Andrea Chen
2003-11-13 03:19:14 UTC
Hello all,
While rehashing my website (finally came to the 21st century) I decided
the FAQ needed some help for questions that had been unanswered for years.
I wrote a couple pieces for it and would like comments and corrections.
FAQ #13. Can anyone recommend specs. for a giant hood?
Most giant hoods are built large enough so a) the raptor has clearance on
all sides, head and tail, and b) can turn around on the perch. This
typically means around a 18" footprint and whatever height is necessary. A
giant hood should have airvents near the base, and a method of securing the
leash so that if the raptor flies out when the door is opened, it will
remain under the falconer's control. Some falconers in warm areas add
muffin fans connected to the 12V in the hawkmobile for better circulation.
Handles help as well. Kimsey and Hodge's _Falconry Equipment_ has several
good descriptions of giant hoods.
Giant hoods can be made of wood, cardboard boxes, or even upended plastic
trash cans. If painted, it should be a light color to deflect heat.
Most recently the Coulsens have designed a very narrow box to accommodate
their cast of six Harris hawks. They are only about 10 inches wide, yet
their raptors don't seem to mind. There is a plan on the web of how to
build one from a single 4x8' sheet of Coroplast, a very light but sturdy
plastic that is usually seen as political campaign signs and USPS mail
bins. Coroplast is easily hosed clean and difficult to break.
[Comments:
At one time I recall someone had a plan for making a coroplast box from a
single sheet. I can't seem to find it via Google now, but if anyone knows
where it is, I'd like to add a link to it. I believe I have a copy of it
in .dxf format, whatever that is, but would prefer to at least know who the
original architect was so s/he can be properly credited before putting it
on my own website. As a last resort I will be asking permission from Toby
Bradshaw to add a link to his page. He does not have an actual blueprint
but describes dimensions and materials.
http://faculty.washington.edu/toby/hawkbox.htm]
FAQ #14. What is "Operation Falcon"?
Articles about Op Falcon were compiled by Rick Holderman and published in
the CHC Journal of 1999. Another reference is _The Pilgrim and the Cowboy_,
by Paul McKay, ISBN: 0-07-045317-9, which focuses more on the Canadian side
of things.
In brief, it was an attempt by USFWS to find Americans illegally selling
gyrfalcons and peregrines to people outside the US, primarily to citizens
of Arabic countries, who were rumored to be willing to pay $10,000 for a
white gyr. At the same time Canada (home of many wild gyrs) was advancing
its own operation to discover the same. Illegal purchases were set up and
stung. The main outcomes were that innocent falconers were accused, raptors
were confiscated and never returned, and USFWS found no illegal sales by
anyone other than their own agents, who offered birds at enticingly low
prices. The other outcome was a deep level of paranoia and distrust of
USFWS by falconers. Fortunately many of both the USFWS and falconers have
changed their attitudes about each other over the years.
[Comments: Lastly, I discovered, to my surprise, that the original FAQ
ended with a section on "The History of Falconry". I do not know exactly
what became of it, but after searching my backups and poking around
archives, I could not find it. So I wrote: ]
A brief history of falconry.
There is no clear path showing where exactly falconry began. The oldest
recordings come from China, Japan, and the Arabic countries, but those
places do not necessarily indicate the beginning, only where writing and
painting were made. Aelian's _De Natura Animalium_ states that falconry
was practiced in central Asia as early as 400 B.C. [1] I would guess from
there it spread outward to Japan and India, came west to Turkey and then
into southern Europe and northward to the British Isles.
Naturally, it began as a method of putting meat on the table when bows and
arrows were not so reliable as a raptor for taking birds, and before the
accuracy and power of guns made everything easy. The Mongols hunted (and
still do) wolves for fur and self-protection, but they and everyone else
went after mostly birds and rabbits. One of the old French names for
'goshawk' is "cuisinier."
