{"id":218,"date":"2010-11-13T04:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-13T04:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=218"},"modified":"2014-12-08T16:09:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T21:09:50","slug":"fishing-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"Fishing the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

“What a needy, desperate thing to claim what’s wild for oneself…<\/i>”<\/p>\n

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Can a kept hawk ever be a *happy* hawk, I wonder?<\/p>\n

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Falconers will say their birds are well-loved and are cared for properly. I don’t doubt that.<\/p>\n

Educators who work with non-releasable birds will say that many people who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to interact with a wild thing are touched by the lives of these captive birds. I don’t doubt that, either.<\/p>\n

But keeping wild-caught birds for falconry? Purposely fishing the sky for a healthy hawk to catch and keep as one’s personal hunting partner?<\/p>\n

How is that right?<\/p>\n

Are captive-bred birds somehow less desirable for falconry?<\/p>\n

Anyone know?<\/p>\n

I’m as guilty as the next person of enjoying the “horse and pony show” offered by the opportunity to be up close with a wild bird of prey, but I can’t help wondering that their souls aren’t somehow diminished by the contact; by being kept.<\/p>\n

Non-releasable birds have to be thought of in a different context, I guess, because of their potential as champions and ambassadors of a species; were it not for them most people would never have the chance to see a Bald Eagle or a Screech Owl at arm’s length. Or to understand the impact we humans have on them.<\/p>\n

But falconers and their healthy wild-caught birds?<\/p>\n

I’m not so sure how I feel about that.<\/p>\n

My issue is not with falconers, exactly. Falconry sounds like a very cool thing to do… there was a period of time where I read everything about falconry that I could get my hands on. Dan O’Brien’s books<\/a> were particularly alluring to me… his stories of hunting grouse and ducks on the prairies of South Dakota with a dog and the constant sky…<\/p>\n

Falconers are due credit, I believe, for the role they played in saving the Peregrine Falcon<\/a>, among other species. The individual falconer with a couple birds that he flies on weekends as part of a greater lifestyle does not trouble me.<\/p>\n

My issue is with those who turn to *education* to support a habit of acquiring birds. Maybe they need an educational component on their license to increase the number of birds they’re permitted to keep. I have no idea, really, but I’ve seen a number over the years who just don’t seem to be doing the right thing by the birds in their care.<\/p>\n

Maybe I’m just being overly sentimental.<\/p>\n

“… to be wild means nothing you do or have done needs to be explained.<\/i>”<\/p>\n

Photos: Harris’ Hawk at an upstate NY *raptor center*
\nQuotes from “Hawk” by Stephen Dunn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“What a needy, desperate thing to claim what’s wild for oneself…”   Can a kept hawk ever be a *happy* hawk, I wonder?     Falconers will say their birds are well-loved and are cared for properly. I don’t doubt that. Educators who work with non-releasable birds will say that many people who otherwise wouldn’t … Continue reading Fishing the sky<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,24,2,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4664,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/4664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}