Hawk Walk

Ever since I was a young boy reading, My Side of the Mountain I have dreamed about being a falconer. The dream ran so deep that I met a falconer when I was about 14 and talked to him about the process. He walked me through it and I even had the falconry exam prep book. I read it cover to cover and was preparing to take the exam. I thought I had my future as a falconer all planned out. Then my mother wisely redirected my interest by proposing a bargain - if I did not pursue falconry she would help me get a car. That bargain ended in my short-lived attempt to become a falconer. 

Even though I laid that dream to rest long ago, I still am fascinated with falconry. When I was planning our trip to Ireland I stumbled upon Ireland’s School of Falconry and saw they offered Hawk Walks I knew this was something I really wanted to do. I talked to Alison about it and unsurprisingly she didn't want to participate herself, but she was happy to come and spectate as I flew a hawk. I reached out and made the arrangements to have my own personal Hawk Walk. 

Ireland’s School of Falconry is located on the grounds of Ashford Castle. In all of their communication, they emphasized how important it was to be on time for the scheduled Hawk Walk. Despite that emphasis, I let the day get away from us slightly and ended up cutting it very close. Fortunately, Alison was paying attention and knew how important this was to me and got us headed to the Hawk Walk just in time. We ended up being just a couple of minutes late, which wasn't a problem at all. 

Before we began our guide gave us a tour of Ireland’s School of Falconry. We saw a bunch of the birds they care for on-site. Most of them are Harris Hawks. They like Harris Hawks because they have a good temperament and are easier to train. We also saw a large owl that they care for and some other interesting raptors. 

After the tour, we were ready to begin. Our guide provided me with a leather glove and then went to retrieve the hawk for our walk. Today I was flying a Peruvian Harris Hawk named Andes. He was fairly young and one of the smaller hawks at the school. He is also a very skilled hunter. 

Our guide went over some basics with me. Really there wasn't much to the Hawk Walk. As we walked out of the complex I had to hold onto the straps on Andes's talons (while the other hawks were around his behavior was less predictable). Once we left the school grounds I let him go. He would sit on the glove until he was ready to fly to a nearby perch. Then he would look around for prey. To get him to come back to me all I had to do was raise my glove by my waist. Our guide would put a small piece of mouse or chicken in the glove and Andes would return and eat the morsel of food. The way he landed on my hand was unbelievably light. It was such a fun experience. 

We went for a walk through the woods. This gave Andes a chance to fly and to eat some food. It was raining a bit at the start of the Hawk Walk and I didn't even care. Andes feathers has a waterproofing so he also didn't really care. 

Alison followed us around and took these amazing pictures of me on the Hawk Walk. Her favorite part was how happy I looked. I really was so very happy as I got to live out this dream. It was truly the amazing highlight of our trip to Ireland.