Pretty neat stuff! I would love to see one in action.

My hats off to your guys who are into falconry.

Great post. That white Gyrfalcon is just amazing! I have a great respect for Falconers. I was fortunate to get invited to walk with some falconers in North Louisiana a couple years ago. I did have to put my dog up with one of the birds as it did not like dogs and would have attacked it. The second hawk on the other hand was hunted with a beagle.

Found it. UTAHunter, I think you will like the photos on this old thread.
http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1285208

This is amazing. Falconers have swag!

Holy smokes this is awesome. I want a falcon.

Some pretty good videos on YouTube for anyone interested in watching.

Corey thanks for sharing with the tribe; truly an outstanding post. It�s great to hear that you all had such a successful hunt.

The guest speaker at the North Texas Master Naturalist gathering earlier this month was a local Master Falconer. It�s always a pleasure spending an evening musing about ancient hunting traditions and Roger�s discussion on the ancient sport of falconry was certainly inspirational. Of course his immature female Peregrine Falcon was the star of the event.

Below is a hoodless image I managed to capture of her at the event that features her heavily streaked immature breast. Most of the evening she was wearing a leather hood with lace shown in the second image below.

So what is the purpose of hooding them?

Sniper John - Thanks for posting that link. I remember reading it a few years ago. I'll bet it was an enjoyable hunt.

BlueMoon - Glad you had a chance to see a wild tundra peregrine. Roger is an impressive falconer and super nice guy. Excellent photos.

Brandon A - Hooding them keeps them calm and prevents unwanted distractions from influencing their behavior on the fist. They are so visual that rendering them sightless makes them easier to deal with. Some species and individuals benefit more or less from hooding.

CR

I have a friend that hunts big geese like this what a site to see in person the power is crazy when a little hawk hits a 15 lb goose.

man thats awesome.. That would be cool to watch

Very cool post. Would be amazing to watch the birds work.

I always take it as a good omen if I see a raptor when I'm hunting. My favorite was back in the days of hunting on the King. You'd occasionally see the Harris hawks hunting in a pack, nothing like it.

Do they ever fly off and not return? Seems like you would have a lot of money and time invested in each bird! That is very cool !

Very cool post...thank for sharing.

Follow up question...this had me thinking "Sometimes the impact with the falcon kills them and sometimes the falcon grabs them and binds to them."

With these impacts do the falcons ever get hurt? Thinking about other predators like say a lion..there are times when the prey can hurt them during the hunt. Are there measures taken so your birds are not hurt?

REQ - Yes, sometimes they do just "fly off" and that is their option. We attach telemtry transmitters to them so we can track them, but occassionally some birds will simply fly away to never return. It's part of falconry.

Marcstar - Sometimes the birds do injure themselves, but rarely on game. They can hit powerlines or fences and be hurt or killed. Once again, it's a part of falconry. Those birds in the wild would die and it's one reason why, depending upon species, up to 80% of hatched raptors do not make it to one year of age and very, very few non-eagle raptors make it to five.

CR

So how do you get a hawk?

Do you catch wild birds and train them or what?

Very cool post. Thank you for sharing.

Nice. That would be awesome to witness.

I've always said that sooner or later I was going to get into the sport. One day...

Brandon A - If you're interested in the process of becoming a falconer check the Texas Hawking Association website. It has several documents related to becoming a falconer. It is a long, tedious process that is not easy, although if you're truly interested it actually isn't bad at all. Texas is a great state for falconry.

We catch wild birds, we breed birds and imprint them to people, and we breed birds that know they are birds but were still obviously born in captivity. Different birds and different techniques for different situations and expected outcomes. Much like hunting with a firearm, the bird is your hunting tool.

CR