Buffy is a full-grown goshawk and she’s screeching with anger because I’m too close to her master.

Named after the television vampire slayer, Buffy is one of two goshawks Dave Hogan uses for hunting near his southeast Michigan home.

It was too blustery for her to hunt when I met her, but when she does hunt, she perches on Hogan’s fist, waiting for a rabbit or pheasant to flush. When game does appear, Buffy springs from Hogan’s leather glove. After she’s killed her prey, she brings it back to him. But Hogan’s quick to point out that he’s not the only one who gets something out of the hunt.

“It’s a partnership. They know that you’re out there helping them catch game. They rely on you,” Hogan said. “You’re the dog for them and you’re the setup man for them. And they understand that.”

Hogan has been practicing falconry since he was 15, and he’s 52 now. He uses birds of prey to hunt, plus he rehabilitates and breeds them. With all that experience, he’s reached the highest level of falconry — a master falconer.

Falconry was once called the “sport of kings.” Royals trained hawks and falcons to hunt for smaller birds and animals. The ruling class revered birds of prey, and protected them from hunters. Some say it was the beginning of wildlife conservation.

Hogan said some falconers keep the meat birds catch for themselves, but he has many mouths to feed. The game Buffy and her mate, Spike, catch helps feed the birds Hogan rehabilitates. Right now he’s got an endangered merlin and a red-tailed hawk. The merlin broke its wing and the hawk dislocated its shoulder. He doesn’t want to get attached to the birds, so he hasn’t given them names. But Hogan will feed and exercise the birds until they can return to nature.

Hogan said besides tending to injured birds, falconers also have a big role in conserving the birds they train. Often a master falconer will capture a bird in its first year, train it and then let it go. It’s common to let the bird go only a year later, at which point they’re left to their own devices. But he said after a year, they’re fully grown and better able to fend for themselves.

Taking young birds lightens the burden on a crowded nest, Hogan said, and a lot of birds can use that help.

“Eighty percent of all the hawks, eagles, falcons that are born die in the first year. It is that hard for them to make a living. They get kicked out of the nest when they’re young. There’s anywhere from, depending on the species, from one to four young in the nest.”

So, by using the young birds, falconers say their sport is important in helping birds of prey survive.

In central Wisconsin, another hunter, Kurt Reed, is about to apply for master falconer status. It takes seven years to reach this level. Reed is training his second red-tailed hawk in a forest behind his home. He said he’s learned a lot about falconry in the past seven years.

“In taking care of or training a red-tailed hawk, it’s all about weight control and responsiveness,” Reed said. “So for example, today my hawk is a little on the heavy side. He’s about 1,340 grams and that’s about two ounces more than I would like him to be if I was going to go hunting with him today.”

It’s beautiful outside, a warm 40 degrees on a late winter day. Reed said days like this can be bad for hunting, especially when the bird is packing some extra ounces. “If you take your hawk out when they’re way overweight, they’re going to go sit up in a tree and sun themselves, and you’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.”

And that’s just what happened a few minutes later. He let his bird — named Bucky after the University of Wisconsin badger mascot — go for a test flight. After about an hour of calling and dangling fresh meat from his gloved hand, Reed dropped his head when Bucky decided to fly out of eyesight.

Bucky never did come down while I was there. Reed said he does this all the time and patience is the most important skill in falconry. The hard work gives falconers a deep appreciation for the birds they train.

Falconers have been credited for helping to bring birds such as the peregrine falcon back from the brink of extinction. The Michigan Hawking Club helped save the endangered bird of prey in urban environments, such as Zug Island in the Detroit River.

Zug is barren. It has no trees, just a giant steel mill. Still, peregrines nest in the mill’s steel girders just like they would in big tree branches. Dave Hogan is the president of the Hawking Club. He said young birds would die if falconers didn’t help them.

“Since 1991, out of the 70 young the wild peregrines in Detroit have produced, we have had hands on help on over 31 of them, where we’ve rescued them from certain things and put them back in the nest or raised them and put them back in a family situation where the parents can take care of them.”

Hogan said it’s not just about using the birds to hunt. He said the best part about falconry is seeing the birds live to fly free, whether they come back or not.

This story was originally produced for the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, © 2004