora) before the War. She appears in
On The Bias, and he makes other substantial references to falconry in
Ancient Trust and
Best Foot Forward. (The latter book also contains more metaphorical references to various raptors.)
In May 2022,
English Heritage and Raphael Historic Falconry put out an excellent 20 minute video about falconry in England if you'd like to learn more about that (and see some beautiful birds in flight.)
My editor Kiya and I took a trip to a falconry session in western Massachusetts, also in May 2022, so that I could get a better sense of what it feels like to have a raptor sitting on your hand. You can read all about it on my blog, as well as see some photos.
