CYPRESS : Birds Kept in Back Yard Cause Flap

Debbie and Scott Driscol never thought that their prized Harris hawks would cause feathers to fly.

But since neighbors discovered the birds in their back yard and complained to city officials about noise, the hawks have done just that.

City code enforcers insist that the hawks are wild and that the Driscols must get special permission to keep them. To prove their case, officials cite state Fish and Game Department regulations that define the word wild .

The Driscols, falconers for more than seven years, maintain that the highly skilled birds of prey they raise for hunting are anything but wild and balk at the idea of paying the city for their hobby. They cite the same state regulations used by officials to prove their case.

It is an ornithological question that has the city’s legal expert scratching his head.

“The closest I have come to falcons is the television show ‘Falcon Crest,’ ” admitted Assistant City Atty. John Cavanaugh regarding his store of bird-related legal knowledge.

On Monday, the exasperated Driscols took their case to the City Council, whose members were equally confused and ordered the city attorney to iron it out. They told Cavanaugh to define wild precisely and to come back with the answer in two weeks.

“Once we have the definition we will go from there,” Planning Director Chris Eynon said.

This much is known: If the hawks are wild, the Driscols will have to pay about $500 to keep them. If not, they come free of city charge.

The falcon flap is one in a slew of animal disputes that have come before the council in the last few years. There was the great bunny brouhaha, concerning dozens of abandoned Easter presents that won the hearts of residents but nibbled their way through fences and into trouble at Nature Park. The bunnies recently got their walking papers despite several years of impassioned pleas to save their lives.

More recent was the controversy over Molakai Drive resident David Nagel’s 100 homing pigeons. After months of debate, the council Monday night approved his request to keep his birds.

Now there are hawks.

The latest animal controversy was brought to the attention of the city by neighbors who complained about noise. The Driscols say their birds aren’t any louder than a dog or small animal. The birds are kept in a mew in the back yard and don’t bother anyone, the Driscols insist. They take them to local fields and train them to respond to signal and to hunt for ducks, rabbits and other small prey.

They say their three hawks--Houdini, King Solomon and King David--are domestic because their parents and grandparents were born in captivity.

“I believe the birds are domestic. Period,” said Scott Driscol.

But Cavanaugh countered at the council: “The fact that they are bred in captivity doesn’t determine if they are not wild.” He cited examples of mountain lions and tigers that, although born in captivity in zoos, are still considered wild.

Whether the birds are wild or not will ultimately be decided by the council, which is expected to consider the issue again next month.