Ep 10: The Art and Practice of Falconry w/ Eric Patton

This week we are joined by Eric Patton, a Kentucky Falconers Association member. Join us as we discuss the history of, the practice of and the personal joys of falconry.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to History Over Coffee Podcast, brought to you by Marshall University's History Department and Norse by God. I'm your host, Tyler Leonard, and today we are joined by our first non-Marshall guest, Eric Patton, a local Falconer. Why don't you introduce yourself and the organization you're a part of?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

So my name is Eric Patton. I have been a member of the Kentucky Falconers Association for almost six years now.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Awesome. So I think to kind of get the conversation started, I kind of want to talk about the practice of falconry and the history of it briefly. Do you mind explaining what you know about the history of falconry and the practice itself?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Sure. So if we start about talking about practice, um most people take falconry a little bit wrong. These birds are not pets, they're wild animals. And you don't tame them, you're in a partnership with them. Anytime you're in a field with that bird, it can choose to leave. And we have an entire culture spending thousands of years on how we make ourselves valuable to that bird so it stays. What we know is about the fourth century AD, so that that's 1200 years ago. Uh we have records in China uh from of falconry. Uh, we have the Byzantine Empire uh and the areas around Turkey, the areas of the Islamic world um that we know were practicing falconry at that time. And moving into the Middle Ages, uh, we have the first couple of books, one in uh about 800 AD and one in a mid-1200 AD, so that's 800 years ago, um, written about specifically falconry. If if you want to really look at some of the theories, there are cave paintings that could be as much as 8,000 years old uh in Yemen that uh appear to depict falconry, but just so you know, that's older than the domestication of the horse. Uh it's it's been around a while.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

And so do we still operate under the same rules that Falconers all the way back then operated? Is there like a rule book that's been updated, or how do you guys kind of operate?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I I would love to be able to pronounce the title of Frederick II's book, um, but my Latin's a little sketchy. It's amazing how pertinent a book written 800 years ago still is to Falconry today. I have the copy of that book on my bookshelf at home. Uh the truth is these birds have not changed in 4,000 years. The rules of how you work with these birds and work with their instincts haven't changed. So, sure, we use modern equipment. I no longer weigh them on a balanced beam scale with little brass weights. Um, I have a digital scale that gives me an accurate count. Um we still use a lot of leather, uh, the same thing they would have used for thousands of years. Some people use more modern materials, there are plastics and stuff. Um but the truth is the the practice of falconry hasn't really changed all that much.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

And I know today, more or less, falconry is kind of shown as demonstrations around the country and around the world. What purpose did falconry serve back in the medieval times and before then? Um, was it just kind of a hobby or was there a sort of practical purpose?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

I call that the dichotomy of medieval falconry. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. So you have uh uh famously the Book of St. Albans, which was published in 1486, established this thing linking birds of prey to social rank, like a king could have a jeer falcon, uh, whereas a uh a knave could have you know a merlin or some smaller, less sought-after bird. Uh, and there is honestly a little bit of truth to that. Um, some of these birds were very, very expensive. A jeer falcon, um a white Arctic jeer falcon from Greenland trapped and exported to Europe, could bring the equivalent of a large tract of land. Um, you could trade one for a sizable boat. Uh, they were used as ransom or used as diplomatic gifts to gain favor or even to win marriages. Um, but it was big in social standing. Uh you wanted to have the peregrine falcon or the jeer falcon uh just as a social status and it needed to be trained and it needed to be to perform uh its function, even though it was done more as a sport. And then if you flip that, you have uh if if you guys are familiar with goshawks, uh they're a common bird in most of Europe, they're most of the world, honestly. Um, they were nicknamed the cook's bird because if you owned an alehouse or an inn or some sort of public house, you could take a goshawk out in the morning, hunt it all morning, and get enough food to feed all your guests for the day. Uh it was a very practical bird to own uh and pretty plentiful in the time.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

So you brought up earlier that sometimes if the partnership isn't met on both sides, these birds could potentially fly away. I was curious if you've ever had a bird fly away on you and it had had it come back later, or you just never saw it again, and is that sort of common?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

