When I was young, I wanted to be a falconer (amongst other things). A large part of this was the romantic image of holding my gloved hand out, and a raptor sitting gently on it. Of course, there is a lot more to it than that and it is definitely not a mainstream occupation in Australia, but I remain fascinated by raptors, and read up on hawking during a semester when we were studying domestication of animals.
I was thrilled to see one of the smaller falcons (Brown Falcon, I think) swooped briefly into my fig tree one year.
And then Maman sends me a link....
http://www.youtube.com/v/pd5BMP_41bI%26rel=0%26hl=en_US%26feature=player_embedded%26version=3
Oh I am crazy about them, I go falconing, only about once a year, it's their little hoods that have me slack jawed.
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