If some of you don't mind sharing I'm currious what part of the country and the types of raptors that are in your areas. I live in a small town in southwestern Iowa called Greenfield. If you look on the map you will see it just south of I-80 approx 100 miles east of Omaha Nebraska. We have a lot of redtails here espically during migration. Also Kestrels, Eagles( bald Eagles) parrie falcons, marsh hawks, and a few osprey. There are several other species which migrate through but I'm not real sure what they are. In Iowa we have 43 licensed falconers, some do not have birds at this time. I belong to the Iowa Falconers Association and we have about 23 members. Currently I have my second redtail and I'm in my second year as an apprentice. I'm married and have two teens and I have worked in the Law Enforcement field for 27 years// Hope that don't scare anyone off from leaving messages
Chris Foster South Cariboo , British Columbia, Canada just completing my first year owning my own bird a one eyed redtail that I took in from a local rehaber. As for what kind birds we have herewell as far as those birds alotted for falconry on passage permits we have; redtails, gos, sharpshins, coopers, merlins, kestrals, northern hawk owls, and for those with class one permits gyrs, and golden eagles, non falconry birds include a hole hoste of owls, bald eagles, osprey, roughlegged hawks , swansonsand those which we have but you can't get capture remits for are peregrines, prarrie, and feruginuos hawks. I'm an electrician, married with kids and since I'm too much of a nerd to do anything elegal enough for you to care, I don't care if you're in law inforcement.
I'm in Southeast Missouri, right on the Mississippi River. Follow I-55 from Saint Louis south and you'll see our little blurb on the map. We have RTs, Coops, the odd Gos, a few Peregrines, Harriers, Sharpies, Merlins, Bald Eagles, Kestrels, and others in the area. I am a Psychotherapist, married with three children ages 2 1/2, 16 and 19. My 19y/o is in college studying zoology and is a licensed falconer as well. I suffered the death of my 14 y/o daughter last July. No parent should have to live through something like that. This is my 3rd venture into falconry: the first being BR (before regulations), the second as a Rehaber in Oregon. Currently, I'm a frustrated trapper. 32 days left in the trapping season, and i have no bird!. It's more important to me that my son trap a bird. I can wait. But I'll keep trying!!!
Thanks Chris and Bob, for sharing that info it gives me a better picture of whom I 'm talking to on here. You guys have a lot more raptors than we do, that's good. Sorry to hear about your daugther Bob, I have a friend of mine that is currently going though that sort of thing. It sure has changed his world but I think he will get through it with all the help from family and friends.
We live Northwest of Spokane, Wa. and I work in Prudhoe Bay Alaska. I'm married with two daughters. I have seen goshawks, coops, sharpies, kestrels, RTs, RLs, and peregines down around the Columbia gorge and Snake river. There may be peregines or praries closer to me, but I haven't seen any. Where I work I regularly see peregrines and gyrs nailing the ducks and geese and/or ptarmagan in the summer.
I have a question for everyone that probably should be under a new topic, but I don't know how to start one. My wife is concerned that if I get back into falconry, we will be tied down and will no longer be able to take any trips. We already have horses and that has tied us down more than we used to be. But we can still find other horse people through 4H, etc. that are willing to watch them for us when we leave. What do you guys do about this? How do you handle it when the family takes a trip?
Post by chris Foster on Dec 31, 2003 10:31:28 GMT -5
Ok BW heres what I did. I took my bird up to the rehab center. Now this works because the fellow who runs the rehab center is a freind of mine infact I got the bird from him . My trapping season was disasterous. In fact I managed to drop a hornets nest on myself. Anyway he asked if I would take her so that she wouldn't have to try to survive with one eye. Anyway try contacting the guys at Northwoods Falconry they might have some advice. They are over in Rainer. I don't know how far that is from you but it couldn't hurt to contact them. Hope I've been of help. Chris Foster
Post by Falcon Boy on Dec 31, 2003 16:44:37 GMT -5
If you have a giant hood, as well as a perch, you could always bring the hawk with you (make sure you bring EVERYTHING you could possibly need). Thats what i try to do if i go on trips.
Falcon Boy Apprentice Falconry Administrator
Ethics make the individual, not the other way around.
