Post by USAvalanche on May 12, 2004 13:33:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the greets. I am glad I found the board as I know I am going to have a ton of questoins. As I said, I am hoping to meet others in this feild as I have never known anyone who has participated.
I have much to learn and had hoped to find others close enough to observe and talk with.
I wish it showed everyones location by our names as I have put in my personal text. I think it would be nice to know where we are talking too, and perhaps we would find others that are close and share the same interest.
Thanks again for the greetings- look forward to enjoying and participating in the board!
"But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world... You become responsible, Forever, for what you have tamed." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Post by birdguy888 on May 12, 2004 13:47:05 GMT -5
Welcome USAvalanche!!! I'm Eddie. I live in Price, Utah and I've been a falconer for over 20+ years as you can see next to my name. There are a couple of us here with years and years of experience and we can offer our help to you. I'm not sure about the others with all this expereince but I have trained and flown every species of raptor found in my area such as golden eagles, red-tails, ferruginous, rough-legged, swainson's, harris', gos, coopers, sharp-shinns, american kestrels (one of my favorites by the way), merlins, prairies and peregrines. I am one of those falconers that only uses birds I can trap. I absolutely refuse to purchase my birds but I know that some people have no choice because of availability or regulations as over in England/Scottland, etc. where the DOE (Department of the Environment) only allows falconers to purchase and not have access to the wild take of species.
I wish it showed everyones location by our names as I have put in my personal text. I think it would be nice to know where we are talking too, and perhaps we would find others that are close and share the same interest.
Thanks again for the greetings- look forward to enjoying and participating in the board!
Post by USAvalanche on May 12, 2004 15:19:53 GMT -5
All,
We (Iowa) are required to trap and train a Red-tailed hawk for our first and second year. From what I have read and seen of them online I can't wait, and feel I will be quite satisfied with them for some time. I have many memories and visions of them at work in the wild from my hunting and fishing adventures.
I have always been attracted to our little Kestrels and would like to accompany one of them some day also...
Eddie, an Eagle... (drool)... oh man AN EAGLE! How cool would that be! My juvenile excitement veils my age sometimes but ever since I made up my mind to pursue this dream of mine I have been somewhat giddy when I think/talk about it. My girlfriend is already learning a lot just listening to my incessant ramblings
Falcon Boy, nice to hear from you- I spoke with you on MSN messenger a few days back- that is how I knew to come join this fine board you have here.
Last Edit: May 12, 2004 15:21:54 GMT -5 by USAvalanche
"But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world... You become responsible, Forever, for what you have tamed." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
My name is jim and I live on the border of Mexico home of the Aplomado falcon and Parabuteo Mexicanus The Harris hawk.
USAvalanche I found an address but is their a website? All links that i found to the site are dead. Iowa Falconers' Association @ P.O. Box 1160, Burlington, IA 52601. p.s. get your girlfriend involved in falconry you might be surprised at the fun you can have together. Look at all the photo's from this site and you might agree with me. Go to foto's over 2,800 www.cetreria.com You will be sorry you left her behind but if you include her in two years you could be flying a cast of Harris hawks together.
Hi Chris checking in 108 Mile Ranch British Columbia Canada, Welcome a board 1 standing rule spelling don't count unless your talking to your mother in law and only a few here have heard of grammer. If something doesn't make sence then look at the spelling , Alex can vouch for that one when "hold" was spelt "hole" Oh ya that was my spelling too. I think mine is the worst here.
And you bet I'll talk- it has been a LONG time since I have been this excited about anything, plus it keeps me sane. I'm not shy. The president of IFA has been very generous with information and emailing back and forth with me- I am afraid I am going to scare him off.
I know I have a lot to learn about this and am anxious and willing. I checked out a few library books and have purchased "North American Falconry & Hunting Hawks", Eighth Edition, and "The Falconer's Apprentice", Third Edition, so I have plenty of reading material. I have been through some of the online practice test and didn't do too bad, but have already found answers that I missed from my reading. I particularly want to delve a little deeper into the health and biological aspects of it so I can be sure to prevent any illnesses and recognize any that do happen.
I am very anxious, as I told IFA, to begin meeting and talking to others in falconry- I am in a position to begin designing and building a mews immediately; I have already talked to my county assessor and can build an 8'x12' permanent foundation or slab without being taxed and do not need a building permit for anything less than 8'x16'. I have an architectural drafting degree and am working on a civil engineering/land surveying degree so design and planning are pretty easy- I just want to do it once and do it right. And I want what is best for the bird, now and whatever the future holds.
I am in the country on 149 acres, with 148 acres on a section a mile over (family farm) so I have plenty of room. Most of it is crop land but I have, oh... 10-12 acres of grass and grove trees with LOTS of rabbits, some squirrels, pheasant and a few quail as well as rats and mice. Last year I had pair of red-tails that I thought were going to nest in my grove; they hung around for several months and competed with coyotes and the occasional owl for the critters but then they left.
I got a male and female peafowl last spring and this whole thing started out as an idea of having an aviary with peafowl, pheasants, quail and maybe some wood ducks or something. I was looking at a 16'x32' pen plus shelter shed. One day something clicked and I remembered falconry and off I went. The peafowl will now be free range and live in my barn; the rest of my time will be taken up with falconry. Oh, and my dogs- the only kids I ever had.
I served in the army, married ten years to a wonderful woman until we decided that life was leading us in different directions and that we could only be friends. Now I am dating my life-long best-friends' sister; fate I guess.
Lost my mom of 48 in '97 to breast cancer, lost my sister of 25 in '98 to a drunk driver and lost my best dog of 10 years to bone cancer last Monday. I like to hunt and fish but in more recent years find myself happy to target shoot and use the camera to take game.
See, I can talk.
"But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world... You become responsible, Forever, for what you have tamed." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Thanks USAvalanche for the website, falconboy will now add that one to the biggest list of state club links on the net. Yes somebody will copy him but this site had the most state links first. Have you been through the 2,900 and growing photo's at www.cetreria.com/ It is the single largest group of falconry video's and photo's I have found on the web. jim
Jim, Ya need to translate and post the pics and vids. I don't really know what I'm looking at on that site. USAvalanche, You sound alot like me when I first started. All the fun and exitement is still to come. At this point in the game technicaly you could get your license this season but that would be up to the sponsor you get. Nice to have another person who posts! Cheers ;D
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."
Hi Mike OKeefe Did you know I had found your site a while back and I posted your web page here? Many of the guys read your site with great interest and posted how much they liked your site and that there is a lot to be learned from it. I have read it from beginning to end a couple of times as I am still getting ready to take my test. Welcome aboard and I hope you register soon to keep us posted on recent experiences with falconry. jim