ABBIE Measures is just nine years old. Mickey the Harris Hawk is seven. And between them they make up probably the youngest falconry act in the country.
You might have seen Abbie and her grandad Alan Measures at the Sheffield Fayre over the Bank Holiday. She's the star turn.
Abbie will get Mickey doing all kinds of tricks and keep the crowd entertained with her patter.
"We were at an event the other weekend and the organiser said they wanted to book us the next year," he says.
"I said it wasn't a problem but he said, No, not you. Just Abbie!" laughs Alan, who runs Phoenix Falconry at Brinsworth, Rotherham.
"She's a big attraction because kids can get away with things that adults can't. She's trained the bird and if I took over Mickey would sooner go to her than me."
As for Abbie, nothing fazes her.
There is one trick where she gets Mickey to fly through a group of people but the hawk wasn't having it. He walked instead.
"She was very quick and jokingly told the crowd birds also walk," says 56-year-old Alan.
"That was my fault. I didn't show Mickey enough of the dead chick in my hand to make him interested," says Abbie.
"You have got to have food in your hand otherwise he won't come to you."
Abbie dresses as a cowgirl with a satchel slung over her shoulder. That contains dead day-old chicks and bits of rabbit and hare.
Other nine-year-olds may be squeamish but not Abbie.
"The first time Mickey landed on me I was only four," remembers Abbie, who has grown up with her grandfathers love of hunting birds.
He has some 30 at home - hawks, buzzards, owls and falcons - and for almost three years has been running his own show.
Two years ago his assistant let him down.
"I said I'd come and help him although he was a bit worried at first," remembers Abbie, who was only seven at the time.
For a time she took a back seat until last year when she asked her grandad if she could have her own head mike to talk to the crowd and a star was born.
Mickey and the rest of the birds takes up much of her spare time over the summer months - falconry displays are a seasonal occupation, which Alan fits in with his other job as a builder.
Mickey could easily live until he is 25 so he and Abbie have plenty of years together ahead of them.
"I like going out and meeting people," says Abbie.
To book Abbie and her grandad you should telephone 01709 366 229, e-mail whosh@hotmail.co.uk or alternatively visit www.rotherham-falconry.co.uk
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