Future Apprentice

[Lizzys Dad]

Greetings from Columbia, MS.
I am starting to reach out and speak with everyone I can to learn as much as possible about falconry. I have been raised in the country, hunted and fished my entire life. I have started a small family and my wife and I have made the decision to get into falconry.
I am a nurse by trade, but I have minimal knowledge about the proper care of a raptor other than it eats meat and drinks water and requires certain housing specs. Are there any a&p or biology books that you guys can recommend?

Thanks,

Evan Cleland

[Icantmove]

Since nobody has responded to you yet:

Idk about A&P / biology. Closest thing that comes to mind that I've seen is Fox's book (Understanding the Bird of Prey). Not knowing what actually entails A&P / biology books, I can't properly say that that's the same (probably not as detailed), but I can say that if what you're looking for is substantially more detailed than that it's probably outside the scope of normal falconry (oxymoron?) and you might do better asking a raptor vet or something. To be fair, the raptor vets I know are falconers as well. One may come along here, but if that doesn't happen you at least have somewhere else to look, assuming you can find a raptor vet.

Handling sick raptors is (hopefully) not something you should commonly find yourself doing as a falconer. The recognition of more common diseases and some basic responses to recognizing symptoms (often it's "go to the vet now") is usually what's expected, and tests will ask you about symptoms of, say, Asper and Frounce, and they may ask about certain treatments or responses; you can get that information from most general falconry books I've seen, not to mention Modern Apprentice. And in the cases where the test literally asks about the name of the medication (the one question I remember is, iirc, a uselessly detailed and outdated question), I think most people memorize for that particular test and in practice bring it to the vet as soon as symptoms manifest.

If you have "minimal knowledge," a better book to read would probably be North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks, which I believe handles diseases somewhere, but also goes into other things to help combat a "minimal knowledge" problem. There's this thread (http://www.nafex.net/showthread.php?t=2007) that covers, among other things, recommended reading. Also Modern Apprentice (http://www.themodernapprentice.com/), which I mentioned above.

[Silver Sage]

From another nurse I am telling you that you are in a profession that is tough to beat for a falconer. I work 6 on/8 off in a shock/trauma ICU and recover the occasional heart and it is great to allow ample hawking. On my 8 days off I am at the pleasure of myself and the birds, during my 6 days on I hawk at least every other day but keep a tighter routine.


As far as anything deep into A&P as stated above that really is above the rank and paygrade of the average falconer but there are a bunch of good books available for the beginner, I'll state most libraries offer a decent selection or can get you the beginner stuff thru an interlibrary loan. Reading a large selection of the basics allows you to grow your knowledge to a point that you can at least understand the lingo and formulate appropriate questions.

[Ken S.]

From another nurse I am telling you that you are in a profession that is tough to beat for a falconer.

Yup. Friends that are nurses and work 3 days at 12hr shifts, it makes me jealous when they have most of the week off.

[LarkoftheRiver]

A way to get to know raptor care is finding a place to volunteer with birds. At least, that's how I've gotten most of my experience. I don't have time to be apprenticed now, but working with the birds has gotten me some bird time and knowledge of how to hold birds on my fist, perch them, spot injuries, check for health, etc. It also helps to know how much care they need; these birds are a 24/7 job and require a lot of time.

Just google raptor sanctuaries in your area; I've looked around at a few college towns I'm thinking of attending and without fail have found one to continue my work. There's bound to be something nearby.