Vintners and Falcons

Brad Felger found out early in his life what he wanted to do. “It all started when I was really young. I've always been drawn to the outdoors and animals and it started with lizards snakes then worked its way into raptors. In 1970 my neighbors had a couple of hawks. I had been thinking about it. I was barely 11 years old. We went down to a pet shop and bought a talk at a pet store. It was just at the very end of the time when birds were still being sold in pet shops and new laws were coming in. They were falconry laws making it illegal for pet stores to sell them. So I got my first bird and when I was older I got my falconry license. That started a lifetime of falconry. Falconry by definition is hunting wild quarry with a trained raptor under natural circumstances. That's what I did for many years and I still do. I lived in an area in California in San Luis Obispo County and it was quickly transforming from cattle country to wine country and with that came problems with birds. Namely, European starlings that come in in big flocks during the time when the fruit is getting ripe and they can devastate the vineyards there.