Breeding Lines
‘Bubble’ is the fountainhead of our breeding establishment. An impressive peregrinus tiercel in every way he flew very high and took both partridges and mallards in good style at weights between 23-25oz during a long flying career that began in 2001 and ended in 2012. He has his origins in the Martin Hargreaves breeding line that began when his maternal grandparents –‘Wiswas’ & ‘Bridget’ – were taken under licence from wild eyries in Ayrshire in the 80s. His mother – ‘Jenny’ continued that line and he shares genes with other famous gamehawks such as ‘Arran’, ‘Skye’, ‘Emily’, ‘Mike’ & ‘San’. In 2007 he began producing as part of a natural breeding pair and a very large daughter hatched in 2008 made him a grandfather for the first time in 2014. It was a grandson from this line which became #3 in the new “Key Window Framework” programme. Up until 2021 he was paired with his fourth falcon in a 14 year breeding career and having produced proven gamehawks with all but one of them his dynasty continues via his offspring whilst he enjoys his retirement.
‘Fidget’ is a 2011 peregrinus falcon of good size. She was flown exclusively at mallards and took a large number with ease at weights of 31-33oz during her first and only season with an experienced duck hawker. She laid her first eggs in 2014 and produced her first offspring in 2015 when paired with ‘Bubble’ for the first time. In 2016 she produced a falcon and four tiercels and successfully reared for the first time and it was a second clutch falcon from that years breeding production which became #2 in the new “Key Window Framework” programme. She has produced double figures of high quality gamehawks when paired with 'Bubble' and in 2023 she produced a tiercel when paired with a younger tiercel for the first time.
‘Lela’ is a Southern Spanish Brookei falcon imported into England by Staffordshire Gamehawks from Madrid as a youngster in 2013. She is from a line of successful Spanish gamehawks and had two excellent seasons taking mallards, pheasants and partridges at weights of 23-26oz in good style before producing offspring for the first time in 2016 as a three year old. It was one of these two falcons from her second clutch of that year that became #1 in the new “Key Window Framework” process that began in earnest in 2016. She has now produced a half dozen falcons for UK falconers and they are like peas from a pod in terms of the consistency of their high-quality performance as gamehawks.
In 2012 ‘Henry’ - a tiercel Southern Spanish Brookei was imported into England by Staffordshire Gamehawks alongside a Brookei falcon named ‘Lola’ with the intention that they produce offspring together in a natural pairing. After a short season killing partridges at 18oz he was placed into a breeding pen to await the falcon. Alas it was not to be as ‘Lola’ was tragically killed whilst still in her first season. In 2014 ‘Lela’ replaced her sister in the pairing and in 2016 they produced offspring for the first time. Wonderful parents - 'Henry' and 'Lela' have not only raised their own young but have also raised some of the youngsters from the 'Bubble line'. Sadly - after fathering many top-quality game hawks and giving pleasure to anyone who ever witnessed his offspring in the field - Henry died in 2021.
Following in the footsteps of her half-brother, 'Aero' and her half-sister, 'Marnie', 'Pepsi' didn't let her illustrious great grandfather, 'Wizwas' down when it came to sheer athletic ability. Further to that she quickly realised that she needed to place herself high in the sky in order to take advantage of the opportunities provided below. Simply the finest falcon peregrine that 'Staffordshire Gamehawks' have produced to date 'Pepsi' made pitches of 1000ft plus and stooped at 146mph and accounted for 20 ducks over her two seasons with an average pitch of just under 500ft in all conditions. A delight to handle and as with all KWF hawks she has settled into her breeding life with Aragon with consummate ease. In four years of breeding she has produced five falcons and ten tiercels - all top quality Peregrinus peregrines.
'Aragon' is a tiercel peregrinus out of the original 'Bubble-line' and has quality high-flying gamehawks such as 'Aero' and 'Marnie' as his aunts and uncles. His mother, a daughter of 'Bubble', was the biggest falcon out of the Hargreaves-line and weighed in at 42oz empty when first removed from the breeding pen. 'Aragon' was #3 in the first KWF in 2016 which also included his future breeding partner, 'Pepsi' as it was envisioned that this pairing would produce a high-level of consistency in our 'Bubble line'. After being kite trained to an average height of 952ft he made his first flight sans-kite to a pitch of 573ft and was then given a short season on partridges before being placed into a breeding pen with 'Pepsi'. In 2020 a falcon - 'Fanta' & two tiercels were produced and 'Tab' - the first clutch KWF tiercel was the fastest climbing tiercel we have seen.
In 2019 'Missy’ - a 28-32oz falcon peregrinus from an experienced Scottish grouse hawker arrived in order to expand our lines of quality breeding peregrines. She was hatched in 2011 out of a Dave Coleman falcon paired with a wild disabled tiercel. After being kite-trained and flown at mainly grouse with a smattering of ducks and pheasants for five seasons she was an early natural mounter, making high pitches and was a hard-hitter bringing many head to the bag. In 2020 she was paired with 'Stan' in the knowledge that they will produce youngsters with as much ability as the parents and in three years together they have produced six falcons and eight tiercels. Photo credit: Lee O'Dwyer.
