First Blood

[Jarreth]

What do you all think about an informal survey on how many people coming into the sport have a mentor or direct support base. This is a subject which obviously affects everyone in one way or another. If we could get an honest response, maybe we could sort it out through this forum, and find people a suitable mentor, close to them.

Are you seriously thinking of getting a bird and have no experience? Have got one and have no assistance? Or have you got a bird or are getting a bird and have assistance? Are you happy with your mentor? Do you have other constructive comments which you feel would be useful for the sport in general to know about your first experiences of falconry?

Please respond and be honest. This is not about being judgemental, this is about the degree of ease or difficulty you experienced breaking into the sport. And how the support base works, and indeed if it does. What route into the sport did you take? Tell us how you feel you could have been better supported. Please all countries take part, might as well do it worldwide, in for a penny and all that.

[Afshimo]

What do you all think about an informal survey on how many people coming into the sport have a mentor or direct support base. This is a subject which obviously affects everyone in one way or another. If we could get an honest response, maybe we could sort it out through this forum, and find people a suitable mentor, close to them.

Are you seriously thinking of getting a bird and have no experience? Have got one and have no assistance? Or have you got a bird or are getting a bird and have assistance? Are you happy with your mentor? Do you have other constructive comments which you feel would be useful for the sport in general to know about your first experiences of falconry?

Please respond and be honest. This is not about being judgemental, this is about the degree of ease or difficulty you experienced breaking into the sport. And how the support base works, and indeed if it does. What route into the sport did you take? Tell us how you feel you could have been better supported. Please all countries take part, might as well do it worldwide, in for a penny and all that.

Hiya,

I have my 2 birds in my mews, I did have a good mentor till he went moody and doesn't seem to be bothered what I do so I had to find another one. My mentor was OK, taught me quite abit but not the stuff I needed (no telem or hunting) more on displays which was fine but I dont want to be a display all my life! I wanted to be a proper falconer and be out in the field with my birds. Not dissing displays and display falconer's, some of you are fantastic and know what to do and how to do it. But for me, I wanted more on hunting.
My new mentor I contact by phone most of the time, we met a couple times and I've helped him out. I like how he handles and trains his birds and keeps them at a high standard of living so I cant complain.
I recon Im getting enough support to sucessfully hunt with my birds this spring even though I dont really know about slips, I'll learn as I go along. Iand then ask my mentor to explain why It went wrong or right!

Finding the right mentor for you personaslly and your birds or bird you want can be tricky. Get to know your mentor properly before asking lol.

For advise, I'd say check your mentor wont go moody if you talk to another falconer.

Also, have a good time learning falconry.

[RedNoseK9]

I dont think a mentor is necisarilly the requirement of a good falconer because by whos standard is he or she good ie whos recommendations,who was their good mentor and who was theirs,
i think the best way is to gain good knowledge and advice from numerous people ask questions join clubs call people if dont know any numbers of people or clubs get on the net find these things out generate yourself a good network of people who can help dont rely on one person s opinion gain the advice of many all the best falconers i know were met at clubs and are all willing to assist begginers.
if somebody came to the club and said they were getting a bird and i didnt think they were prepared be sure i would tell them and try to help you dont know if you dont ask!!!!!!!!

[Jarreth]

Thank you both for your experiences, I know yours was a long time ago Hannah, but it would be great for as many people as possible to give their version to see if things have changed now from what they used to be.

My own experience was that I had a mentor at a centre and was encouraged and taught to hunt with my first bird, he was always available to ask a question and 10 years later I could still go to him for advice

Anyone else like to add.

Hi Hannah

[FlameHairedFalconer]

I had no problem getting an unpaid job working all hours in the tea room at a falconry centre. At the end of the day I felt privileged to be allowed to hold or feed one of the display birds. Later I worked unpaid all hours cleaning out mews, organising displays, feeding over 100 birds. All so I could have my own kestrel to fly out of hours.

When I left the centre and looked for support from clubs etc, there was none, I was 19, female and single. Strangely no one wanted to know. I was told that I obviously wasnt that committed because I was unable to attend field meets (with total strangers in places I did not know). 13 years later.....

I would love to help new people to get into the sport, but I have to limit this offer to female falconers only, call me sexist, but I have had enough bother from male falconers to last me a lifetime. I am happily married to a non falconer so can do without the hassle.

