Growing Wings Longer

By Matt Jones

In the early part of October, I received a call from Rick Wenneborg about a Prairie/Gyr Falcon that was in need of adoption, and he directed me to the person I needed to contact about getting this falcon. Little did I know when I woke up that morning that my falconry life was about to change.

Since being licensed in 1989, I have flown mostly Red-tails with a couple Kestrels and a Harris Hawk thrown into the mix. The past couple of years I have not felt very challenged by the birds that I have flown. I know I can train and hunt Red-tails. But how will I do flying something different? I have not been in a position to either buy a falcon or take time off of work to capture a Prairie out west. With this offer of the Prairie/Gyr tiercel came the opportunity to enter a new and exciting phase of falconry.

After several phone calls and faxes, I made the trip down to St. Louis, MO, the first weekend of November to pick up the bird. They pulled out one of the most beautiful falcons I’d ever seen. He was not at all happy about the situation either. After my new hood was placed on his head, he continued to bate off the handler’s glove. Once the bird was put into my giant hood, I was told that he was my problem now.

To be fair, I was told several times that he was a problem child. He basically flunked out of the military to keep runways clear of birds so that planes taking off and landing would not ingest the birds that like to hang around these places. But as we all know, nothing is for free in this world. If he was already a great game hawk, he wouldn’t have been offered to me in the first place. Either way, this was a great opportunity for a learning experience in a different aspect of falconry from the one I already knew.

Since Shadow (my name for this Prairie/Gyr) had not been handled for nearly eight months, I took my time with him and just sat in a chair next to him while he sat on his block. Also I made sure I had food in my fist every time I went to pick him up. At first he would still bate away from me but soon got the idea that I was his main source of food.
After a few weeks I felt ready to fly him outside on a creance. He performed very well for the most part. He came right to the lure and, after eating off it, came right to my fist and ended his meal there. That’s where everything went south. He saw my hood and stared to bate, scream and hang from the glove. He did not calm down for nearly 15 minutes.

Before I creanced him for a second time, I got some advice from Phil Willis. I was relieved to hear that he had also experienced the same behavior with his Gyr. He advised me to hood Shadow after he had eaten and calmed down from his meal. “Let him feak and rouse before trying to hood him,” he advised me. So I did just that and he did very well until after he finished his meal. Instead of being calm he went what I call ‘bonkers-nuts’ again. Even without showing him the hood, he bated, screamed and hung upside down from my fist for nearly ten minutes. My neighbor came by to see my bird, which was hanging upside down at this time, but as I was telling her all about him, he decided he had had enough and regained the glove. He has not gone ‘bonkers-nuts’ since.

We have had several flights now; he likes to fly but doesn’t stay very close yet. We will be working on that for the rest of the season. I feel like an apprentice all over again.