Hawk Pheasant Hunting

Brad Felger likes to go bird hunting but there is a double entendre here and I'll let him explain. It's a hobby I have pursued for 45 years now. I am a falconer and so during certain times of the year, hunting season, pheasant season, we have seasons just like gun hunters do. The pheasant season for gun hunters will go through December 31 and ours goes a little bit longer. That's for falconry. We have to have a hunting license in addition to our falconry license. If I were to be hunting pheasant with my falcon, I would go to somewhere that I had permission to fly, find some pheasants which I would site by eye or set the dog loose. I would then put the falcon up in the air, let it get up nice and high and then go in and flush the pheasant. The falcon will come down at high speed and knocks the pheasant out of the air, stuns him and then comes down and grabs it on the ground and then reaches in and does what falcons are designed to do, they sever the spine with their beak by biting the back of the neck.