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What: #92 Take a falconry class

When: April 6th
Where: Maya Devi Village, Nepal
Why: Part of the reason I love travel is that I am exposed to incredible people doing incredible things all over the world. One such group of people is raising awareness of the loss of vultures (and other birds of prey) in Asia. Without the vultures in the food chain, many new problems have arisen and advocacy groups have teamed with governments to try to save the vultures. As part of this program, we were able to spend a day learning falconry and working with some of the amazing birds who are ambassadors for their ilk.

Part of the program was learning how to tie a knot from the bird's ankle wraps to the perch and to the glove. After quite a few tries, it was something I could do with one hand in just a few seconds, which would come in handy when working with the Egyptian Vulture "Kevin," sitting a centimeter away from my face and getting a bit anxious about why I'm fumbling with his wraps.

Next, we learn about imprinting and the importance of this for working with birds, making sure they are always comfortable in their surroundings to help them relax and conserve energy for true flight rather than expending it on futile attempts to take-off from the glove. We also learned about how to keep birds at their "flying weight"...hungry enough to want to do what they do in nature to seek prey, but fed enough that they stay healthy; not an easy balance.

Finally, we were able to spend time working with Black Kites. These birds are amazing raptors, much larger than the Egyptian Vultures, but much lighter. When Goggles - the bird I worked with for the afternoon - would come in to land, her wings would always almost wrap me up with their span, brushing her feathers across my face as she perched on my outstretched arm. Her incredible grace and maneuverability in the air is amazing to see from the perspective I had, watching her skim the ground, then back-up at the last second to land on my wrist.

The entire experience was educational and awesome, and has helped me to understand more about vultures and seek out opportunities to work with birds of prey in my own area.