FHF

[NewBird]

I had no problem getting an unpaid job working all hours in the tea room at a falconry centre. At the end of the day I felt privileged to be allowed to hold or feed one of the display birds. Later I worked unpaid all hours cleaning out mews, organising displays, feeding over 100 birds. All so I could have my own kestrel to fly out of hours.

When I left the centre and looked for support from clubs etc, there was none, I was 19, female and single. Strangely no one wanted to know. I was told that I obviously wasnt that committed because I was unable to attend field meets (with total strangers in places I did not know). 13 years later.....

I would love to help new people to get into the sport, but I have to limit this offer to female falconers only, call me sexist, but I have had enough bother from male falconers to last me a lifetime. I am happily married to a non falconer so can do without the hassle.

FHF

I learnt a similar way but with a private falconer/rescue centre rather than a display centre and because I was at school it was evenings and weekends. Hours of mucking out etc just for the chance to carry an eagle owl or whatever.
Sure, much is learnt by trial and error as you go along with a hawk, but having someone with experience to ask when you get stuck is invaluable. Unfortunately 20 odd years ago young girls wanting to get into falconry were quite rare and so my experiences of some male falconers were also less than edifying.
Still 'new man' can also be 'new falconer' - I've met some great ones recently!
NewBird

[The Ninja]

I am lucky enough to know GOS212 who has been an absolute wealth of information for me. I have an open offer to go out with him anytime & more importantly for me, he has no problem with my 'stupid questions'.

He has a Red Tail, an Eagle Owl, a Per/Sak & a Harris so I've not been limited to just seeing 1 bird which is fantastic for me.

He has spent loads of time explaining all the pro's & con's me & I really can't sing his praises enough.

If I had come to the Forum 1st I may just have decided to walk away as sometimes there is conflicting information which can be quite offputting, however, after just hanging around here for a while and browsing I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I'm currently thinking about getting a bird next year and can't make my mind up between a RT or a HH. (Although I'm off to see Harry Potter tomorrow so maybe an Owl eh :lol: ) Plenty of time for me to decide on my favourite and also to decide if I go for it next year or the following.

Anyway, until then I'll be spending more time with GOS212 & perusing the forums.

[Pogue Mahone]

i had a similar experience to Flame ,i followed 2 brothers around like a lap dog who had both got kestrels as first birds, i was 11 at the time and wanted one straight away but thankfully they put me off and said to learn from them until they thought i was ready.but sometimes they wouldnt let me in the house saying they were at a tricky bit in the training or some other excuse but i still followed them.
eventually i decided to get my own books and learn myself although i did have an advantage because i had been able to handle their birds.
it wasnt until 10 years later when i had my first bird not because im a slow reader but certain things in my life didnt permit me owning one.
id always kept in touch with the said friends and theyd moved on to great sucess with muskets and spars so i cant call thier ability or skill.
but what really hurt me was when id got my bird,all set up in my newly built mews and weighing room i noticed an anklet had come undone,so i went round to my friends and asked if theyd cast the bird for me so i could put a new one on .
i waited 3hours and they never showed so my dad helped me after i d shown him wot to do,all was fine after.
so sometimes help in something that you love or would like to love isnt always that easy to come by so some beginners have no choice but to go it alone.sorry to waffle on there a bit.

[Claire]

hmmmm I got intrested in falconry after watching the display at a country park with a centre, I was a childminder at the time and had a season ticket to the park and used to go a lot and always watched the displays and eventually got chatting to the falconer, The first time I flew a bird was a one day funday at the centre and i was hooked. Arter that the falconer used to let me help fly the new world vultures and barn owls during the displays. When my daughter went to school I gave up childminding to consentrate on falconry I then spent about 6 months at the centre 6 days a week, I did a three day course but learnt more with the day to day running. I then stopped going for a nearly a year for various reasons and returned this spring, most days i spent there last summer I did at least one of the 2 daily displays on my own speaking and flying the birds which was a good experience once I got over the nerves, I now have my own kestrel but unfortunatly the centre I went to shut this autumn, so I no longer have my mentor but the person who gave me the kestrel (who I met through the centre) is always on hand if I need help. I do think getting that amount of experience before a bird is a good thing. It certainly helps with the confidence especially when starting with a bird as small as a kestrel.

other things which were useful to learn are things like first aid, we some times got wild injured birds brought in, so i learned to crop tube a bird, also learned how to make equipment, cast, cope, Imp etc I have no problems doing any of these things, although I have a falcon we used to hunt with the harris's so I learnt to dispatch and went though all the training with the falconer.

all in all I think I was pretty lucky I learnt a hell of a lot got paid a bit of petrol money and had fun, obviously peoples experiences with falconry centres differ but in my opinion it was an excellent way to learn.