I wouldn't say it's common. Uh we kind of have a uh textbook practice for how we we train these birds and when we know that they're ready. That said, uh one of my best friends lost his first bird, got in a fight with a wild bird uh uh and flew off after it. And uh I did have a friend uh in northern Kentucky who lost a bird. Uh and when she got home, the bird was waiting on her. Uh so uh I I see and I have trapped birds that have been lost uh for people, and it does happen a few times a year. You see somebody, usually somebody who's newer in the sport, uh who's not been managing weight or has jumped the gun on uh letting this bird fry fly free, uh that that loses a bird. It I mean it happens and it's a risk every time you go out.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Is there a sort of tracking or identification system like how we microchip like dogs and cats? Is there sort of like a way you do that with these birds?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

So yeah, there is. And the rule with birds, uh, you know, if you if you take uh my hawk, she's the size of a modest sized chicken, but she's far lighter. You know, a modest sized chicken is gonna be you know 10 pounds. Uh my bird's about two. So everything has to be small and light. You can't put normal GPS trackers or whatever on them. There are now small GPS trackers, they are incredibly expensive. I do not own one. Um and I and I have non-monetary reasons for that, but uh they can GPS track and they're they're they're very useful. I've hunted with a lot of people that are using them. Uh kind of the the more tried and true modern method of doing so is with uh radio telemetry. So we have a little radio broadcast beacon on the bird, it's about the size of a nickel, and it can broadcast for about three miles, and then it gives you uh you've got an antenna that's directional, and you can wave that antenna back and forth to kind of get a direction to the bird. I have been fortunate that I have never had to use one, but I have been with people and watched them use them. Uh, and they are there's a trick to it, it's a skill, but it is way better than losing a bird that you've invested hundreds of hours into.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I I bet. Um, before we get into your kind of personal experience, one more pretty broad question. Why do you think this practice has stood the test of time?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

So I'll tell you that there's nothing like it. There's I uh I'm a lifelong hunter. I've hunted with firearms, I've hunted with bows, uh, I've hunted with a blowgun. You know, I I grew up in the woods and everything, and the first time that you whistle and you hold your arm out, and that hawk lands on your arm, you will never go back. It's it's not like the relationship you have with a dog where that dog has an emotional friendship with you. That bird is making a choice, and the fact that it's choosing to come and just you know, when you look at one, you see that predatory instinct that you don't see in animals that we interact with daily. Uh there's there's nothing like it. And a lot of the people that do this, I I I have a lot of friends that do this that they were lifelong hunters. I have a couple of friends, they've never hunted a day in their life, they just love the birds. Um but there is some draw to that, to the power of these birds. And even the smaller, you know, my bird, like she, like I said, she's pretty small, man. If you look at something like a golden eagle, uh the power of those birds is is something that is simply astounding. Uh and most of the time when we see them, they're flying, they're untouchable, right? To be able to interact with them i is is a gift beyond measure.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

I would I would imagine I can't I I've been to a couple of medieval uh Renaissance festivals and have been volunteered to go up during uh Falcon um demonstrations and when they sit on your arm and not even having a connection with them or training one, just having them sit on my arm was a very unique experience. Um not to argue semantics, but would you consider these birds wild, domesticated, tamed? Is there a a a particular kind of word that you would say applies to them?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

