It was a beautiful day, my second time out with my apprentice falconer son and his red-tailed hawk. This time we went with his sponsor, who had brought along his Harris hawk as well.
Tama did not seem overly concerned with looking for prey, at least not to me. But, then again, this is all new to me!
We traipsed through fields and bushes, looking for bunnies to flush out into the open. Tama flew to fence posts, to a telephone pole, to the top of an oil drilling rig. She would return, sometimes reluctantly, to my son's fist. Nothing was happening on the bunny front.
Finally, fearing she might be getting bored with the whole thing, they tossed out a lure, which she dove for. She was rewarded with food and returned to her box. In a few days, we'll try again.
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2 comments:
Too cool. I dreamed of being a falconer when I was little, and I'm still fascinated by the people who take the time and trouble to learn to do it.
One small word of warning. I remember meeting a falconer once, who told me that his dad (who had eagles instead of falcons), had made the mistake of putting the treat in his hip pocket once while the bird was watching. Yep. Surgery in the short term, a scar in an embarrassing place in the long term, and kids who tell the story to strangers forever, every chance they got...
Nice to see a post about falconry. I'm a falconer in PA. Please drop kb3hkbme a line anytime at KB3HKB@runbox.com. Also, please see my blog at http://featherjournal.blogspot.com
Your son appears to be well on his way,m and falconry will teach him many things about the cycle of life and how to deal with creature s(even people) who are not like him.
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