Jetstreams over London by Lindsay du Plessis

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The eagle has landedMany people, when asked what superpower they would like to have, say they would like to be able to fly. The freedom of it, the ability to cover large distances with a beat of a wing, the magnificent views you would be privy to…

Watching an eagle soar silently above you creates a sense of awe and a jealousy of that freedom, and seeing a hawk swoop down at 200km an hour towards a kill leaves one with a severe case of vertigo. These feelings, and the desire to take flight, are why it is heartbreaking to see a bird of prey confined to an earthly existence.

South Africa has one of the largest selections of eagles, falcons, hawks and vultures in the world, and thus a high repository of knowledge when it comes to dealing with injured raptors. There are a number of venues where you can watch the rehabilitation of these birds, and where you can appreciate the work that goes into getting an injured bird back on the wing.

The eagle has landedOne such place is Eagle Encounters, located in picturesque Stellenbosch near Cape Town. The centre houses 60 birds in various stages of recovery, some of which are used for educational and demonstration purposes. It is based at the world famous Spier wine estate, but is not affiliated to the farm.

Started by Hank and Tracy Chalmers in 2002, it was built to accommodate birds found by members of the public and conservation groups, none of whom knew how to deal with such a specialised animal.

Chalmers, a registered master falconer, says the venture grew out of his love for the birds and the desire to educate people about both birds of prey and falconry as a hobby or sport.

Chalmers, a blue-eyed advertisement for nature and the outdoors, explains Eagle Encounters’ birth: “Doing rehab was spawned out of my falconry hobby. Members of the public would find injured birds, and you can’t just give them to a member of the public to look after.

“They ended up coming to me, and part of falconry is rehabilitation, meaning you can end up with a helluva lot of birds.

Morticia, a Harris hawk“I had a few friends in nature conservation down here (in Cape Town), and they didn’t have all that many people to help with rehab, although the falconers were helping out as much as they could. All these guys have got jobs though, and each bird is a lot of work, so we launched this place.

“Spier donated the land, but they are not involved at all. There is no government funding, even though the state owns the birds, so we needed a way of getting money in. Spier is happy because they have a “green” angle which looks good for them, while we get their visitors.”

When you visit Eagle Encounters, you are given the chance to witness a bird being returned to fitness through flying exercises and you can, if you’re adventurous enough, put on the glove and experience an eagle swoop towards you in anticipation of some lunch.

As we wander around the centre, it is clear how much Chalmers loves his job. He knows each bird by name, can recite its history and has a plan of action for each of them. He is like a raptor whisperer, and has a strong connection with the birds. One female, a Wahlberg eagle called Wally, sits on the glove and snuggles close to Chalmers’ chest like a baby to keep out of the wind.

Mick the black eagle is used for demonstrationsA massive black eagle called Mick allows Chalmers to tickle him under his wings and kiss the top of his head, which is amazing if you consider a razor sharp beak is inches away from Chalmers’ eyes. In another enclosure, a one-eyed African Fish Eagle calls to his protector, singing in response to his prompting. The magnificent creature was found by bird watchers as a chick, injured and bloody, and raised at Eagle Encounters.

The causes for injury to birds vary from poisoning to electrocution, and the loss of habitat around the world is also having a massive impact on the various species. The most common cause is poisoning, and most of the time it’s not intentionally done.

For example, when you put out certain kinds of rodent poisons to deal with a rat problem in your house, the afflicted creature will dash outside, die on your lawn or in the field, and be snapped up by a passing raptor. The poisons accumulate in the bird’s body over time, eventually killing it. If you’d like to avoid this, check the poison box to make sure there are no organochlorines (like DDT, dicofol, heptachlor, endosulfan, chlordane, mirex, and pentachlorophenol) in it.

 SIDEBAR: Rehabbing birds in Dullstroom

Situated in the wildlife heaven that is Mpumalanga, the Dullstroom Bird of Prey and Rehabilitation Centre is ideally located to deal with the growing problem of injured raptors.

Similar to Eagle Encounters and the Raptor Rehab centre in KZN, this venue caters to up-country birds with the purpose of bringing them back to health and educating the public about the dangers faced by birds of prey.

Their website, www.birdsofprey.co.za, says, "The main purpose of the centre is to educate the public as to the plight of raptors. We target schools in this educational drive and have many schools attending the centre for that purpose.

"We also visit schools to display and teach children about raptors in South Africa and thereby hope to create an awareness of the species.

"By creating this awareness we hope to stop the persecution of these birds, which is a worldwide problem."

One difference between this and the other two centers is that Dullstroom makes a concerted effort to breed the birds.

They say, "We have a very good success rate with captive breeding involving many of the bird of prey species found here in South Africa. For many years people were led to believe that you could not breed birds of prey in captivity, this myth has been proved wrong time and again.

"Captive breeding is invaluable to scientists and biologists around the world and is a fantastic back up for the wild population. The more we learn about captive breeding the better chance we have of saving some of the endangered species."
The problem of electrocution in South Africa has largely been rectified after a number of power shortages resulted from birds perching on power lines. Eskom (who are not in many South Africans’ good books these days because of power cuts) have developed special perches and insulators, as well as nesting sites and markers on the lines to warn the birds.