So I will tell you that domestication does not. These birds are not domesticated. Uh, as a matter of fact, if you start your journey into falconry, the first bird that's uh that you will work with you took from the wild. Uh it was sitting on a power line or in a tree, and you trapped it, and you took it in and you raised it, or you took care of it. It is a uh generally a first-year bird, so it's young, but it is not a baby. It is not they call it imprinting when it bonds to you. Um they are they are by no means domesticated. Um and if you let one go in two weeks, it will be wild again, like it never worked with a person. Uh are they tame? That's a tricky question. Um, I've had birds for several months that I walked into a building with my hand over my face to keep it from you know grabbing me if it decided to come at me. Um they are not tame in the respect of what you would uh you would say. If you want to get into semantics, I'm gonna use the term acclimated. They are acclimated to people. Um they become more used to you. And uh, for example, my hawk now, you could probably stand out there with a piece of food and a glove and whistle for till you run out of breath, and she'd probably never come to you. Uh, but she does to me. And uh then I've seen birds that would go to anybody, you know. Uh but they're they're definitely adjusted from a fully wild state. But I can tell you that I fully believe, personally, I believe that they are still wild animals. Their instincts are not tamed, they're not curved. Um they're gonna behave the same way a wild bird does, just with a little bit more control.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Sounds like to me that that's another kind of alluring aspect to this uh tradition practice, because like you said at the beginning, it's much more of like a a relationship that has to be fostered and maintained and not just one that's granted. Um speaking about relationships. You said you've been doing this for about six years. What got you interested in falconry and what sort of birds have you worked with over those past six years?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

So if you go to a falconry meet and you talk to falconers, very commonly you'll hear the same story I'm gonna tell you, which tells you how prevalent it is. When I was uh about 13 years old, I read a book called My Side of the Mountain uh by an author last name of George. Um I wish I could remember her full name now. Um she wrote that she wrote a book about a boy who runs away to the Adirondack Mountains and he uh he tames or captures or whatever a peregrine uh falcon chick and raises it. And I was blown away by that. Now, at 13 years old, I'm not gonna reveal my age too much here. There was no internet really. Uh, you couldn't find information on this. We found one guy that did it uh in West Virginia, and he convinced us it was going to be too hard and too expensive. And honestly, you know, in that time in the early 90s, it it very likely was. But that kind of hooked me forever. And you know, life goes on. You get a job, you get a career, you go to school. Uh happened to be in a meeting with a guy who was showing pictures of his hawk, and he had just gotten back and just gotten his permit. And I was like, I've got to get to know you. Like, you know, let's talk. And uh he's now one of my best friends. So uh he is the one who kind of opened the door for me, uh, even though he was new. And then I was fortunate in a way that uh right after I started into this, COVID happened, and I was working from home, and I happened to have 1200 acres of woodlands across from my house. So I was like, hey, come over and hunt in my woods, so I gotta go hunting with them every day. Uh, you know, uh I learned a lot from it, but that's that's sort of how I got I got into it. Uh it's a very common, you know, that book really touched a lot of people, and I encourage anybody who's a reader, understanding it is a young adult book, it is pretty simplistic, to look it up. It's uh Gene Craig Head George, My Side of the Mountain.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So when you first got into it, what is the first bird you trap the one that you're still working with now? And how how does the trapping process kind of work?

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So uh I I I I deliberately don't talk a lot about how we trap birds uh because I don't want to encourage illegal behavior. It is, these are very, very protected species. You have to have a license. There's a lot of rules you've got to follow. But you have a specifically designed trap uh that is very safe, it's not gonna hurt the bird, it's not gonna damage the bird, and you literally drive around in the car till you see the bird you want, and you toss the trap out that has uh live a live bait in it, it has a mouse in it or a small bird in it. Uh that the hawk won't be able to get to it. Um, it comes down, it gets caught on the trap, and then you run up, throw a towel over it, so it'll kind of calm down. And then you reach in there and grab its feet uh with a gloved hand. The glove is very important. You do not want to reach in with your bare hand. Uh and that's when the fun starts because when you grab that bird and take that towel off, it's not very happy. Uh and then you start a process called manning, which is just getting it used to you and the human environment and dogs and cars and the television or whatever that bird is going to see while it is in your care. Um, you just to make let it adjust to it. And uh I'll tell you, my first bird was an enormous red-tailed hawk, and I was terrified of her uh for a long time. Uh I I got into it, and I the first time that bird grabbed onto my glove and spread its wings out as far as it could go and looked at me uh just with wild eyes that you will never see on a person or a dog or anything that you're used to. I was like, this thing wants to kill me, you know. Uh yeah. Uh, but uh I uh I've tried I've worked with seven red tails uh in the past six years. I did that because I wanted a variety of experience with different birds of different personalities and different sizes. Uh and then uh I now have a Harris hawk, which is a southwestern hawk. Um I I don't want to go get too far into the differences between why we're those are so popular, but they're more social. They they bond a little better with people, they're more likable. Um and uh I've had her now for three years, and she's just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

