By Sir Guillaume de la Belgique
www.SirGuillaume.com

(©2005 Scott Farrell)

Is there anything more knightly than strolling along through an English meadow with a trained bird of prey on your arm? Well, okay, repressing the peasants and refusing to wash your gambeson come to mind … but you get the point. Seeing a hawk on the arm of a falconer is certainly an image right out of the Middle Ages.

Ironically, for us “American-ized” knightly types, the closest you’re going to get to a real bird of prey is in some kind of wildlife show at a zoo or amusement park — and even there, they’re going to disguise what the hawk does (which is, technically, “kill stuff”) with all kinds of feel-good language about “natural behaviors” and “environmental stimulus” and “the circle of life.” Unless you’re willing to undergo years of intensive training, you’re not likely to ever have a hawk flying under your own control.

Which is why, on our recent trip to England, we were quite enthusiastic to discover the Forest of Dean Falconry Center, where they offer full-day “adult flying lessons” in which you can handle, fly and (with just a bit of luck) hunt with hawks and falcons under the guidance of professional falconers. We couldn’t sign up fast enough.

Our falconers were Andrew Nedoma and Graham Howley, the directors of the center. They began our session by introducing us to the birds and allowing us to sit with them (the birds, not Andrew and Graham) on our gloves in order to be sure that having birds of prey just inches away from our personal eyeballs would not (as they say in England) “freak us out.”

Then we proceeded to a nearby meadow for some field time with Dodger, the Harris hawk. We sent Dodger ahead into the branches of a tree, then strolled along for about 100 yards or so, and then Graham instructed me to put a small bit of meat on my glove, which was Dodger’s signal to come back and chow down. Then Felinah and I repeated the process again and again over the course of several beautiful English miles.

Now I know this doesn’t actually sound like hunting; it pretty much sounds like playing “tag” with a hawk. Here’s how Graham explained it:

“If we were serious about hunting, we’d each have a stick and we would be beating the bushes for game instead of just strolling along. We’re just working with Dodger right now, but if we were to scare a rabbit or a pheasant out of a bush as we walked by, you can bet we would immediately progress from working to hunting.”

For better or worse, we never found any game for Dodger to strike at, but we did have a great afternoon, and we gave Dodger a good work-out (as measured in quantity of meat consumed in the course of the session). Andrew and Graham are extremely skilled falconers; their methods were always gentle, patient and respectful of the birds. They would make fine falconers for a knight, duke or king of any realm.

If you are ever in Gloucestershire, I highly recommend scheduling a day at the Dean Falconry Center. (Also, there’s lots of interesting information on falconry on their website.)

Visit them at: www.ForestFalconry.co.uk