hawk trapping

 Falconry* is the art of working with a bird of prey (an animal that does not necessarily want to work with you) to go hunting.

In order to do this, you need a bird.

There are two common ways to acquire a bird - buy one, or trap one.

There are many options for buying captive-bred birds. These include buying birds that are native to the area of the world in which one resides, birds from other parts of the world (e.g., a Lanner falcon in the US, or a red-tailed hawk in England), hybrids (falcon hybrids are most common, especially peregrine/gyrfalcon). This is typically a somewhat expensive option, but guarantees a bird, possibly even an imprinted bird, and possibly more excitingly, a bird that is not available in the part of the world where one lives, or offers advantages that no wild bird has (for example, most people in the US do not have the resources to travel to Africa where the Lanner falcon is native. The gyrfalcon, one of the largest falcons and very popular in falconry, is an arctic bird and tends not to do well in warmer climates; the Peregrine, also a very popular bird, when crossed with the gyr offers the offspring the hardiness and higher temperature tolerance of the smaller bird while giving the larger size and hunting prowess of the gyr).

Let me make it easier for you...

See the vaguely football-shaped bird on the pole?

Trapping a bird requires time and patience and skill. One needs to be in a place where the target species** is native. One needs to find the target bird(s), one sets out the trap, one waits for the bait to be taken. If all goes well, the bird is trapped, the falconer can catch the bird, and begin the process of manning it***. Many falconers who trap a bird will train it, hunt with it for a season, and release it at the end of the hunting season, and begin the cycle again the next year. As a non-imprinted raptor will rarely seek out humans (which are its greatest enemy and killer in the wild, usually by accident), even after extensive handling and training. This process allows a falconer the challenge of working with a new bird each year, and causes minimal impact on wild populations.

See the RTHA on the center pole?

Today I had the opportunity to go out to trap a bird with a falconer of my acquaintance. She was looking for a red-tailed hawk, one of the buteo species (a broadwing in falconer terms). This is a very common bird in this area of the country. When trapping a bird for falconry purposes, federal law dictates that the bird must be a passage bird - that is, a first year, juvenile bird - when that is able to be determined (most raptor species, though not all, have differences in plumage, cere and leg color, and often eye color between young birds and adults). RTHAs tend to hunt in one of two ways - they hang out in the air, fairly high up, watching for critters to chase down, or they hang out on tall things (e.g., telephone poles and fence posts) watching the ground around them for critters to chase down. The latter uses less energy for the bird, and is a lot easier for us humans to find.

Our target search area included open spaces, along roads with relatively low levels of traffic, and lots of poles and fences. Normally, when I have driven along roads like this, I would expect to see several birds, both adults and juveniles. Today, it seemed as if there were hardly any RTHAs, and more than half were adults (though this is probably not actually true - it just seemed it).

However, we did find about eight or ten first-year RTHAs. We would set the trap~, drive slowly along the road where the bird was, toss the trap out along the side of the road close to the pole on which the bird was perched, then stop and turn around within visual distance, but not too close (to avoid startling it into taking off), to the bird. We would then watch the bird. Most of the birds looked at the trap. A few flew down to it. Only one actually landed on the trap, but unfortunately was not entangled. This one also, prior to jumping on the trap, decided to land on the road to inspect the mice. Pretty much all birds I've ever seen on the street will fly away if a car approaches. This bird figured that it was invincible, and made an approaching car drive around it! We were all able to breathe again after the car was out of sight, and the hawk decided to get off the road after all...

He's been banded - can you see the metal on his leg?

This is the bird we almost caught.

Another exciting moment of the day came when we stopped to look at a potential hawk. There was a kettle of TUVUs~~ circling nearby. One large bird flew across the road, and I said, "is that a vulture? It doesn't look quite right..." - the way it flapped was different than what I expect from a vulture, and the shape wasn't quite right - but there aren't that many other birds that size so I didn't know what else it could be. The falconer, in the front seat with binoculars (i.e., a better view than what I had from the back seat) said, "no, it's a golden!" Indeed it was - my first glimpse of a wild golden eagle close enough that I could easily identify it!~~~ It even flew over the car before drifting off on the thermals with the vultures. I didn't think to try to get a picture til after it was gone, unfortunately.

Cows

While the day was a little disappointing in that we did not catch a bird, it was a gorgeous day, we saw lots of birds (RTHAs, AMKEs, TUVUs, a GOEA, many crows and ravens and starlings, a few chickens), lots of cows, horses, donkeys, some Boer goats, and some beautiful scenery. I saw a COHA on the way home as well :-) The falconer will be trying again tomorrow, and if necessary, next weekend - I wish her luck!

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* In the United States, falconry requires a license issued by each state's Fish and Game service or equivalent. To become a falconer, you must pass a written examination, find a sponsor (an active falconer with a General or Master license), complete an Apprenticeship with your sponsor, and have your facilities inspected. This is a long, expensive process that requires a lot of time, effort and dedication. If one does not hold the appropriate licenses (falconry or wildlife rehabilitation license which covers raptors), it is illegal to keep a bird of prey in captivity.

** An Apprentice may only fly an American kestrel (official 4-letter code: AMKE) or a red-tailed hawk (RTHA); I believe that the bird must be wild-caught. Someone holding a General license may fly any native species not an eagle (I believe it used to be that they couldn't fly peregrine falcons either, because they were endangered, unsure if this is still true), or a captive-bred/bought bird. A Master falconer may fly any species, including eagles (but I think this requires extra permits). There are also limits as to how many birds one may keep at a time.

*** To man a bird is to teach it to tolerate humans, to stand quietly on the fist, and to take food willingly from the human. There are other things involved in training a bird, not the least of which is how to keep it from flying away when it is released for hunting. This isn't a foolproof process though, and is probably the most common way a falconer will lose a bird.

It just so happens that this falconer adopted one of my foster kittens... her name is now Thirteen :-)

~ a weighted ring with a mesh net which two live mice were placed, to which several lightweight plastic string nooses were tied (to the net, not the mice) - the idea is that when the bird grabbed the mice with its feet, the feet would be entangled in the nooses, allowing us to go up to it and grab it.

~~ TUVU = turkey vulture. GOEA = golden eagle. COHA = Cooper's hawk.

~~~ I have seen - and handled - several golden eagles at rehab facilities, seen one falconry-trained golden eagle, and seen, at a very great distance (i.e., binoculars were required to even see it, much less identify it) one GOEA. I have seen a handful of bald eagles in the wild. But I have not seen, at close range, a GOEA in the wild prior to today.