Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre

16/11/2024

Happy World Falconry Day. Although here at Feathers and Fur Falconry we don’t actively hunt with our birds, the practices, training and care is still part of this age old tradition with a few modern twists sprinkled in. The bond created between human and bird is unique and one to be treasured.

13/11/2024

🎄Join us on the 17th of November for the Moss End Garden Village Christmas fair.🎄
The village is offering a wonderful collection of handmade gifts, face painting and family entertainment. Here at the Falconry Centre we are hosting talks and pellet dissections.

10.30am We will be showing you are amazing owl collection
12.30 Owl Pellet Dissection - find out what our owls had for dinner
2.30pm Come and meet our Birds of Prey including the Peregrine Falcon.

Entrance to the centre includes all day entry to the centre, a centre tour, quiz and a 15% discount for all our experience sessions.

Come down and join us from 10am until 4pm.
Entrance costs are :
Adults - £4
Children - £2
Concessions - £3

Lots of free parking at Moss End Garden Village, Cafés and lots of fabulous shops too.

12/11/2024

2 Year ago today we officially opened the doors to Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre at Moss End Garden Village. What a journey to get there it was! Covid, Planning, Licencing, building in the middle of winter, trying too buy wood and paint when the world was home doing home improvements, moving birds, honouring sessions and all whilst keeping positive and watching the pursestrings get tighter and tighter!!! But we are so happy here and love our new home. Here is to many many more anniversaries and memories.

10/11/2024

The Dickens Medal for gallantry was awarded to 32 pigeons for their amazing bravery and heroic actions in both WW1 and WW2. Their brave acts saved the lives of many soldiers and civilians including those of a bomber crew downed in the North Sea, and an entire town from being bombed after it had been recaptured. These truly amazing birds, so often overlooked when you wander through a town, showed a braveness we should never forget.

So this Remembrance Day please do give a thought to the animals that fought and still do fight alongside our wonderful human heroes.

06/11/2024

Bert hopes you have all been enjoying Bonfire nights and the fireworks.

02/11/2024

October book review - The Most Perfect Thing by Tim Birkhead.
A Roadmap of the journey of an egg, from creation to hatching, this book was superb. What a wonderfully passionate man Mr Birkhead is, he really bought to life the simply perfect creation that is an egg. I have to admit to looking at my breakfast a little differently each day!!!! And I have already added much of the new information that I have learnt to my already bursting at the seams educational sessions. From a lack of available calcium having an impact on the number of eggs laid, the amazing antimicrobial abilities of the humble egg white (albumen) and the still outstanding conundrum of white eggs and cavity nesters (please if Mr Birkhead is reading this or anyone else can clear the idea up for me I would be very very grateful!!)

I 100% recommend reading this book, its a must for any bird lovers and a great read for anyone that just wants to expand their knowledge of the world around them. But be warned you may not think about scrambled eggs in the same way again!!! Hehehe.

So after a vote on social media stories it was voted that Stephen Moss’s The Owl : A Biography is to be Novembers read so join me at the end of the month to see how I got on. ( I started it last night and I can already tell its gonna be a good one!!!)
Follow the link below to head over to our YouTube channel. Dont forget to hit the subscribe button too!
https://youtu.be/mKUT25Ai9MU

October book review - The Most Perfect Thing by Tim Birkhead. A Roadmap of the journey of an egg, from creation to hatching, this book was superb. What a won...

31/10/2024

Ever wondered why we owls are part of the witches and ghosts of Halloween?? Swipe to read some of the scary superstitions we have held about owls!!

29/10/2024

Sometimes people come into your life and you just know they were always suppose to be there. Ann is one of these people. Accompanying Craig who also is an amazing part of our family, Ann threw herself into every part of Feathers and Fur as well as introducing some more amazing friends. Today is her birthday so please join me in saying happy birthday to the most wonderful, warm, friendly, hard working and soul healing person you have ever met.

28/10/2024

Fabulous day last week with London Camera Exchange and Nikon!!!

28/10/2024

Looking for something to entertain the kids this half term holidays ? Come and visit our beautiful birds.

Did you know Berkshire has its own award winning falconry centre? Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre is home to a beautiful collection of Hawks, Owls and Falcons. With lots of educational information about Birds of Prey the centre is a brilliant place to visit for all ages. Based within Moss End Garden Village, Bracknell, the centre has plenty of parking, a gift shop and cafe’s on site along with lots of other fabulous shops to visit.

