Like most native Californians, I am no stranger to watching a red-tailed hawk catch the warm air thermals and soar high in an endless blue canopy of sky. Like most falconers, watching is not enough—it is an ancient obsession that reaches out from a forgotten, primordial yearning, reminding you that you are meant to spend your life with a bird of prey. My journey with a hawk on my glove started 12 years ago in Northern California quite by accident. Since that first encounter at a falconry education event, I have pursued this passion for raptors.
Like most native Californians, I am no stranger to watching a red-tailed hawk catch the warm air thermals and soar high in an endless blue canopy of sky. Like most falconers, watching is not enough—it is an ancient obsession that reaches out from a forgotten, primordial yearning, reminding you that you are meant to spend your life with a bird of prey. My journey with a hawk on my glove started 12 years ago in Northern California quite by accident. Since that first encounter at a falconry education event, I have pursued this passion for raptors. As time passed, flying a hawk lead to a falcon, and the falcon to accipiters (a short-winged variety of hawk), which lead to walking away from a professional medical eye career and flying birds for a living. It was also the impetus for writing my first novel “The Apprentice.”
Thanks to the invitation of Rocky Post, Avalon’s well-known falconer in charge of keeping the beaches seagull free, I find myself on one of the most beautiful and historic vacation spots California has to offer. I never dreamed I’d be on Catalina—at least not like this, flying hawks, falcons, and owls. But here I am with some beloved birds in tow and glad of it.
Falconers look at the world from a different perspective. Don’t get me wrong—we love sunny beaches and the alluring island getaway fever that permeates a vibrant town like Avalon—it’s infectious. You’ll catch us enjoying a walk on the beach, or indulging in an ice cream cone on the pier too, but you won’t be able to miss the hawk or falcon perched on our gloved left hands. We learn how to do many things one-handed in this sport!
The residents of Avalon have come to expect a hawk flying on the beach as Rocky works Vern and Larry, his two Harris hawks, daily up and down the pier. From what some of the locals tell me, Avalon would be a far different place without their friendly falconer. He’s had to field a lot of questions over the years about what he’s doing hanging out with his hawks, and it is due to his love of this sport that Catalina now has its own resident falconry education program.
Most people don’t understand what falconry is, and the confusion is understandable. Falconers wear many hats for the public. We fly our birds to chase starlings from vineyards to save the harvest, or keep parks and beaches free from aggressive seagulls—we call that pest bird abatement. Falconers have also played a pivotal role in helping start groups like the Peregrine Fund and rehabilitate injured birds of prey before they are released back to the wild. However, neither of these activities are falconry. Falconry is the quintessential act of training a hawk, falcon, eagle, or even an owl to tolerate your presence while it does what nature created it to do—hunt. As Kate Marden, the owner of West Coast Falconry, tells our guests taking the new Catalina Falconry Experience at Descanso Beach Resort, this is one of the ways our ancestors used to put food on the table.
All humans are hunters, even if we choose not to eat meat. If you find that hard to believe, just think of the last time you went shopping with your credit card—you are a hunter like your ancestors before you! The primal urge to hunt in order to survive ties us to our birds, the quarry they catch, and the land that supports us all. They are a reminder of who we were and still are, even in this age of reality TV shows, fast food, and smart phones.
The most poignant indicator that my life had changed occurred shortly after I started hunting with a hawk. There is a moment when your bird has caught its quarry and you join her on the ground, reaching in to help her subdue and consume her meal. The world stops. You are no longer in the place in which you woke up thinking about work, or chores, or bills to pay. The pressing concerns of what comes after– picking the kids up from school, walking the dog, or going to the grocery store—are gone. This beautiful, indescribable moment when the world is silent save for the sound of your rapid breathing and the hawk eating her hard-caught meal is for you and your hawk alone. There is no one else on the planet save you and her, and time has become the still, silent witness of what has occurred between you.
For the falcon, it is about the chase and fulfilling her need to pursue, to catch, to consume in order to keep her psyche whole and free. For you, it is to realize you have touched that invisible cord, that bond with the wild that is only perceived in a flash. It makes you believe in magic.
Not everyone can make the sacrifices necessary to live with a hawk or falcon as a hunting partner. And though most people are thrilled to see a hawk on the wing or an eagle soaring low enough to show the long, curling fingers of her massive wing tips, they don’t have the time or energy to practice falconry. But now in Avalon, you can get pretty close …
West Coast Falconry, California’s first U.S. Fish and Wildlife licensed falconry education center, has taken the huge leap of bringing some of their finest hawks, falcons and owls to share with the residents of Avalon. The Catalina Island Company, with On the Wing Falconry, has contracted with WCF to present the Catalina Falconry Experience. What is truly unique about this educational offering is the opportunity for guests to glove up and call a trained hawk to the glove—something highly regulated here in the United States. Some of the birds joining us from Kate Marden’s business just outside of Marysville, California, are actual celebrities, having appeared on National Geographic, Discovery, and the Travel Channel. But even though these amazing birds have thrilled live audiences, they are still first and foremost hunters with the wild, predatory nature inherent in all raptors.
I am thrilled to be a resident of Catalina, this beautiful island with its friendly, charming people. I am even more excited to share my passion for falconry with my new neighbors. When you see me on the beach holding a hawk on the glove, or flying a falcon on the lawn at Descanso resort, please be patient if I don’t answer your questions about the birds right away. Stick around for a while where the hawks hang out, and you will get your answers. Just realize that I am neurotic, fixated, and whole-heartedly doomed to spend my days wrapping my head around what makes this bird want to be with me. It is the most fortunate of obsessions.
Jana Barkley is a master falconer from Northern California and a writer. An educator for the West Coast Falconry Center and the Catalina Falconry Experience, she is an energetic speaker and educator on falconry and working with birds of prey. Her novel “The Apprentice” was a finalist for the 2013 Somerset Award for Mainstream Fiction. Published by The Wild Rose Press, it is also available on Amazon.
