Interview with a Falconer …Part I

In August, I had the privilege of doing an Interview with, a Falconer and meeting Amelia his 3-month-old Prairie falcon.
I have always been in awe of raptors, the Hawk being one of my favorite, so being up close to one and feeling the rush of air on my legs as she swooped by me at a speed of 100 MPH or more, was like a dream come true.

Her handler Jonathan Clarkson, was young man in my 4-H group, back in the early 90’s. He was an energetic child, always hiking, fishing, being one with nature and usually doing things his own way, catching his first Hawk when he was around 13. Often I would see him, no saddle and bare feet, with his horse Smokey running up the fields behind my house, free like the birds he loves.

Since then he has grown into a fine young man. He lives in Utah with his wife Wendy and soon will becoming a parent.
So it is with great admiration and pride for the man that he has become.
I introduce to you Jonathan and his Prairie falcon Amelia.




KMS:
What is a falconer?

J.
Someone who trains birds of prey for hunting

KMS
Jonathan, You told me yesterday you do exhibitions, what is one important fact you want people to know about Falconry?

J
I tell them it’s important they understand falconry is not keeping a raptor as a pet. The purpose of doing this is to train them to fly free and catch game. This was the original purpose of falconry, an easy way for people to get food.

KMS
When did you know you wanted to be a falconer?

J.
I've always been interested with birds, actually, since I could read I use to read about them. When I was in elementary school, I met a man that did bird banding, so I helped him with that. I’ve always liked birds of prey. When I was real little kid, there was a movie called Lady Hawk. A movie set in medieval times, that had a Hawk in it and that’s when I knew I really wanted to work with hawks and birds of prey.

KMS
I know exactly what movie you are speaking of, it’s one of my favorites too. Please continue.

J.
After watching that movie, I knew I wanted to do that (be close) with a bird of prey.

KMS.
What does it take to become a falconer?

J
Lot of hard work and patience. Legally you have to get a state and federal permit. The laws vary from state to state but they are trying to keep them close to being the same.

KMS.
Do you have to go through any kind of training?

J.
Yes, you have to go through an apprenticeship and serve under someone for two years. There are three different classes of falconry, an apprentice class, general and master’s class and with a bird for four months, in two different 12 month periods. An apprentice in NY can only have kestrel (sparrow hawk) or a Red Tail hawk. They have to be captured from the wild as a passage bird.

KMS.
What is a passage bird.

J.
A passage bird is a bird that’s in its hatching year on its first migration. In NY the trapping season is from Sept to January

KMS
What class are you

J
Its been a battle to upgrade, but, I’ve been trying to upgrade to general.

KMS
Why did you choose working with Raptors?

J. Again since I was a kid, I was always interested and intrigued by them. Now that I am working and training Raptor, I get to see from their level how they hunt. Plus to be with them when they reach the next level, and right there when they are hunting, as a companion, lets you see how they hunt in the wild up close—is fascinating.

KMS
How does one go about catching a raptor and at what age is best?

J
That depends on what kind of prey you want to hunt. What kind of bird you want. You can capture them from the nest. There are all kinds of trapping methods. There are nets and box traps.


KMS
How long does it take to catch a Raptor?

J.
Sometimes it takes a long time. I’ve gone a couple of seasons without any luck.

KMS:
I watched you work Amelia yesterday and you mentioned that training a young raptor is a bloody task. How so and what do you to do train a young bird.

J
You can use bait, like starlings, gerbil mice, nets, traps, etc. Songbirds are protected. There are special traps we use where the bait used in the traps are not harmed. When the rapture is young you have to try and mimic as close as you can to what their parents would do.

KMS
HOW do you mimic its parents?

J.
When a raptor is still in the nest, as they get older the parents fly by and drop food in, making the youngsters work for their food.
Then when they are fledglings, the parents drop food from above and have them catch it.We use lures to mimic this. They come in all shapes and sizes and you tie tidbits of meat and swing and drag the lure around, coaxing them to fly towards it. You give them a bagged animal, that’s alive for them to hunt.

KMS
So both parents are involved in raising their young raptors?

J
Yes, Raptors are a family.


