KENT CARNIE: It's not a hobby and it's not something you do in your spare time.

I tell people I'm a falconer and in my spare time I have a life.

And that's it.

I mean, it's dominant.

It determined what I studied, where I went to school, what I did for a living, what kind of car I drive, where I live, the ladies that I have married or haven't married.

All of these things have centered around that sport.

And it's like I say it, it's, it's way more than a, a sport or a game or a pastime.

JOHN GOODELL: Falconry is the pursuit of wild quarry with a trained raptor.

It's a hunting art form, and so it is centered in the pursuit of quarry in nature.

The art of falconry is about knowing how to handle the bird in a way that it maintains that trust.

Every time you let the bird go, it doesn't have to come back.

So, not necessarily affection, but just the trust that you have a partnership that you'll continue.

CARNIE: It's a hunting sport.

But the intent isn't to kill things.

The intent is to watch that bird fly.

And the fact that it flies best when it's hunting is what makes it a hunting sport.

But it takes you into the wild and you don't have to have kill something to have a beautiful, beautiful day watching the bird fly.

CORDI ATKINSON: You're given a window into how they live in the wild, the challenges they have, how hard it is for them actually to survive.

EDEN RAVECCA: Thousands of years ago and maybe still to this day, raptors were thought to be messengers from gods.

And so, there's always been this kind of fascination and being impressed by these large birds of prey that are the top of the food chain.

And they're really the only ones that do what they do, which is really cool.

AFSHIN MOFID: When you're a falconer, you need land to do your sport.

And we're lucky in Idaho, we have so much public land that we can use, and we can just go out there and fly a bird without anybody saying anything to you.

ANNOUNCER: Funding for Outdoor Idaho is made possible by the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis Family Legacy of building the great state of Idaho, by the Friends of Idaho Public Television, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

MOFID: Falconry comes from where I come from, which is Iran, or used to call it Persia.

So as a child, I was always interested in falconry because I'd heard from people about falconry.

GOODELL: The earliest evidence that we have is between about 3500 and 4500 BC.

There's ancient petroglyphs in the northern deserts of Iran that show people holding birds, what appears to be hunting like a falconry scene with dogs.

MOFID: So, fast forward many, many years until I moved to Idaho in 2000 and I was like, wow, this is the place, a lot of falconers here, and why not now?

I always used to say, well, whenever, if I come back, you know, another life, I'm going to be a falconer.

And one day I said, well, what do you mean another life?

This is it.

Even if you come back in another life, you're not going to be a falconer.

So, I found out what it takes and found a sponsor and went through all the steps.

And here we are.

GOODELL: Idaho is one of the great states in the U.S. to fly raptors as a falconer.

So, falconers from around the country have relocated to Idaho for the reasons of flying raptors over the last, say, 30, 40 years.

Sage Grouse or Sharp Tail Grouse or you know, cottontails or jack rabbits, pheasants or partridge, waterfowl.

I mean, there's a variety of quarry to fly, there's a lot of open space.

So yeah, Idaho's one of the iconic falconry destinations I would say.

There's at least over a hundred, maybe a couple hundred falconers of those there may be a percentage that are active at any given time.

Hunting small game with a bow is challenging.

Quarry can see you coming.

They flush at great distances.

It's very difficult, even for a very skilled archer.

And so, one of the things we think falconry emerged in that arid steppe landscape was the ability to capture small game quarry at great distances.

MOFID: So, a falcon, you let the falcon go and the falcon goes up sometimes a thousand feet, 2,000 feet, then you flush the game from the ground, or if it's ducks from the water then the falcon stoops down on them.

So, he uses his weight and gravity to act as a bullet, basically just hits the bird midair and kills him that way.

GOODELL: And if you're a skilled falconer, you can make into your bird and transfer your bird, give your bird a reward and take some of that quarry to eat.

So that's the context we think it really was a way to capture small game quarry before the firearm.

MOFID: I started hunting when I was seven years old.

And then I started my ballet training at nine years old.

So, these two have always been, you know, a part of my life.

And I'm not really sure where it came from that you cannot be a ballet dancer and still be a hunter.

But I was an odd kid.

And when I danced in New York with the New York City ballet in the dressing room, everybody was, you know, talking about everything else.

But I was reading like Outdoor Life and Sports Afield and like hunting magazines, they're like what are you doing?

You become part of nature, I just love being out there, you just feel this primal need to be out there with nature.

And I guess that gives me peace.

