Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
What do you offer?
We offer a number of falconry experiences featuring our team of free flying birds of prey. You can see all of our experiences in the "Experiences and Services" pages of our website. For your first visit, we generally suggest starting with a One Hour Falconry or Hawk Walk experience, but please check out all we offer to see what you are interested in from photography sessions to parties with our birds!
Where are you located?
At this time, we do not have a "home base" but rather rent two different properties depending on which falconry session you are booking. The properties are both located about 20 to 25 minutes outside of Sudbury near Chelmsford, Ontario. We do not give out the address information until after the session is booked to protect the property owners' privacy.
What happens if the weather is bad?
With our sessions all running outside, we are at the mercy of the weather. To help ensure you don't miss out on your session, when you book an experience, we always provide you with a back-up date. Most often this is the next day we are open. If there is high winds, thunderstorms or heavy rain in the forecast, we contact you the day before your session to notify you of the change to your back-up date. It is your responsibility to tell us if the back-up date we booked does not work for your schedule.
Are you open all year?
Due to the outdoor nature of our experiences, we are open seasonally from April to November, weather permitting. We make sure to post if we must adjust our opening and closing date due to poor weather conditions.
We hope to expand in the future to include an indoor flight chamber so we can offer experiences all year!
We are open for educational sessions, parties and static displays all year.
On what days do you book experiences, and what times are the sessions?
We are open and book falconry experiences Wednesday to Monday. We are closed on Tuesdays.
Our summer falconry sessions run at 9:00 am or 10:30 am. Owl experiences run at 7:00 pm during the summer months.
Our spring and fall falconry sessions start between 3:30 pm and 7:00 pm to allow for after work/school visits. The exact start time varies slightly depending on when you book to ensure we are done before sunset as the sun sets steadily earlier.
The calendars on the booking page show which times are available for you to book.
What is the maximum group size that I can book for a session?
Our group experiences are limited to a maximum of 10 people without special request. Some of the experiences we offer are less than that due to the nature of the session and these are outlined in their descriptions, for example the Hawk Walk is limited to 4 people due to the trail size.
How old must you be to participate?
For safety, we require children to be ages 8 or over to handle a bird of prey in most of our sessions. Children who are younger than that may come along as a spectator and watch the birds fly and ask questions.
Our exceptions to this are our Owl Experience where children must be ages 13+, and our Family Falconry experience, where the birds are not flown to guests but rather we have an interactive learning experience with the birds and hands-on table.
Payment Questions
What forms of payment do you accept?
We can accept e-transfer or credit card* through Paypal at this time. We no longer accept cash on the day of the experience outside of special exceptions, and are not set up to take credit cards over the phone.
We require payment in full to reserve your date, and have a detailed booking and cancellation policy that can be viewed by clicking here
* Please note, regretfully there is a 3% administrative fee for credit card payments to cover the charges from the credit card companies. We highly recommend, if at all possible, to use E-transfer to avoid this fee.
Can gift certificates be purchased without specifying a specific experience?
We no longer offer certificates for value amounts outside special request. Please contact us to request a value certificate. However, if the recipient of the gift certificate wishes to book a different experience of equal value (ex. owl experience instead of a hawk walk), then this can be arranged. Please contact us in advance to confirm the change before submitting a booking request.
How long are gift certificates valid for?
Gift certificates are valid for a period of 2 years from the date of purchase. The expiry date will be included on your hard-copy certificate or on the digital copy certificate page.
My certificate says it will not expire. Why is this?
Gift certificates that were purchased around the COVID-19 pandemic and year following (2020 to 2022 and 2023) were excluded from expiring due to regular closures for the lockdowns resulting in difficulty booking experiences. Gift certificates purchased in 2024 onward are listed with the 2 year expiry.
Bird of Prey Questions
Where are your birds from? Are they rescues from the wild?
Our birds were all bred in captive breeding programs by falconers licensed with the MNRF. They were bred for use in falconry and for educational purposes. None of our birds were from the wild.
I found a young bird of prey on the ground. What do I do?
Birds of prey go through a phase of growth called "branching" when they are fledging and learning to fly. They often end up falling to the ground. The best thing to do is keep an eye on them for a few hours as mom and dad will still feed them and they can often get back up into a tree on their own. Only step in to help if you do not see the parents return for multiple hours, or the chick is in an area that is very dangerous for it (ex. near a busy highway)
If you have other questions not listed above, please don't hesitate to contact us to inquire!