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Nearly 20 kilometers inside the desert of Gharbiyah in Abu Dhabi emirate, hundreds of people from the world over and even more birds of prey are gathered in a secluded camp to practice what they all care for passionately: falconry.

They are all here for the third International Festival of Falconry, organized by the Emirates Falconers Club and the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee Abu Dhabi, taking place on December 7-9 in the desert and moving to Al Forsan International Sport Resort in Abu Dhabi on December 11-13, where the festival will open to the general public as well.

Nearly 800 falconers from as far as Kazakhstan, China, Austria and United States have set up home in the desert even before the festival began, training their falcons and other birds of prey to perform in an arena show, which will happen during Al Forsan days of the festival.
During the second day of the festival, on Monday, the falconers here were surprised by the visit of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Rulers Representative of the Western Region (Al Gharbia) of Abu Dhabi emirate and Chairman of Emirates Falconers Club.

A traditional Emirati folkloric show was organized in his honour and falconers of all nations dressed up in their traditional dress.
Arriving here in the early morning hours, there are 72 large tents, each holding 12 camping beds or mattresses. There is a traditional barasti style majlis, where a few people are gathered for Arabic coffee and traditional Emirati sweets. Several water trucks are flanking the camp, making sure running water stays running. The dinning and falconry conference tents are the only ones fitted with air conditioning, and despite the pretty high temperatures hitting the second day of the festival, most falconers are out of sight.

We have morning and evening hunting trips on camel and horseback, to keep with the Arab traditional way of hunting. They went for houbara and rabbit hunting which roam wild in these grounds, and it is their season. People also go on camel and horse trips throughout the day, explained Obaid Al Mazrouei, member of the Festivals Organizing Committee.
There are nearly 70 camels and seven horses available to falconers, and for most falconers here, riding a camel is a first time experience.
Steven Eastwood and James Tomkinson from the Yorkshire Hawking Club are for the first time in UAE and on Monday morning they were among few who chose to stay behind in the camp, training their Harris Hawk birds.

I got into falconry 22 years ago. I enjoy watching these birds flying, in action, and they are also great companionship. Harris Hawks learn to see you as their hunting partner, watching you what you are doing during the hunting time, and once they caught their prey they wait for you to go help them with it, said Steven.
The Harris hawks are also very successful hunters because these are the only birds that can fly and hunt together. Thats why we call them the wolves of the sky they can hunt in packs, he added.
The Yorkshire Hawking Club has also trained five hawks which they sent to Abu Dhabi to be used to further train birds here.
A special tent is set up at the Festival grounds in the Western Region for the Falconry Conference, where participants from all over the world share stories, facts and history of falconry.
Sami Ur Rahman brought here The Book of Falconry, a collection of poems written by the 17 century Pakistani poet Khushal Khan Khattak, which he translated in English language.
He is one of the best poets of Pakistan, but because he wrote in Pashtu, a language that not many could speak or understand in the West, he was not translated into English or other European languages as the Persian or Arab poets were, said Sami.
The Book of Falconry contains 47 poems, which he wrote in six days, he added.

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