Hi everyone my name is Paul I've been a falconer for 10 years and I was just upgraded to master class last September. Technically I live in New York City but I live in the borough of Staten Island which is the most rural borough. I've been interested in falconry since I was 10 but didn't know how to become one, so I settled for having pigeons mostly rollers and homers. Then in the late 1970's NYC was good for clubs, rock and roll, etc.

I sent for the study packet from the NYS-DEC in early 1986. In December 1986 my daughter was born and 1991 my son was born. I was distracted but never forgot. In April of 2001 I took and passed my test. I met my sponsor that summer. The weekend of September 9th I bought all the materials to build my mew. I am an EMT and was a supervisor at a private ambulance company at the time. I had put in for the day off to build my mew Wednesday September 12. Unfortunately I watched the towers fall and had a crew that was injured there. It took about a month for things to sort of get back to normal here and finally build and get my mew inspected.

I trapped my first tiercel red-tail on 1/1/2002 caught a few head of game but made the rookie mistake of flying him too heavy and loosing him. I trapped my 2nd a female red-tail in Sept-2002 and still have her. I've also had a Harris's hawk and a Barbary falcon. I have mostly squirrels so I just fly my female red-tail now. I've been lurking for a few years and almost joined when I read a thread on a NYC falconer. I know there are a few falconers in NYC but I don't know them. I am friends with a few in Long Island including my former sponsor, they are great guys and I owe them a lot.

Sorry for the long introduction but I thought this was the best way to let you who I am and how I got into this adventure.