Last winter sitting at lunch with my Papo, my Dad mentioned, much to my surprise, that he was interested in Falconry. Shocked as I was, it gave me a great idea for a memorable, and affordable, birthday/father's day gift. So, I came home and contacted the Indiana Falconer's Association and a very nice man named Roger, promptly emailed me back and said that he would be more than happy to take us out Hawkin' sometime and introduce my Dad to the sport of Falconry. The birthday/father's day gift would have to wait however, as falcon hunting season wasn't until winter. :cP I re-contacted Roger in November and we set a date and time to head out, this last Saturday. It was very snowy this weekend but overall, with our coveralls on it was quite pleasant and we had a great time. The hunt was unsuccessful, as in it didn't result in a rabbit dying (a bit of me was not disappointed) but it was a very successful day for new memories being made. And, hopefully we can go again sometime soon.... Here are some pictures from the day. Happy Birthday Dad!
We first met at Roger's house and saw his Mews (the place where he keeps his bird) and met his Cooper's hawk female. I didn't get any pictures there unfortunately, but we got to see the tools of the trade and learn about how they trap the birds from the wild, train them, take care of them daily, hunt with them, and then release them when they are finished for the season or year. It's really an incredible sport. Unfortunately, his hawk was too fat to hunt that day so we headed out to see his friend, Vence, fly his Red tail hawk, Jake. They have to fly them at lower weights, otherwise they risk the hawk being "fat and happy" and not willing to hunt or come back for reward. Jake was on the border of being too fat, but they were willing to try him for our sake. This was probably a large part of the reason the hunt was unsuccessful, but oh well.
Arriving at the field and listening to Roger explain some things and answer our many questions.
Vence and Jake
Vence heads out on one end of the field to "put Jake up into a tree" (this is where the "coming back" part is important!)
We head out to the other side of the field and begin to try to flush game for Jake to see and catch.
My camera wasn't powerful enough to get real close and Jake's camouflage was incredible. We had to keep our eyes trained on him as best as we could because the instant he saw a rabbit move he would swoop down and we might miss it completely. Here Jake sits perched in a tree, you can barely see his chest feathers. The moment he turned side ways, he pretty much disappeared with his brown wings and camouflage.
Roger beating the brush to try to scare rabbits out of hiding.
After Jake decided he wasn't wanting to hunt for us we called it a day and thankfully he came back to Vence. It got us interested enough that we'd like to see it again some day.
As a reward Vence, throws Jake a rabbit head to snack on. This is definitely not a sport for the weak of stomach.
Packing up for the trip home.
It was definitely an experience and one that not many people get to have. It still amazes me that these are wild animals that are trapped, trained, and trusted to be turned loose and come back, all in matter of weeks. It's an amazing sport with some really cool animals!
