PROFESSIONAL acts provided audiences with an evening of entertainment.
On Saturday, June 30 around 550 people attended the Hawk Conservancy Trust to enjoy the Music on the Wing fundraising evening which was a celebration of music and birds.
The London Military Band performed a selection of well-known pieces as owls, peregrine falcons, a kestrel and bald eagles flew high in the skies and over the heads of the audience.
Gary Benton, leader of the bird team at the trust, and performing arts teacher John Baxter hosted the evening with birds flying to music and talks on the history of falconry and the world of birds of prey.
There was a countryside scene from the 1940s in the meadow with land girls, farmers, a postman on his bike, a beekeeper and a blacksmith at work.
At one moment in the evening, 25 birds: black kites, storks, hooded vultures, turkey vultures, American black vultures and sacred ibis, were let out to fly all at once.
The evening ended with a grand finale as the British Army parachute display team, the Red Devils, parachuted down from 8,000 feet to the backdrop of a sunset.
The event raised funds to go towards the research and conservation work the Hawk Conservancy Trust conducts for birds of prey in the UK and around the world.
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