Hello,
My name is Eric Leathers, I’m a psychiatric registered nurse, living outside of St. Louis; I had my falconer’s license in high school, during the late eighties for two years. At that time I hunted with a small male that I lost, then the next year a larger male that I had success with. I have wanted to get back into the sport for a long time now, but have not been able to- do to the military, then my family and so on and so on. I’m still extremely busy- but what can you do? You only live once. Most of the people I knew from then are no longer around or I lost contact with, or they are doing God knows what, but I have met several falconers from the Missouri Falconers Association meets this past winter. A lot of very nice, good people that are happy to answer questions and tolerate me and my son tagging along with big goofy smiles, most seemed very knowledgeable and extremely serious about the sport, a couple of them you could classify as professionals. I was more then impressed with some of these falconers and their birds, they made me realize just how little I knew then and how much I need to still learn. Things have really changed from then, I can’t believe how many people in this area are into falconry now. I remember when everything was kind of on the down low and most of the falconers I knew then were kind of crazy. I have tried to educate myself with readings and I've been talking frequently with a local falconer friend of mine who has been an ocean of knowledge. Anyway I will be trapping in September and I’m excited, I actually think I have my wife excited too- sort of. I don’t think she is fond of my new mews, or having frozen animals in our freezer in the basement, but she is on board. She is very cool. I think I will try for a nice size female RT with gorilla feet and take it slow. Anyway I look at this site frequently, reading the logs and loving the pictures. So I figured I better finally post something. I’ve probably met a few of you Missouri people who post on here, and I’m sure I will have questions as I go. I hope this posts the way you guys expect it to, and I really hope to post pictures of a sweet RT soon. Thanks

Eric Leathers