The Middle Ages is the era, and western Europe and England the places, that
popularly come to mind when thinking of falconry, with its rules about the
eagle for the emperor, the merlin for the lady and the kestrel for the
holy-water clerk and whatnot. Falcon trapping was an industry, a seasonal
employment for northern Europeans, from the middle ages onward. After
firepower turned falconry into a hobby, it became fashionable; revolution
abolished the old rules and everyone could have a raptor, so much so that
churches were forced to make rules about leaving the hawks at home if you
wanted to attend services. A great wealth of books were written (and
survive, thanks to the printing press) in the 16th and early 17th century.
Falconry began to lag in popularity and probably reached its low point in
the early 20th century, where it was practiced by a relative handful in
each country. Other developments -- cars, World War I and the Great
Depression -- were more interesting, or at least more involving. It began
to revive somewhere between England's thirties with a dedicated set of
longwingers, and America's sixties, where odd lots looked into the past for
a symbol of the nobility Americans could never possess.
This revival has brought to falconers giant hoods, bungee leashes, Dremel
tools, Alymeri jesses, Coroplast Coulsen boxes, ferrets, nearly real lures,
Layman exercises, radio telemetry and GPSs, balloons and kites, Gore-Tex
hood braces, and squirrel chaps. The era brought DDT and falconers
invented captive breeding to answer it. The Vietnam war unwittingly
created one of the most remarkable inventions so well-loved by, and so
essential to, modern falconers: the ziplock bag. But the greatest advance
of all is in medicine and all it offers to raptors, whether it be setting a
broken leg, artificial insemination, or inoculating against West Nile
Virus.
Yet all the basics -- jesses and leashes, hoods, bath pans, block perches
and bow perches, lures and whistles -- are essentially still the same. The
methods of training are by and large the same. This is predictable, for
raptors are still the same. I think, however, that on the whole falconers
understand the psychology of raptors better than ever, and some talented
people have been able to take advantage of that understanding and develop
new methods of training.
[1] Wood, C. and Fyfe, F.M. _The Art of Falconry by Frederick II of
Hohenstaufen_, Stanford University Press 1961, p. 561.
[I welcome your comments.]
While rehashing my website (finally came to the 21st century) I decided
the FAQ needed some help for questions that had been unanswered for years.
I wrote a couple pieces for it and would like comments and corrections.
FAQ #13. Can anyone recommend specs. for a giant hood?
Most giant hoods are built large enough so a) the raptor has clearance on
all sides, head and tail, and b) can turn around on the perch. This
typically means around a 18" footprint and whatever height is necessary. A
giant hood should have airvents near the base, and a method of securing the
leash so that if the raptor flies out when the door is opened, it will
remain under the falconer's control. Some falconers in warm areas add
muffin fans connected to the 12V in the hawkmobile for better circulation.
Handles help as well. Kimsey and Hodge's _Falconry Equipment_ has several
good descriptions of giant hoods.
Giant hoods can be made of wood, cardboard boxes, or even upended plastic
trash cans. If painted, it should be a light color to deflect heat.
Most recently the Coulsens have designed a very narrow box to accommodate
their cast of six Harris hawks. They are only about 10 inches wide, yet
their raptors don't seem to mind. There is a plan on the web of how to
build one from a single 4x8' sheet of Coroplast, a very light but sturdy
plastic that is usually seen as political campaign signs and USPS mail
bins. Coroplast is easily hosed clean and difficult to break.
[Comments:
At one time I recall someone had a plan for making a coroplast box from a
single sheet. I can't seem to find it via Google now, but if anyone knows
where it is, I'd like to add a link to it. I believe I have a copy of it
in .dxf format, whatever that is, but would prefer to at least know who the
original architect was so s/he can be properly credited before putting it
on my own website. As a last resort I will be asking permission from Toby
Bradshaw to add a link to his page. He does not have an actual blueprint
but describes dimensions and materials.
http://faculty.washington.edu/toby/hawkbox.htm]
FAQ #14. What is "Operation Falcon"?
Articles about Op Falcon were compiled by Rick Holderman and published in
the CHC Journal of 1999. Another reference is _The Pilgrim and the Cowboy_,
by Paul McKay, ISBN: 0-07-045317-9, which focuses more on the Canadian side
of things.
