forestfalcon

Snowboarding is kind of secondary as far as my hobbies go. My first is falconry. I've had to stop for awhile as I just had a baby, and hunting 5 days a week isn't really feasible right now.
Here's a couple of pics of past birds: (If you're squeamish at all, there is nature happening here, and nature ain't so nice!)

A Gyrfalcon/Peregrine falcon hybrid enjoying his pheasant that he caught:


Male Dark Morph Red Tailed Hawk:


Hawking in one of the prettiest places around, Alamosa, Colorado:


Myself and an American Kestrel (small falcon), hawking sparrows:


A bunch of starlings, balled up, with a Merlin (small falcon) chasing:

KIRKRIDER

Very cool!
Very cool!
Very cool!
Very cool!

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ShredLife

holy shit that is cool! you aren't aloud to keep those birds yourself are you??

birds of prey are so fun to watch... one of my favorite parts about floating down the river is watching the ospreys, red-tails, and bald eagles hunting fish.

i'm super jealous.

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get the hell off my lawn.

forestfalcon

Thanks! You can keep them if you have a falconry permit. Depending on the state you live it, it may be a joint state/federal permit. Super hard to get, and the feds and state make it pretty hard to do!

Osprey are pretty cool! Seeing them slam into the water after fish is definitely a sight to behold!

ShredLife

for sure... they're my favorite to watch on the river cuz they'll spot a fish and stop themselves in midair, kinda hoverflap for a second, and then DIVEBOMBB!!!

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get the hell off my lawn.

forestfalcon

Yep, that's cool...not quite as cool as watching a falcon stoop from 1000 feet up and smash a duck midair, but cool nonetheless!

Riley212

sucks that the government makes it hard to do, i guess it isn't for everyone and some one needs to make sure idiots aren't mistreating the birds.

this is really cool though, props for having such a neat hobby.

do you develop relationships with the birds? are they smart like domesticated birds? i.e. parrots and cockatoos and cockatiels

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ShredLife

one time i was guiding some people fly fishing down in a desert canyon and all of a sudden this streak flew right past my head over my shoulder. i turn around to see a peregrine sitting on the rocks on the side of the river i'm standing in - maybe 15 feet away.

he looks at me. i keep looking at him. then he starts hopping along the rockband with his head cocked to the side like he's listening down into the rocks. he hopped up and down that rockband for 10 or 15 minutes while i ignored my clients and watched him. eventually he stopped, looked at me like he was all pissed off, and flew away. After about 5 more minutes i hear a flapping and rustling and turn around to see a dove squeezing out of the rocks and fly away.

raptors are damn cool creatures

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get the hell off my lawn.

Cr0_Reps_Smit

those are some awesome looking birds. seems like a lot of fun to get to watch them in their natural domain

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forestfalcon

That's an awesome story! I have to hand it to doves and pigeons...they are smart! At sky trials (where people fly their falcons for competition) they release pigeons. Some of the pigeons have learned that if they go and hide under cars, the falcons can't see them.