Did you know that you can now take a falconry class (it used to not be available to the general public)?

Well, you can.

And I did.

In November, I found a coupon that was half price for a falconry class. I was intrigued. So, I purchased a spot in the class for each person in my family.

I knew I wanted to do it over spring break. The excursion is run by West Coast Sky Falconry out of Alpine, California (near San Diego). We got to do this amazing event two weeks ago.

When we arrived at the falconry class, they had three birds on low perches. The class of ten people was taught by the nicest falconers, Kirk and Denise.

They started the hour long class by teaching us some cool facts about hawks. We were going to be working with a Harris Hawk. I thought we would be working with a falcon, but it turns out the term falconry can be applied to any raptor. The Harris Hawk is ideal for falconry training, because it lives in a group. This is very rare for a raptor bird. Because of this, the Harris Hawk is used to anticipating the body language of others. The one we were privileged to meet that day was named, “Steam.” He looked huge, but weighed only two pounds.

We also learned that hawks tend to fly only fifteen to twenty minutes a day, so if you see one circling the sky, it is a rare moment. Now that I know this, it feels more special to me when I see the beautiful creatures in the sky.

We took turns having Steam fly onto all of our gloves. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. My son was terrified and asked if he had to do it. To which I replied, “yep.” Because that is the kind of mom I am. And because I knew if he always let fear win, he would never know the joy of success.

He loved it.

I mean, he loved it.

We all did.

If you have any classes like this near you, I highly recommend it. The class that we did was for ages seven and up. My friend did this with her family on another day, too. They all could not believe how amazing the experience was.

If you chose to, you could do tricks with the hawk. That was a bit more than my heart could take. But my husband threw food into the air for the hawk. And both of my children had the hawk walk quickly up to their foot and take food off of it.

At the end, we were able to pose over the beautiful valley and take pictures of Steam, the hawk, on our arm.

It was such a joyous moment. It was made even better by Kirk and Denise, who answered every question we had for them with passion and love for their birds.

During the summer, they also offer courses at the Torrey Pines location. I imagine that would make for gorgeous pictures.

I would love to do this again. It was educational. It was exhilarating. It was interesting.

I cannot say enough good things about it. What a fun way to spend quality time with a loved one that does not involve sitting or crowds.

Have you ever done this? Had you heard of it before? Aren’t those hawks beautiful?

I am enamored.

With a bird.

Just don’t tell my husband.