Removing the draw for wild…

Removing the draw for wild take is a great improvement. This will allow all apprentices to start with a young bird in the fall. This is important for so many reasons! This allows apprentices to learn better, and not learn bad habits from second-hand birds (or choose to purchase a non-native bird, which is fine enough but not the best to learn on!). These bad habits can impact the well-being of future birds down the road. It's also great that the bird can be released to the wild at any point, as they are not imprinted on humans, and have already learned how to hunt, use the wind, defend themselves, and otherwise survive in the wild for months before being taken in as a falconry bird. We already have too many imprint birds in the world, both intentional and accidental, to prevent unnecessary imprints is a fantastic idea. How many apprentice falconers purchase an imprinted bird only to find they haven't done the research they should have into the time and cost of falconry, and find they are not interested in pursuing the hunting aspect either at all, or enough to give the bird a well-enriched life. Now they have to either keep it more as a "pet" then a hunting partner (which is bad bad bad!), or find a new home for that bird, whereas if they had a wild take bird it can be released back into the natural cycle of the wild. Having wild take available can only improve the situation for falconers and apprentices, and most importantly for the birds themselves.

Adding the goshawk to the list is also a great step in the right direction! The OHC has worked hard in the field to acquire data on active goshawk nest sites in southern Ontario. This will encourage further efforts to monitor and study this species, will give us a better understanding of their natural lives in the wild, diseases and other difficulties they may face, and ways to combat them. As long as a population is already stable, which I believe the data the OHC and MNRF have collected together shows the goshawk population is, then wild take will be inconsequential to their stability, as wild take birds are frequently released back to the wild after a season or two, if not improving it, as the falconer has actually given the bird a safe and healthy year or two of its life, greatly improving it's likelihood of survival! Most deaths in wild populations happen in the first year of a birds life - a wild caught bird is given everything it needs to survive that year by the falconer, learns even more tricks for hunting and survival in that time while not being exposed to the elements, predators, disease, and with a reliable, nutritious food supply, before being sent back out to rejoin the wild population and reproduce.