The sport of Kings

   I had some business to do at the Sanitary Landfill at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Imagine my surprise when I saw a whole bunch of falcons sitting on posts sunning themselves.
   I spoke to the Falconer who told me that the Air Force was trying to keep the seagulls away from the garbage in the landfill (a VERY common problem in California landfills). The Air Force is very environmentally friendly (so much more than given credit for) and they were trying to use an environmentally friendly way to keep the seabirds away. They decided to try using falcons as part of the strategy. So the Falconer was contracted to keep his birds at the landfill, flying them several times a day to 'shoo' the gulls away.
   It is a real pleasure to see these marvelous birds flying, and the response to positive re-inforcement they exhibit is very interesting.
   If you'd like to download the screensaver of these birds you can go to our Screensaver's page.
   The name of the Falconer is Craig Golden, his business is called 'SAFARI DEPREDATION CO'. You can contact him at golden.safari@verizon.net

'Little Buzz', immature falcon (female) Auger Buzzard. 1st year

This falcon is a female Auger Buzzard who is in her first year plumage. She is named 'Little Buzz'.

'Skeeter', tiercel (male) Barberry Falcon.

'Skeeter', tiercel (male) Barberry Falcon, the birds are weighed daily, sometimes twice in a day.

'Skeeter', falcon (female) Barberry Falcon.

This is Skeeter a male (tiercel) Barberry Falcon (Falco pelegrinoides). And Venus, a female (falcon) Barberry Falcon.
The females are approximately 1/3 larger than the males.
Note the scales, the birds must be monitored closely to record their health, these parameters include weight and notes from the falconers' observations as to behavior and response to stimuli. They are weighed daily, if not twice daily.

'Witch', falcon (female) hybrid-Gyr/Perrigren.

'Witch', falcon (female) hybrid-Gyr/Perrigren. Wearing hood.

This bird is a hybrid of the Gyrfalcon and the Perrigrin Falcon. The birds' name is 'Witch'. It is a very large bird, and very regal looking.
Note the 'hood' the birds wear when not being exhibited or flying.The hood is to keep the birds from damaging themselves by trying to leave their perch to which they are tethered when not being used.

'Sasha', falcon (female) Red Nape Shaheen.

'Sasha' is a Red-Naped Shaheen (Falco. babylonicus). The Arabic word for 'Satan' is Shateen'. The Shaheen 'flies like the Devil'.

Resources
an article on Red-Naped Shaheens and Barberry Falcons.

W.B. Yeats - The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

1920

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