Having a falcon/hawk to hunt with is still on my bucket list.
Birds of prey have always fascinated me. I love their fierceness, and the fact that you can never truly domesticate them. Yet you can still hunt with them. I've had the paperwork for getting a falconry license in my closet for years now... Maybe someday I'll get to fill it out and send it in. For the first 2-3 years, a beginning falconer can only have a Kestrel (hardest falcon to have), or a Red Tailed hawk. After that though, the sky is the limit. This girl wants a Harris hawk.
My love for hawks and falcons somewhat explains my parallel love of the fighting breeds of chickens. The Hulseys, Shamos, Asils, and Ganois... They have that same fierce look about them. The same wildness and inability to be domesticated. If I can't start out with a hawk, then I'll work my way up, beginning with a chicken. You gotta' start somewhere.
But perhaps someday I'll have my own leather jesses and a mews with a hawk in it. You just never know.
My husband and I have both volunteered at the local Peregrine Fund World Center For Birds Of Prey. They have a great website you might want to look at-
ReplyDeletewww.peregrinefund.org
Ever since I read My Side of The Mountain as a kid I wanted to get into falconry. It's a VERY expensive sport, but a wonderful way to hunt, if you have the time.