Originally Posted by
stavros_
Any comments from members about that book?
Americans had no history in falconry that told then that gyrfalcons will not wait on. Our Prairie falcon is different than sakers and will wait on well. To U.S. falconers that started on prairies when the taking of peregrines was outlawed, it was a natural progression to fly gyrs in the waiting on style. We did not understand that they would not wait well. Unlike many Sakers, gyrs will wait when flown on when flown at challanging quarry in the right place at the right tempratures. In the early days here in the U.S. waiting on and the fast and powerful stoop was, and still is the high class style. To many that started falconry about the time that I did(1968) Sakers in the U.S. were held in low esteam because they didnot wait on well and were the exception to the large longwings we had learned to fly. Teaching Prairie Falcons to wait well is more difficult than flying peregrines and is what may of the US longwingers started with. Even though they are more difficult to get waiting on, gyrs were and are the next progression of the native falcons here.
Captive breeding and the gyr/peregrine tiercel have changed everything. It is the purist from a time before commonly available breeding chamber birds, that even still thinks of getting gyrs and especially passage gyrs to wait on.
Jeff,
Northern Black Hills, Wyoming