Originally published in the 2022 Mews News Every so often, I hear folks with a lot of experience chatting about the requirements they set for apprentices. There’s typically a lot of smart people in that conversation, with a lot of great ideas for how falconry should be done, what’s best for the hawks, and how …
The Spring 2022 issue of the New York State Falconry Association Journal, “The Mews News,” will be shipped to all members soon. This is a cool one, with a lot of neat art and articles about community. You don’t need to be a falconer to get it, just a US resident with an interest in …
Thoughts from late 2023 When we go out with our hawks, we go out to the tiny woodlot behind the bus garage. We go out to the stand of black walnuts that grows between cul-de-sacs. We go out to the state forest, on the old forgotten back road that runs up into a farmer’s field …
These are intended to be general learning goals achieved by the end of an apprenticeship. They represent only the basic learning required to handle and fly a hawk on game. I consider falconry an ongoing lifelong learning process for the falconer. Before an apprentice can move on and begin self-direction as a General falconer, I …
As part of falconry, I have been lucky enough to work with some of the best falconers in the state, many of whom have strict rules for how they work with apprentices. From them, I have been compiling the requirements that I believe are most likely to generate the best possible outcomes. This is not …
Try to be anything else. A professor, a farmer, a lawyer. Forget about reading My Side of the Mountain when you were eight. Try not to mull over the decline of the American Kestrel population on the coasts. Read every book that you can get your hands on, even some that are clearly filled with …
Published in the 2019 Mews News By Matthew Vercant It is 10:12 am and the woods are still. Snow is in the air and on the ground, drifting slowly uphill onto the nearby crest, circling round tree trunks and into hollows. It forms a smooth, unbroken sheet; trackless, stepless, shattered only by the occasional pock …
You’re probably wondering why you found James Mathe’s writing on this “Vercant” guy’s website. Well, here’s the details. From roughly 2009-2017, James Mathe and I worked together in a variety of ways. I was first his store manager, early playtester on Minion Games and occasional copy editor, then his business partner, and ultimately his friend. …
One of the most intimidating pre-apprentice tasks for me was constructing my mews. Largely, I found this a bit overwhelming because I lacked essentially all of the knowledge and skills necessary to make a building, excepting perhaps laying shingles. Each step had to be researched, second guessed, and researched again prior to doing it. I …
My first year of falconry was swimming in a vast ocean of my own ignorance. In many ways, I am still doggie paddling there. Preparing for the state falconry exam, certainly, gave me a large swath of the book learning that I needed to talk about falconry, to gain some of the vocabulary, the code …