The Faerie Queen's Daughter and the Prince of Falcons: an artist's interpretation in closet cosplay. #agender #queer #genderqueer #polygenderfluid ((they/them, okay to reblog))
The silly pilot's license I mentioned in my post the other day just arrived! It's from this Etsy listing, and it turned out just as cool looking as I'd hoped. The seller was great to work with and let me use the unusual combined glyph for ae in my name, and it arrived stupidly fast. Now I'm going to be looking for excuses to bust this out when we're at Galaxy's Edge, lol.
In the background of this pic is the project currently on my sewing table, what I've dubbed the 'scrappy sweatshirt', which I'll be wearing under my Batuu vest unless the day turns out to be just obnoxiously warm. This bit right here is some detail from the lower section of the sleeve, but really the project deserves a whole post in its own right. I want to finish up the other sleeve, iron both of them, and take a couple pictures of everything, then I'll probably do a post sometime later tonight.
The fact that you were once an apprentice in falconry is so amazing to me, would it be totally weird to ask to hear more of your experiences?? (Also picturing falconer!Chuuya now thanks to your icon lol)
First of all, falconer!Chuuya?? Why haven't I ever thought of that, holy! That's a brilliant idea!!! *adds to cosplay list*
As for being an apprentice, I was studying to be one, I didn't actually finish and go through with it...perhaps unfortunately. It's hard to say. I was in high school at the time, and there was a falconer in the general area - upon doing research and getting books on the topic from the local bookstore, the folks there let me know there was one around. (So that's a potential source of information for you: bookstores or libraries may know if there's a local falconer you can reach out to). I certainly had the physical space necessary to take and train a bird - living in the boonies with no neighbors, we had red tails, harriers, snowy owls, and bald eagles in our area at various times of the year. Of course, of those, only red tails would be viable to take. I don't remember a specific decision point to not go through with apprenticeship, but it probably had to do with an analysis of time requirement, needing to attend school, and a future move to college, then job, etc.
Fast forward to recent past me, and I found (via google search) and started volunteering at a raptor recovery center. These places have differing requirements for volunteers, but you show up, state your intentions, and commit. The place I worked had non-releasable birds (either owned by the falconer or injured in a way that makes releasing unfeasible) and injured/abandoned releasable wild birds. I worked on the weekends, and started with cleaning and learning facts about the bird species they have on hand. I learned how to clean out enclosures, keep the grounds clean, organize learning materials, and shadowed experienced volunteers when they fed and worked with the birds. After showing my commitment (continuing to show up so they know you mean it and can trust you), they tested me verbally on bird facts and I helped educate the public during open hours. Then I started working with small birds - the kestrels - handling, feeding, education. Birds and food must be weighed to keep them at the right weight. The center keeps live mice and rats that must be cared for as well. Yes, their inevitable fate is to feed the birds. Falconry is not for the squeamish. And I worked my way up. Eventually, I was feeding any and all of the birds in the enclosures.
I expressed my interested in two of their species in particular - the black short tailed hawks and the white barn owls. Both were the next size up and fairly simple to work with, so I worked with both.
Short tailed hawks: There were two brothers, and my favorite was Sable. They were real chill fellows, and my favorite thing to do was recline in a lawn chair with one on my fist.
Sunning and walking the birds around to catch some air was a common activity we did with them.
Barn owl: Personalities! My fav was Henry, and he was a dick. But boy was he gorgeous as fuck. His favorite activity in the morning after we rolled in was dive bombing the volunteer who went into his enclosure to fetch him outside to the perches. Kids, this is why you wear a hat. Being outside in the Florida sun all day as a volunteer meant that I needed a hat. Having a lack of baseball caps, I used my hiking fedora. This turned out to be a wise choice, because fedora = armor and hence, I was never bothered by Henry's attempts to decapitate me (a previous volunteer had been cut on the face by his talons, so this is not an exaggeration of the hat necessity). We'd encourage Henry to his enclosure perch, distract him with food, and put his straps on him one handed so we could pick him up and bring him outside.
This is Henry. Such a gorgeous fucker.
I also worked some with the red tails, and they were big fellows. Need a big glove for those guys, simply due to their wide stance. They'll hold your arm, not just your fist, so a small glove doesn't cut it (garden glove is enough for kestrels, falcon glove for short tails and barn owls works, after that you need a hawk glove). And they're heavy, if you're standing there with your arm out for a bit.
The center also had merlin, peregrine, screech owl, great horned owl, barred owl, bald eagles, red shouldered hawks, Coopers hawk, a vulture named Vinnie, and a pair of Harris hawks owned and flown by the falconer for demonstrations. Vinnie was a character, he'd let you know if he didn't like you, but if he did, he'd let you stroke his head and nibble your finger.
There was a great fellow I worked with who was the falconer's apprentice, and he had recently taken a bird and was working it. I'm pretty sure it was a prairie falcon:
One of the funnest experiences near Halloween was an education program we brought to one of the local schools. Obviously this means dressing up in Hogwarts robes, so he and I wore Gryffindor, and I got to live my dream walking around in Gryffindor robes with a white owl on my fist.
As for equipment, coincidentally my Ane-san had bought me a falconer's glove about the time I started volunteering. She didn't know I was intending to work with raptors. So I showed up with this perfect falconer's glove from the Middle East (which, if you didn't know, falconry is a pretty serious thing out there), and everyone was in awe of its quality. The glove is so soft and comfortable, perfect for a falcon or small hawk. I also happen to own a falconry bag - preowned and stained with....everything you think a falconry bag might be stained with. It came with an old glove, and that thing is as stiff as a board, hardened with water, blood, fluids, everything. Cannot close your fingers in it. Such is the inevitable life of falconry equipment. It ain't pretty. 😂
I hope this long post gets a little bit at what you wanted - much of the activities will be similar no matter the context in which you are caring for a raptor. I'm still looking for my stash of pictures so I can share some real nice close ups of the birds, so stay tuned! Feel free to shoot me any more questions on the topic ^^
Why I love cosplay: You can find a random Han cosplayer and say “Hey can we take a picture of us arguing about the Ghost vs the Falcon?” and when you start actually acting the argument out (The Ghost is better because the Ghost WORKS!) a random Rey will get in the background and roll her eyes making the photo way funnier
"Don't Thank Me. His name is Redwing and I'm more of a soldier than a spy - Falcon/Sam Wilson" Stream Falcon again in #TheFalconandTheWinterSoldier this 2023 on Disney+ 📸 @ralph_mat and daniel litrato #samwilson #falcon #CaptainAmerica #marvel #selfie #cosplay #wintersoldier #costume #superhero #heroes #hero #AvengersEndGame #endgame #avenger #avengers #ageofultron #civilwar #teamcap #marvelph #marvel80 #infinitywar #anthonymackie (at SMX Convention Center Manila) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnkB8mUyIsA/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
My Halloween project this year was for a friend who deeply desired to dress as one of his childhood heroes, Captain Falcon from Nintendo's F-Zero racing game. Using the character's most current Wikipedia iteration as a model, I built a jacket and leggings combo out of blue poly/lycra with orange lining for the breast and white binding. We were able to shop and modify most of the accessories. It even has a secret pocket! Falconnnn...PUNCH!!