Finding Hawk Parallax: My Son & The Birds

Every week or so in the summer months, I drive my nine-year-old son Joseph an hour to a woodlot near a conservation trail in Newcastle, Ontario. Here Sam, his falconry sponsor, shows Joe how to offer a Harris Hawk her first live kill: a pigeon. 

Joe stands resolute and alert as the hawk swoops toward him from her high ring perch about 20 feet away, her four-foot wingspan materializing miraculously from her 780-gram body. As Sam has instructed, Joe gives a sharp tug on the lure holding the pigeon, which has been lying still near Joe’s feet. The tug excites movement from the bird and keeps the hawk focused.