The Hunting Falcon

Book excerpt: For the first time under one cover, the author has assembled the results of the renewed interest, extensive experimentation, and technological progress that have advanced falconry over the past three decades. The Hunting Falcon is a fresh approach to the sport of falconry. For the first time under one cover, the author has assembled the results of the renewed interest, extensive experimentation, and technological progress that have advanced falconry over the past three decades. Falconer and wildlife biologist, Bruce Haak, details the techniques for training falcons in the classical, game hawking style. Through well-defined chapters, he establishes the fundamentals of care and handling of captive falcons and legal means of acquiring them. Successful strategies for hawking a wide variety of North American quarry are analyzed and laced with entertaining and informative anecdotes. Time-honored techniques for training wild falcons are restated in modern terms. In addition, the education of imprinted and captive-bred falcons, classes of falcons without historical precedence, is concisely outlined for the reader. In a break with tradition, the author uses North America's only indigenous falcon, the prairie falcon, as the primary subject and promotes it as an outstanding hunting partner. His training philosophy and comments on the use of radiotelemetry are added enrichment's to the text.