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Robert Benson, Director At Large, (Con't)
diratlarge "at" texashawking.org
with only a coal oil lamp and carbide light (you can see that I’m an old codger). So my love of birds and my love for hunting started early but did not come together until I discovered falconry later in life.
So what was I doing while I waited for this merge to take place? I struggled with the public school system partly owing to my intense need to be outdoors. In my 20s, I was a bricklayer. In my 30s, I attempted to correct my rocky relationship with education and decided to go to college. Certain schools in the state would accept you if your heart rate and IQ added to 100 and I found I liked what universities had to offer. I graduated in 1976 with a B.S. in Physics and moved on to graduate school at Texas A&M University-College Station and graduated there with a Ph.D. in Cosmic Ray Physics. Presently, I am Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and the Director of the Center for Bioacoustics where we mostly do research on animal vocalizations (keeps me outdoors). Along the way, I have been the president of the Texas Ornithology Society and the editor of its scientific bulletin.
Almost a decade ago, my great friend, Master Falconer Gary Geer, turned me on to falconry. At the time, Gary was flying a chamber-raised tiercel Anatum. He took me hunting. It was magic. These two, almost separate, lines of interest (birds and hunting) were put together in the most dramatic way. I was immediately obsessed and it has not let me go. My first year as an apprentice, I flew a female kestrel. In my second year, I flew another kestrel and a redtail. Since then, I have flown two Harris,’ one poor Goshawk and a Peregrine. This year (fall 2008) I am readying my once-intermewed Gyr/Peregrine hybrid with intense anticipation of the November 1 opening of duck season in the south zone. Oh—and by the way, I was just chosen as your Director at Large. I’m certainly looking forward to doing all I can to make falconry the best it’s ever been in Texas.
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