Young entrepreneur launches falconry idea

Nov 25 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A YOUNG entrepreneur is spreading his passion for birds of prey with a business he's hoping will take off in a big way.

Andrew Duran, 20, started The Borders School of Falconry less than a year ago after growing up surrounded by hawks, falcons and owls.

He said: “I’ve been interested in birds of prey all my life. My dad’s been breeding them for around 30 years, so I set up my own business with them.

“I’ve not even been going a year. I do hunting days, hawk walks, school visits, experience days, and people can use them for adverts and filming.”

He now plans to grow the business, based near Berwick, to attract overseas visitors to the area to experience what birds of prey have to offer. “In the next few years, I want to set up a proper falconry school to bring people over from abroad and let me teach them falconry,” said Mr Duran. “I want to do more breeding and go into it in more depth.”

He now has around 30 birds and takes in rescues from the RSPB, people who found they could not look after them properly, and cases from the wild.

At one point, he was caring for nine barn owls because people wanted them as pets after watching the Harry Potter films but didn’t know how to look after them.

Mr Duran turned to business advisor David Ireland from Berwick WorkSpace to get his idea off the ground.

He said: “With David’s help I was able to obtain a grant to help with my set-up costs, which included purchasing birds, equipment, a van and signage.

I applied for a Prince’s Trust Grant and received a payment of £500 [in addition to a small loan facility], which made a huge difference to me when I was starting up the business.”