Bird, camera, action!

Today I travelled up to London on the train with a man dressed like Indiana Jones wearing a big hat and carrying a heavy, big black box, escorted by a lady in wellies with gloves and bells hanging from her belt.

No it was not some weird fancy dress convention but a trip out with the falconry team and one of their beautiful birds of prey, Keye the Harris Hawk.

We were headed to Visit England's offices in Westminster for filming of Leeds Castle's Tourism Superstar entry for the Mirror newspaper as part of English Tourism Week (March 14-22).

If you've read my blog from Saturday then you'll know that the shortlisted superstar, who has made it to the top 10 tourism stars from England, is my esteemed colleague Head Falconer Mark Brattle.

Mark did an absolutely fabulous job today, ably assisted by his deputy Hannah who was officially in charge of looking after the Harris Hawk but unofficially kept Mark in good spirits.

The filming was a success and all will be revealed on 31st January on mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel when voting opens but in the meantime check out this rehearsal film with the real star Keye the Harris Hawk:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153024726597363