Hello everyone, my name is Navera (Nava for short) Moritori. I come from a small po-dunk town in Upstate NY (Mechanicville) and the benefit of that was the fact that we had two nesting bald eagles out on this island that sat in between us and the next town over right on the Hudson River. It was very cool to grow up with and very often I would be able to witness the eagles hunting and soaring, I could hear their klee, klee, klee chatter and let me tell you - we never had a problem with river rats and I do not recall seeing many pigeons either.

Anyway, growing up with bald eagles pretty much living beside me was a huge inspiration. But as I grew older I really developed a desire and passion for falconry. I care about raptors very much and have grown attached to them over the years, fed by my constant bird watching endeavors that would usually start out as a hunt for songbirds but would ALWAYS escalate to hawk watching. I also get the most thrill out of my photography when I can capture a large raptor in flight or just chillin' doing his hawky business.

It is my sincere hope to be able to learn about how to become a falconer, obtain a raptor, house and care for it and help to inspire more people through demonstrative educational presentations. I would love to be able to get some kind of job in falconry but I have NO IDEA where to begin, what the job market is like... I really have no knowledge what-so-ever on actual falconry. I only know what I have to be educated on (raptor biology, history of falconry, wildlife regulations, etc.) and what kind of equipment I will need.

Other than that... clueless. That's why I'm here, actually. To meet people who started out like me, ambitious yet totally unaware of actual procedure, is my number one goal. A secondary goal would be to make a least one friend, preferably local to me, to act as a sort of guide. I think I already have a sponsor in mind but I could really use a hand in learning the basics.

I was so sad to discover that neither of the colleges I am attending have any classes on this. Gotta love the internet and its wealth of resources!

I hope I make some new friends and begin my educational adventure very soon! Thanks for reading!!