In this eighth episode of the Cape Falconry Club series, Zayin Vermaak joins us to talk about some of the experiences he's had in the many years he's practiced falconry. He elaborates some about the species he's flown, including black sparrowhawks and lanner falcons, as well as some of the challenges he's faced with them! We have just a handful of episodes left in this series, and we hope you all have enjoyed the journey with us!

This Cape Falconry Club series continues on with this seventh episode, which features another falconer with a unique experience. Francois Breedt is another falconer who has had the experience of helping to get falconry legalized and a club established in their respective province, which was the Free State province at the time. Along with that experience, in this episode he also discusses his love for pointers, as well as his favorite prey to hunt, amongst other things. Thanks for continuing to join us as this series continues on!

The fun at the CFC meet continues with this sixth episode of the series. This recording was made shortly after a morning of hawking, where Thean Prinsloo bagged the first head of game at the meet. Later in the morning, after his falcon took a duck in a nice flight, we sat down to discuss his first few years in falconry. He talks about his experiences with the CFC and mentorship, some of the lessons he's learned being a relatively new falconer, as well as some of things he's had to do to incorporate falconry around his academic pursuits. A big thanks also goes out to Thean for the transportation to the meet and other places during my time in and around Cape Town!

During another rainy day recording this fourth episode at the CFC meet, Trevor Oertel sits down with us to talk about his lengthy falconry history, and quite a history it is! Trevor is one of the falconers responsible for getting falconry legalized in the Western Cape province, as well as helping to form the Cape Falconry Club and South African Falconers Association. He provides a lot of valuable insight into the challenges that go with that whole process, and why falconry was illegal for a period of time in that part of South Africa. You won't want to miss hearing about some of these experiences!

During another rainy day recording this fourth episode at the CFC meet, Trevor Oertel sits down with us to talk about his lengthy falconry history, and quite a history it is! Trevor is one of the falconers responsible for getting falconry legalized in the Western Cape province, as well as helping to form the Cape Falconry Club and South African Falconers Association. He provides a lot of valuable insight into the challenges that go with that whole process, and why falconry was illegal for a period of time in that part of South Africa. You won't want to miss hearing about some of these experiences!

We're joined by Dr. Kyle Perrin during a very rainy day at the CFC meet for this third episode of the Cape Falconry Club series. Kyle is another falconer who is also a veterinarian, with experience practicing not just in South Africa, but also the UK. He's also practiced falconry in both countries, so offers insights and stories into his falconry experiences from both perspectives. We hope you've been enjoying the series so far, and thanks again to the CFC and Falconry Heritage Trust for helping to make it possible!

In this second episode coming to you from the Cape Falconry Club, we're joined by its chairman, André Cilliers, and he does a great job of going into further detail about how falconry is regulated and conducted in the Western Cape. He also discusses his use of dogs in his falconry and what led him to choose his current dog, his journey to flying longwings, and some of the other challenges he's had to face in his position along with his personal falconry. He was also very instrumental in helping to organize and coordinate this series, and without his help, it probably wouldn't have happened, so we're very appreciative of his invitation to attend the CFC meet! We also thank the Falconry Heritage Trust for their grant to help meet travel expenses for this series, and if you want to find out more about them and help support their cause, please head to http://www.falconryheritage.org.

Thanks for joining us for the start of our journey in South Africa! Our first podcast episode of this series organized by the Cape Falconry Club features a conversation with Richard Huchzermeyer. We were able to get this recorded in between breaks during the joint IUCN/IAF conference being held in Cape Town the first weekend I was in South Africa, and along with hearing about Richard's falconry story, this is the first of many educational and informative episodes of how things work with falconry in the South African provinces. We hope you find the series as interesting as we did, and hopefully hearing how falconry is conducted from another country with different provincial perspectives will peak your interests as much as it did ours! We'd also like to thank the Falconry Heritage Trust for helping to sponsor the travel expenses to make this series possible. For more information about the mission of the FHT and how to donate to their cause, please go to https://www.falconryheritage.org.

This episode was recorded the week of the Archives Spring Rendezvous, and we're happy to finally be able to release it for you all! Joe and Alyssa were kind enough to host us at their home that week, and we took the opportunity to have a fun conversation catching each other up on our falconry seasons during the visit. Since Joe and Alyssa also haven't been guests on the podcast before, they also shared some of their favorite falconry and abatement stories while we were catching up. We hope you enjoy this fun falconry banter between friends before starting on our journey in South Africa next week!

It's only fitting that we conclude this Arizona Falconers Association series with a tribute to the man who kicked the series off, Harry McElroy. When we started putting this series together, it became apparent very quickly that a tribute episode was in order for Harry, who's made so many contributions to falconry and had an impact on so many falconers around the world. We were able to get in touch with some more of the falconers who've had the privelege of knowing Harry throughout the years and give them the chance to share some of their favorite memories and experiences with Harry. Thanks again so much for joining us for this special episode and we hope you've enjoyed the series! Next up: South Africa!!

In this last jaunt of our Arizona Falconers Association series, we're joined by Greg Smith, who discusses how falconry life has been for him during his years in Kingman, AZ. This episode was a great learning experience, since Greg has imprinted and flown a fair amount of accipiters. He also is one of the few people we've been able to talk to thus far who has experience imprinting an ornate hawk-eagle, and it was very informative finding out about how he approached that process, as well as how he's approached imprinting and working with his other falconry birds over the years. We have one very special episode left in this series before we head off to record our series for South Africa, so we hope you join us for the Arizona Falconers Association series finale coming soon!

