History

Apprentice Seminar 初級鷹匠講座

On Saturday I headed down to Colorado Springs to attend an apprentice seminar put on by the Colorado Hawking Club. The seminar covered Colorado regs, field identification, trapping, suggestions for success in the first 2 years, and a coping demonstration...The coping demonstration is the only thing I got pics of!

I went mainly for the networking, I wanted to meet some more local falconers and talk to the President of the club about getting my license here. He says he'll vouch for my experience as far as an upgrade to general but there's really no way around the 6 month residency thing. I think I'm pretty much sunk as far as getting my own bird this season goes. It'll be a watch and learn kinda year, and let's be honest, it could be worse.

土曜日コロラド州の鷹狩倶楽部が初級鷹匠講座を開きました。コロラド州の法律，トラピング，初級鷹匠へのアドバイスなどをテーマにして３時間ほど話しました。最後に２４歳のレードテールの口をきれいにしました（上の写真）。 トラピングの時期が９月５日から始めましたので２日前に捕まえたレードテールもいました。すごくうらやましい！倶楽部の会長に話したら中級レベルで始められるようにしてくれると言ってくれましたが６ヶ月以上コロラド州に住まないとどうせ免許が取れないと言っていたので今年はやっぱり無理です。残念！春から雛を捕って頑張ろうと思っています。それまでに他の鷹匠に頼って狩を見学します。

WANTED: HAWK TO CHASE BUNNIES! 鷹が欲しい！

Look at this! Just look! This is in the parking lot of a computer store, similar scenes are 200 yards from my door. They're EVERYWHERE! I really need to figure this license thing out!

見てよ！こう何ウサギがいます。これは市内の店の駐車場，同じようにアパートの周りにいる。今日アパートから２００メールのところにウサギを７匹見ました。鷹狩免許くれ！！！

And in the meantime, the hawks are everywhere as well. Spotted this Cooper's just a few hundred yards down a walking path near my apartment.

毎日鷹も見ています。アパートの近くの散歩者道からこのクーパを見つけました。

Hawks EVERYWHERE! 鷹だらけ！！

This not having a license and not being able to trap thing is going to drive me nuts. Running some errands this afternoon I saw 3 kestrels and 2 red-tails within about a mile stretch of each other! And that's not to mention all the other red-tails and kestrels that weren't in that mile stretch!

最近寒くなったからのせいかも分からないけどコロラド州は鷹だらけ！！今日用事をしながら一キロ以内にレードテールを２羽，アメチョウ３羽を見ました。。。一キロ以内ですよ！そして一昨日ぐらいアパートの前にクーパが飛んでいました。免許なくってトラピングできないのは非常に残念！アメリカの法律は嫌い！ウサギもアパートの周りに住んでいるから早めに鷹を手に入れないと頭がおかしくなる！

Picture found at: http://www.birdersworld.com/objects/images/brdpw040307.jpg

Relicensing woes...and a bit of hawking 免許が取れないけど狩が始まる

I'm finally back in the States! After a couple weeks in Hawaii (where I did a bit of spearfishing, my second love), we flew to Utah to spend a couple weeks with the folks and then on August 30th we drove over to Colorado where we'll start life all over.

Shortly after we arrived in Utah I began calling around to see what I'd need to do to get going on this whole "relicensing" thing...It's gonna be an uphill battle to say the least. I first called Colorado and they said that they won't recognize any of my falconry experience in Japan because there isn't a government license there to prove I was a falconer. A letter from the President of our local hawking club, pictures and video isn't enough apparently (rolls eyes). But they did say that they'd recognize my apprenticeship from 10 years ago if I had copies of my licenses etc. So I call up the folks at the Utah FWS...They say they have NO RECORD of me ever being a falconer there! Wha...?!? So to make a long story short, I've asked my sponsor to write a letter stating that I was his apprentice and that I'm qualified to be upgraded to a general. Whether or not it works is yet to be determined *Sigh*. But we'll see.

