A visit to Farnley Hall

Each year our next door neighbour (the tree surgeon) helps a local bird of prey expert by climbing up trees to bring down baby birds of prey to have them tagged. This year he invited us to come and watch so we picked Bear up from nursery a little early, took snacks and met him at the gates of Farnley Hall.

Farnely Hall is a fascinating building made up of two parts, pictured above is a view of the Georgian addition to the house, the original Farnley Old Hall dates back to the 16th or early 17th Century. Since the 1780's the house has been occupied by the Fawkes Family (yes as in Guy Fawkes) and JMW Turner was a frequent visitor to the Hall which now boasts a collection of his work as well as a sizable collection of artifacts associated with Cromwell.

 So off we trekked across the grounds of Farnley Hall to a patch of woodland where a nest of baby red kites sat in a tree. Bear was very keen to follow our neighbour as he climbed most expertly up the tree (needless to say there was some holding back) and after a little fumbling around down came a bag with an 18 day old baby Red Kite

 

Look he's so fluffy and cute!!

Bear was absolutely fascinated!! 

Once all in the party had the opportunity to look at/hold/take pictures of the Kite a ring was placed on the ankle which contained a number so if the Kite was to be found, they can enter the number into the internet or whatever and they can trace it back to Farnley...cool eh? What a wonderful opportunity for us to go and see this baby kite in the wild and so close up! A lovely way to spend a Thursday evening!

Happy Thursday x