How to have your own personal Eagle, it's legal too
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That's awesome!! 0 -
So, you want an eagle, eh?
http://eaglesusa.com/0 -
yep, one time 20 years ago I was bored and checking out how to be a falconer on the 'net. there was a web page with some dude (with falcons) telling about how to get started, how to do it, yada yada and... it was one of the guys I worked with! doing tech support for Dell. next day went out there on break and found him, said ""hey aren't you..." he said yep. told me all about it. not like I could. definitely no time for that.
did have a hawk that stayed with me overnight once. it was awesome.
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But have you seen the YouTube clip of the Goth chick on the subway with her Raven???
Mike0 -
Some years ago I beat the bushes for a couple of guys flying golden eagles at an annual North American Falconry Assn. field meet in Yankton, SD.
But they are not available as pets.0 -
That takes a lot of dedication. I didn't know all the hoops you have to jump through to get into falconry. Very interesting thanks for posting. 0 -
I was driving from Atlanta up to Asheville NC one afternoon, I was out in the country on a rural highway. I saw, standing on the shoulder about 1 foot from the road, a little falcon! Or maybe a hawk the little guy was about 14 inches high.
And right behind him were three crows. They were walking up towards the raptor, and I believe they were about to kill him.
So I stopped right there and the crows took off. The little falcon just stood there. I picked him up, which made me a little nervous because he had some big claws he really could have messed my hands up. My girlfriend and I petted the little guy, I could see no injury on him, no blood or broken wing.
I figured, he was chasing a bunny that ran across the road, and the falcon hit a car passing by at 65 mph, hit the side of the car, and he got knocked coo coo.
So I told my girlfriend to hold the bird, and we would take it up to Asheville and find a bird rehab center and take the bird there.
She did not want to hold the bird. So I put him in the trunk.
We drove for a half hour, I pulled over on a dirt road and opened the trunk. The little falcon looked right up at me, and he jumped up and flew off into the woods at high speed, never saw him again.
So, I am one of the few people who has ever held a wild, physically uninjured falcon in his hands. The coloration of the bird was just beautiful.0 -
I am one of the few people who has ever held a wild, physically uninjured falcon in his hands
And you didn't even have your bird book so you don't know what it was!
Excellent chance it was a kestrel or sparrow hawk. The smallest of the falcons, they often hunt rodents, songbirds and grasshoppers along roadsides.0 -
Yeah, I didn't have my bird book and also didn't have my camera, damn I could have gotten some great photos.
This was in the mountains of South Carolina nw of Greenville, on Highway 11.0 -
There's a guy in the OKC area that is a herpetologist and owns an exotic, but non venomous, sales place. He is nationally known for his constrictors. (PM me if you are into that and I'll give you his business info). Anyway, I found out one time that he had other neat pets. He had a giant tortoise, a goshawk, a golden eagle, and a peregrine falcon. He invited me out once and we took two. The first one, if I remember right, was the goshawk. We walked around the brushy areas with it on the glove on his arm. About 10 minutes in, the bird left his arm and was on a rabbit on the ground before I ever even saw the rabbit and I have quite good 'game eyes'. I don't think the rabbit even had a chance to bolt.
Later, he put it back away and grabbed the peregrine. He let it go, it went up and up and up. We walked over towards the dam of a pond. As we crested the pond, the falcon came streaking down and with a thud that I felt in my chest, it nailed a duck that was taking off. There were feathers everywhere and it reminded me of the dove and Randy Johnson incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwpRHrAh3pk. Anyway, quite an experience.
This below was from a wild bird:
I was out rabbit hunting years ago in a Wildlife management area (WMA) in Kansas. I had seen a few rabbits fleeing at a distance, but nothing in range or clean enough shot. Suddenly I see a redtailed hawk come down and grab one. As it lifts off, the rabbit is kicking violently with his back legs. After the bird got up so high, it just let go. I thought it was going to let it fall to its death. Instead, a split second later it turned into a ballistic missile on re-entry and came down and hit it with a solid thud, grasping it, pulling out of its dive, and going up to the top of a big dead tree to enjoy his meal all while probably laughing at the bi-ped trying unsuccessfully to get one.
Animals are amazing creatures when we allow ourselves to watch what they can do rather than solely think of us at the top of the chain.0
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