The New Season

I have been absent from this blog for too long.

These past several months, have been some of the toughest in my life. My husband of 20 years has divorced me. And my closest adult girlfriend makes off with the prize, him, declaring me her enemy. And there are too many thoughts going through my mind, and too much sorrow. It has been a year since he moved out, and the anniversary of that event has left me crying just about every day, again. But my suffering is dismissed by her in a very vicious attack she made in a blog which was posted just the weekend after our divorce was final (and one month after her own divorce). I wrote a very lengthy retort. But it serves no purpose to post here, or anywhere. He moved in with her just about 4 months after leaving me, after having moved only about 2 minutes from her house. She talks marriage.

I cope with the most powerful emotions of rejection I have ever experienced. And depression. And unlike him, who when he left said we should learn to "live as individuals", I am truly learning! He is not, having just replaced me with her.

However, something I did write has value to be posted here . . . a defense of falconry.

In this blog she exclaims that I pursue a “bloody-minded, disgusting hobby of falconry”. She makes a comparison to the supposed devastation I delivered to her now Ex husband, because I was the one who finally having enough of the affair and the lies, revealed it to him, trying to make me look like some kind of cold-hearted bitch because I “kill live rabbits with my bare hands”. She then takes out of context something that I did say, trying to further her character assassination, that the “screaming of a dying rabbit is music to my ears”. As far as implying that my being a falconer is somehow an insult I give you a link off the web. This is a very good description of the history of the sport. It has been a noble practice since antiquity. I’m not even going to bother giving any history here myself. If you are interested, go to the link.

http://www.scottishfalconry.co.uk/new_page_1.htm

America Falconry has experienced something of a rebirth. It is very strictly regulated by both the State and the Federal government, and requires a license to practice. To be a falconer is to demonstrate a high degree of responsibility. The bird must receive a very high level of care and attention. To practice falconry requires that you get you dead ass off the couch during the coldest times of the year and go outside and face the weather in order to pursue quarry for your bird. Certainly, it is a blood sport. In the end, small furry animals are killed. However the number of kills is very limited, when compared to hunting with a firearm. And all game taken is either fed to the bird at the time, later in the summer while she molts, or eventually may be donated to a rehab facility to feed birds in recovery.

The normal practice of falconry with a red-tailed hawk, which is the kind of falconry I practice, is to trap a wild bird, train it, then release it to do one of the most normal and natural functions of a predator . . . that of capturing live wild quarry. I do not pursue this sport as a sole aim to kill rabbits. I do so to be with the bird, and observe her flight, and see up close and personal the ancient dance of predator and prey. It is very specialized bird-watching. And it is a dance, both graceful and exciting. For more often than naught, the prey eludes the predator, and gets away. And it is the escapes that are the most dramatic to watch. The nature of the quote I made was that the crying out of a rabbit, which is what it does when the hawk captures it, and a sound that most people probably don’t want to hear, is a good sound to me, because it means my hawk was successful in the pursuit of the prey. Once she has captured the rabbit, it is my responsibility to close in on her, and secure her prize. In the wild, a hawk would stand on its quarry, with talons dug deep, and wait for it to either perish from fright, loss of blood, or the process of being eaten alive. It’s not pretty . . . but it is Nature! My job is to end this process quickly, which is done by “stretching” the rabbit. This entails dislocating the head at the neck. And sometimes the head separates. I do NOT take delight in this. But it is necessary, and ends the rabbit’s suffering.

As far as the person in question taking some kind of stand, and trying to paint me as cruel and evil because I practice this sport, I am here to tell ya now . . . . she can take no such stand. She may not like the idea of killing rabbits, but she never lodged much of a complaint about my falconry while we were friends. And as proof I invite everyone here and now to go to my MySpace page. For there I have posted a video of a training session of my 2005 hawk Sienna. That woman at the end of the field . . . that’s the one I refer to. And here she is laughing and having a good time watching the training session. There is no mystery as to what the bird is eating. And this woman has been out once in the field with me to observe a hunt. She even took pictures. And, for that matter, has received two rabbits from me, happily, and even cooked one of them for all of us. So, don’t go attacking my falconry. It took a lot of dedication on my part to become one. And it is a very exclusive fraternity. In Wisconsin there are about 120 licensed falconers. Of them, only about half are active. And of them, only about 5 are women. It’s a very selective group!

http://www.myspace.com/kestrellunaeye

Click on videos under my picture. It’s the one labeled “Training a Falconry Hawk”.

Anything further that I had written is not appropriate to be placed here. I must be about the task of rebuilding my life. And fortunately, so far, I am having one of the best falconry years ever! It is that I shall now focus on . . . and in that, hope to move on, and some day find happiness again.