Experience Falconry with Jonathan Marshall
Golden Eagle
Born in August 1968 in Southport, Lancashire. Jonathan is the middle of five children.
As a child he was always fascinated by wildlife and the countryside. He spend countless hours on the Moss in Lancashire with sister Mandy and their horses. It was on one family trip to the Lake District that his obsession with birds of prey began and the first steps of his incredible journey with hunting birds began.
After seeing a Golden Eagle in the middle of the road eating a rabbit near Grizedale Forest he became instantly hooked on raptors. He met Falconer Steve Halsall in 1982 and became his apprentice. He spent all of his growing up years flying birds of prey and learning the falconers art.
He left school in 1984 and started working for Bob Haddon falconry display team at Winsor Safari Park. This gave him experience at presenting shows and helped him become comfortable behind a microphone. In 1988 Jonathan joined the Royal Air Force but left after the basic training realising that his true path was with birds of prey.
He started work at the Hawk Conservancy later that year and provided displays at Avebury Manor, Littlecote Manor and at the HawkConservancy Park. He also trained birds for films and TV and gained valuable experience in this field. In 1991 he moved to North Devon to set up the North Devon Bird Of Prey Centre at The Milky Way.
It became one of the UK's top tourist attractions and is still very popular today. In 2001 Jonathan decided to leave the bird of prey centre to concentrate on outside work such as county shows, film work and one to one experience days. He also was starting to explore the possibility of hang gliding with his birds so he travelled to Australia to gain flying hours in Byron Bay.
He trained 'Finley' a young Peregrine x Lanner falcon to fly with him in 2002 which gained worldwide media attention. In 2004 Jonathan acquired a young Golden Eagle which had been kept in very poor condition. After 8 months of rehabilitation work Jonathan flew the eagle free for the first time. A strong relationship grew between man and bird and Jonathan had gained a new flying partner in Samson. Samson soon learned to follow Jonathan in both hang glider and microlight. Again the worlds media picked up on the story and the pair have been featured on many TV programs and magazines. Other exciting projects Jonathan has been in include sky diving with Peregrine Falcons and paragliding with Red Kites.
Jonathan has always had a deep love and passion for horses and has spent time training show horses in Spain. Some of the breeds that Jonathan works with includes Andalusiana, Lusitanos, Friesian and Arabians. His horses are used for TV and Film work such as BBC1 Merlin as well as jousting and falconry shows throughout Europe. Jonathan's Spanish horses are provided by www.thebestspanishhorses.com