New England Falconry Experience

Originally Posted: 4/14/25

Event Date: 4/13/25

Some Background

I've always thought Falconry was cool. I remember doing a presentation on it for school back in like, middle school. It's something I've always wanted to do, but have never had the time or space required to become a falconer.

For those of you who don't know, Falconry is the practice of hunting with a bird of prey. It's a practice going back thousands of years, and while the need to hunt for our own food isn't as necessary as it was back then, there are still people who just like the act of working with a pird of prey. If my memory is correct, new falconers will often work with either Red Tailed Hawks or American Kestrels. In the South West parts of the United States, Harris Hawks are also commonly used.

For my birthday this year, Michelle decided to surprise me by taking me to New England Falconry, a place that will let regular folks interact with Falcons!

New England Falconry

We showed up about 10 minutes early, and sat in our car for a bit to let the previous group finish up. Once they wrapped up, we went inside and checked in, and waited for our session to start. Michelle had booked an extended session, so we'd have about 90 minutes total with the hawks, as opposed to about 45 minutes of the regular introductory session. We got lucky where there were only two other people in our session. Michelle had booked herself a "non-participant" ticket, so that she could take photos and not worry about interacting with the birds as much. We got some background information, went over how the birds would come to us and want to expect, and grabbed some gloves. The falconer giving our lesson, Anastasia, then brought out the first bird we'd be using - Niko the Harris Hawk. She explained to us some of the equipment used in Falconry that lived on the birds - they had some rope on their feet to help make sure the bird didn't fly away as you were trying to walk them around indoors. Niko had bells on his feet so you could hear where he was if he was in a tree or had dived down on prey. He also had a GPS tag on his foot, for if he really got out of sight and you couldn't hear his bells. And lastly he had a band on him that could be used to look him up in a database if he ever got loose.

We then headed outside, and begun our adventure! There was a large field next to where the building was we met in, and we went to an area with some benches. Anastasia began giving us some facts about the birds and falconry, and had us take turns calling Niko to our gloves. The signal was for us to put our arms up, making fists with our hands, and slightly away from our bodies, so the birds wingspan would not hit us when they came to land. While we had our hands up, Anastasia would put a piece of meat on our gloves, as a reward for the bird coming to us. Niko would be nearby on some perch, and when he saw the signal he'd fly to one of our hands. Niko, however, like to push the boundaries a bit and would try to fly before the signal was given. Usually when that happened Anastasia would send him back to a perch, and then we'd try again.

We continued on like this walking around the field - Anastasia giving us info and answering any questions we had about birds, and then we would all take turns with having the bird come to us. Niko a few times would find a worm or something that interested him, before moving on back to a perch or glove. Once we walked around the field and arrived back at our starting location, Anastasia put Niko back and brought out a barn owl, Alba!

It was interesting with Alba, because she didn't really fly to perches. Anastasia described that she was more of a boomgerang - she'd fly off of a glove and return to it. She also wasn't great at flying in wind - a couple of times she got blown back to the barn while we were there, and Anastasia had to go get her!

Overall, I had an amazing experience, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Falconry or these birds in general!

Photos