Good Press!

Just when I thought to expect the worst from press coverage of our strange and wonderful old sports, Anne Hocker sends this good story from outdoor writer Joe Doggett of the Houston Chronicle. Here's a sample:

"Peregrines are intelligent yet easily 'manned' to accept proximity to people. Regardless of raptor, manning is perhaps the most amazing aspect of falconry. The predator flies free, yet, through trust, returns time and again from the wild. There is something significant, almost magical, about that bond."

Doggett's story features my friends, the very accomplished falconer Jim Ince and his apprentice Chuck Redding. Ince flies a mature tiercel (male) peregrine successfully at snipe, dove and quail, some of the toughest quarries any trained falcon catches. Redding is enjoying a good season and his first bragging rights catching cottontails with a red-tailed hawk.

Though we couldn't get the dates together for this year, Jim and I and a few Houston friends usually end the season together with a final hunt and game diner---lots of tender little pieces of meat, left over from the hawks' meals and fried lightly in olive oil. (Falconers served heavily marinated.)