Another place specializing in the rehabilitation of injured birds is the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary in Kwa-Zulu Natal. It is just outside Pietermaritzburg, four kilometers off the N3 highway, and houses nearly 200 birds. It is run by founders Shannon and Ben Hoffman (who is also a falconer), and they emphasise the educational aspect of their centre. Like Eagle Encounters, they offer talks and demonstrations to schools and tour groups and use falconry techniques to train birds to fitness.

Shannon Hoffman explains the danger of handling the birds too much and making them too used to humans, a condition called imprinting where the bird thinks it is a person.

Hoffman says, “Imprinting is something we try to avoid at all costs. We put the injured animals with other birds as soon as possible and keep our hands off as much as we can.

“If they become imprinted they are unable to socialize and unable to breed, which means they can never be released. It loses its fear of people, which means it can be killed easily if people who don’t know anything about them release them into the wild.

“It is illegal to hold on to an injured or newborn bird without a permit, so always try and find the correct people who have the skills needed to deal with birds of prey.”

Chalmers concurs with this assessment, adding, “We avoid it becoming an imprint by leaving it with the parent, or any bird will do the job. If a baby is put under a female, it will adapt to it and then can be released. We had an eagle raise a duck once, which then thought it was an eagle!”

Once a bird is imprinted, they can become very attached to their trainer/handler because they cannot be released and take on a rather possessive attitude. Suzette du Toit, one of a few registered female falconers in SA, tells of an African Goshawk who got VERY attached to her.

Du Toit says, “A bird I had once was a female and she bonded with me very intensely, almost sexually. Whenever she heard my voice she’d call to me and she’d squat down and do a little dance, her tail bobbing up and down and making little crooning noises. She’d always pick up something to give me as a gift! I could do anything with her, really, which is dangerous”.

When it comes to the best people to call should you find an injured bird, it is often a falconer who will be tasked with getting a bird back in the air. Falconry has a negative reputation because of the nature of the sport, but few will argue with their ability to get animals flying fit.

SIDEBAR: How to become a falconer, as explained by Kevan Hearshaw

“In some other countries you can go out and buy a bird and become a falconer. In SA you have to join a club and become a recognized member of nature conservation bodies.

“You then become an apprentice for one to two years, where you go out with other falconers to learn the sport. After a year you write a test and become a graded apprentice, where you’ll probably be given a rehabbed bird to look after under supervision.

“Once you’ve been graded you become a novice and can fly certain birds like a kestrel or an African goshawk. After another year you are graded again and become a B-grade or general falconer. Then you fly black sparrow hawks and Lanner falcons, and also Harris hawks. Those are game hunting birds, which you’d hunt guinea fowl and Franklin with.

“You have to get a pointing dog, which is trained correctly, and you have to have telemetry. You have to fly a black spar successfully at quarry before you can get a Lanner falcon, and after that then you go to A-grade after about two years.”

So it can take up to eight years before you’re finished with your training, in which case you could have gone to medical school!
Falconry is the activity of catching live quarry with a trained bird, but it involves various other aspects and takes years to master. You have to belong to a registered club, be associated with local conservation groups and complete an apprenticeship of a year long before being given a bird to look after and hunt with.

Du Toit explains the benefits of giving an injured bird to a falconer, saying, “Falconers are the best rehabbers, because some people find a bird with a broken leg and look after it for a few months and let it go.

“This bird is then killed in the wild because it is unfit, has no muscle tone and is unused to hunting, whereas a falconer has the knowledge to make sure the bird is ready to be released. This is not to say people shouldn’t help animals, they should get advice though.”

Hoffman, who is not the biggest fan of falconry, concedes this point, adding, “It is important for us to share our skills for the good of the birds. Not all falconers can rehab birds, and not all rehabbers have the skills to train a bird back to fitness like a falconer can.”

The process of getting a bit back to fitness is a long one, often taking up to a year before the animal can be released. It can also be a costly exercise, depending on the original injury.

Kevan Hearshaw, a senior member of the Cape Falconry Club, explains how he goes about getting a wild falcon to trust him enough to train it back to health.

He says, “Training the bird is a slow process. You start off with having food on the glove, and it will only eat off the glove. The bird sits on the perch and watches you hold the food close to it, and after a few days or weeks it will eat off the glove without moving from the perch.

“The next day you may put the bird on the back of a chair and move the glove away so that it is forced to step forward and grab the glove if it wants the food. It has one foot on the chair and one on the glove, and it has to make a choice to either go back to the chair without food or come to you, and that’s called stepping up.

Eagle landing“With an eagle this process might take weeks because it will just sit and stare at you, but a smaller bird might reach this point in 3 days and fly free in a week. You just keep moving further and further back until it flies a few meters on a line, and the distance will increase as the days go by.”

Getting the bird to come back to you is the trick, especially once you get rid of the line, because if they fly away immediately without being fit enough then they are doomed. Hearshaw explains that you need to make sure the bird is at the right weight and is hungry enough to return to your glove, and after a time it will naturally fly free.

He says: “If you fly a bird at the wrong weight, it won’t be hungry and it will just go and sit in a tree and you’ll have a tough time getting it out. That’s why you want the bird to be at just the right weight so that it will come back to you.”

In the end, the ideal is to make sure the bird does not return to you and is safely back into its environment, fit and ready to hunt. If you enjoy seeing a soaring beast above you in the wild, think of the people behind the scenes dedicated to making sure it stays there.

©Lindsay du Plessis 2008