We are open, Monday*- Saturdays 10am - 5pm and Sundays 10am - 4pm
Entrance costs are :
Adults - £4
Children - £2
Concessions - £3

No need to book to come and look around.

If you looking for something a little more hands on then check out the Experience Days we offer including Owl Experiences, Half Day Sessions and Educational Owl Hours.

*Monday opening is holidays only*

25/10/2024

💙 It absolutely means the world to us to receive reviews from happy customers and word of mouth and recommendations really help small businesses like us! All the money raised from people purchasing experience sessions with us go straight back into looking after our beautiful birds.

Did you know you can review us on Facebook, Google and Tripadvisor? Whether you just visited the centre to walk around or came along on a session to fly the birds!

And if you haven't yet joined one of our flying sessions, why not?? Come along for yourself and see if our reviews are accurate! 😆

21/10/2024

Join us on the 23rd of October for an amazing art session with the fabulous Holly Suplice. It’s an on line session where I will be at the centre with the birds and you join us live on line. The drawings below are from the amazing Ellwood Parker when she joined us 4 years ago and now we stock her products in the gift shop!! Follow the link to grab a ticket.

https://www.hollysurplice.co.uk/sessions?

20/10/2024

How did you spend your Sunday morning Olivia? Saving Nala and a Hornet from each other of course!!

🐝 This beautiful European hornet was finding shelter in Nala's aviary but we know Nala loves to catch flying insects!! We also know that hornets are generally very docile but having a Kestrel try and eat her would probably make her a bit angry! And Nala is far too small to risk a sting from a big hornet like this!

So we decided to relocate her so she can get ready to hibernate for the winter and then be ready to carry on pollinating our plants and predating our pests next Spring 🧡

We know Hornets have a bad reputation but I actually think they have to be one of the UK's most beautiful insects 😍 like honey and burnt caramel 🍯

Have you seen a Hornet this year?

19/10/2024

This week saw the falcons come back into work after a few months off at moult. It’s the scariest thing to let a bird, who can travel at high speed, off and free!!! It’s a very stressful day!!! But in true professional ways they were both awesome. First flight is always short and positive. But thought you would like to see the gps reads.
1st photo - me and maverick
2nd / 3rd photo - mavericks flight and stats
4th photo - me and Arya
5th/6th photo - Arya’s flight and stats.

17/10/2024

Did you know most owls are stealth hunters? This means staying unseen by your prey until the last minute is very important and has lead to the amazing camouflaged feathers we see in owls all over the world. For example, Barn Owls looking like farmers fields, Snowy Owls looking like the Arctic snow and Tawny Owls looking like tree bark.

When you are as small as Pip our Little Owl, it also pays to be able to stay hidden from your own predators! Little Owls even have a white 'eyebrow' on the front and back of their head to try and trick predators into thinking they have been spotted!

14/10/2024

Today is the 15 years anniversary of Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre, and if I am brutally honest I only remembered because our lovely volunteer Ann reminded me. I knew it was coming but I honestly thought it was November (now I know the date I was thinking was actually for the business insurance!!) but as I sit here trying to come up with some cool post that really shows how far we have come I am a little overwhelmed and filled with anxiety that I just wouldnt do it justice. Its enormous. The business has come so far, I have come so far, from a 1 girl band with a few Harris Hawks to a centre that employs people, is booked for months, and has a zoo licence. Its honestly a little too much to put into a reel or carousel. So Im not, instead I am going to concentrate on the ‘business stuff’ I have to do to keep this place up and running, and to enjoy the feeling of knowing that the birds are fabulous and that everyone is well and I have an amazing team of ‘family’ all working hard to bring our knowledge and passion to you all.
Happy Anniversary Feathers and Fur Falconry and here’s too many more to come.

11/10/2024

Due to a last minute cancellation we now have space for the Family Falconry Session on Saturday the 12th of October at 2pm. Perfect if you have a gift voucher to use up or would like to do something with the family. Please pm for details or if you would like to book. First come first serve.

10/10/2024

Did you know that we are massive fans of small businesses? In our wonderful Dawns Gift Shop we stock a number of locally produced and small business products and we love show casing each one and giving them a shout out. Today's is

We love Pageant Pewter and have stocked them for a number of years now. These beautiful classic pins just look fab on our coats (and falconry bags) and although we stock all the Birds of Prey ones including Owls, and Osprey we also sneak in a few of our other favourites including the bee and hedgehog!

Pop into our gift shop to have a look, prices start from just £7.