And also, it, at the same time, it focuses me like, people do meditation, you know, again, this Zen state, the best Zen state is when you're hunting, you just like focused and nothing matters in the world, everything is away, and you're just focused.

GOODELL: Why it's still prevalent today, I think it's just this deep-rooted interest in having a deep connection to nature.

And a lot of the falconry books played a big part in the resurgence of falconry and preserving ideas so that the information wasn't lost.

And a place like the Archives is a great example of that.

If you walk through the space, it doesn't take very long to realize that this really is a heritage that spans cultures.

The Archives holds the biggest collection really in the world of falconry literature, material culture, objects like hoods, lures or hawking bags, photography, and motion picture film.

We have certainly the largest collection of falconry items in the world, in one place.

CARNIE: We had to have it.

I mean I was inspired because falconry is fairly new in the United States, but, uh, didn't really get rolling until the twenties and thirties.

I just said, we're losing their memorabilia, their memories, their correspondence, diaries.

And we can't afford to do that.

Let's grab it while we can.

GOODELL: I think through the vision of Kent here and the other leaders of the Peregrine Fund, they wanted to acknowledge the role that falconry had in their interest in recovering the peregrine, arguably the most successful recovery of an endangered species.

But what the Peregrine Fund's history shows is this band of falconers that co-founded the Peregrine Fund were highly disturbed about the prospect of losing the peregrine.

CARNIE: The falconers saw the peregrine going downhill, and they understood that extinction was not an option.

And they did everything they could to do to save it.

And it was falconers money, it was falconers support, but more than anything, it was the falconer's passion for the bird itself.

MOFID: Oh, it's definitely a partnership.

Definitely a partnership.

But the bond between the bird and myself, it's never like a dog.

My dog interacts with me, looks at me and, you know, licks my hand.

But birds of prey don't do that.

And their motivation is only food.

You got to take care of the bird all the time, year-round.

It's not like a, it's not like when you go hunting, you come home, you put your gun away until next season.

You've got to take care of them every single day.

You got to watch them, see if they're not feeling good.

Weigh them every day.

There's a lot involved in just keeping the bird.

If you're lucky, like out of four or five outings, you might get one chucker, one single chucker.

It's not like you can get a limit.

It doesn't work like that.

Because it's so hard, the situation's got to be just right.

So, you've got to be really lucky to even get one.

But that one that you get, oh my God, it's like eating <laugh>.

It's like eating the best cake in the world after like five years in the wilderness.

JOE ATKINSON: We're in the high desert sagebrush sea and this is an area I like to bring my female Golden Eagle, Widow to fly and hunt with our dogs.

It's BLM land, so it's quite beautiful.

I never get tired of seeing the sagebrush, the wildflowers, all the animals that are here.

I'm a master falconer.

The falconry license is all predicated on your experience, and it takes seven years to become a master.

I'm also known worldwide as an eagle falconer, trained, and flown eagles all over the globe.

Most falconers are divorced <laugh>.

I think that's pretty well known.

I, on the other hand, happen to land a very forgiving, lovely wife who's also a falconer.

CORDI ATKINSON: There aren't even that many falconers in general across the United States.

And to be a master falconer, it's an accomplishment.

You know I had to work to get there, take tests, and you learn a lot about the biology, their needs, their natural habits, how to house them properly, how to feed them properly, you know, it's kind of a science in its own right.

I thoroughly enjoy going out together.

We are kind of loners anyway, and it's something that we share, and you don't have to talk a lot.

It's quiet.

You just enjoy the whole scenery around you and watch nature, front row seat.

And that's been kind of my fascination with it.

JOE ATKINSON: I got our first eagle in 1976.

And just started this whole trip down eagle falconry where I got into rehabbing eagles, teaching eagles how to survive in the wild, getting them in shape.

And here we are today.

CORDI ATKINSON: For me, being able to use the art of falconry to train a completely inexperienced young eagle that never had the opportunity to learn life in the wild from its parents, because they got separated at a young age.

Various things happen, anything from falling out of a nest, and they're still literally have down on them, they're a little fluff ball, to losing a parent, shooting the parent or wind turbines, fences, you know, there's so many challenges out in the wild, and most of them are manmade, man-caused, that these birds have to figure out and adjust to.

So, to be able to kind of be a surrogate parent to a bird like that.

You just see this entire process and there's a point in their development where you just see this light go on in their eyes.

It's like, whoa, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

I'm supposed to be flying.

