Falconry?

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El Tejon

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In the gun shoppe this morning picking up a few things and was reading my state's '04-'05 hunting regulations booklet/magazine. I flipped to the part on crows to see if the seasons changed as I like to ski and pop a few crows in the winter.

As I waited in line to pay, I scanned the paragraph on crow hunting, I noted the last sentence, "You may take crows with bow and arrow, firearms or falconry." Falconry?, I giggled/exclaimed out loud.

One of the resident learned elders of this gun shoppe asked me what I was talking about. I expressed my disbelief at the use of "falconry" in the regs. Why is that necessary, who would do that?

He leaned back and told me that falconry was practiced around this neck of the woods many years ago in Scouts, 4-H, or FFA. In fact, to my enlightenment, a couple of the biggest farming families around my area (including the supplier of the bird seed that you bought at Wal-Mart today) were noted falconers (or whatever the name is)! :scrutiny:

Go figure. My question is, I'm fascinated by this, anyone here do this? What kind of bird(s) do you raise? What do you hunt? Have any website thingies handy? TIA.
 
Hunting with falcons has been around for many many years. It's a serious thing though. There are lots of things to learn . In NY state they won't let you do it until you have gotten considerable training. If you have any renaissence festivals nearby they often have a falconer giving demonstrations. Red tail hawks are commonly used.Do a computer search.
 
Coool birds

Falconry was a big “wild hair†for me when I retired from the USN. I realllllllllly wanted to do it. I read everything I could get from my local library (computers weren’t a big deal then), talked to the local pigeon guys (they sold birds to the falcon guys to train with), then talked to and hung out with the local falcon guys I could locate. They had, Coopers, Red Tail, Harrier, and a guy up around Ashville had a brace of Golden Eagles and a Peregrine. The thing that clipped my “wild hair†was the mass and maze of regulation associated with the acquisition of the birds. This was in 1983; I ‘d bet that the procedure is even more involved now.
 
Falconry is not for the faint of heart. The birds are very, very, very high maintenance. Not to mention expensive. They range in size from a Sparrow Hawk to a Golden Eagle. A net search will get you all kinds of info, but think big bucks to buy one, untrained, and non-stop care.
 
Art, yeah, I know, just seeing if anyone here had any experience with the critters.

craw, so, no dice, huh? Too bad, looks interesting if you had the time.

trapper, thanks for the pics.

Sun, no way I could ever do this. I don't even own a goldfish. I just looked at my calendar, I've got a week in 2016 free, but that's about it. Just seeing if anyone here did/does. I'm nosy, what can I say.:)
 
My parrots are high enough maintenance as it is. I don't need to step up to a raptor. I volunteered for a summer at the Cascade Raptor Center near Eugene, OR. I helped with feeding the birds, cleaning their cages and assisting in the rehab clinic as needed. Got to hold an osprey as it was being tube fed (talk about strength). It had been caught in the nets over a trout hatchery. Neatest part was being present at its release back into the wild. While feeding the birds I got the peregrines to take the chicks straight from my hand. Also got attacked by the resident great horned owl. The lady that ran the place didn't tell me she'd put that bird back in its normal cage since the orphans it had been raising had fledged. Got 5 punctures in my upper left arm (treatment was worse than the attack though).

Anyways, yes it is a maze of regulations to acquire and keep a raptor. Even being in possesion of a single feather without permits can get you jail time (unless you're a Native American and have it for specific and particular religious cermonies). Doesn't matter if you found the feather in the woods during molting season.
 
If you're at all interested in falconry or birds of prey, next time you're in Sydney, Australia I strongly reccomend that you jump on a ferry and take a wander around Taronga Park Zoo. They have a bird demonstration that they run several times a day and it includes a free flight raptor demonstration.

In a small natural amphitheatre on top of a cliff overlooking Sydney Harbour they have owls, sea eagles, kites, Peregrine falcons and wedge-tailed eagles swooping over the audiences heads demonstrating their amazing senses, speed, agility and hunting skills.

They also have a parrot who will fly to a member of the audience, pick up a coin, fly back to the trainer and drop it in his shirt pocket. When given the coin again, the parrot will fly back to the person he took it from and then return to the trainer.

All of the birds are in the open, they all have the opportunity to fly away.

Spectacular location, amazing birds, awesome training ..... well worth it if you're kicking around Sydney looking for something to do.

Spinner
 
I've seen those kind of free flight demonstrations before. They're always fun to go and watch. If I ever make it to the West Island I'll have to check out that show.
 
