🐦 Falconry 🐦

[autobot.]

Ahh, lucky!

[Enyo]

@Angelus Gaston

Your lucky that your uncle is/was a falconer and that you could help hil with such wonderful birds!
Having to chase a buzzard chasing a dogs during two hours... This sounds funny, and horrible at the same time x).

If some of you like owl, I have a weird anedoct i need to tell somewhere.
Three days ago, I managed to attract a real tawny owl with a terrible and very bad quality youtube video of tawny owl cries. I was with my family in a wood (the same where I had already seen the eagle-owl a few weaks ago), and we heard a tawny owl singing somewhere far away in this wood. Then, for joking I made this bet that I could make it come to us, using my phone. And I still don't know how, since the sound of the video was very bad, but it worked. We were all laughing, thinking this was a crazy idea and not trully thinking we had any chance to see the owl, and some people who were around walking their dogs gave us weird looks. But suddenly, we heard the owl cries again, and it was very close. A few second later, the owl flied over us, and landed on a branch of the tree that was just at our side!
It was probably very disappointed to not find a mate there x) (but a real one who had made the cries of the video would have been sick, it would have had a kind of flu, i think)
If i can already attract wild owls with youtube, maybe I really could be a good falconer x)

[autobot.]

@Angelus Gaston

Your lucky that your uncle is/was a falconer and that you could help hil with such wonderful birds!
Having to chase a buzzard chasing a dogs during two hours... This sounds funny, and horrible at the same time x).

If some of you like owl, I have a weird anedoct i need to tell somewhere.
Three days ago, I managed to attract a real tawny owl with a terrible and very ba quality youtube video of tawny owl cries. I was with my family in a wood (the same where I had already seen the eagle-owl a few weaks ago), and we heard a tawny owl singing somewhere far away in this wood. Then, for joking I made this bet that I could make it come to us, using my phone. And I still don't know how, since the sound of the video was very bad, but it worked. We were all laughing, thinking this was a crazy idea and not trully thinking we had any chance to see the owl, and some people who were around walking their dogs gave us weird looks. But suddenly, we heard the owl cries again, and it was very close. A few second later, the owl flied over us, and landed on a branch of the tree that was just at our side!
It was probably very disappointed to not find a mate there x) (but a real one who had made the cries of the video would have been sick, it would have had a kind of flu, i think)
If i can already attract wild owls with youtube, maybe I really could be a good falconer x)

Omg, that's so funny!

[Enyo]

@Angelus Gaston

Your lucky that your uncle is/was a falconer and that you could help hil with such wonderful birds!
Having to chase a buzzard chasing a dogs during two hours... This sounds funny, and horrible at the same time x).

If some of you like owl, I have a weird anedoct i need to tell somewhere.
Three days ago, I managed to attract a real tawny owl with a terrible and very ba quality youtube video of tawny owl cries. I was with my family in a wood (the same where I had already seen the eagle-owl a few weaks ago), and we heard a tawny owl singing somewhere far away in this wood. Then, for joking I made this bet that I could make it come to us, using my phone. And I still don't know how, since the sound of the video was very bad, but it worked. We were all laughing, thinking this was a crazy idea and not trully thinking we had any chance to see the owl, and some people who were around walking their dogs gave us weird looks. But suddenly, we heard the owl cries again, and it was very close. A few second later, the owl flied over us, and landed on a branch of the tree that was just at our side!
It was probably very disappointed to not find a mate there x) (but a real one who had made the cries of the video would have been sick, it would have had a kind of flu, i think)
If i can already attract wild owls with youtube, maybe I really could be a good falconer x)

Omg, that's so funny!

I know right? I still don't believe it worked

[autobot.]

Ireland doesn't really have many wild birds of prey, but you would sometimes see kites or hawks in larger counties, or even Dublin.

I remember once when I was at the hospital I saw two eagles

[Gypaetus Barbatus]

The practice of falconry honestly very much depends on where you live, and what the law states you can, and can't do.

