I’m a falconer.
These are my sons, Hammond, six years old and Camden, four years old. We started with Falcons a lot of generations ago from my father and his father onwards. It was a unique experience for us to find a pet that flies in the air. The passion started from, I remember my father had a very special falcon and one of my brothers had his own falcon.
We found a flock of stone Curlews. This is a bird that we hunt in the desert. So my brother released his falcon and I chased this bird for a very far distance, which means my brother’s Falcon wasn’t that fast. So then my father said, now look at my falcon. I’ll show you how it’s done. And then he released his falcon and just strapped them in a very short distance.
I was amazed at how my father had the special falcon and how he trained it to be that fit and fast and aggressive at the same time. So I always had this challenge of having the best falcon as a kid, always looking up to his father as my kids look at me flying falcons. They had the same passion for it.
You know, you teach your son to have a bond, a nice feeling with the animals. He said I want to be a professional falcon. Exactly like my dad. There is also a challenge between them. Each one has his own falcon. Which one is faster? They even look at some pictures of my dad, you know, hunting with the falcon, like, 50 years ago.
So they feel that this is something important to them. So one of the things that our family is known for is falconry. It’s a symbol for us. This is something we want to pass also to our kids that you are from a family that loves falconry more than anything. And we just have a great passion for it.