Falconry Chronicles Podcast

The fun at the CFC meet continues with this sixth episode of the series. This recording was made shortly after a morning of hawking, where Thean Prinsloo bagged the first head of game at the meet. Later in the morning, after his falcon took a duck in a nice flight, we sat down to discuss his first few years in falconry. He talks about his experiences with the CFC and mentorship, some of the lesson...

We're about a quarter of the way through this series brought to you all from the Cape Falconry Club, and in this fifth episode of the series, we bring you a fun new first for the podcast! This episode brings you all Neil and Erin Deacon from Zimbabwe, and they also happen to be our first father/daughter guests on the podcast. They discuss some of the different things that they have to take into ac...

During another rainy day recording this fourth episode at the CFC meet, Trevor Oertel sits down with us to talk about his lengthy falconry history, and quite a history it is! Trevor is one of the falconers responsible for getting falconry legalized in the Western Cape province, as well as helping to form the Cape Falconry Club and South African Falconers Association. He provides a lot of valuable...

We're joined by Dr. Kyle Perrin during a very rainy day at the CFC meet for this third episode of the Cape Falconry Club series. Kyle is another falconer who is also a veterinarian, with experience practicing not just in South Africa, but also the UK. He's also practiced falconry in both countries, so offers insights and stories into his falconry experiences from both perspectives. We hope you've...

In this second episode coming to you from the Cape Falconry Club, we're joined by its chairman, André Cilliers, and he does a great job of going into further detail about how falconry is regulated and conducted in the Western Cape. He also discusses his use of dogs in his falconry and what led him to choose his current dog, his journey to flying longwings, and some of the other challenges he's had...

Thanks for joining us for the start of our journey in South Africa! Our first podcast episode of this series organized by the Cape Falconry Club features a conversation with Richard Huchzermeyer. We were able to get this recorded in between breaks during the joint IUCN/IAF conference being held in Cape Town the first weekend I was in South Africa, and along with hearing about Richard's falconry st...

This episode was recorded the week of the Archives Spring Rendezvous, and we're happy to finally be able to release it for you all! Joe and Alyssa were kind enough to host us at their home that week, and we took the opportunity to have a fun conversation catching each other up on our falconry seasons during the visit. Since Joe and Alyssa also haven't been guests on the podcast before, they also s...

It's only fitting that we conclude this Arizona Falconers Association series with a tribute to the man who kicked the series off, Harry McElroy. When we started putting this series together, it became apparent very quickly that a tribute episode was in order for Harry, who's made so many contributions to falconry and had an impact on so many falconers around the world. We were able to get in touch...

In this last jaunt of our Arizona Falconers Association series, we're joined by Greg Smith, who discusses how falconry life has been for him during his years in Kingman, AZ. This episode was a great learning experience, since Greg has imprinted and flown a fair amount of accipiters. He also is one of the few people we've been able to talk to thus far who has experience imprinting an ornate hawk-ea...

In this next episode of the Arizona Falconers Association series, we make our next stop in Tucson to visit and talk with Brian Wood. After a long day day of traveling and recording, it was nice to finish the day by getting Brian's take on experiences with Cooper's hawks, quail hawking, and career decisions inspired by falconry. It's always nice getting to hear from anyone who's had success with Co...

These next couple of installments of the Arizona Falconers Association series take us down to Tucson, where we met first with Tim Riordan. In this episode, on top of sharing his experiences flying imprint Cooper's hawks and various longwings, Tim also shares some of his initial falconry experiences as another one of the people starting in the sport before a lot of the regulations were put into eff...

In this second installment brought to you all by the Arizona Falconers Association, we make the trek over to Cornville to meet up with Randy Hale! It was great seeing this part of the state again after so many years, and we were fortunate to be able to see some great scenery while also hearing some great falconry stories that Randy was willing to share. During his time in falconry, Randy has flown...

Thanks to the Arizona Falconers Association, we were able to do a series featuring falconers from all across the Grand Canyon State, including our esteemed guest for this episode, Harry McElroy! Harry and his wife Beth were kind enough to invite us into their home to discuss Harry's long tenure in falconry, which spanned several decades. At 93 years old, Harry is recently retired from falconry, bu...

