Fresh Scallops

Falconers know good food and frequently it is food that they have harvested on their own whether by talon, hook, bullet or hoe. We love food that has a story.

Nothing in the grocery store packaged in cellophane and styrofoam induces story telling. And I sometimes wonder if falconers are by nature story crafters. (You certainly do not have to write to be able to tell a compelling tale.)

So when a falconer friend sent me scallops there was a story in my kitchen. I practiced, telling it to myself and then had friends over repeating it them after it had been perfected.

Scallops Prepared

“These scallops were in the sea two days ago, when a friend harvested them, took them to a shanty where they were processed, packed and sent to me. The people who shucked them have names which my friend knows. They have accents as thick as the muck they create with their fast knives and vocabulary as coarse as the shells they shuck. They have families that they work to feed, as does my friend who put his kids through college on scallop money. I know the hands that touched these scallops and where they are from. They have a story that adds to the taste.” 

It doesn’t hurt that Nantucket Bay Scallops are not a common scallop, smaller sweet and nutty. You can eat them raw, but if you start nibbling, you’ll have a hard time getting to cooking them.

These scallops were a gift.  Gifts are for sharing and celebrating.

I wish all the food I ate began with the statement, “I know this food. It has a story.”

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

Great Working Environment

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

You may recognize the video clip frm The Road to Backersfield, a video I highly recommend if you don’t have it in your falconry video collection.

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

photo by Melanie Phung

A slide from my presentation at my one of my readings of Lift.
The holiday’s are lovely, but they can be so very stressful.  My Christmas wish to you is the ability to hang on to the simplicity of things.

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

The Essential Tools of Falconry Homework

I’m really really slow to get started this year and am thinking that’s okay. The nasty weather only just finally pushed into the north, meaning that my quarry which is still wintering comfortably far away is about to get an eviction notice from Mother Nature. 

I’ll be in DC at the end of the week and by the time I get back, there should be ducks. In the meantime, I’ve been getting the gang ready.

If only it were only as simple as giving the falcons a good cleaning and getting them back on the hunt. They’re athletes though. They need a little time to build muscle, regain trust and get in the game. In the meantime, there’s homework to do.

Anklets, jesses and bewits need to be patterned, cut, treated to withstand weather and carefully placed on the bird. Contraptions to carry transmitters –tailmounts and backpacks must be carefully placed and fitted for the season. Beaks that have become overgrown over the summer need to be coped. Without the benefit of tearing at bones to get every last bit (not as likely with a bird growing fat by eating the tastiest bits and choicest selection of what they are served) they grow long, much like an offseason hunting dog’s toenails and become bothersome.  And all of this must be done deftly — with enough speed to not stress the bird and the precision to not hurt any precious feather the bird will need to fly, hunt, evade at its best. I guess I’m saying, it IS stressful for the falconer…requiring tequila.

It also requires a helping hand. So I went to visit XB to feast for Thanksgiving, tackle falconry birds and hunt. I left with the vision of a successful mallard take by XB’s bird Minnie, with Sister wearing a tailmount, Anakin dressed in a backpack I sewed by hand and with everyone in shiny supple new equipment. Let the season begin!

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

It was very well-received (much to my surprise and relief), which pleased me to no end. Here’s the bowl of mixed nuts. (As opposed to just the nutshell):

ISAZ/HAI Abstract

An increasing amount of research is demonstrating that Nature Deficit Disorder is a very real problem in our wilderness paranoid society. Recent research has asserted that contact with nature is essential for the physical and emotional development of children and has tremendous impact on the health and emotional well-being of all human beings. More than this, engagement with the natural world initiates a passion and connection between animals, landscape and human beings that leads to advocacy for sustainable use, respectful engagement as well as preservation of natural resources, most especially animals. With the diminishing engagement and hand-off attitude toward nature has come the vanishing of many traditional high-level relationships with animals, such as falconry.

This paper discusses recent research that supports a less hands-off approach to animals in the natural world and gives examples of some of the more intense and unique working relationships humans have with wild animals, focusing primarily on falconry.

Through the exploration of fifteen years of falconry experience, the paper discusses how a respectful relationship based solely on applied behavior analysis and positive reinforcement with a wild animal can bring depth, passion and well-being to humans as well as multiple other benefits to the animal partners.  This same approach when applied to the rehabilitation of wild animals or their care in education settings can be equally beneficial to both animals and their caretakers.

Individuals who engage in high-level relationships with wild animals are some of the strongest advocates for conservation and protection. Based on the correlation with recent research they may also be healthier and better adjusted, a possibility that is worthy of further research. Although not necessarily recommending that all humans engage in working relationships with animals, the paper suggests that there is a tremendous amount of value in these relationships and that they should be explored, embraced and should not be discouraged.

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

And sitting in a seafood restaurant in Portland I had a keen moment of deja vu. It was fourteen years ago and I was driving from California to Florida, leaving everything behind except 3 parrots, a red-tailed hawk and what I could fit of my own in my truck. I’d rarely been out of California. I had shut down the process serving business that had done quite well for me. I turned down the law school that had offered me a partial scholarship. And I ran off to train birds for a rich, but far from lucrative living.

I had stopped in Louisiana to eat creole seafood, because I loved seafood and it was something I had never done, because I wanted to do things I loved and had never done. Then I burst into tears when the waiter asked me what I wanted to eat.  

I didn’t know what I wanted to eat, but I gladly accepted the beer he brought after he assessed the situation. I didn’t know much of anything really. I didn’t even know what was going to be next. I just knew I had taken a tremendous risk and despite my sheer terror, was 100% certain that this was what I was supposed to do. That didn’t make me feel any less terrified or alone, but I wiped away my tears, ate my oysters and got back on the road. It was the best thing I have ever done for myself.

Now here I am again. So I’m going to quit my whining, enjoy the oysters and get back on the road.

Thank goodness, falconry is a mere few weeks and a couple of tail feathers away. I need some grounding.

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

Angst and Barbeque Sauce

It’s that time of the year again. Baby hawks abound.

This one, obviously has just recently fledged and is figuring out where to get a real meal in NYC. Makes you wonder what mom was bringing back to the nest.  Read the whole thing here. (Nice try buddy.)

My mom is now living in my house in Banning and she called me the other night, the distinct sound of a hungry young red-tailed hawks in the background, “I think the hawks are fledging,” she said.

“Prepare yourself,” I said. “It’s going to get worse. Wait until their parents cut them off.” It’s a falconer’s nightmare, really. Three hawks in three points surrounding the house, screaming their fool heads off at dawn. It gives me nightmares about imprints every year. And yet, I’m a little sad that after five years, I’m missing out on the very predictable and yet amazing cycle of redtail beginnings. And I’m willing to bet the hawks are missing me as well, or rather, my flock of pigeons.

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.

–Ernest Hemingway

©2010 Operation Delta Duck. All Rights Reserved.