So in your experience, and I guess falconers across history's experience, do you find it easier to work with male birds versus female birds, or is there really not much of a difference?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

That is a very common question, and I'll tell you most of the birds that that I have dealt with are presumed to be female. Sexing a bird is kind of difficult. The one male I worked with was nuts. Um there's uh a process in biology called sexual dimorphism where uh females of the species are larger than males, and that is true with most raptor species. Um so females tend to be desirable for a lot of reasons. I haven't noticed a personality difference. There are some people that will tell you there is, and some that'll tell you there the people who say there is are crazy. Um they'll say that some of them have different flight characteristics that males are more nimble or or whatever. I've not really noticed that myself. Um if you have somebody that has a male bird, they'll say, Oh, yeah, male personality is the best, and two years later when you see them, they got a female bird, they'll say female personality is the best, you know, it's just whatever they've got at the time. Uh most of my birds have been female. My current bird is a female, she was genetically sexed as female, so I know for a fact she was. Uh, other than that, we use weight as the determining factor. And uh there's a very common weight. We call them tweeners because they're kind of right between what we would know as male or know as female. Um, and that's where most of my birds have been, so presumed female, possibly male, and I couldn't tell you from their personality, so there must not be much of a difference.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Gotcha. Um, you mentioned the raptor species, and I was curious. I know things like hawks, falcons, eagles, owls fall into that category. Um, is this the only class of bird that is used in falconry? And I guess my general question is can birds are birds outside of that class smart enough or social sociable enough to be like in this kind of practice?

SPEAKER_01 21:37

I would say that there are a lot of birds out there that are more sociable but not suitable for falconry. Um when you when you use the word raptor, you're open on a biological can of worms. If you want to talk to a biologist about it, uh what we're looking at are birds that predominantly hunt with their feet, have a slightly Curved beak and predominantly eat meat. That's going to rule out a lot of birds right there. There are certain orders of uh, and you and you listed them pretty well. You know, eagles, owls, hawks, uh, and falcons are typically the birds. There's uh the Sacaridae, the secretary birds um are also raptor species. I've known of people who have hunted those. Ospreys are another kind of side bird of prey. There are people that have hunted those. Um the federal license allows you to take um birds of the family of falcons, uh, which is Falconidae, uh, which does uh include most includes the eagles and uh hawks. And then there are uh the family of uh of true owls and barn owls, sometimes at state depending on what you can use. In Kentucky and West Virginia, you can use a red-tailed hawk, a red-shouldered hawk, a cooper's hawk, a sharp-chin hawk, an American kestrel, a harris hawk. Um, I believe a great horned owl is the only owl you can use. Um, you cannot hunt use a bald eagle, uh, but you can use a golden eagle uh and uh harpy eagle, which is the largest birth prey on the planet that eats monkeys, and I'm too much like a monkey to want to mess with one. So I don't really think that's in my future. Uh but as far a lot of people ask about crows, crows are not a raptor. You cannot own a crow under a falcon permit. Um any of the smaller birds, what we would what I would call the paciform birds, like your songbirds and such, uh they're far too sensitive to try to deal with in a in a human interaction, long-term human interac human interaction setting, the stress would probably kill them.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

That makes sense. Uh I know you also said that a necessary requirement is that they eat meat, and I know that that's a large part of train not maybe not training, but working with the birds, because every time I've seen the shows, you always have those little snacks on standby. Um when you have felt comfortable working with the bird and feel like that bird is now bonded with you, how do you go about um keeping maintaining and keeping that bird around? Is it where you just let them fly around where you live and you know that they'll come back to you? Do you keep them in enclosures? How does that process work?

