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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Candida Meyrick, as told to Gabriel Stewart

The pet I’ll never forget: Bird the hawk – the predator who once hugged me for 20 minutes

A woman wearing a gilet, scarf and bucket hat holding a hawk on her gauntlet-clad arm
‘Now I only do the things that bring me joy’ … Candida Meyrick and Bird on Anglesey. Photograph: Jesse Wilkinson

My children brought hawks into my life. My youngest son, especially, became fascinated by birds of prey at the age of six, drawing beautiful pictures and reciting endless facts to bird owners at various country shows.

Eventually I decided, why not? We live in the countryside, after all, on Anglesey (Ynys Môn). So, during Covid, Bird, the Harris’s hawk, came into our lives. We got her from a breeder after she hatched. It was perfect timing: I was home-schooling my three kids, and at 2pm every day, rain or shine, with a brilliant local falconer, we would set out on to the headland to watch her fly. It was beautiful to see. For years, my youngest never missed a day, no matter how cold.

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