[Sparrow Hawker]

Good thread this one!

The problem with people getting a mentor is a lot of people can't find one and its finding someone who can be bothered to help someone out! It's funny how some people are all willing to help out behind a PC but when it comes to the crux of physically helping someone out they aint interested! Everyone was a beginner at some stage and must remember how difficult it was to get into it, but some people must have short term memories!

The problem now is there are more beginners than there are people willing to help out and somewhere along the line there's going to be difficulties as falconry becomes more popular somethings eventually going to give!!!

I was very fortunate in that I had a mentor getting into falconry otherwise I don't think I'd be in it.

Centres are a great way to learn as you get hands on experience with all sorts of species of bird! There's one or two good clubs which offer apprenticeship schemes which are a great idea but then you get some clubs which seem to have an elitist attitude and are the total opposite and don't welcome new people into the sport which is very sad!

Otherwise falconry could well end up like fox hunting! In my opinion one of the reasons where fox hunting went wrong was that it wasn't made accessible to people!

All The Best,

HH

[Jarreth]

I think thats a great idea Andy. Something obviously needs sorting out. And your suggestion is probably the best course of practice. Would the forum itself be willing to sort something out on line?

I know that from running even a small centre it can be difficult, because there is so little time in the day to fit so much in, that said, I do mentor people and are willing to help others.

One of the things I worry about is that when someone asks for advice they get many different options of what to do, and most versions are all good advice just different ways of doing things that people have found suit there environment and systems. How does a new comer (Sorry I think the term Newbie has started to have a slightly derrogatory undertone.) know which is going to suit their environment.

I worry that when an inexperienced bird handler is asking for advice, they won't give all the information that if they were experienced they would notice and see. And with such scant info, I feel that it would be very easy to advise, when if we actually saw the bird and the circumstance the advice would be much different. And to be honest I feel responsilble. Does anyone else feel this way?

[Jarreth]

Thank you to everyone who has responded up to now, your comments are really appreciated and very informative.

It seems up to now the mentor way is still the best option.

We certainly need to help new bird handlers, and try to avoid alienating them, otherwise it could be a catastrophe for the bird they have bought.

Anybody else want to add anything?

I'm going to put another thread on the disscussion related to this about impending qualifications coming in next year. Let me know what you all thing of the idea

[BHawk]

would it be possible to set up some sort of job vacancies area for us falconers in need of a job, i havnt flown a falcon in nearly a year and miss it so if i get another job in a bop center ill get back on track

[Jarreth]

if we can get enough people intrested for it to be viable i dont see why we couldnt have a kind of informal forum aprentaship

a list of people happy to mentor in varios areas of the uk

a basic program of what people need to learn (reading list ect)

a list of quality breeders who will vet who they sell to and offer help to beginers

at the end of the day the more people involved the more we can do

i will work somthing out and run it by hawkmaster and sparrow see what we can come up with




Andy................


Thanks Andy

I think this is a great idea, you can put me on your list. you have everyones details I take it.

[Takajo]

After sending mail after mail to the Japan Falconry Association (who are supposed to set you up with an experienced falconer) when I started out, I got nothing. After finally finding a private falconer outside of Tokyo (a 2.5 hour drive for me), he was never available. The JFA gets funding from the Japanese govt too, but they really don't seem to be helpful.
The only portal seems to be the INTERNET. And guess what, this forum has a lot of responsibility on its shoulders because of it. Let's be a bit more friendly to people just startin out. Their questions are not stupid and should be treated with respect and and a helpful attitude.
It's one thing to be a perfect falconer, another thing altogether to be an accomplished teacher of falconry, quite a respectable job indeed...