Monday, February 14, 2011

A night with Falcon's, Eagles and Hawks

The second Friday of each month is our camera club's program night. We usually have a professional photographer come and speak with credentials such as working for Time/Life magazine, Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, etc.  We are quite lucky that we don't have to pay for these seminars.  Sometimes we have one of our own club members give a seminar in his particular specialty and then there are other speakers of a completely different background that provide great photo opportunities.  Last Friday was such a night.  We had Martin Tyner as our guest speaker and it was incredible.  Martin Tyner is the first man in North America licensed to train a wild golden eagle in the ancient art of falconry.  He is also the founder and CEO of Southwest Wildlife Rescue in Cedar City, Utah and Author of Healer of Angels.  He is a fascinating speaker with funny stories and sad stories as well.  He brought Three birds with him for us to see.  Two falcons and one Eagle.  We were fortunate to be able to snap photos of the birds at the end of the program.  It was a little difficult to get great pictures because our club is a large venue.  We usually have about a hundred people in attendance every meeting and so getting up close and getting really good pictures was quite a challenge but I do have a few to share.  Not the greatest, but it is what it is.






The little guy above gets stressed out around a lot of noise and strange environments so he had to wear this helmut looking contraption to help keep him relaxed.  It's similar to horses having to wear blinders when walking near a paved road.  Martin Tyner makes all his blinders/helmuts himself.  I thought the bird looked quite sporty in his little head cover.



Does he look stressed to you?  Maybe a little nervous.



The Eagle.  He weighs seven pounds.  Quite a big bird.



He loves his owner.  There was a very funny story about this bird.
I believe it's in the book so if you want to hear about it you'll just have to get a copy here.  You'll also learn more about Martin and the his Wildlife Rescue Center.  It's quite fascinating and I'm not even into birds.





9 comments:

  1. Birds freak me out, but the photos are beautiful. I especially like the guys little helmet...that is just too funny.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What beautiful creatures. Lucky you to have this wonderful opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What an interesting program that must have been. How neat that your camera club has such great speakers and photo opportunities. Your photos of the birds were great. The Eagle is amazing! Thanks for sharing this fantastic information, and for visiting my Monday Macro post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great topic. I love falconry too...I think. Let's say I like it as long as the birds are happy doing it, but I never asked one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. awesome!! the birds are magnificent. I love the last shot, showing some love.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The size of that Eagle is amazing. What a beautiful bird. JarieLyn! You took some great photos! The detail is amazing. I'm so glad you joined that Camera Club, you've had so many good times!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love large predatory birds! they facinate me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is wonderful JarieLyn, what a cool opportunity. I would have loved to have been at that talk. What gorgeous creatures! I like that little blinder/helmet thing too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would have totally loved being there! You took some great pictures and this is a wonderful blog post. Happy weekend!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails