Got a new hunting partner today(Updated- First kill!)

[JKosprey]

I've posted before about how I was a falconer back in high school. I let the license lapse back in '06 after realizing I probably wasn't going to be hawking in the near future. I didn't quite realize it would be an 8-year hiatus. Last year I started the process of getting a new license (I essentially had to start over with the process after all this time- they are, thankfully, cutting my "apprentice" period short though based on my prior time).

Today, for the first time in almost ten years, I trapped a juvenile female red tailed hawk...hopefully in about a month we'll be chasing squirrels, rabbits, any other furry creatures through the woods together. I'm excited for this one, she's a scrappy girl. Judging by the smell of her, she may have had a run in with a mink....and since she's still alive, I assume she won that engagement. Bushytails shouldn't be any sort of problem.

[McClarkus]

Neat. There is an interest in that out in my neck of the woods due in part to the Air Force Academy and the whole falcon thing. I once gave permission to a guy to use my land for that purpose but he never showed up - oh well. There's so many runny babbits the coyotes can't get them all.

[skb12172]

Nice! I hope you and your new partner have a long and beneficial partnership.

[blackeagle603]

Guncounter has a Nate Romanoski?

Next you'll be telling us you got a 454 Casull to go with the bird.

[Dub_James]

A fine bird!

[g-man]

Since I'm completely in the dark on falconing, what are the basic rules on capturing the birds, how are they kept (are they kept?) etc? My wife asked "Was the bird injured?", and was initially pretty put off by someone capturing a wild animal. She also had red-tailed hawks and Harris' hawks confused, and until I pointed out that yours is red-tailed was upset about family group disruption. While I don't have any reason to have issues with it, I am at a complete state of ignorance regarding how it's done and what the rules are to protect the birds. Wikipedia-deep here, so what's the elevator speech on falconry?

[JKosprey]

Guncounter has a Nate Romanoski?

Next you'll be telling us you got a 454 Casull to go with the bird.

Nah, .357 is more than enough for me. I do typically carry when flying; it's apparently a VERY emotional subject among antis....I've know people who've been accosted by granola crunching types or well-meaning folks who think they're harming the bird.

Since I'm completely in the dark on falconing, what are the basic rules on capturing the birds, how are they kept (are they kept?) etc? My wife asked "Was the bird injured?", and was initially pretty put off by someone capturing a wild animal. She also had red-tailed hawks and Harris' hawks confused, and until I pointed out that yours is red-tailed was upset about family group disruption. While I don't have any reason to have issues with it, I am at a complete state of ignorance regarding how it's done and what the rules are to protect the birds. Wikipedia-deep here, so what's the elevator speech on falconry?

Falconry is regulated by the feds and the state. The feds put out a basic set of rules and the states have to match them (or be stricter). Generally, apprentice falconers are allowed to take either an American kestrel or a red-tailed hawk...recent new federal laws allow the use of different species including captive bred birds, but most falconers still stick with one of those two species at first. The birds have to be taken as juveniles. It's easier to tell on a red-tail than on a kestrel, but you can see mine has brownish, banded tail feathers and a pretty distinct band across the belly. The adult bellies darken up and the tail will turn a deep brick red after the first year.

Lots of people do seem uncomfortable with the aspect of wild take, but it's worth noting that somewhere between 60-80% of wild raptors will die in their first year. It's a rough world out there. Most falconers won't keep a hawk its entire natural life (and they readily revert back to wild mode). So essentially you're taking a juvie bird out of the wild that would in all likelihood die, and ensuring that it survives for a year or two, and helping to make it a skilled hunter. Later on that hawk gets released and has a great chance of being a successful breeding adult. Most Harris's hawks that are flown are captive bred birds, but even in the wild, dispersal happens...the groups are made up of the parents, their previous years clutch, and the next year's clutch, so taking one one from the group doesn't harm the dynamic. Falconer take of birds is actually low enough that the sport could grow 10-fold and still not break a level of harvest that would have any impact on wild populations.

The birds themselves are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and state law. In order to get a permit you have to pass a test (80% or higher), build facilities and have them inspected, along with equipment, and find a general or master class falconer to sponsor and teach you through the 2-year apprenticeship. I don't have pictures of my facilities right now, but there has to be an indoor and outdoor enclosure, each about 8ft square. The birds are trained using positive reinforcement only- they're not social, so punishment doesn't work. Behavior is rewarded with food or ignored. The raptor sees you as a reliable source of food and will respond to you for it (and only within a certain window of weight and condition); later as the hunting relationship grows they will also recognize that partnership...other than that there's really no affection or socialization involved. That's a very basic summary of it all..but feel free to ask any more questions. I can talk hawks at least as much as I talk guns.

[Weetabix]

What do you do with them before the first time you let them fly free of you to make sure they'll come back?

[blackeagle603]

More of a partnership than a "keeping"

[JKosprey]

They're flown on a weighted training line from a perch to your glove for about two weeks. that helps to get the proper weight range down. The birds also usually wear bells so they are audible when out of sight. In the past 20 years, compact telemetry transmitters have also become popular. That makes it possible to track a lost bird should they fly off.

Training also involves a lot of handling. I've got her on my glove right now as I type. Luckily, my days as a lonely teenager left me skilled in typing one handed