Brian,
Your message brought back pleasant memories as I have followed a similar path. I became inactive in about 1968 after my last falcon, a female Prairie was shot. Then in 1987, my youngest son then 13 and living with his mother elsewhere but nearby, announced he would be pursuing falconry. His sponsor lived some distance away so in order to help him with his first falconry birds, a Kestrel in 1988 and passage male Red-tail in 1989, I reentered the sport.

My son is now raising a family in Utah and is inactive but I haven't missed a beat. I started out with a passage hen Red-tail in 1989 then took on a second bird, a hand-me- down, 5 year old female Harris' Hawk just before I retired. In the mid 1990s, I also tried my hand with a second hand Gyr / Prairie for three years without much success. I was able to find a good home for her with an educational outfit in Texas. I have since pretty much settled with flying Harris' Hawks as the type of quarry here in western Oregon coupled with my age makes hunting with these hawks more practical.

Good luck on you renewed interest and hope you have the same success and pleasure as I have these past 20 years.

Richard F. Hoyer (Corvallis, Oregon)