MONROE, LA (10/11/19)– A new success takes flight in the Louisiana Falconry world as a local catches the first Peregrine Falcon for hunting.
“I would spend the day waiting and watching, hoping and praying,” said Dale Barry, Master Class Falconer in Louisiana.
After sitting in a stand for 10 days, a Monroe Master Falconer caught the first wild peregrine falcon in the state of Louisiana. For three years, Wildlife and fisheries have done a drawing for one permit in the state, but no one has been able to capture a Peregrine Falcon until this year.
“It’s gonna be up to me to show him the game and then he’s gonna kill, he’s a machine,” said Barry (Along side Arctic Boy, Peregrine Falcon).
Though Arctic Boy is less then a year old and barely weighs one pound, his species is the fastest on earth, clocking in at 242 miles per hour.
“I’ll hopefully train him to bring up hundreds of feet and he will be way above me and as I flush his game for him and he will stoop after it and chase it and take it down,” said Barry (Along side Arctic Boy, Peregrine Falcon).
Arctic Boy has been training for 3 days so when winter comes around he can help his trainer hunt dove and other small game bird. Some of arctic boy’s training consists of flying and walking to Barry and simulating game chasing with a lure. Barry says in a couple of weeks he will be ready to fly.
“Oh I have great expectations for him, but who knows, i’m sure he’s gonna give it his all,” said Barry.
After this falcon hunts a couple of seasons, Barry will release him back into the wild.
“We are not into it for the numbers, it’s the quality of the sport, interacting with the bird, a magnificent animal like this,” Said Barry.
Though Arctic Boy has yet to be on a hunt, he’s in good hands and is eager for his first flight.
The peregrine falcon was an endangered subspecies in 1970, but thanks to falconers, they were taken off the list in the late 1990’s and have made a huge comeback.