After meeting Krista for the first time at the Spring Rendezvous banquet, it became apparent that she had a unique perspective to offer in regards to her beginnings in falconry, and some of the other experiences that she's had since. We were happy to get a chance to find time late after the banquet ended to record this conversation about some of the adversity she faced initially getting into the s...

While at a recent trip to the Archives of Falconry Spring Rendezvous in Boise, ID, we got a chance to meet up with some longtime friends, and make some new ones. Our guest this episode, Tony James, is one of those new friends, and we're glad we got a chance to pull him aside for a bit to discuss some of his past and present falconry endeavors. This episode was going to happen during the UK series,...

Our second series featuring falconers from Mexico concludes with Eduardo García Espino. Eduardo was heard previously acting as translator for Leonardo Santana, and before heading back home to the US, we get a chance to discuss his falconry career, consisting mainly of flying Harris's hawks and goshawks primarily on quail. Eduardo also utilizes dogs with his falconry, and he's also known for breedi...

This episode of our second series featuring falconers from Mexico brings you veterinarian Ayax Soleil Camacho, who is mostly known for flying aplomado falcons and Harris's hawks. This is another episode that required translation, provided courtesy of our host Gerardo Calderon. Along with discussing his experiences flying aplomado falcons and Harris's hawks, Ayax shared some of his other experience...

This fifth episode in our second series featuring falconers from Mexico brings you Gerardo Calderon. Gerardo was our host for the week, having been referred by Rodrigo Munro-Wilson, and his hospitality and planning are largely what made this second series possible. Having flown several species throughout his falconry career, with his current passion being flying peregrines at snipe and ducks, Gera...

This fourth episode in our second series featuring falconers from Mexico takes us to our host Gerardo's ranch, where some more amazing duck hawking took place. Shortly after Leo's falcon took a duck, we sat down with Leo to discuss some of the different species he has flown, some of his personal preferences and experiences with some of those species, and some interesting techniques he's used with...

Our second series featuring falconers from Mexico continues with Daniel Rassvetaieff, who was kind enough to invite us to his home in Toluca after a good morning hunt. Daniel is most known for his experiences hunting with barbary and peregrine falcons, which he primarily hunts snipe and ducks with. He is also one of the first people in Mexico to fly barbary falcons. On top of being an accomplished...

This second episode of our follow up series featuring more falconers from Mexico takes us into Mexico City, where we joined Raul Ducoing Arjona at his home. We then sat down in his library and discussed his massive collection of falconry books and publications, some of his experiences trying to introduce new falconry regulations to Mexico's government, and his beginnings and stories in falconry. T...

Thanks for joining us as we kick off part two of our Mexico series! Taking place mostly in areas around and just outside Mexico City, we start our second series featuring falconers from Mexico by talking with Rodrigo Porraz Medrano, who has been practicing falconry for decades. Rodrigo has flown Harris's hawks, peregrine falcons, aplomado falcons, and other species for a long time, and also has ex...

We kick off our fifth season of the Falconry Told podcast with a golden eagle Q&A with Lauren McGough! In this episode, Lauren tries to address the rising interest in golden eagle take by answering many questions about the current golden eagle take process, manning, how to age eagles, and other important topics! There's a lot of good information in this episode that isn't always easy to find from...

Our series featuring falconers from the UK concludes with it's seventeenth installment, which features John Mease. John is known in the UK for hunting with golden eagles, and is one of the few currently employed to do so as well! His story of how he has dedicated his life to falconry and ended up in his position hunting with eagles professionally is one you can't miss! We'd like to once again send...

Due to previous time and logistical constraints during and around the time of The Game Fair, the last two installments of our UK series had to be recorded remotely. Fortunately, we were able to get the recordings coordinated, and in this sixteenth episode featuring falconers from the UK, we're joined by Jose and Charlotte Souto! Jose has been a guest previously, and while he's a renowned chef, he...