"The flying of falcons" by Ed Pitcher

“The flying of falcons “ by Ed Pitcher, a much awaited publication is soon to be released. It’s not a “how to “book, it instead describes a philosophy of flying falcons that mirrors their natural development. It challenges some of the traditional preconceived ideas about how to fly falcons, and will prove an interesting read.

A few years ago on a visit to the U.S I was staying on a friend’s ranch which was being managed by fellow falconer, Daryl Peterson. Daryl had casually mentioned that Ed Pitcher lived nearby. Ed Pitchers name in the world of Falconry has become synonymous with the flying of falcons to the extreme limits of visibility and altitude. So it is with fond recollection that I remember back to that one afternoon visit. We sat and chatted about peregrines and in particular the Red shaheen that Ed had flown and I listened awestruck as he recounted experiences that he had with this and many of the other falcons he has flown. When asked by Ricardo Velarde to contribute to this new volume written by Ed I did not hesitate. Ed’s unique viewpoint and freethinking mental approach towards the training of falcons has become for me a breath of fresh air. It has been a great honour to be involved with both Ricardo and Ed on this book and I hope you take from it as much inspiration as I and many others have.

I am pleased to have contributed about 14 paintings, plus sketches, to be used as illustrations for the book. One of them “My girl” is a painting of one of my own peregrines, Missy.(pictured above) You may have seen the original of it displayed at the falconry fair a couple of years ago. We are now putting this image into print in time to be launched at the falconry festival in July. When the original was displayed it attracted many favourable comments, and so hopefully this will prove to be a popular print.

You can learn more about Ed pitchers new book "the flying of falcons" by clicking here

Cheetah conservation fund

When we launched the Andrew Ellis premier edition giclee “The chase is on “, we decided it was an ideal opportunity to support the work of The cheetah conservation fund. Each time one of the giclees sells we make a donation of 15% of the profit to the CCF. When 2 of the run of 25 sold last month we were really happy to be able to make a donation which we know will go to help the very important work that the CCF carry out.

The CCF have a vision “to see a world in which cheetah’s live and flourish in co-existence with people and the environment” and to achieve this are involved in science and research programmes, and they’ve managed to reduce the number of cheetahs killed on commercial farms through education. CCF has close links and assists in training and sharing programme successes with other countries where cheetah live, including Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran and Algeria. CCF's international programme includes distributing CCF materials, lending resources and support, and providing training through Africa and the rest of the world.

The plight of cheetahs symbolizes the problems that many predators face throughout the world.The world's fastest land animal, the sleek and long-legged cheetah, is losing its race for survival. Once a common animal found on five continents, the cheetah is now an Endangered Species. Loss of habitat, conflict with humans, as well as its own loss of genetic variation, are the main threats facing the cheetah today. The cheetah needs large expanses of land to survive, but with changes in land use and habitat pressures, such as bush encroachment, this area is becoming smaller and smaller. Unfortunately, captive breeding efforts have not proven meaningful to the cheetah's hopes of survival.Cheetahs have existed on earth for at least three-and-a-half to four million years - long before any of the other big cats that are alive today. About 20,000 years ago, cheetahs were common throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America

The number of cheetahs has decreased from 100,000 at end of the 19th century to approximately 10,000 today.

So please consider helping this worthy cause.

Remember 15% of the profits from the sale of each copy of “The chase is on” by Andrew Ellis go direct to The Cheetah Conservation Fund.

To find out more about the work of the Cheetah conservation Fund visit www.cheetah.org

New Andrew Ellis greetings cards

We are pleased to announce that our new range of greetings cards featuring Andrew Ellis paintings are now available online. The direct link to the correct page of our website is here. You can also click on images in the sidebar of this blog to take you to the relevant pages to view and buy Andrew Ellis cards, prints and calendars.

Within the range of 8 cards, we've chosen a mixture of animals and birds, they are available to buy singularly and as packs. As with our prints and the new calendar for 2010 , we are happy to send the cards worldwide.

Here's 3 of the images which are available.

"Broken silence"- timber wolves

"Get 'em up"- pointer and grouse

"Springbok clash"- springbok

Over the coming months Andrew will be explaining the story behind each of the paintings used in his new range of cards.

Falconry Festival 2009

Incase you're not aware on 11th and 12th July this year the 2nd international festival of falconry will be held near Reading at the Englefield Estate.


There will be workshops and discussion groups held in the seminar tent on both days, and in the arena there will be events throughout the day charting the history and culture of falconry with falconers from the Far east, Central asia, middle East and Europe.
There will be exhibits focusing on conservation, veterinary advice, falconry heritage,art, education areas, mews and weathering.

