Iâve been a hunter for more than half a century and a falconer for 35 of those years. Falconry is an ancient hunting craft dating back some 4,000 years to Central Asia, where it was a practical means of putting meat on the table long before the advent of firearms.
It s where we ve come from, and part of what makes us Homo sapiens. Thatâs why watching part of our heritage being disrespected and demeaned by one of our own is so hard to take.
Utilizing raptors protected at both state and federal levels, falconry is the most heavily regulated field sport in the country, and thatâs as it should be. Time and again, falconry has been shown to have no significant impact on the resource, enabling us to take raptors from the wild and honor a partnership between man and raptor that has endured for millennia.
Falconry, an ancient form of hunting, finds new devotees Follow Us
Question of the Day By JASON NARK and The Philadelphia Inquirer - Associated Press - Saturday, January 23, 2021
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The red-tailed hawk sat perched on the twisted limb of an old, dead tree, its eyes locked on the woman traipsing through the briars and thickets below.
Wherever Jade Chen went, Candy Corn, the hawk, followed. Sometimes Chen, 33, had to blow a small whistle around her neck to nudge him.
“Come on, boy,” she said.
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Chen wore a thick, leather glove called a gauntlet that extended up her arm, and when she raised it, Candy Corn swooped down through the forest in silence toward her. Little bells on his legs jingled when he landed on her hand. Then he was off again, looking for a tree from which to best look at Chen.
Jade Chen, of Mechanicsburg, Dauphin County, is a second-year apprentice falconer, one of just 204 people in Pennsylvania licensed to take part in falconry, one of the world’s most ancient forms of hunting.
GRANTVILLE, Pa. The red-tailed hawk sat perched on the twisted limb of an old, dead tree, its eyes locked on the woman traipsing through the briars and thickets below. Wherever Jade Chen went, Candy Corn, the hawk, followed. Sometimes Chen, 33, had to blow a small whistle around her neck to nudge him. “Come on, boy,” she said. Chen wore a thick, leather glove called a gauntlet that extended .