This is another one of those posts that doesn't answer your question.
A guy I work with is heavy in to this.
I have talked to him at great length about it. Unforuntely he didn't invite me to go and I didn't want to be so bold as to ask him to go.
If I remember correctly, he gets the birds out of the wild. I am fairly certain he didn't buy them.
He hunts jackrabbits with them.
One thing that I found interesting is that according to him, the birds have no loyalty to you. They view you as an aid in their hunting. For example, you walk along and kick up a jackrabbit. The bird takes off and kills it. In it's mind, you assisted it in the successful hunt, so it is willing to come back to you. On the other hand, he says that you never allow the bird to kill a pigeon because the bird will realize that they are plentiful and easy to kill and then they have no use for you, so they leave and never come back.
As a side note: many of the Las Vegas Hotel/Casinos have birds of prey living on their roofs specfically to control the pigeon population.
 
As a side note: many of the Las Vegas Hotel/Casinos have birds of prey living on their roofs specfically to control the pigeon population.
Click to expand...
I don't know if they specifically brought the birds in for that purpose or if the birds just showed up and decided they had a good thing going. I know in several cities there are nesting pairs of various raptors living in skyscrapers and bridges. The cities love them because they do actually help to control the rats with wings, er, pidgeon population. A number of airports also emply falconers to come in periodically to kill a bunch of local birds and scare off the rest. Otherwise a lot of jet engines get FOD'd out.

Reminds me of a Far Side cartoon where a duck was playing a news reporter at a plane crash sight. He was going on about the tragic accident and that they hadn't yet determined the identity of the bird involved.
 
They brought the birds in specifically for that reason.
It has been on the news several times that I have seen.
They get free room and a comp for the all you can eat buffet.
 
More thread drift: There is quite a successful nesting group of peregrine falcons in downtown Atlanta; they subsist quite happily on the pigeons there. I find it amusing that in Big Bend National Park, they get all ga-ga during the Peregrine nesting season, closing areas to people so the falcons "won't be disturbed by noise." Noise? Compared to downtown Atlanta?

Art
 
Art, they do the same thing for the nesting peregrins out by Prescott, AZ (Granite Mountain IIRC). I think it has more to do with keeping idiots from trying to collect eggs, or whatever than noise. Noise is just a convienient excuse.

For anyone interested in getting into falconry I'd suggest you get some kind of parrot first. A budgie or cockatiel will do as well as the larger ones. See just how much maintenance they are when it comes to feeding (a proper diet, not just seed) and keeping them and their cages clean. Plus, don't forget about about the personal interaction part of it. Take all that, and multiply by at least 10. If you can handle that 10x amount of maintenance then go for it. Otherwise leave it to other people.
 
If I ever find myself in Sydney, I'll check that zoo out.:)

Have seen the eagles around here hit stuff including a seagull right over an island in the river here (at least I think it was an eagle) as I was driving into the office. Feathers everywhere!

Have seen in the paper here that there are falcons hanging out in downtown Indy--"Birds of prey know they're cool.":D Haven't seen them, maybe they hunt during non-business hours or they go clubbing when I'm there. :confused:
 
I have several falconer friends. It is a very neat sport, but it is lots of work... why not look up a falconer and ask to go on a hunt sometime, and see if it is for you?
 
You hear hound men talk of the rush they get when the pack is on full cry. All sports have that rush point. Well as I said my wild hair was cut real quick and real short. BUT I get to see Coopers, Red Tail, and Harriers work all the time. I raise homing pigeons to train my retrievers. Let them fly every day. I also live on the eastern migration route for the three birds of prey above. I lost birds daily in the spring and fall migration runs. It is almost unbelievable the strength these hawk have. See birds strike pigeons to the ground then pick them up and fly off. That hawk is lifting sometimes 100% of its weight into the air and flying off, amazing. I even turned in a juvenile Peregrine that got into my coop. The local game people were all in a thither about getting that young male. Called me and asked if I wanted to release it back when the time came. I jumped at the chance. Guess I lose 1/3 of my flock every year to hawks but they sure make you stand there with that “trout look†:eek: on your face when you see them doing their thing.
 
In a low key kind of way it's quite popular in UK/Ireland. And because of guns = a sickness, falcons are used in some football grounds to clear the rafters of pigions...in a very politically corrrect natural way of course, not with evil guns.
 
Falcons are regularly used to clear birds from airports to reduce the possibility of birdstrikes which can cause a plane to crash. They are also used to reduce pidgeon numbers because of the mess pidgeons make and disease. The Hudson river in NY state can support one pair of falcons on each of the many bridges on the river. You no longer see pidgeons on these bridges !! There was a tv program about peregrines [National Geographic] in which they measured the speed of a peregrine in a dive - just over 200 miles per hour !!! But raptors shock the birdwatchers - recently in UK they were watching a very rare bird when it was taking by a hawk - shock and awe !
 
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