Outdoor Ontario
Discussion => General Discussions => Topic started by: Napper on January 12, 2008, 03:59:11 PM
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Hey had a few questions about Falconry hunting..
Today I spotted a guy walking across the golf course behind my house thru the Bino's with at first looked like a behive on his arm.. It moved a bit then I realized it was a White Falcon (Gyr Falcon) or a Snowy owl.
I was kinda wondering what was going on back there because a large flock of Can Geese and many smaller ducks departed the drainage pond . The Crows were making a big racket and I saw a Coopers hawk zip over my house from the fields or what remains of the fields back there.
There are usually many many doves around and lately nothing. I attributed this to the Coopers hawk that visits many times during the day.
Now I am wondering if it isn't this guy with a Falcon.. He was moving quite quickly across the golf course when I spotted him looking over his shoulder.
He had long dark hair, a big guy but not tall wearing a military green style jacket..
Am I correct when I say he is not to take any migratory birds? Or can he take migratory birds maximum of 2 ? Never the less he was on a Golf course that
has many no trespassing signs.
Why do I see this stuff?
Napper, Milton, Ontario
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It is quite possible that he is contracted to be there. Airports and beaches are using falconers to fly their birds in areas with what man has determined to be "problem animals". Airports use falconers to keep the runways clear form birds to prevent mid air collisions with the planes and the deaths that may ensue from those collisions. Golf courses use them to keep the goose population down and away from the grasses they work so hard to keep and to prevent them from being bonked by errant golf balls in the summer.
However if he is hunting his birds illegally then I would call someone to check him out just in case. You never know and it might go either way....but better safe than sorry.