Post by chris Foster on Dec 31, 2003 18:26:07 GMT -5
The giant hood idea is excellent unless you have some of the same restictions we have in B.C. which state that a passage bird may not be exported from the province. Also inorder to take a bird out of the province you need an export permit in order to bring the bird back you also need an import permit. Now your permit system hopefully is a little more well thought out but I would wager that polititions are polititions and that being" more well thought out" isn't a possiblity. But hey I'm just bitter when it comes to goverment intervention. But anyway what I was attempting to say is that you should chek with what your local restrictions are in regards to crossing any state lines with your birds you'd probably get out and then not be able to get back. best of luck Chris Foster
Thanks guys. Rainier is a long way from Eastern Wa. We're almost on the Idaho border. The taking the bird with us idea is OK for short trips fishing or camping. The hard ones are going to be the plane trips back to see the folks in Texas and S. Carolina during holidays. Guess things haven't changed as much as I thought in the last 30 years. Happy New Year by the way!
Bob you might check and see if theirs another falconer with a general or master degree close to you. Sometimes trading off on taking care of each others birds works well with someone you can trust around your place. I have a friend which is 22 miles from me and he has 15 years at this sport and I would trust him around the residence to get food and feed each day.All of the falconers which I have meet so far seemed to be honest and straight foward people. Good luck.
Post by kevin clements on Jan 4, 2004 16:39:30 GMT -5
I am in Enumclaw, wa. about 45 miles southeast of Seattle. We have RT's, Kestrels, merlins, and peregrines in western washington that can be taken for falconry, and in easter wa we have prarie falcons and gyrs as well. Stupid govt regs keep us from taking golden eagles or ferruginous hawks in this state but you can have them if taken legally in another state. Oh also gos, coopers and sharpshinned hawks both sides of the mountains. Two things seem to work for going on trips. Find another falconer to take your bird in, maybe on a reciprocal type agreement. This is legal under US federal rules for up to 30 days at a time, even if the other falconer is full up on how many birds they can possess. The other thing is if your bird is free lofted in your mew and you have a friend or neighbor you trust just have them throw a half a quail in there every day or so. I know this is going to get lots of general or master falconers upset, but in the off season when your bird is hopefully fat and sassy, a well manned bird can take food from another person without messing up its training, IMHO. We did this with the teenage girl who feeds our horses and dogs when we leave town and it worked fine, for a couple of days. Wouldnt try it for much longer tho.
my name is Wes Trahan , 44yrs, Born and raised here in Lafayette LA. I fly a R/T hawk , been around falconry with friends for about 10 years, just started flying myself. some of my friends been in it for 20 yrs. So there's a lot of info around here. some have got out, but still a few are invouled. There are a LOT of different mirgragting birds in this area at Bottom of The Miss. fly way from ducks,geese, kerstels to Eagles, to many to list,
Jim here in south texas home of the non migratory HH's! On the other hand I'm on a direct migration line for migratory birds. The kettles are huge and at dusk when the raptors are roosting you will see 2 to 5 in a tree. As far as game we have lots of ct's, jack, quail and ducks in "season" we have ground squirrel but can't say i've ever seen any traditional bushy tail squirrels like fox, grey etc.
Thats an easy one Bob. Just get a Redtail! It's the working mans bird. Just don't exceed the three day rule, and if you do just have the neighbor throw in a little something to tide the ole girl over until you get back from your trip:) Word of caution if you get someone who is not a falconer to look after your bird give them the name of a falconer to get in touch with if something should go wrong. And teach them a little bit about the diet of a falconry bird, god forbid if they for some reason can't get to the food supply you left them, they might start feeding the bird something it shouldn't be fed so keep that in mind and take a little extra time to teach people a little more about what we do:)
I am Brian Reid, I live in Homer, Alaska I am too young to get my licence yet, but I do know that with an apprentice licence you can get, a kestrel, a RT hawk, and a Goshawk, I think on you general licence you can get other things like gyr falcons, here is a site where I got my info. www.wildlife.alaska.gov/regulations/regshome.cfm and if you scroll down you will see Alaska Falconry Manual, and that has tons of informations.