Here in the Netherlands, you need to pass an exam and do two years as an internship with a recognised falconer to get a certificate to keep birds of prey. Falconry isn't only about falcons, although the name would suggest so. It pretty much includes every bird of prey. After you get your certificate, you can own birds of prey and fly with them. I'm not yet entirely sure about hunting, but I wouldn't necessarily go hunting with mine, since I absolutely adore lure and lure training.

Regardless, falconry is an old sport and its a great one. But it's not for everyone. It takes a lot of time and patience to become a falconer, and then it takes even more time and patience to obtain a bird, train it, get it to trust you. It's about building trust with your bird and being able to take care of it properly, providing in all its needs. You can't just go on holiday and you can't fly it everywhere or take it with you regularly either. It's a 24/7 job that can become very tough.

My advise: If you do want to become a falconer, start doing workshops at several, as many as you can, falconers and places that provide workshops with birds of prey. This is pretty much your best bet in seeing if it fits you, or not. This will get you hands on experience handling birds, feeding them, training them, and shows you just what exactly goes into working with them. Birds of prey are wild animals and they can and will harm you. So go out there, get some hands on experience, ask the falconers a lot of questions, get books on falconry and birds of prey.

[autobot.]

My parents are looking into falconry places for my bday~
I'm so excited

[Enyo]

I'm happy for you
I may also go to the falconry place I've spoken about this summer.

I didn't know there were not many bird of prey in Ireland... When I see the irish countryside, it's always so green it suprises me a little (not that there are not a lot of huge birds of prey such as eagles, but I would have thought that they were a lot of hawks, falcons, etc...).
In my country there are a lot of bird of preys.
The most impressing things i've seen last year was colonies of bird of prey flying around us. One time, it was a colony of vultures, and the other, a colony of black kites. Each times, they were dozens of birds in the sky. Otherway, the most impressive wild bird I've seen in my country was a golden-eagle, and well, seeing an eagle owl in a forest in the night is also impressive... Each time we take the car and ride in the countryside, we can see at least a hawk or another small bird of prey if we look.
I've just realized that when I was a child, there were also a lot of kestrels close to where I live, and that I haven't seen one during the last few years... =/ I hope it's not because their population is decreasing too much!

I look about the laws of my country.
To become a professional / recognized falconer, you need to do a two year internship with a falconer too.
But that's if you want to be a professional falconer, do it as your main job, if you don't want to do that as your main job, it's not really possible to do a two year internship... I would like to be a "hobbyist" falconer, it will not be my professional career, so I just can't do that during two years ( (i used quotation marks for hobbyist because I now that even if it's not my professional career if I own a bird of prey some day I will have to take care of him everyday, keeping a bird of prey's a lot of work, and to show that I used this word only as the opposition of professional, and not because I want to be a bad one who just take care of her bird once every week and stop when she gets bored ) ).
Otherway, if you have a hunting licence, you can ask a permit to own a bird of prey... This would be apparently the easiest way for me to own one if I'm really ready to own one some day ( but the problem is I don't know if I want to pass a hunting licence... I wouldn't mind hunting with a bird of prey and even enjoy it, but shooting animals with a gun isn't my thing...)
So I think the better I can do for now, is dong workshops, help in shelters, etc...
I understand that it's better that it's not easy to own a bird of prey... They're not for everybody.

[autobot.]

^^ hope you can go!

Yeah, I have sometimes seen hawks or eagles in the mountains. There is a place in.. Dublin I think and there are peregrine falcons that just live there.

On Monday, I am going up to Wicklow mountains. Wish me luck on seeing a bird of prey!
It would really make my day to see a bird so pretty and powerful!

[Gypaetus Barbatus]

an edit to my last post: you're allowed to keep birds of prey here in the Netherlands without being a falconer, as long as they are captive bred and have the right papers.

anyway, i earned my falconers glove the other day. now i have my own. gotta let it engrave or something, make it special for me.