Wandering Around: Back to Tucson: Raptor Free Flight @ Desert Museum

Jan. 30-Feb. 12, 2015

After Puerto Peñasco and a brief stay at Organ Pipe, we returned to the Tucson area. Leah got to attend the Gem Show (sorry, no pics) and we both got to see the Raptor Free Flight at the Desert Museum. Neither of us had seen it, though we'd heard it was not to be missed. Basically, you walk about 1/4 mile out to the edge of the Desert Museum and gather with 50-75 other folks for about 40 minutes to watch 3 or 4 handlers 'call' various raptors to small trees just feet away. Kneeling at the base of the tree, they stretch their arms up to a branch and wiggle their fingers. The birds see this--sometimes from miles away--and come swooping in and land on the branch for the meat that the handler has left. An MC narrates as the birds fly, adding interesting information about them and about their training. Picture a group of people in the middle of the open desert with cacti and bushes all around. The handlers are situated on both sides of the crowd, so once a bird lands 5 feet from the group on one side and eats the meat, a handler on the other side wiggles her fingers, and the bird flies over the crowd inches above their heads, to land on a tree on the other side. The MC warned that the birds treat the crowd as bushes, and that, occasionally, one will brush the top of a person's head. And, yes, I was one of those people!

In the Q & A after the show, the handler fielded a question about the intelligence of the various raptors. The Harris Hawks, she said, are really smart: they hunt in family groups of 3 to 7, and, much like coyotes, they set up ambushes. One hawk lands on the ground next to a bush where a rabbit is hiding. That hawk flaps its wings close to the bush and makes a lot of noise, which causes the rabbit to bolt, exposing itself just long enough for the other hawks to swoop in and nab it. Crows and ravens are really smart, too: they have been seen unzipping backpacks to get at the food inside. Also, according to the handler, they pick up nuts from the ground, fly to a highway overpass, and drop the nuts, knowing that the cars will run over them, making it easier for the birds to access the meat inside. Another handler said that, when he was a rookie, he called a raven to him--and the raven came, but instead of settling on his leather-gloved hand, it dove head-first into the food satchel slung over his shoulder, emerging with a huge mouthful of meat! He said he's since learned to keep the satchel closed. Leah and I have also witnessed raven intelligence. Click here to see it (scroll down half a page).