Al and Owl

When I was eight years old, I read T.H. White's 'The Once And Future King, ' which is the collected version of his three-part story of the life of King Arthur. Although there were a lot of subtleties to the story of Arthur's grown years that I didn't understand until I was older, I read the first part, about his childhood in the Castle of Forest Sauvage, over and over again. It was adapted into the Disney movie, 'The Sword In The Stone, ' which was okay, but as far as I was concerned it left out the best bits, like the adventures with Robin Hood in the forest, the boar hunt, Christmas (Wold King Cole!), and, best of all, the falconry. The Wart turned to a merlin and set in the mews at night, listening to the hooded hawks talk about their code of honor and taking a test of his courage sitting next to Cully, the mad red-eyed goshawk, for three rings of the bells in the dark. It was amazing and fascinating and it hung out in the back of my mind and never really went away.
At the time, in those dark days before the internet, the book was the only reference I had to this amazing world. Throughout the next two decades I compiled any and all info I could find whenever I came across it. I did a term paper on falconry just to get access to whatever books my English teacher's university library had (just the one, but it was by Frank Beebe, so that made up for it) and I copied everything out of that I could in the week I had it. I dug through old hunting books looking for references, and wrote the Game Commission for their regulations, and then, when the internet turned up, things got a lot easier and I found tons of info free for the searching. The more I read, the more I was fascinated, and I decided that some day when I had a backyard and a handy field, I was going to build a mews and give it my best shot.

Today, then, was completely and utterly awesome. We spent the day at the Bird of Prey Center at Sion Hall, and it was fabulous. We got to handle two owls, and see the falconers fly a Lanner falcon, a Gyr/Saker hybrid, a Common Buzzard, a Caracara, two Sea Eagles, a Griffon Vulture, and a Bald Eagle. It was [teh Kid]amazing![/teh Kid] I have asked for a full-day course there for my birthday, which I have been assured on pretty good authority can be arranged.

I am hugely psyched.