Remembering the Old Hunting Traditions of Scotland and England

While in Scotland we had the opportunity to go hawking and to have a lesson in shooting the bow. We started off with a beautiful little hawk that had a bit of a temper but was an amazing flyer. The trainer would send the bird up into the sky and than call to it to come and get the "bait" the trainer gave each of us. The bird would come zipping down out of the sky at a tremendous rate and land on the arm of who ever was there with the food. It was really neat to see this little hawk come shooting out of a tree or the air and land suddenly upon command. One thing that we did see with this bird is that unlike a dog or cat, a hawk is not a pet. Even though they are hand raised from an egg, these birds are wild animals and have no love for humans. The only reason why the bird keeps up his end of the relationship is that it knows there is food at the end of the day in the trainer's bag.