I know now how to catch a thermal.

I can come back down.

I just feel so honored, I guess, that I can be a part of that process to give this young bird a chance to go into the wild.

JOE ATKINSON: Cordi and I have trained a lot of rehab birds that we just fell in love with, and people ask us constantly, well, how do you turn that bird loose?

Well, at a certain stage of the training, you can see that the eagle deserves a chance to be a wild bird and they deserve the chance to make their own decisions without being encumbered by some human whatever.

And so, when they're ready to go, yeah, it's heartbreaking, but it's a beautiful moment as well.

CORDI ATKINSON: When you go out like this and there's nothing else around, you've got a bird flying and you're kind of wandering through the sagebrush, you see the most amazing things.

JOE ATKINSON: Each falconer is attracted to a certain bird, a look, the way it hunts, its personality.

And for me, I like falcons and I like eagles.

And eagles just have a stance.

They're apex predators.

The golden eagle is the avian apex predator in the world and also in the United States.

And so, I like their power.

I seem to connect with them.

I never get tired of seeing her fly.

One of the things that got me into birds and falconry is I just like to see birds' fly.

Watching an eagle catch a thermal and just get pulled up into the sky is exhilarating.

One of the biggest thrills is there's certain areas out here where I'm pretty sure we're going to get a flush.

And for the last 10 minutes I had no idea where the eagle is.

She's so high I can't find her.

I'm looking at anyway, and when things start to happen, I'll see her shadow come across the sage and I know she's right there.

To me, that bond, that connection is so cool, the dogs will stop and look up and it's just, I never get tired of it.

I mean, you know, a lot of people would.

I don't.

DARRYL BARNES: There's an attraction that I cannot seem to kick or explain.

That's the best way I can, I can say it.

I think most humans are attracted to all predators because I think we co-evolved with them, and probably some of our ancestor's protein came from them, robbing them.

I think that's maybe the basis of falconry.

But what specifically keeps drawing me back, I, I don't really know, to be honest.

So yeah, I'm a falconer, for the last decade I fly strictly peregrine falcons.

The Peregrine is the classic, long wing predator, used for falconry since the Middle Ages.

So, a young bird that's taken into captivity, whether it comes from the wild or it's captive bred, we call those eyases.

Some of us do a process, an ancient process of hacking where they're allowed their freedom before they can fly.

And they kind of bond with the area just as they would to a natal site in the wild.

And then they fledge from that area.

They imprint it as if it's their natural home, and then after a period of two to three weeks, the birds are taken up, tamed, and trained for falconry.

What that results in is an individual bird that is mentally and physically developed like a wild bird.

A hacked eyas bird is streets ahead from a chamber raised bird.

Today is really just physical conditioning.

So, there's a parachute that's on a disconnect that with just a couple of pounds of pressure, it disconnects from the drone, and then a long control line of about 20 feet.

And on that, there's a lure, which is just a pheasant wing and a piece of food, and she chases it just like she would chase a parent carrying dead prey.

Putting a lure up high in the sky, it's very difficult for them to climb like that, basically like going to the gym and they get fit and strong physically and mentally.

And once we get past that, there will be a day where we separate the wheat from the chaff and there's no drone, and hood comes off and let them go fly and see what they do.

Peregrines are large enough to handle all the quarry we have here in Idaho.

Big ducks, sage grouse, partridge, and pheasants.

I allow them and most falconers allow their birds to just enjoy the fruits of their labor and pluck and feed.

And then once they've had 20, 30 minutes to enjoy themselves, then you can pick them up, put that quarry in the bag and feed them up and pop their hood on and off you go.

There's always something new.

There's always something to learn.

You never stop.

It's kind of like medicine or science.

You never know it all.

So, there's always that expectation of what's, what's next?

What are you going to learn?

What are you going to discover?

If any sane person or logical person sat down and did a decision matrix or just wrote down what we put into it, it's not logical, but I think that's because it's an art form.

It's just a labor of love.

EDEN RAVECCA: Falconers, to be able to do what they do, they have to understand birds of prey really well, just like biologists have to understand birds of prey really well to do what we do.

We both do have this fascination with the birds of prey and their role in the ecosystem.

So, a lot of the techniques that we use to study birds of prey have originated from falconry.

So, we borrow a lot of those techniques, to catch a bird of prey, to put a transmitter on it, to do biological or ecological studies on birds of prey.

My name is Eden Ravecca.

I am a raptor biologist here in Idaho and I study raptors because I think that they're fascinating and impressive and beautiful.

