HAWKING, FALCONING TRIGGER TEAM EFFORTS.

Byline: Mike Hutmacher Wichita Eagle

On a recent Saturday morning, along the northeast shore of El Dorado Reservoir, a handful of hunters talked about where the rabbits might be found as they pulled on their insulated coveralls while steam from coffee cups wafted through the chilly air.

What happened next was a departure from the norm. Instead of releasing dogs and uncasing shotguns, the hunters opened cages, then gently coaxed hawks and falcons onto their fists.

``Step up, please,'' Bob Payne said to Peaches, his female goshawk. Peaches complied, despite the tasseled leather hood covering her head and eyes.

Payne and several other members of the Missouri Falconers Association were visiting members of the Kansas Hawking Club for a weekend of hunting.

Falconry - the art of capturing, training and hunting with birds of prey - was legalized in Kansas in 1988. After a couple years of intense study and training, the first permits were issued in 1990. About 30 members in the Kansas Hawking Club now gather quarterly for hunts around the state. Smaller, impromptu groups congregate more often when weather and schedules permit.

``You really don't need to teach (the birds) to hunt,'' said Vanessa Avara, the only woman to hold a falconry license in Kansas. ``They already know how to hunt. The trick is getting them to come back.''

Because birds of prey are shy, solitary creatures, one of the tasks of a falconer is to teach the birds to hunt around people.

With Payne's bird at the ready, the other falconers and a group of their friends, stretched out on a line about 75 yards across. The object was to walk forward in a line to flush the prey from grass clumps, logs and thickets. A single falconer, the only one carrying a bird, directed the movement of the line from the center.

``Let's swing around to the south and check out those trees,'' Payne said. Suddenly someone yelled, ``Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!'' Instantly, Peaches pitched forward from Payne's fist, its keen eyes already locked onto a cottontail some 50 yards out. The goshawk swooped low, its powerful wings silently propelling it toward the elusive rabbit as it zigzagged through the brush.

In nature, more often than not, the prey gets away before the bird can bring it down. There was no exception on this outing, as four of the six rabbits flushed made it to safety.

When a kill is made, the falconer will allow the bird to feed for awhile before substituting some bait on a string while pulling the rabbit away, then putting it into his or her game bag.

While feeding, a raptor will stretch its wings out over the kill to protect it from other predators.

``In the wild, there's no such thing as possession being nine-tenths of the law,'' Payne said. Bald eagles and red-tailed hawks pose a genuine threat to Payne's less imposing goshawk. ``They'll take anything they can steal.''

Becoming a falconer is no easy undertaking. Tightly regulated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, falconry takes at least two years of study and training to get an apprentice permit, and an apprentice must have a sponsor who is a ``general'' or ``master'' falconer.

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) Kansas resident Paul Sexarth places a hood on the head of his red-tail hawk after a day of hunting jackrabbits.

Mike Hutmacher/Special to the Daily News