In this next episode of the Arizona Falconers Association series, we make our next stop in Tucson to visit and talk with Brian Wood. After a long day day of traveling and recording, it was nice to finish the day by getting Brian's take on experiences with Cooper's hawks, quail hawking, and career decisions inspired by falconry. It's always nice getting to hear from anyone who's had success with Cooper's hawks, and his perspective on raising and flying them is another welcome addition to the podcast! It was a pleasure getting to meet Brian's family as well, and we thank them for their hospitality for letting us stay there before having to head back to Kingman the following day to wrap up the series!

These next couple of installments of the Arizona Falconers Association series take us down to Tucson, where we met first with Tim Riordan. In this episode, on top of sharing his experiences flying imprint Cooper's hawks and various longwings, Tim also shares some of his initial falconry experiences as another one of the people starting in the sport before a lot of the regulations were put into effect, and what it was like later being involved with the process of getting peregrine take back for the state of Arizona. Being as Arizona was the first state to be able to take eyas peregrines again after being on the endangered list for so long, this is an episode that offers another good perspective on what goes on behind the scenes with falconry organizations as they work to keep our sport active.

In this second installment brought to you all by the Arizona Falconers Association, we make the trek over to Cornville to meet up with Randy Hale! It was great seeing this part of the state again after so many years, and we were fortunate to be able to see some great scenery while also hearing some great falconry stories that Randy was willing to share. During his time in falconry, Randy has flown several Cooper's hawks, as well as other species of hawks and falcons. Some of the stories that he shared with us were truly unique, as well as some of his perspectives resulting from many years in the sport, and we're happy to have been able to have met him during our circuit through AZ! Stop in with us the next couple of weeks as we head towards the bottom of the state to Tucson!

Thanks to the Arizona Falconers Association, we were able to do a series featuring falconers from all across the Grand Canyon State, including our esteemed guest for this episode, Harry McElroy! Harry and his wife Beth were kind enough to invite us into their home to discuss Harry's long tenure in falconry, which spanned several decades. At 93 years old, Harry is recently retired from falconry, but he has left behind a long legacy of contributions to the sport. While it's impossible to be able to fully encompass such a long life's worth of stories and experiences into an hour or so, we were happy to be able to share Harry's beginnings in falconry, his experiences living in Mexico, South America, and parts of the United States, and some of the knowledge that he's gleaned over the years flying several species of raptors and incorporating dogs and horses in falconry. We're truly honored to be able to do this series for Arizona and we hope you enjoy the rest of the episodes dedicated to some of Arizona's falconry heritage!

After meeting Krista for the first time at the Spring Rendezvous banquet, it became apparent that she had a unique perspective to offer in regards to her beginnings in falconry, and some of the other experiences that she's had since. We were happy to get a chance to find time late after the banquet ended to record this conversation about some of the adversity she faced initially getting into the sport, some of her many experiences getting to meet falconers around the world while doing falconry photography, and also reminiscing about one of her falconry mentors and sky trial goals. We hope everyone gets something positive from this episode and hope you enjoy! Check back soon for a memorable episode 100, and if you need any new falconry equipment, please check out @babayagagoshawk on Instagram or email maciejdzierwa@me.com for more info!

While at a recent trip to the Archives of Falconry Spring Rendezvous in Boise, ID, we got a chance to meet up with some longtime friends, and make some new ones. Our guest this episode, Tony James, is one of those new friends, and we're glad we got a chance to pull him aside for a bit to discuss some of his past and present falconry endeavors. This episode was going to happen during the UK series, but better late than never! On top of being an established falconer of many years, Tony is an avid falconry book connoisseur with a very large library, and is responsible for recently helping to bring about the English translation of The Art of Taming, Training, and Managing Hawks by P. De Gommer. We also have a few new series in the works for you coming up in the next couple of months, so enjoy! We would also like to introduce a new sponsor for the podcast, Baba Yaga Crafts! If you're in the market from some high quality, handmade equipment, Baba Yaga is worth checking out! Head to @babayagagoshawk on Instagram, or email at maciejdzierwa@me.com for more info.

Our second series featuring falconers from Mexico concludes with Eduardo García Espino. Eduardo was heard previously acting as translator for Leonardo Santana, and before heading back home to the US, we get a chance to discuss his falconry career, consisting mainly of flying Harris's hawks and goshawks primarily on quail. Eduardo also utilizes dogs with his falconry, and he's also known for breeding dogs, particularly his favorite breed, the vizsla. Thank you all again so much for continuing to listen, and to NAFA and the Falconry Fund for the small grant that helped fund us so we could make it for you! We hope you enjoyed the series!

This episode of our second series featuring falconers from Mexico brings you veterinarian Ayax Soleil Camacho, who is mostly known for flying aplomado falcons and Harris's hawks. This is another episode that required translation, provided courtesy of our host Gerardo Calderon. Along with discussing his experiences flying aplomado falcons and Harris's hawks, Ayax shared some of his other experiences with other species, as well as discussing some aspects of his veterinary practice. We thank you for continuing to join us on our journey, and keep an eye out for the conclusion of our second Mexico series next episode!

This fifth episode in our second series featuring falconers from Mexico brings you Gerardo Calderon. Gerardo was our host for the week, having been referred by Rodrigo Munro-Wilson, and his hospitality and planning are largely what made this second series possible. Having flown several species throughout his falconry career, with his current passion being flying peregrines at snipe and ducks, Gerardo's experiences bring a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. Gerardo has used dogs in falconry for a long time too, and his family is known as one of the first to breed Vizslas in Mexico. We can't thank Gerardo enough for his help during this series, and we hope you enjoy hearing about his falconry career!