KMS
Knowing you since you were a young child, I know you love animals. So how then can you willingly put a live animal out there to be killed by your bird in training or kill an animal to train your bird.
How does this make you feel?



Part II
How Jonathan feels putting live animals out there for Amelia, knowing they will be killed.
Are birds of prey captured treated like athletes?
Also how Birds of Prey do their hunting and what kind of training the birds need.

Animals see the truth through the windows of the soul

After putting KoKo to sleep, the unpleasant task of burying him or having him removed needed addressing, quickly. I called to see about removal. The nearest facility is 150 miles away. It would have been a day or two before they could come. I couldn’t have KoKo laying around for that length of time. It sounds a bit gory but it’s a fact, that I do live in the country, and though I understand nature’s way, the vision of what would happen is not pretty.

So I made a phone call to a friend I grew up with. A man who my dad introduced to the excavation world when he was eight years old, and now like my dad is one with a piece of equipment. Anything he runs is not just a piece of metal but an extension of him.
His name is Jason.

Knowing he’d be busy, (he always is even when work is slow, using that time to repair and maintain his equipment) I called Jason.
He answered. I asked (sarcastically) if he was busy, his answer was what I expected. “Yeah kind of, but what do you need Hun?”

I told him I needed a boarders horse buried and his reply was, “I need to get the truck and excavator started, they’ve been sitting a few days, because of the snow storm and you know how diesels are. Let me go see if I can get it all started. Call me back as soon as the vet gets there and I will come up and bury that horse for you.”

Jason dropped everything he was doing, to come and do this for me. He was my savior of the day. A knight riding on a yellow excavator, rescuing Pat and me from the horrible things that could happen from a dead horse left unattended, to long in the country.

As he dug, as we watched, as he smoothed the bottom of KoKo’s final resting place, and as he laid KoKo gently in the ground, I could feel the feeling in my soul that comes about whenever I see or talk to Jason. I don’t know what the feeling is. Its not a feeling of love as in a woman loves a man nor a feeling of how a patient feels towards a doctor. The best explanation I have—is— it’s a feeling of reverence.

The nice weather had turned colder and we were all chilled. When Jason was done, I offered him some lunch and a cup of coffee. He accepted the cup of coffee. I have two dogs, Jenna and Maddie that I got from shelters a year ago. Jenna is friendly and loves everyone. Maddie is a little tenacious and barks at everyone. She does not like anyone near me, in the house or actually anywhere on the property, until and if she warms up to them.

Jason stepped in the house with Pat and me. I expected Maddie to do her normal run into the kitchen, and start barking at this intruder of her domain. Convincing us with her explanation of why he should not be in the house. Instead, she calmly walks into the kitchen, looks at Jason, looks into his eyes, and does nothing. Not one peep.

He sits at the table, I’m pouring our coffee’s, and I look to see where Maddie is, still a little worried about what she might do. She is standing next to Jason and he’s petting her. She never lets anyone new pet her either. Then the three of us are sitting at the table talking and drinking our coffee. Again, I look for Maddie, only to find her under the table curled up at Jason’s feet.

Did Maddie, a dog that was abuse as a puppy, look into his eyes and immediately know what I have felt about Jason for so many years? That inside this abuse as child man is the soul of one of the kindest human beings I have ever known. Did Maddie understand in one glance, my feelings I was trying to understand?
This episode got me thinking about Jason’s name. The abuse he suffered as a child and the, I’ll call, damaged, sometimes angry person he has become.
Led by what I feel towards Jason and Maddie’s reaction, I decided to look up the biblical name for Jason and this is what I found.

Middle English salvacion, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin salvation-, salvatio, from salvare to save —
Deliverance from danger or difficulty
Healer; To Heal
To preserve or guard from injury, destruction, or loss

This biblical explanation of his name, tells me Jason is the person I see inside the protective shield he puts around himself.
It also explains the sadness I get, that because Jason, “The Healer” a man who will do anything for most anyone and me and is so many people’s healer and deliverer from injury or loss, cannot heal or find himself and that as much as I wish I could, I cannot heal him either.

But what I can do, though I cannot heal the abused child I see behind the mans face, is thank God, that Jason is my friend, be his friend, and be thank-full that my dad let a lost eight year old little boy run his bulldozer.