He's enraptured in birds but not potty about Potter (From Cotswold Journal)

He's enraptured in birds but not potty about Potter

WHEN Geoff Dalton was growing up in north London, he used to visit a pet shop in Camden Town called Palmer's which had exotic pets from chimps to panthers and birds of prey including eagles.

It was the birds - or raptors to give them their slightly prehistoric but correct name - that fascinated him and eventually led to him establishing Cotswold Falconry Centre near Moreton back in 1988.

"As well as the pet shop, I used to spend a lot of time at London Zoo. I never thought that all these years later I would have bred birds now on display at the same zoo," said Geoff.

Lured by the great outdoors, he moved out of the capital to the Cotswolds and became a farm manager and started keeping birds.

He also found wife Naomi who manages the office at the centre. They have been together for 41 years.

"The centre is a perfect division of labour," said Geoff. "I look after the birds and she takes care of the office."

They do have help in the form of three full-time staff and three part-timers.

And they need it because Geoff and his birds are in demand from a whole flock of admirers.

He recently appeared in the film Pocahontas: The New World, and did a fashion shoot with nude models and snakes for the feted British designer Alexander McQueen. "The film was fun," said Geoff. "It was set in the 1700s so I was dressed up like Blackadder at the King's court with an eagle on my fist and courtiers applauding when he flexed his wings.For the film shoot, I had to put a bird on Alexander McQueen's fist while the models and the snakes writhed on the ground. I haven't the faintest idea which models they were though."

Closer to home, Geoff and his birds also starred in a Russian opera company's production of Rigoletto at Oxford which required a lavish hunting scene.

It's not all glamour though. Geoff is just as happy doing demonstrations for schools and charity days and courses at the centre.

This year, they have begun doing day-long eagle handling courses for two people - which attracted the attention of the Red Letter Days company, a specialist in providing novel awaydays as gifts.

"They do things like Grand Prix racing, but whereas that's for one person, our courses are for two, so couples can come and learn about and enjoy birds and the countryside.

" We recently had a couple of casino croupiers who wanted to see the countryside and do something different."

The centre has been attracting around 24,000 visitors a year. It is something for all ages as well as all walks of life. The children are wide-eyed at seeing the birds, especially at all the owls - part of the Harry Potter phenomenon, and an unwelcome one as far as Geoff is concerned. "Harry Potter should be prosecuted for the way he looks after his owl," declared Geoff. "In the film, he keeps it in a parrot cage. It's disgusting and cruel. Owls do not make pets. I can't say it often enough."

Birds from all the continents are represented at the centre, which has more than 100 feathered residents. They include the Secretary Bird and white backed vultures from Africa, the rare caracara from South America - the first one bred in captivity here and a real coup for the centre - the boobook from Australia, the Harland's Hawk from Alaska, and Indian black kites.

It is clear Geoff is in his element with the raptors. "You are working with creatures that so intelligent and so lazy. You don't actually work them, you work with them. There's a thin line between us training the birds and the birds training us. It's magic.

Cotswold Falconry Centre, next to Batsford Arboretum, is open from mid-February to mid-November from 10.30am daily, with flying displays each day at 11.30am, 1.30pm, 3pm and 4.30pm (in the summer).