今年鷹狩免許が取れなさそう！：-（　免許を渡す政府の人たちが日本の経験を認めてくれないと言っています。ばか！残念ながら前のアメリカの免許を持っていたら何とかできるかもと言っているのに１０年前の免許がやっぱり見つからない！困った！まぁ，まだまだ終わっていない色んな面が戦います。最悪の場合春から一から始まってレードテールかアメチョウで頑張る。最悪の場合にならないように努力します。

In the meantime, I'm not letting MY lack of a license keep me from going out with other falconers. We'd been in Colorado less than 72 hours before I hooked up with Richard and Becky Brunoette (sp?), goshawkers who live about 45 minutes away from my new apartment. They were gracious enough to let me tag along for a training run with a young gos. There were plenty of bunnies to go around but the brown bird hasn't quite got it's head wrapped around those bouncing furballs yet. It won't be long though I'm sure. I'm looking forward to the season whether or not I have a bird (although, let's be honest, I'd rather have my own bird...;-).

免許なくても狩に行かない訳じゃないです。コロラド州に着いて７２時間以内鷹匠を連絡して今年生まれのオオタカの訓練を手伝いに行きました。ウサギが山ほどいったけどウサギを始めて見たオオタカはなかなか行かなかった。残念だったけど近い内にそこにいるウサギの心にオオタカの怖さが届くでしょう。楽しみ！免許が取れなくても今年は楽しみ！

Becky Brunoette and Lil Ms. looking for bunnies in Colorado

コロラド州は広い！！こういう所でウサギを探す。

Farewell party

Last night the local (and some not-so-local) falconers got together to have a farewell dinner for me. Not exactly the steak and potatoes affair that it would be in the States. Lots of raw fish, eel, raw beef mixed with raw egg (!?!), and a lot of stuff that I don't even know what animal it came from. I'm gonna miss that kind of stuff. Japan has a tendancy to make foreigners feel pretty alienated. It's awfully hard to feel part of the group when you're so obviously not. But hanging out with this group of falconers has made me feel more at home in Japan than just about anything else I've done here. It's been a great three years. Thanks guys.

昨日関西鷹匠たちが私のために別れ会を開いてくださいました。アメリカの別れ会だったらステーキとフライポテトだけど日本では生物が多かった。刺身，うなぎ，生肉と卵など，よく分からない食べ物もあった！アメリカではなかなか経験しないような食事でした。外国人として日本人と交わるといつも“あの外国人”と見られるけど関西鷹匠たちが私を仲間に入れてくれて，本当の友達という気がします。皆さんありがとうございます！

Of course we talked a lot about what everyone will be flying this year and I told everyone that there's a good chance, what with all the red tape I'll have to wade through when I get to Colorado, that I won't be able to fly anything this year. They all thought it was rather wacky that I could be out shooting stuff with a high powered rifle within a week of landing in the States but it will more than likely take me months to be able to fly a bird again. I think they have a point! It'll be interesting to see how things work out on the falconry front when I get home. Wish me luck!

もちろん今年皆が何を飛ばすかという話がよくありました。帰ってから銃をすぐに手に入れるのに鷹狩免許を取るのは難しいという話をしたときに皆が驚いた。やっぱりアメリカはその面でおかしい！まぁ，全てがうまく行くように期待しています！応援してね！

Starting again...

The Falconers of the Kansai Hawking Club

We'll try this blogging thing one more time...

There's nothing going on in my falconry world at the moment. My 3 years as a falconer in Japan are over and I'm packing up and getting ready to move back to the U.S. next week. I'll be trying to get re-licenced and see if flying a bird is even a possibility this season and if all goes as hoped I'd like to fly a merlin this fall but for now I'll just be happy if re-licencing goes okay. Wish me luck and hopefully I can post more often from here on out! Watch this space...

ブログ復活！これからアメリカに帰って皆がアメリカの鷹狩を味わえるようにこのブログを復活しょうと思っています。皆が読めるように英語と日本語両方書きます。帰ってから鷹狩免許を取らなきゃいけないのでそれはどうなるか分からないです。今年は鷹飛ばせない可能性が高いけど頑張ります！飛ばせなくっても他の鷹匠と一緒に行くつもりのでいろいろ書いてみますね。和歌山に行った３年間いろいろお世話になりました本当にありがとうございます。これからもよろしくお願いします！