It was a gorgeous early spring day– the first of many I expect to be heading our way this year. We rambled through a south Seattle neighborhood until we happened upon an everyday house, nestled down a quiet residential street.
Here we found John, a local Seattle-area falconer– THE Falconer– who welcomed us into his house for an afternoon amongst his avian friends.
From his website: John's professional and personal background is anchored in the field of birds. He has duel BS/BA degrees in Biology with an emphasis in Ornithology from Evergreen State College, as well as previous professional experience working with zoo raptors at Woodland Park Zoo and Northwest Trek. John has been a licensed Falconer in Washington State since 2010. John started The Falconer out of his love of raptors, and to share that love with the public.
We had met John before a few times at local community events, but this was the first time we were up-close to the raptors and one-on-one with the falconer himself. We spent about an hour indoors with the first set of birds, and then moved outside to see a few more. We met (I'm missing a few):
• Benedict– Saker Falcon
• Tina– Barbary Falcon
• Pablo– Black Throated Magpie
• Mr Peabody– Lesser Yellow Headed Vulture
• Wednesday– Eurasian Eagle Owl
• Lady Bird– Eurasian Eagle Owl
• Kooka– Laughing Kookaburra
We had plenty of time to ask questions and interact with every bird. The most spectacular part came at the end, when Isabella was able to work directly with Alfred the Augur Buzzard in flight.