Peregrine spring

297 Pages·2016·2.145 MB·English

by  Cowan, Nancy

P S
eregrine Pring

P S
eregrine Pring
A Master Falconer’s Extraordinary Life with
Birds of Prey
NaNcy cowaN
Foreword by Sy MoNtgoMery aNd
elizabeth MarShall thoMaS
An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2016 by Nancy Cowan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission
from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
ISBN 978-1-4930-1770-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4930-1837-6 (e-book)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992.
For Robert S. Gault, Elsie Dietrich Gault, and Margaret Gault Young,
who together came to me in a dream and promised Peregrine Spring would
be published. And for Jim, who is my past, my now, and my always.

Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Foreword by Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas . . . .xi
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xv
Part One: Owned by a Hawk
Chapter 1: A Different Way of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2: I Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 3: Meeting Injun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 4: The Attack and the Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 5: Compatibility on Injun’s Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 6: Goshawk in the Bedroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Chapter 7: Injun on “Suffering Fools” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Chapter 8: Moving to the Right Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 9: People in Kilts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 10: How High Should You Go? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter 11: Thin Ice and Pheasants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Chapter 12: Hawkdogs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Chapter 13: Bird Years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Chapter 14: The Importance of Being Injun. . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Part Two: A Tale of Two Peregrines
Chapter 15: Tapped for a New Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Chapter 16: Suspicious Characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 17: Licensed! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113
Chapter 18: Meet a Bird Named N-Z. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 19: The Dance Begins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 20: Can He Fly? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Chapter 21: Airborne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
Chapter 22: Flying To Despair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter 23: Only Optimists Need Apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Contents
Part Three: A Life Filled with Raptors
Chapter 24: Bubba. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 25: Contract Attorneys and Partnerships. . . . . . . . . . 177
Chapter 26: Summer Flights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Chapter 27: Moving Day for Falcons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
Chapter 28: Cowan’s Falcon “Nursery”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Chapter 29: Tabasco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
Chapter 30: Mosby, the Gray Ghost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Chapter 31: Emma’s Great Adventure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Chapter 32: Jazz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Chapter 33: Lightning in a Bottle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Chapter 34: Sidekick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Chapter 35: Winterizing Harris’s Hawks . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233
Chapter 36: Making In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Chapter 37: Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Chapter 38: Well-Groomed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249
Chapter 39: Scout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .253
Chapter 40: Peregrine Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259
viii
Acknowledgments
Modern falconers have thousands of years of predecessors to thank for
the expertise guiding us today. I have Jim Cowan, who shared his knowl-
edge and love of raptors. Sy Montgomery, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas,
and Selinda Chiquoine encouraged me tirelessly. My agent, Jacqueline
Flynn, took me under her wing as a sponsor mentors an apprentice. My
editor, Holly Rubino, provided, over and over, the one word I had been
seeking when I scribed out dozens of sentences to say the same thing.
To those with the forethought to take photos through the years, and to
magnanimously allow their use, I owe my great appreciation. To countless
falconers and to these persons who helped make Peregrine Spring a reality,
I am deeply and lovingly grateful.
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