And of course best of all we will be there!
We will be selling prints, framed , mounted and loose. Those of you who have already pre-ordered the new 2010 Andrew Ellis calendar will be able to collect your copy, and hopefully there should be some available for those of you haven't preordered , we'll also have our new range of cards for sale, and if all goes to plan there will be a brand new print launched- more about that nearer the time.
If you'd like to find out more about the festival go to
www.falconryfestival.com

More images from the 2010 calendar

The response for the calendar has been great- thank-you! Since starting pre-ordering just under a month ago half of the 200 that will be produced have now been secured with deposits. At this rate they could all be spoken for by the time we get to the falconry festival in July. You've already seen 3 of the fantastic images that will be included, but incase you need a little more persuasion here's a couple more good reasons why you should order yours now.
Peregrine and Grouse

Orange breasted falcon

2010 Andrew Ellis bird of prey calendar

We've chosen 12 bird of prey images for the 2010 calendar, there's a good mixture to hopefully keep everyone happy including hawks, falcons, buzzards, and eagles.

It's an A3 sized wall hanging calendar, each page has a generous sized image of one of Andrew's stunning bird of prey paintings and at the bottom there is plenty of space for writing.To get an idea of how the calendar will look go to the homepage of the website and click on the link.Please note the order of the images will not be as on the site- this is just to show the chosen layout.
Gyr Falcon siblings

You can pre-order with a £5 deposit per calendar- balance to be paid upon collection at the falconry festival in the UK in July, or we can post them worldwide- if you wish for them to be posted to you we will send an invoice for the balance nearer the time.
Red Tailed Hawk

Remember only a limited number of these calendars are being produced so pre-order to avoid disappointment.We posted a new thread on the international falconry forum on Sunday night about it and within a couple of hours over 20 had been ordered, so it's definitely worth placing your orders quickly.

The Taita falcon

"Zambezi Fall"

The Taita falcon for me is one of nature’s sparkling diamonds. I first came across the existence of this beautiful little falcon when I was about thirteen and I had just discovered the not long published book Falcons of the World by Prof Tom Cade. As any typical teenage kid interested in something, I poured over this book for long hours. It never left my side for days-weeks. Ron Digby’s paintings made it all the more involving and I lost myself in it dreaming of seeing, painting and of course flying some of the wonderful falcons contained in it's pages. However one above all others captured my interest more than any. The Taita or Teita as it is sometimes referred to. I was already by then, in love with all things Peregrine and to now see this miniature brightly coloured version of it's larger relative just about topped everything. I’ve always had a thing about smaller races of animals that occur in different parts of the world. Someone as vertically challenged as me kind of empathizes with them I guess! I was soon on a bit of a quest trying to find out more and more about this little falcon. I soon found many other publications which talked of its beauty and conversely its rarity! It seems that all of the past artists that have been interested in raptors and particularly falcons have at sometime or other painted its precise chiseled little form. George Lodge and David Reid Henry in particular have done some beautiful pieces of Taita Falcons. David Reid Henry’s illustration of them for me takes some beating, Featured in Birds of Prey of the World by Brown and Amadon. It wasn’t long before I was doing my best to immortalize this wonderful little falcon with my own hand. In 1997 I painted Zambezi Fall in which depicted a Taita stooping on Swifts deep in the gorge of the Victoria Falls . I purposely gave the lower portion of the painting a dark foreboding feel to emphasize the critical nature of the Taita’s population. This has since become one of my most successful limited editions which you can see on my Website www.andrewellispaintings.com .I later painted the portrait above which can be seen on the next cover of the IAF ( international association of falconry) newsletter with a more lighter positive mood to it showing a bird completely at ease and happy with its surroundings.

The Taita’s current situation is still critical and where there have been some success stories there is now some questions as to how in particular the birds from Zimbabwe are fairing. I had the good fortune to stay with Tim Wagner an extremely good Falconer, breeder and host from South Africa when I visited the country back in 2001. Tim was the first guy to discover the Taita breeding in South Africa in the Eighties. The particular pairs he discovered are now well known and occupy the same sites after many years. There have since been more sites discovered and the Taita in South Africa at least seems to be making some sort of comeback.

Captive breeding with these Falcons is still a little problematical it seems. The Peregrine Fund took some with the view to producing a viable captive population for release programs for the future but this seems to have fragmented a little and the birds seem to have limited breeding success in captivity. However some Falconers in South Africa do seem now to be producing young. There was a workshop held last year at the Pan African Ornithological Congress in Cape Town, concerning the conservation status of the Taita falcon. Although I have no details of the outcome of this workshop Let’s hope that we can soon be in a position to help safeguard the existence of the enigmatic little falcon

A successful outcome to a captive pair in Zimbabwe in 08.