WDYK: On The Hunt

I’m on the eastern slope of Pack Monadnock Mountain in Temple, exploring the wooded areas of the Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm. Monadnock Falconry hosts “Hawk Walks” here, and I’m participating in one this morning. Monadnock Falconry is one of only three facilities in New England with a special education license that allows them to provide visitors with the opportunity to interact with the free flying birds being rehabilitated.          

Aengus and I seem to have established a rapport and reached a mutual understanding even though we don’t speak a common language. We had an alpha-male stare-down moment when we first met and we silently evaluated each other, eyeball to eyeball. 

Aengus has a strong hooked beak and some sizable, fearsome talons that command instant respect, but my first impression was that of a handsome bird, and not a scary one, as he stared at me unblinkingly with dark fierce eyes. To the extent I can read any wild bird’s thoughts or body language, Aengus demonstrated no signs of fear or anxiety. Perhaps he was able to sense that I posed no threat and had no apprehension about being his hunting partner.  

Aengus, a 3-year-old male Harris’s hawk whose tip-to-tip wingspan is about 40 inches, is among the birds of prey being rehabiliated by Monadnock Falconry.

Aengus is a 3-year-old male Harris’s hawk that weighs about 1½ pounds and stands 20 inches tall, with a tip-to-tip wingspan of about 40 inches. He is dark brown with copper reddish shoulder patches and white feathers on the underside of his tail. He is a bird of prey and by instinct, an opportunist hunter. 

I didn’t choose him; he chose me out of the eight or 10 other humans in today’s hawk walk event. Selecting me from the group suggests Aengus viewed me as a likely successful hunting partner. What I haven’t told him is that the meal we just mutually “captured” was actually scrap meat discreetly seeded into the leather gauntlet on my arm specifically for him to find. 

Aengus’ parents were injured in the wild, so he is being taught to hunt by humans using techniques perfected in the practice of falconry. As I hawk-walk through the woods and field perimeters looking for prey, Aengus is flying majestically overhead, or perched nearby in a treetop, totally unrestrained. Aengus is free to soar and return to me or not, as he pleases. When he is in his hunting mode, he is all business; even when perched, his wings are half-open in anticipation of a sudden movement and the need to strike quickly.  

I’m trying to flush out chipmunks, crickets, field mice or other rodents. Occasionally some scrap meat covertly makes its way into my glove, and I raise my arm like a tree limb. Aengus decides whether to swoop down and take the offering, or whether to continue to hunt for something better. He is not a pet or tamed animal and has no emotional connection with me. My only emotional connection with him is the thrill of temporarily being a part of his world and getting a close-up glimpse of this wildlife in action.

Revenue raised from these Hawk Walks supports the rehabilitation work. Hawk Walks create an opportunity to educate the public about the raptors, their natural history and the role we play in conserving these species. Monadnock Falconry also provides educational outreach demonstrations to schools and organizations, bringing the birds to the public when the public can’t come to the birds.  

Monadnock Falconry was founded by Henry Walters, who did not take the usual ornithology or wildlife biology approach into the raptor rehab profession. Walters studied Latin and Greek in high school and then majored in classics at Harvard. An undergraduate Latin course led him to Frederick the Great’s 13th-century treatise, De arte venandi cum avibus, or “Concerning the Art of Hunting with Birds.” After graduating, a traveling fellowship brought him to Ireland’s School of Falconry, where he apprenticed with European falconers. Upon returning to the U.S., Walters worked as a raptor biologist for NH Audubon and became licensed as a master falconer.  

Walters’ love of ancient literature, combined with his Ireland falconry apprenticeship, is evident in the names given to some of the birds at this facility. “Aengus” is of Celtic origin and broadly means “one strength” or “exceptional vigor,” but in this case, was chosen from “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” by Irish poet William Butler Yeats. The poem is about a man catching fish, who lands a trout which turns into a fairy-like beautiful girl. The girl flees from the fisherman, and he spends the rest of his life chasing after her. 

Aengus’s name may be uniquely suited for him, as he is the first Harris’s hawk of record observed to catch and eat fish. Fish are not usually a diet staple for this species of hawk, but as an orphaned juvenile and opportunistic hunter, perhaps this atypical meal was irresistible to Aengus.

Henry Walters founded Monadnock Falconry after serving as an apprentice falconer in Ireland and working as a raptor biologist for NH Audubon.

Harris’s hawks are not native to New Hampshire. Their natural territory are the desert areas of southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America and the dry regions of South America. Perhaps the reason they are not known for catching and eating fish is because their usual territory is arid lands.

Harris’s hawks are a social species, typically living together in small groups and hunting cooperatively in packs, unlike other raptors which often hunt solo. The social nature of Harris’s hawks has been attributed to their high intelligence. Their cooperative partnership hunting style allows smaller members of the group to participate, flushing out prey and chasing it toward the bigger, stronger members of the group for capture.  

The rapport and mutual understanding Aengus and I reached this morning resulted in a successful hunting partnership for him. He is now satiated with a full belly and ready for some preening and a nap. But the rodents and crickets we flushed out did nothing for my half of the partnership, so now I’m going hunting with the other humans who were on the Hawk Walk. 

We heard that the Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm makes the best homemade ice cream in the area, and we need to flush out the truth of that rumor.