The Tiniest Dragon Slayer

I'm Hoping to Fly North America's Smallest Falcon This Fall!

American Kestrel with his dinner.

I have been a falconer for over a decade, and I have only been hunting with wild-caught juvenile red-tailed hawks and kestrels. I love these birds. They are as common as chicory blossoms on the side of the road, yet each bird I’ve worked with has had an entirely different personality, training program, and hunting style.

I once had a red-tail named Aya that would fly wide reconnoissance circles around me scanning for game, sometimes far away or too high and I was certain I’d never see her again, but she always returned to the lure and never failed to make each hunt a thrilling and beautiful experience.

Once I was sure I lost her over a ridge and while walking home in a snow squall. crestfallen and teary-eyed, she landed right in front of me in the snow and looked up at me annoyed I wasn’t keeping up, hopped up on my fist, and let me give her the mouse in my satchel. She was never lost, she always knew where I was, and never once didn’t do her best.

I can still see her hovering 30-ft above a briar patch, locking in on a cottontail, and tucking in her wings to dive head first into the thorniest mess in pursuit of a rabbit. It’s the most thrilling, whooping, running-through-the-forest fun you can possibly have that can end with rabbit on your table. (Rabbit is so damn good. It tastes like chicken but has so much more protein and flavor!)

And I’ve had smaller male ‘tails that hated having to chase rabbits and squirrels, they weren’t interested in big game and were happy to fly through the woods after chipmunks and turn an afternoon walk through peak foliage into a game of tag. My bird Hamish didn’t catch a rabbit once, but had a blast pouncing on field mice and voles. Some falconers would release any bird that wasn’t capable of hunting the prey they want. Some wouldn’t even train a small male like that, because they already knew they may not have the courage and size of the female (most birds of prey have larger more aggressive females than males, some red-tail females are twice the size of males) but I learned from him, too.

Small But Mighty

Photo of male kestrel taking a dragonfly. credit: Phil Rathner.

This fall I want to focus on something different. I want to fly North America’s smallest falcon, the American Kestrel. These birds are around the size of a cardinal, weighing a hundred grams or so; and while they’re diminutive in stature, they still have that falcon way of holding themselves, kind of like cats. Falcons with their dark shark eyes and high-headed posture, like they know they were once worshipped as gods.