Falconry Apprenticeship

E13 is moving right along with his apprenticeship in falconry. We are so excited to see him start down this road. This summer he received his packet and we began getting things checked off. He and Dan took the hunter safety class a few weeks ago and achieved success. They are both card carrying safe hunting ready. In order to have a falconry license, you must also have a small hunting license (since you will be hunting with your bird of prey) and a hunting license requires a hunter safety class. So, we can check that class off!

We've been waiting patiently for our master falconer's hawk to get her flight feathers and then E13 will get to watch him work with his bird and get to know what its like to be around them and care for them. He's also started studying for the falconry exam.

In the meantime, there are some other apprentices ready to trap their hawks and we were invited along! One is waiting on his federal license so he's not quite ready, but another was ready to trap a hawk and had her trapping permit in hand. She had previously worked with a red tail and was working with a kestrel for the past year and it took off on her during the height of migration season. She needed a new bird. We set off on an adventure Monday morning to follow and learn. It was an amazing experience!

There were a lot of red tails soaring above the trees- we got out to take a look. Of course, we were armed with binoculars, though we could use a better pair.

The traps are set with rodents and birds inside because they irritate one another and the movement will attract the attention of a hawk that is perched nearby. If you look closely, you'll see lots of nooses on the top of the cage. When the hawk flies down, it's feet will get caught up in the nooses and that's it!

We followed them around and it was down this farm lane that they were finally able to successfully trap a red tail. The others kept flying away when they'd spot one and jump out to lay down the trap.

The state game farm raises pheasants for hunting- lots and lots of pheasants!

Hawk trapping does require patience. This apprentice falconer held out and tried one more time. She reached success after 3 hours!

We were surprised to see the falconer emerge with the bird being held like a baby. They stay very calm for several hours after being caught.

Once caught, they weighed the bird to see if it was male or female. This one is a male...is he handsome or what?  The falconer puts an aba on the bird. This covers the wings and calms the bird down- then the hawk gets a hood. The hood keeps them from seeing lots of movement- especially before it is trained.

A view from outside the arboretum not far from our trapping site. It was such a lovely day I couldn't resist!

Here are a few things we learned while out with the falconers on Monday morning: (we counted over 20 things, but we won't make you read them all)

•  Hawks can get into it with squirrels. If you look at the feet of a hawk and they are scarred and messy, then the bird is a squirreler and some falconers look for this in a bird.
• Squirrels can bite a hawk so hard that they sever tendons, cause infection, and tear muscle in a hawk's feet.
• If you accidentally get a turkey vulture in your trap, they will spit vile green yuck on you!
• You can only trap juvenile hawks.
• Adult hawks are called haggards.
• This hawk was hatched in April or May of this year and is now on it's own.

We are looking forward to the next trapping adventure when the apprentice J has his trapping permit. The game farm is a great location to get hawks so my guess is we'll be there again next time. If you'd like to learn more about the sport of falconry, The Modern Apprentice is a great website. E13 has begun studying for his NY state falconry exam and since I'm helping out, it's been very interesting!

On the Go...

Well I'm sure most of us can identify with a busy schedule as we've gotten back to our fall routines. Around here we aim to keep things as low key as possible, but with four children that doesn't always happen. Here's a peek at some things we've been doing while I9 plays out his soccer season (oh and one orthodontist appt was thrown in there). We only have one more practice tomorrow (Wednesday) and Saturday is the final tournament. So, things are winding down for soccer...

My kids had no problem removing the magazines off one of the orthodontist's tables to play a game.

A little Spill and Spell- after a while they had turned the board on its side and were launching the cubes into the cup at the end.

We take art supplies just about everywhere. They were working on fall colors from the HBNS blog.

Somehow artwork on a blanket at a sporting event always draws a big crowd of young spectators...J6 was noting the blue sky around his colorful leaves.

I made sure to provide the fall color palette for reference- this is from the FIAR Fall Nature Study (one of my favorite nature studies of all time)

What else have we been up to this fall? Weekly Co-op, FIRST LEGO League (updates on that coming soon), Sewing Camp, and E13 just finished hunter safety with Dan- another step on the road to his falconry license. The older kids also volunteer at the Salvation Army with Dan to serve a lunch meal on the first Saturday of the month. So, things are busy but thankfully FLL isn't really going to hit high gear until after soccer is finished.

How are things going at your house with a busy routine?

Falconry Update!

Things are really coming together for E12's adventure into falconry. One of the first steps is to find a master falconer who is willing to apprentice the interested person in the sport. We have one of those! E12 gets to begin working around the bird at the end of September or early October when all of the red tail's flight feathers are back in business. It's unclear how often he'll be engaged with it to start, but he'll be working with two others this year.

We've been gathering information on this for a long time, but have now really nailed down the specifics and we are looking forward to seeing this unfold for E12. He'll need a small game hunting license and in order to get that he'll need a hunter's education class. We have that schedule and hopefully this fall he and Dan will take the class. The summer class was full already. Imagine that! He'll need to take a falconry exam as well. With those in place, he can apply for his falconer's license. Though the federal guideline allows a falconer's license at age 12, NY State says 14! So...this time next year he can apply for the license which is actually a full falconer's license not really an apprentice license. He'll be able to fully work with certain birds of prey and, in fact, he will be required to have a mews in order to get the license! So, it's really a "beginner's license" and we are considering this next year the real apprenticeship as he gets close to the bird and gets a feel for what it's like to take care of a raptor! 

Our falconry packet arrived the other day straight from the DEC in Albany, NY! We are all set to begin the process and it's very exciting!

This is the exam booklet. E12 has already taken a look and he'll be studying the 300 questions while he works with his master falconer this year. In April, he'll take the test. He needs to pass 80 out of 100 questions to apply for the license next summer.

I had a chance to speak with the DEC staff person in charge of the falconry program here in NY and he is excited about this opportunity for E12. I was very encouraged that he was so eager to see him be successful and he let me know that he would be as helpful as he could as we get E12 prepared for the license. Dan is looking forward to hunter education class! And he is considering getting the falconer's license himself so he and E12 can work together. That is not set in stone, but it's a possibility. Hunter education for Dan is happening for sure- a father/son outing.

I think my biggest "concern" is that once E12 gets a chance to help clean after a bird, prepare the prey for the bird to eat and all those "messy" reality items, he may be less enchanted with the sport! However, we remain hopeful that this will be "his gig" for the teen years and that it will serve him well for a long time.