SPEAKER_01 24:51

So my bird has its own building. It's nine by nine by nine by nine by twelve, um, that she stays in through the entire molding season, which is late spring through the end of summer. Uh, when September comes and hunting season goes, she stays in that except when we're hunting. Uh, and I'll tell you that a lot of people have problems with the way that those birds are kept, but this is a true story that I was working, my building is my backyard. My I was working with my bird in my front yard. Um she decided to take a little side trip and flew back into her building. Uh, so she was she was done for the day and wanted to go home. And uh I could probably leave the door open and I don't think she'd go out. Uh sometimes it's hard for me to get her to want to go out. Now she loves to fly when we get her in the woods, but she likes her building. Uh I do not uh typically fly her right at my property uh loot-free. Uh I have a couple of rabbit fields that are just big open ball field type fields uh or hay fields. And uh I have a large couple large tracts of woodlands that I take her out and she can fly wherever she wants to fly, but she will usually stay very close to you because of that food mechanic. She knows you're a guaranteed meal she doesn't have to work for.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

You talk about this building that you keep your bird in. Um, what sort of things do you have in this building to help enrich their lifestyle? Is it just like a wide open building, or are there certain like obstacles and perches and things like that?

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Uh there are there are a number of perches. Uh, there's an elevated bathpan. Birds are this raptor species, and I'm speaking in very general terms here, are very visual animals, and a lot of their enrichment uh is very visually based. So she's got a three-sided window that's uh five foot of each side of that building where she can see all of the movement. She can, you know, look out, see everything. She can get in the sun, she can get in the rain. Uh if it's raining, um there are people that do provide additional enrichment. And uh typically uh for a bird that is not of breeding age, the only type of enrichment that I've seen that is really beneficial is anything visual and then food related. So varying uh their diet and giving them uh, you know, you can buy whole quail feather on that are frozen from uh a variety of animal suppliers, reptile suppliers, um, and giving them something like that that they can pull the feathers off of and everything. That's that's about the only enrichment. I can't tell you that's the correct way or the incorrect way. Um it's more than some get and less than some get. I've had people tell me that a uh a go buy a bag of crickets from the pet store and dump them in the building and let them chase the crickets around. I've never done that, but uh apparently they like it.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

So when I've been to these falconry demonstrations, one thing that always sticks out to me is when they talk about uh conservation. And I know that a lot of bird species are different, but if you could speak on conservation, what do you think are some of the most important things that us as civilians can do or hunters can do to kind of help conserve these species when they are out in the wild?

SPEAKER_01 28:35

So I'll say that every good falconer I know is a conservationist at heart. Uh and you have to have that in mind. And so when I say things like we're taking a bird from the wild, realize we're taking a first-year bird that has an 80% chance of dying before its second year. We're teaching it to hunt, we're giving it a safe space and a steady food supply until it's strong, it is an adult, and then we would let it rejoin the breeding population. Uh, we are not, typically speaking, working with endangered species. Um there's some uh back and forth with the peregrine falcons, and we do a lot. The peregrine falcon only exists because of falconers. The whole rebreeding effort after the DDT issue. Um, if it hadn't been for captive birds that had not been introduced to DDT, we would have no peregrine falcons. Um so the one thing that I always say is don't use rotenticides, rat poisons, rats, mice, those are universally a food source for a lot of animals, uh, not just hawks and falcons and eagles and uh owls are huge predators, foxes are huge predators, and rat poison, you know, a sick rat, that's what they're gonna go after. It's not moving very fast. That rat poison is more toxic to the bird than it is to the rat. Um I also get a lot of calls. People tell me they found a sick hawk or a sick eagle or whatever, and I'll go pick it up and try to get it to our vet or to a rehab facility. And it's very common to see lead toxicity. Uh, and I'm not sure in a common everyday way what we can do about that. Uh, it is not lead from shotguns or rifles, it's not from hunting, at least not as a sole source. A lot of it's at from chemical uh releases or even from your automobile. Uh, but those are wreaking havoc, especially on our bald eagle populations. So uh be mindful of what you put into the environment. Uh and when you have a choice, don't put things in the into the environment that you don't need to. Uh, and especially uh avoid rodenticides uh and then things of that nature. I've seen more birds die dead or dying because of rodenticides and eating a rat that had eaten poison or a mouse that had eaten poison than any other reason.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, I know every time I've been to one of the demonstrations, they bring up rodenticide as one of the main causes. Um briefly switching gears, um what is one of your favorite parts about doing demonstrations for the public?

