Steam has her gaze fixed on the glove on my hand. She’s a Harris hawk and when I call her name, she soars silently and low towards me, before swooping up to grasp my gloved hand with her powerful talons and taking her reward—a little bit of quail.
This isn’t a bird show. This falconry experience in Ojai is a chance to learn about these raptors alongside a group of other curious nature lovers.
"We can observe them from afar, but it's very rare that you have the opportunity to get up close and understand their behaviors and their role in the ecosystem," said founder of Talon and Flight Falconry, Denise Disharoon.
The master falconer explained that the practice goes back thousands of years.
"It is such an incredible tradition that isn't really well known. We think it dates back over 10,000 years, and it's thought that it developed kind of simultaneously in the steppes of Mongolia and Persia, and from there really spread throughout cultures all over the world. So Genghis Khan hunted with raptors and falcons," she said.
"It is a symbiotic relationship with a wild animal that gets to leave if it wants to leave."
Steam moves swiftly to catch a lure thrown into the air, masterfully grabbing it with her talons. The experience is a chance to connect with these birds, known as the wolves of the sky.
"What have I learned from the bird?" ponders Disharoon. "I feel like she's probably one of my biggest teachers; she's taught me a tremendous amount of patience and trust."
"She is an incredibly powerful bird. So as much as she has to trust me, I also have to trust her. Practicing falconry and working with these birds that are so powerful is made me feel more human, like as humans are meant to be, than probably anything else that I've done."
These birds can be impacted by habitat loss, vehicle collisions, electrocution and poisoning from rodenticides, and for those who took part in the immersive encounter, it’s an opportunity to gain a better understanding of raptors and the importance of protecting them.
"The fact that you can get so close so you can see so much detailing eye to eye and there is something about the way the eyes penetrate into your soul. It's like they see everything. I don't know how to explain it but there is an amazing energy that the birds have," said one.
"It feels like a relationship that predates my existence right now. Feels like it taps into something a little more ancient and primal and our interconnectivity with all animals and that we have an innate relationship with all living beings. And if we can get out into the wild and interact in obviously a beautiful, safe environment, it really reawakens that amazing relationship and I think wakes something up inside of us," said another.
And Disharoon says we can all share the responsibility of protecting these birds of prey for generations to come.
