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.
Abstract: Reading raptor body language and understanding the ways in which applied behavioral analysis ties into the care and welfare of raptors increases the success of falconry, rehabilitation and other captive relationships. Training with ABA can make a positive difference in a client’s care of their raptors and help practitioners understand how to build better relationships with raptor-keeping clients.
America is obsessed with our food, or rather everyone else’s food. Your officemates will surely examine your packed lunch and comment that it looks healthy or delicious (fattening) and then maybe make comparisons to what they themselves will be, should be or shouldn’t be eating.
I spent six months losing 25 pounds the hard way—less calories in and more calories out. And the question I’ve gotten the most is, “How did you do it?” As if there was some magical formula other than eating less and exercising more. And less calories it turned out, means eating like Michael Pollan suggested in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
… eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
People also ask me what I’m doing to keep the weight off. What I’m doing, I think it’s fair to say is embracing my falconry season. Falconry is 360 degrees of grounding, how to eat, live and appreciate. And it might even help with the last fifteen pounds. What it is surely going to do though is get my head back on straight.
These are my lifestyle suggestions.
Embrace the day early
Falcons fly best at dawn, when the air is crisp and the world is just beginning to move. This is when you start your day, just as the dark is fading. Insight and motivation come when you wake with the wilderness and when you amplify the caffeine in your system with the burst of adrenaline that comes with the whistle and percussion of duck wings bursting from the water. The cold air, rising native hum and burst of desperate desire to succeed will stay with you all day.
You will be inspired.
Stay in Shape or Face the Consequences
And when one set of wings beating their demand against the air, laboring for immediate lift and evasion meet another set of wings — wings slicing through the molecules in a race to fall faster, harder and to win – you better get to the explosion. You won’t be the only predator awake, you must get to your falcon in a sprint that doesn’t falter, with lungs that handle air as deftly as the avian colliders. Your ability to run, it turns out, is life or death for a falcon you never want to lose, but will. You legs and lungs will secure you one more day.
You will get to the gym.
Hank Shaw's "Ducks in the Orchard" Recipe at www.honest-food.net
Engage, Appreciate and Taste
So much can go wrong, it is impossible not to revel in the gift of success, of food. Food is a gift and a sacrifice. Truth is that the duck was just as admirable as the falcon, just a beautiful and it hurts the heart a little, but at least your hands were on this moment. You know that your food, the falcon’s food, lived the life a duck is meant to live and that you were able to bring humanity at its end, something most wild animals do not get, something honestly, most of your food isn’t offered. This is honest food. Most hunters feel this way. You will taste this meal because you’ll be savoring it. You won’t eat it in the car or gulp it down so you can get to the next task; it will be an experience. All of your meals will be flavored with this one.
You won’t overeat.
So get up, get out, TOUCH nature.
Oh. And please stop staring at my lunch.
Destroyed Backpack
The thing is, my homemade backpack wasn’t all that. The peregrine ruined it with minimal effort and left it lying next to a regurgitated pellet on the floor, discarded just as easily and with similar irreverance. Damn I wish I had inherited the arts and crafts gene from my mom.
That’s okay. After one failed attempted for this season and my first effort giving the installationa go with someone simply holding the falcon on the glove, I think I got the installation thing down. I was ready to give the Marshall plectrum another try.
Waiting for the epoxy to dry
I may not be good at arts and crafts, but I’m still female and fruity cocktails with the girls on the occasional Saturday night is good for the soul. Even better if it involves fashionably accessorizing our animals friends.
I was able to fit the backpack with its Teflon ribbon without any bates or discomfort. The peregrine fidgeted frequently, but that’s to be expected. And I imagine his greater ease with the process has much to do with his confidence in his ability to destroy any contraption I conspire to make him wear.
Epoxied Backpack
He’ll be wrong this time. We did a great job. I had a little less booze than on Thanksgiving though, because I used epoxy this time… an epoxied peregrine is a bit of a quandary.
The plug for Ducks Unlimited business cards placed underneath the plectrum are protecting his feathers from where I epoxied the ribbon connection so that it was smooth and difficult to pull apart again. (As per the Marshall instructions, trust me, I’m no genius at these things.)