SPEAKER_01 31:33

That's a harder one to answer, I think. I'm not really sure. I I've not been never been much of an educator, and I'm honestly not even that much of a public speaker. But uh this is something if you can't tell, I'm very passionate about. It's a practice I dearly love. And not just, you know, there's the practice of falconry, and you can get you can get a hawk and you can go hunt, and as long as you know about the care of that bird and the practice of getting that bird to hunt, and the and you know, the health aspects and everything, you're gonna be fine. But the history of falconry is what captivated me. And I have way more books than I should uh about falconry. That uh I sharing that with people has become honestly as much of a passion for me as the hunting with a bird is. I I go to a lot of rent fairs myself, uh and actually know people who do that.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

So yeah, I mean the purpose of this podcast is to bring people on who are passionate about whatever topic we're discussing for the week. So I think you've been a great steward for that. Um kind of wrapping things up here as our fun question of the week. If you could own or train any bird in the world, regardless of the environment or the necessary things you might need, like you have access to everything you would need. What bird would you pick?

SPEAKER_01 33:47

So there's this fun thing that everybody I know that's gotten into falconry does, even if they won't admit it. And they got on Wikipedia or somewhere and they started looking up different birds of prey and all the rare ones. Um and uh I came across one called the Chilean blue eagle. It's all also called the black-breasted buzzard. Um, it's a little bit bigger than a red-tailed hawk, it's smaller than an eagle, an actual eagle, like what we would see a golden eagle or a bald eagle by a large amount. Uh and you know, when I started six years ago, which is not that long, like nobody had them. But I just love those. I mean, I'd love to have one of those one day, and now I'm starting to see it in the U.S. And uh there are people that are starting to breed them in the U.S. captive. Uh so I think about that as far as how it looks, I think that's the bird I'd want. But um I'm gonna go back to something I said in the beginning, and that's the uh the cook's bird, the goshawk. I think that's probably my dream bird and not out of reach.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Would you would you use would you use that bird to hunt for you like they did, as you mentioned earlier?

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Uh I I have an agreement with all of my birds. They can when we hunt squirrels, they can have all the squirrel. They eat it. I I I save it for them, it doesn't go to waste. Uh but uh if we get a rabbit, we got to talk, we might split that one. So if uh if I had a goshawk, we hopefully be splitting a few rabbits.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Gotcha. Well, thank you for joining us today, Eric. And thank you everybody for listening. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you'll be on Marshall's campus on Wednesday, April 29th. Does that sound correct?

SPEAKER_01 35:34

That is correct. And uh I think I'm speaking to a uh class at 11, but sometime I'm thinking it's probably going to be around one o'clock. I should be somewhere uh outside of the history department there. Um uh I don't know where I'm going. I follow whoever does, uh, but I should be giving a public talk then.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Yeah, I believe you'll be located on Buskirk Field if anyone listening is familiar with Marshall's campus. But if you are in the area and you've listened to our podcast today, I encourage you guys to come out and see Eric with his bird. Um, do you have anything you'd like to add before we sign off?

SPEAKER_01 36:08

No, I I appreciate you guys taking the time to listen to me today, and uh, I hope to see some of you next week.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Awesome. Uh thank you everybody for listening. If you'd like to find more information, you can go to Facebook or Instagram and look up Marshall's History Department or Norse by God. And you can also go to NorsebyGod.com to find more information on medieval history, things like Falconry, and other cool things like that. But for now, we are signing off and we'll see you next week.