By GEORGE FJELD
APPRENTICE FALCONER KRISTEN Lee, with Krueger, a young red-tailed hawk. Photos by George Fjeld
BRANDON—Surprisingly, I met Kristen Lee’s red-tailed hawk, Krueger, in the post office one day. He was there on a visit on Lee’s day off from her postal route. The hawk had a recognizable shrill call which he demonstrated frequently. Krueger let me touch him and his body was surprisingly small under his feathers. He is quite regal.
Falconry or hunting with a bird of prey is a sport in Vermont that not a lot of folks know about and even fewer practice it. Falconry dates back at least 4,000 years and was a critical food producer for gathering meat. There are only 11 licensed falconers and only 4 active falconers in Vermont. It is more widely practiced in much of the rest of the world.
Kristen Lee knows a bunch and is learning more every day from her hawk, Kreuger. As an apprentice falconer with the help of a mentor, she captured the young wild red-tailed hawk last September and has trained him to hunt. Krueger is a young male who weighs about 2.5 pounds and stands about 20 inches tall. He’s just reached his first birthday (about) and will be released back into the wild in the next week or two. Krueger lives with Kristen and her partner and is her second hawk. Lee captured and trained a female last year. Females are preferred as they are larger and more aggressive, making them easier to train. Krueger was easy to capture.
Lee trapped Krueger last September just down the road from her house using a snare trap called a Bal Chatri. The trap was baited with a small rodent and tossed from a slow moving car in the vicinity of the young bird who was sitting on a wire hunting a field. Krueger was quick to take the bait and suffered no injuries. He was on the skinny side indicating he wasn’t getting a lot of food and might not have survived the fall and winter. Red-tailed hawks hatch in the spring and fledge (leave the nest) in late spring/early summer. By the end of June the parents drive them out of their native territory to live on their own. More than 75% of fledglings don’t make it past the first year, which is typical for all birds of prey.
Krueger was quick to train and caught mice, moles, and a snake but no larger prey like squirrel or rabbit. Initial training for 1-2 hours a day enabled Krueger to sit on Lee’s leather gloved hand and get fed there. He became quite accepting of the attention of strangers as well as household noises and domesticated animals like dogs and cats as he accompanied Kristen on her daily travels.
Training a falcon is a time intensive process. Two to three times a day the bird must be fed and exercised. Initial training involves getting on the leather glove and being fed there. Next is hopping to the glove followed by short flights to the glove. Lee was able to accomplish that in her basement in about 2 weeks. Outdoor flying is done initially on a leash called a creance, 100 yards of paracord tied to the leg of the bird. Krueger went on his first flight off the creance after about 3 weeks of training.
Falconers keep close track of their bird’s weight. A fat bird can’t fly and a well fed bird won’t hunt, so keeping close account of the weight is critical. Weights are usually taken 2-3 times a day. Flying weight is higher than hunting weight as a hungry bird is motivated to hunt.
According to Beebe’s book, North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks, falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population. Passage red-tailed hawks are also preferred by falconers because they have not yet developed the adult behaviors that would make them more difficult to train.
Lee fully expects that Krueger is very likely to survive to adulthood. He is not expected to remain around after being released. Kristen expects to get her general falconry license this summer.
