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To send a group email to all THA Officers, use:
officers "at" texashawking.org
(please use the @ sign where you see "at")
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Sheldon Nicolle, Board Vice President
vicepres "at" texashawking.org

My first memory of seeing falconry was while at boarding school when I was eight years old. An older student, a prefect, kept and hunted his raptor outside our dormitory. I later came to learn it was an African Goshawk. Several years later, after high school, I returned to Zimbabwe and learned more about falconry from my uncle, who still flew a Lanner falcon and a Zambezi Peregrine. It was then, in 1991, that I manned, trained, and flew my first bird of prey-a black-shouldered kite. Though unsuccessful at taking game, I was hooked.

Upon returning home and exploring the rules and regulations of keeping a raptor for falconry here in America, I quickly realized it was something that would have to wait until I could afford the sport of falconry with the commitment and attention it needed. It took ten more years for me to finally take the plunge, and in 2001, I started the arduous process of becoming an apprentice falconer.

By 2002, I had been introduced to several local falconers, (Pat McCoy, John Graham, Marc Ellet and Roger Crandall), and experiencing falconry, Texas style. Roger Crandall persuaded me to join and attend my first THA meet in January of 2003. Soon thereafter, I asked Roger to be my sponsor. What was I thinking? By July 2003, I had my permit in hand and was chomping at the bit waiting for September 15. Life as I had known it changed in 2003 and I began living the dream. The process that started two years previously culminated with a redtail on the trap on the morning of September 15, 2003.

After a year of practicing falconry and watching my sponsor dedicate all his time and efforts to the sport he so enjoyed, I felt compelled to do the same. Volunteerism has always been important to me and when you have the addictive personality I have, there was no doubt falconry was going to take over my life.

Today I'm flying a three-times-intermewed passage female Harris' hawk, Cheeky, and a second-year tiercel Harris, Napoleon, from Francine Forrester. When things slow down, I plan to get that longwing and hunt ducks as I intended to when I first started. But for now, flying a cast of Harris' hawks is too much fun.