I’m back home from a week’s hunt in Texas, my usual Thanksgiving trip augmented this year by the coincidence of the annual North American Falconers Association Field Meet, also in Amarillo this week. These trips are the highlight of my season and uniformly fun and productive hawking adventures. I’ve posted about them here and elsewhere, …
Author: Matt Mullenix
Bravo, Lino Dossi!
Anne found this UPI story about an Italian falconer refusing to surrender his Harris’ hawks under a state law banning the keeping of non-native species. The man, Lino Dossie of Trento province, is quoted as saying: “I’m too attached to my falcons [sic] and I won’t give them to anyone, no matter what they do …
Blog stumbling
Here’s an interesting bit our regular readers will enjoy. Of course, you regular readers may have found this already. I give you: Nemo Ramjet interviewing Darren Naish. Tetrapod Zoology – The Movie – More amazing videos are a click away
Girls Gone Wild
With my wife at work, the twins and I took the animals out for a spin down at the ranch. It was the first time they’ve been hawking with me this year but with luck not the last. They enjoyed themselves, by their own report, and were useful members of the team. Here’s the field, …
Animal Minds
The recent post at Atomic Nerds (linked by Steve below) plucks a number of threads that run through this blog. If you have animals or hunt animals—and especially if you have animals that hunt animals—give it a read. As a falconer who hunts (with a team of dog and hawk) a variety of common and …
My Extended Family, or, Charlie Rides Again
Falconer Steve Armstrong of Texas has a weak arm. Twist it just a little, and he’ll agree to anything. I’m glad this is true, since in the past year Steve consented to give a home to two hawks I’m quite fond of but couldn’t keep. The two hawks’ stories are related. First came Charlie, a …
For The Sake of The Children
Before I left the office yesterday to give a little talk about hawks to my kids’ 2nd grade class, I saw this story on the Yahoo ticker. Here’s the lead: CHICAGO – Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of …
Animal cruelty case: a plea and my reply
I received the following letter this morning, forwarded to me by the breeder of my whippet. It concerns the local case of an unscrupulous and (by any commonsense definition) cruel and insensitive person whose many animals have suffered from her neglect and evident greed. The letter calls for a grassroots campaign and for an aggressive …
End of September
These are a few shots from the end of a hunt at the end of September. It’s not just the cheap camera; nothing I shoot does justice to the moment. There were sharper shots in this bunch, but these slightly blurred images somehow get closest. There are much better months than September in terms of …
That Time of Year
One upside to the worst Baton Rouge hurricane in 60 years? Lots of free firewood. I’ve been stocking my woodpile for a couple weekends now, tooling around in my “Suburban” and sawing up stray limbs. Granted, it’s a wee pile compared to Steve’s, but it’s enough for a few late evenings around our little boutique …