In 2014 Staffordshire Gamehawks acquired ‘Stan’ - a 20-21oz tiercel peregrinus from a quality line with the intention that he form part of our breeding establishment. After being flown at ducks and partridges for a season including sharing a cadge at Woodhall Spa with 2013 Brookei falcon ‘Lela’ he was placed into a breeding pen to await the next peregrinus falcon we produced from the 'Bubble' line. In 2015 the only falcon produced had to be imprinted so Stan had to wait patiently in his pen alone. In 2016 ‘Lela’ produced her first offspring and so ironically it was Brookei falcon 'Lali' who was paired with her mother's old cadge partner in a first for Staffordshire Gamehawks and produced two quality snipe-killing tiercels. In 2020 'Stan' was paired with 'Missy' and in 2021 produced three falcons and two tiercels.
#1 in the very first “Key Window Framework” that commenced in June 2016 ‘Lali’ proved to be slightly smaller than her mother at 23-24oz. After being earmarked for a season at ducks and partridges it was unfortunate that this little falcon decided to show her courage in the wrong way by binding to a buzzard in the air in her early days off the kite. An injury to a leg as a result of puncture wounds curtailed her flying but by the season's end she was courting 'Stan' with great vigour for a brown bird. Stan took a couple of years to catch on but in 2019 they produced two tiercels in the pair's second clutch and these first sub-species crosses took their place in that year's KWF as #10 & #12 respectively and went on to be well suited to snipe - taking 12 head of game including three snipe in their first season. After Stan was moved on - Lali formed an initially volatile relationship with 'Mountie' but in 2021 they produced a falcon and tiercel. In 2023 Lali was paired with her third tiercel in seven years as ‘Smudge’ the 2018 bred high-flying gamehawk became a father for the first time.
In 2019 'Mountie’ - a 20-21oz tiercel peregrine from an experienced Scottish grouse hawker arrived in order to expand our lines of quality breeding game hawks. He was hatched in 2016 out of a Matt Gage falcon paired with a wild disabled Irish tiercel and his great-grandfather was the illustrious ‘Bertie’. He was kite-trained and successfully flown at grouse and partridges for three seasons over Irish Setters. He was paired with 'Lali' and in 2020 the result was a clutch of three clear eggs. However in 2021 he successfully filled five out of six eggs and the hope is that the resulting young will combine all of the very best qualities of both brookei and peregrine-barbary genetics and make fantastic, affordable game hawks.
After our success producing quality Southern Spanish Brookei peregrines Staffordshire Gamehawks brought in new Northern Spanish blood as 'Arcadia' became #4 in the 2017 “Key Window Framework”. After taking to the kite like a natural she made her first flight following the removal of the kite to 920ft before being given a short season on ducks and partridges. Unfortunately she was third on the cadge following behind the 'Pepsi' - 'Max' sister-brother combo so was always given the marginal set-ups which eroded her pitch. She then picked up an injury to a leg prior to the season's end which prevented her from building on her promising average pitch of 319ft. She was paired with 'Ciro' - a Southern Spanish Brookei tiercel out of our 'Lela' line. In 2020 they produced for the first time and one of the two very large second clutch tiercels - named 'Spook' by his new owner - had an amazing first season as he took 24 common snipe plus a teal at hawking weights of around 21oz. The following season Arcadia surpassed herself by producing seven top quality falcons of a good size.
When 'Arcadia' was brought in from a proven line of English bred Brookei's the original intention was to acquire a tiercel in order to pair with 'Lali'. However when all three young proved to be falcons a hasty arrangement was made to keep back one of two 2017 first clutch tiercels out of 'Lela' & 'Henry’. 'Ciro' - as he came to be called - was a super quick study to the drone before being given a short season on partridges. The pairing combines two of the best Southern & Northern Spanish lines in the UK to produce small falcons that work well with the kite & drone and can take all game & ducks and tiercels that are eminently suitable for snipe hawking. In 2020 Ciro filled all second clutch eggs and the result was two good sized tiercels - one of which went on to take 24 snipe and a teal in a very impressive first season. In 2021 Ciro filled eight eggs and produced seven falcons.
'Ayr' was named after the birthplace of her paternal great grandparents and had a tough act to follow given the superb first and second seasons of big sister, 'Pepsi'. Following her first flight sans-kite to 750ft high winds for most of her first and only hawking season prevented her from attaining those lofty pitches expected of this line. Nevertheless she acquitted herself very well and was 3 ducks from 5 flights following the windswept 2018 British Falconers' Club International Field Meeting where she eclipsed seasoned gamehawks whilst still a raw eyass. At the season's end she had accounted for 13 ducks with an average pitch of 363ft and went into a breeding pen with her 'KWF 2018' stable-mate, 'Robbi'.
'Robbi' is the nephew of 'Stan' and son of 'Milli' (who was acquired by Staffordshire Gamehawks in 2015 and later passed on to one of our partners who had produced 'Stan' and his brother and wished to marry the 'Buck' & 'Farrance' lines together). Sadly after producing a good number of quality youngsters during her first breeding season 'Milli' died unexpectedly in 2019 but 'Robbi' carries her strong genetics into what promises to be a wonderful pairing. After making a promising series of flights post-kite 'Robbi' was lucky to survive an electrocution incident that left him with nerve damage in both feet on 23rd September 2018. Nevertheless he recovered enough to catch a wild mallard in good style before foot troubles curtailed his flying career.
