📸 Photography Falconry

ThirdgenTa

TCG Elite Member
Mar 17, 2008
5,156
140
Aurora
My girlfriend and I were invited out to watch Falconry on new years day. I just thought I would share this awesome experience.

Here is the first falconer. Unfortunately his Hawk did not manage to catch anything. Chased a couple rabbits but they got away.
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He was given a lure though
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This is the second Hawk. I was at the other end of the field trying to flush rabbits when it ended up catching one. Here it is guarding it.
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This is the third hawk
Brian calling it out of a tree.
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Back in the tree
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Now this is the 4th hawk. This was awesome. He had this dog that had so much energy it was bouncing off the walls. He uses it to flush rabbits out and to track them. This dog was diving in and out of thorn bushes like it was nothing.
I love this pic btw. It was not posed and the sun was behind him, creating a cool effect.
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Flew 15ft from me
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The dog lol
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Hawk didn't catch anything but got it's treat at the end.
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I hope you guys enjoyed the pics
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,907
16,620
grayslake
they are super cool, would be fun to watch them hunt.

in the ME you may see falcons in the airport or on planes. i think the rule is 2 can be in a seat. they may be in economy or they may be in first class - their birds easily go from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. they are not legal to be used to hunt in UAE or some other countries i believe because there is not much prey left, so they are trying to allow more life to return. so people fly to afghanistan and pakistan to allow them to hunt.

not sure about places in IL where you can actually participate in some things? i recall looking before but not exactly finding anything, although i'm sure there are experiences you can do out there somewhere.

i visited the falcon hospital in abu dhabi which was super cool.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QzTulCSlA8
 

ThirdgenTa

TCG Elite Member
Mar 17, 2008
5,156
140
Aurora
So I'll ask the obvious question... what's bringing the birds back to the handlers and stopping them from just flying away?

Great shots as always though.

Basically what Tinfoil said. You are it's source of food. You normally catch them from the wild and train them and feed them. It is not uncommon for them to fly away when you are out in the field doing falconry. After falconry season is over you have the option of releasing them back into the wild.
Some people put telemetry equipment on their bird so they can track them. Here is a pic of the antenna. It's that black thing extending from it's tail.
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ThirdgenTa

TCG Elite Member
Mar 17, 2008
5,156
140
Aurora
they are super cool, would be fun to watch them hunt.

in the ME you may see falcons in the airport or on planes. i think the rule is 2 can be in a seat. they may be in economy or they may be in first class - their birds easily go from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. they are not legal to be used to hunt in UAE or some other countries i believe because there is not much prey left, so they are trying to allow more life to return. so people fly to afghanistan and pakistan to allow them to hunt.

not sure about places in IL where you can actually participate in some things? i recall looking before but not exactly finding anything, although i'm sure there are experiences you can do out there somewhere.

i visited the falcon hospital in abu dhabi which was super cool.

You don't see Gyrfalcons around here. People mostly buy them for thousands of dollars from breeders in the middle east. My girlfriend got to have one land on her fist. I know the guy that owns this one. For some reason it is releasable to the wild so that's why he has it.


As far as watching falconry, i'm not sure if there are any public events. We were invited to this event by the people we took a class about raptors from. You might google some local clubs and see if you can go out with them. Just tell them you are interested in the sport or something.
 
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