Backpack with the Powermax transmitter inserted
The transmitter fits neatly into the plectrum and keeps the equipment at the bird’s center of gravity and the antennae high and transmitting the best signal possible. More importantly, for a bird that is already permanently missing a deck feather, it’s a great alternative to a tailmount. (And after looking at the dents in his bell, I’m not a big fan of depending on a leg mount for this bird.)
Anakin's First Flight
…wasn’t really a flight, in all honesty.
He sat on the roof of XB’s truck. Then he sat on a pole. And then he thought ponderously about coming to the lure, finally arriving, but protesting heavily that I wasn’t swinging it by strafing the stationary leather pouch five times before tackling it.
At least he got in the air. At least I got him back. At least I can say I’ve started.
In typical falconry fashion, right before this bit of nothing, XB put his bird over a pond –really two ponds adjacent to one another. One full of coots, the other with a gorgeous array of waterfowl. Booth, my Brittany, anxious to finally be hunting rushed full speed ahead in barking glee and jumped right into the wrong pond. Fortunately, but the time he starting flushing coots, XB’s bird had already lost a duck in a half-assed attempt at being a falcon. Oh, and XB’s dog had run off.
After retreiving Minnie the falcon, waiting 15 minutes for Booth to flush every coot he could find on the pond, and tracking XB’s dog on the other side of field, then retreiving her as well, we gave it another shot.
Just as the sun was setting, our prospects looking minimal, if not impossible, Minnie took a hen mallard in spectacular flight that required all five of us, dogs, humans and falcon working in tandem. XB graciously let Booth carry the duck back to the truck and all of us ended the day in bliss. It was a lovely way to start the holiday weekend.
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!
There is a place in Lift I often find myself reading from at bookstores that describes Anakin falling and refers to Ken Franklin’s video of sky diving with his peregrine Frightful. I remember the falconry meet when Ken was keynote speaker and showed us the raw footage of the soon to be National Geographic special. The longwingers gave him standing ovation…some of them, I swear, with tears in their eyes. I didn’t quite understand. It would be years later before I finally flew falcons, but I get it now. A peregrine stooping is simply impossible. It is natural magic. From a scene out of Lift at White Water Ranch…
This tuck and fall was pure committed peregrine and a vision that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my falconry career. It was a falcon defying air, redefining terminal velocity and now I was witness to this amazing feat of peregrine evolution.
I get chills every time I imagine it. And here is the video that made is possible for me to really see:
After Release
I know I have some folks wandering in because they’ve heard about or read LIFT. (Yes, I realize it’s probably about two of you, but there’s no reason not to cater to to my fan club of two.) And I feel horrible that I’m not blogging about my falconry season. The truth is…well, I haven’t started my season. I’ve been working, writing and book touring. I’m hoping to get a late start this week.
So in the meantime, I would like to direct you both to the recently updated Falconry FAQ page.
Have more questions? I probably have more answers, so feel free to comment about things that should be added.
I would also invite you who may be wondering about a term here and there in LIFT to investigate the glossary. I think I’ve put in any words that you may trip on, but let me know if I’ve missed one.
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of presenting at the International Society for Anthrozoology/ Human- Animal Interaction conference on falconry and how high level relationships with wild (rather than domesticated) animals have positive psychology and health implications. I know this all sounds very scientific, but mostly what I was saying in a nutshell that, “Humans ARE nature, not apart from it. We not only desire contact with nature in its extreme, but we require it.”
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.
One of the things that falconers learn to accept is that the animals we love the most are not ours to keep. Some we choose to have in our lives for a short period, lending them a helping hand and sending them on their way. Whether they are foster dogs on their way to a new beginning or injured raptors being prepped for release back into the wild, they still touch our lives in deep ways.
Of course, the truly difficult moments are those when the animals we love dearly pass away. Falconry is full of life and death moments, some that truly break your heart in the end. The realization that we should cherish moments as they come is perhaps one of the most important lessons falconry (and life) has to offer. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as the season approaches and I’m out and about reading from Lift and explaining what I tried to accomplish in the book. Although Anakin is the “hero” and the metaphor of the story, other falconry birds and animals I’ve worked with have cameos that color the story.
A friend dug up this old recording of a song I wrote and performed in High School (yeah, I had brief aspirations of being a rockstar…can you imagine, a solitary soul such as myself on stage every night? Blah!) and I found myself thinking about the blessings and sadness of a life’s goodbyes. The song and the montage complement the memoir. Enjoy.
And read more about Lift here.