It's a raptor if three main characteristics are met, and that's sharp curved bill raptor to rip and tear their food, sharp talons and strong feet which is what they use to catch their food, and then keen eyesight, forward facing eyes, what we see through binoculars is what they would just see normally.

There's also estimates of how far a raptor can see down and some would say a kilometer away or more.

They're very keen to pick up on movement, and so that's like a predatory aspect of it is that they see very small movements.

And so, they might see something rustling in the grass or something that flashes by in one direction.

They are descendants of a group of dinosaurs, which were raptorial as well called theropods.

So that's where all birds come from actually.

So, I always say that they're modern dinosaurs or living dinosaurs because we say dinosaurs are extinct, but actually they're all around us.

This is the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.

Established and designated as a conservation area in 1993.

And managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

And this area is known for being the densest concentration of breeding birds of prey in North America, and some say in the world.

We get a lot of cliff nesting raptors, and then also what we call the uplands on the rim, there's a really great abundance and diversity of small mammals, which are the main food source for a lot of the raptors that nest here.

We find prairie falcons, peregrine falcons, there's eagles, a lot of hawks, Swainson's hawks, red-tailed hawks, ferruginous hawks, and then there's owls, barn owls, great horned owls, burrowing owls up on the uplands.

So, a lot of variety of raptors.

A golden eagle might go for something like a blacktail jack rabbit or a cottontail rabbit.

Something like a kestrel, which is a small falcon, or a burrowing owl might go for mice.

But also, a lot of the birds are generalists.

So, a redtail hawk might go for a rattlesnake.

A kestrel might go for a lizard, or a falcon might go for a bird as well.

Bald eagles like to hunt waterfowl along the river, so there's a lot of diversity in what they can eat.

If there's a large population of raptors, that's a pretty good indication that the prey species is healthy.

If the prey species is healthy, that's a good indication that the plant community is healthy as well.

So, when there's an absence of raptors, we usually start there and look down to see where there's maybe something that's out of balance in that ecosystem.

I think in Idaho and in much of the world, one of the biggest threats is habitat loss or habitat change, which we could also consider a loss depending on the species.

And a lot of that is due to ecological disturbance, things like wildfires increasing in frequency and intensity, but also development around this National Conservation Area.

So as humans expand, there's habitat loss.

And then there's other, less commonly talked about threats that they're facing.

The issue of illegal shooting is difficult because this area provides recreational opportunities which includes recreational shooting and most people that come here to recreationally shoot, are not shooting raptors.

It's a threat that kind of goes under the radar but is definitely happening.

And then there's some indirect threats as well, things like lead poisoning.

Lead bullets will often fragment when they're used in hunting, and if any of those little pieces are left behind in whatever was shot, and a bird eats that, a very, very small amount of lead can poison and kill a raptor.

We have a pretty big invasion of cheatgrass in this area, it's an invasive species, so as cheatgrass comes in and displaces those native plants, that can have a really big impact on the prey species, which will then have an impact on the predators here as well.

But we are actively working on seeing what the effects of those changes are and what that means for the prey that live here and the predators that live here and seeing if they're able to adapt to these changes.

I think that they're just so beautiful and powerful and impressive.

I love watching them.

I love what they do.

They're just really charismatic and I think that gets a lot of people's attention.

Seeing them fly effortlessly and carving through the air is really fun to watch, and they're just really powerful and impressive in that way.

GOODELL: I think it just helps you connect to the wild.

It helps you understand nature.

But it's a portal.

It's a way to understand, well, you're flying this wild raptor on this wild native quarry that's adapted to that raptor as a predator, and they're both adapted to each other.

And so, you begin to feel, in my opinion, a deeper connection to the landscape and to the quarry and to the predator than you would in traditional hunting methods.

MOFID: The best part is when the dog goes on point, just before you release the bird.

That is the best part.

Because you're just, like.

you don't know what's going to happen but you're on the edge of something happening.

Whether a disaster or success.

<laugh>.

BARNES: The anticipation and the challenge of getting everything all lined up just right, so when you flush the quarry, it all comes together in a beautiful dance of predator and prey, which lasts literally seconds.

And that time when the flush is made, and the falcon stoops is one of those times in life where time stands still, you're in eternity right then.

ANNOUNCER: Funding for Outdoor Idaho is made possible by the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis Family Legacy of building the great state of Idaho, by the Friends of Idaho Public Television, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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