Day 42 – Falconry!

We celebrated Darwin Day today. We gathered at the South Valleys library and had cake and snacks and listened to a lot of interesting presentations.  We learned about neuroscience and the problem of the self. One fellow gave a talk on “Wrongness.” I gave a talk on science standards in the U.S. and Nevada. We watched a short movie on the Galapagos, played Evolution Trivia, heard some great music from Beagle and the FootyFish.  The most unusual presentation was one on falconry. Two young men brought their birds (one hawk, one falcon) and told us about their hunting habits, how they socialize and interact with each other and with humans, how their nostrils have special baffles in them so they can breathe when diving through the air to capture prey.  After the talk we all went outside for a demonstration which gave me an opportunity to get some up-close photos.

© Carissa Snedeker

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7 comments

    • You know what was really interesting? This guy was quite connected to his owner, and his owner was quite connected to him. Falcons hunt in packs (I did not know that) and so he saw his owner as one of the pack. i loved watching the interaction between the two of them. In some ways it was a lot like watching a human and a dog. It wasn’t the same sort of responsiveness you see between a human and a dog, but there was definitely a bond between them.

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