I am attempting to work a small bit of fiction in which a group of nobles and a few servants are celebrating the spring with some falconry. This is a plot device in which they open themselves to an ambush (they are unhorsed for cultural reasons) as they are only lightly defended (not far from home either).

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find much on the actual action of falconing. When hunting using these birds, do you use dogs to flush out prey for the bird to catch (which makes the bird seem a bit like an expensive 3rd wheel), or do you wait until it finds something itself?

Also, do they usually bring it back to you, or do you have to go and pick up what they've killed?

M.

I have some falconer colleagues on a couple of my sites, but I won't see them until next week, so I can't verify what I'm going to say until then. However, on my limited observation, here are some responses.

A bird is very rarely flown / put into the air unless a quarry has already been spotted. I work on landfill sites and the falconers fly them there to scare away gulls. The birds will sometimes go after rats which they prefer as quarry. In a true hunt, the bird would not be put in that distracting kind of situation. But the bird will still not necessarily want to go after the prey you want it to! I'm sure this added to the entertainment value of a group of friends out together.

It is possible to hunt with both dogs and birds. But it's hard work. The dog needs to be trained to flush only, otherwise it will be in competition with the bird. Birds tend to take the eyes out of dogs that go after the same quarry (I've heard alleged but never seen or heard from someone who's seen it). Some people just have the dog as a companion rather than specifically trained to hunt. Some people train them further than flushing, to chase after a second or wounded (usually ground) target if it escapes the bird. Obviously, this is from an individual point of view. An organised, nobles' hunt is more likely to have beaters, who may or may not have dogs to help flush out prey. In your case, the servants might be sent of to likely bushes and thickets to see what they can scare up.

A well trained bird returns with its kill. The not so well trained ones, not so much. That bird that got distracted in the earlier paragraph is likely to be sat on a nearby branch, disemboweling its kill while its owner blows on his whistle until he's blue in the face. And good luck getting it back after that, because all you really have to rely on (as with any animal) is training and bribery (more food)!

See, I knew if I committed myself to saying anything, someone with more knowledge would prove me wrong :D Thank you for giving a much better explanation!

Oh, and M, don't listen to me :)

Thanks for the info, I thought there had to be something substantial to it.

What I might do is abstract the actual act of hawking so I don't flood the scene with too much detail. I think the hawk approach would be most apt.

M.

Daily Life in Medieval Times, by Joseph and Francis Geis, has a substantial section on 13th century falconry that you could look into. It's a worthwhile purchase in my opinion, though you might be able to find a copy at your local library as well. In any case, I could attempt to find a few choice quotations from my own copy if you like, though I would highly advise looking into it yourself just for the wealth of information it contains.

I do DM in a custom universe (See my Cities and food thread, last post by me), which is a way for me to apply what I know.

I'm also working on becoming a not terribad author here and there :p

M.