Newfoundland and Labrador Falconry Association

An excerpt from "A Falconer's Odyssey" by Greg Hayes. This 45 minute long documentary chronicles some of the history of falconry in North America and is available from various falconry supply companies including North Woods.

This video is not a history course, nor is it a technical piece. Rather it is a humble tribute to those things that falconry encompasses for Hayes, and for many of us: friends and family, camping and conservation, and the thrill of the chase.

An example of a general falconer and an apprentice falconer during an outing. In this case, flying red-tailed hawks on rabbits.

Here a group of apprentice falconers enjoy working two beagles on rabbits with their newly trained hawks.

The Merlin falcon is a very common raptor in Newfoundland and Labrador and is found even in our urban areas such as downtown St. John's, Clarenville, Gander, Grandfalls, Deer Lake, and Corner Brook. They number in the thousands if not 10s of thousands in our province and are prolific breeders. They are the most commonly seen raptor in our province. They often produce tremendous feats of aerial acrobatics while pursuing prey and can be challenging to keep a swung lure from.

Traditional falconry. A large falcon being used to hunt ducks from a "pitch" and showing us some nice "stoops". "Long Wingers", as falconers call those who fly true falcons, strive for near perfection in the displays of aerial hunting produced by their raptors. For some it is the achievement of a truly vertical stoop in which the bird can plummet from over a thousand feet and reach speeds clocked at over 300km/hr. For others, is it pursuing extremely difficult game birds such as snipe in tail-chase flights. Whatever the holy grail sought, traditional falconry with long-wings (aka falcons) is often a multi-year project.