Meet Florrie to find out more about life as a bird of prey specialist. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Hi, I'm Florrie, I'm 17 and I'm a bird of prey specialist.
My company's name is Fab Falconry. I started it a year ago and we do educational talks, visits and events. I would like to inspire people to care for, protect and look after our wildlife through my birds.
I've got eight birds of prey. Five of them, I've rescued and three of them I've bought from breeders. My favourite bit about going into schools is the reaction on the children's faces when they see my birds. They look really shocked and impressed and really happy to meet them. I've been home educated by my mum and dad since I was six or seven years old. I fell in love with birds of prey when I did my Gold Award and Nature Ranger Award with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. I spent 18 months studying birds of prey from Britain. I then did my Lantra Beginning Falconry Award course when I was 15 and got my first bird of prey later on in the same year.
Nightingale is a female Harris hawk. I picked her up from a breeder when she was 16 weeks old and I've trained her myself so she now flies free. I take Nightingale flying because I'd like to imitate what she would do naturally in the wild. So now she's calmer than she was when I first got her. I'm like so proud of her.
Chris Packham and Sir David Attenborough have been great inspirations to me when they're hosting wildlife programmes and one day I'd like to be the next face of wildlife education and conservation.
Chris Packham and David Attenborough have been great inspirations to me.
- Florrie was home-schooled from Year 2 onwards, which allowed her to focus on the subjects she loved
- She fell in love with birds of prey when she did her Gold Award and Nature Ranger Award with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
- She has now set up her own company, Fab Falconry. She attends events with her birds of prey and delivers educational talks to students in schools.
Florrie runs her own falconry company.
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