In brief, it was an attempt by USFWS to find Americans illegally selling
gyrfalcons and peregrines to people outside the US, primarily to citizens
of Arabic countries, who were rumored to be willing to pay $10,000 for a
white gyr. At the same time Canada (home of many wild gyrs) was advancing
its own operation to discover the same. Illegal purchases were set up and
stung. The main outcomes were that innocent falconers were accused, raptors
were confiscated and never returned, and USFWS found no illegal sales by
anyone other than their own agents, who offered birds at enticingly low
prices. The other outcome was a deep level of paranoia and distrust of
USFWS by falconers. Fortunately many of both the USFWS and falconers have
changed their attitudes about each other over the years.
[Comments: Lastly, I discovered, to my surprise, that the original FAQ
ended with a section on "The History of Falconry". I do not know exactly
what became of it, but after searching my backups and poking around
archives, I could not find it. So I wrote: ]
A brief history of falconry.
There is no clear path showing where exactly falconry began. The oldest
recordings come from China, Japan, and the Arabic countries, but those
places do not necessarily indicate the beginning, only where writing and
painting were made. Aelian's _De Natura Animalium_ states that falconry
was practiced in central Asia as early as 400 B.C. [1] I would guess from
there it spread outward to Japan and India, came west to Turkey and then
into southern Europe and northward to the British Isles.
Naturally, it began as a method of putting meat on the table when bows and
arrows were not so reliable as a raptor for taking birds, and before the
accuracy and power of guns made everything easy. The Mongols hunted (and
still do) wolves for fur and self-protection, but they and everyone else
went after mostly birds and rabbits. One of the old French names for
'goshawk' is "cuisinier."
The Middle Ages is the era, and western Europe and England the places, that
popularly come to mind when thinking of falconry, with its rules about the
eagle for the emperor, the merlin for the lady and the kestrel for the
holy-water clerk and whatnot. Falcon trapping was an industry, a seasonal
employment for northern Europeans, from the middle ages onward. After
firepower turned falconry into a hobby, it became fashionable; revolution
abolished the old rules and everyone could have a raptor, so much so that
churches were forced to make rules about leaving the hawks at home if you
wanted to attend services. A great wealth of books were written (and
survive, thanks to the printing press) in the 16th and early 17th century.
Falconry began to lag in popularity and probably reached its low point in
the early 20th century, where it was practiced by a relative handful in
each country. Other developments -- cars, World War I and the Great
Depression -- were more interesting, or at least more involving. It began
to revive somewhere between England's thirties with a dedicated set of
longwingers, and America's sixties, where odd lots looked into the past for
a symbol of the nobility Americans could never possess.
This revival has brought to falconers giant hoods, bungee leashes, Dremel
tools, Alymeri jesses, Coroplast Coulsen boxes, ferrets, nearly real lures,
Layman exercises, radio telemetry and GPSs, balloons and kites, Gore-Tex
hood braces, and squirrel chaps. The era brought DDT and falconers
invented captive breeding to answer it. The Vietnam war unwittingly
created one of the most remarkable inventions so well-loved by, and so
essential to, modern falconers: the ziplock bag. But the greatest advance
of all is in medicine and all it offers to raptors, whether it be setting a
broken leg, artificial insemination, or inoculating against West Nile
Virus.
Yet all the basics -- jesses and leashes, hoods, bath pans, block perches
and bow perches, lures and whistles -- are essentially still the same. The
methods of training are by and large the same. This is predictable, for
raptors are still the same. I think, however, that on the whole falconers
understand the psychology of raptors better than ever, and some talented
people have been able to take advantage of that understanding and develop
new methods of training.
[1] Wood, C. and Fyfe, F.M. _The Art of Falconry by Frederick II of
Hohenstaufen_, Stanford University Press 1961, p. 561.
[I welcome your comments.]
--
-andrea-
austringer -at- spamcop -dot- net
-andrea-
austringer -at- spamcop -dot- net