Feathered Friend

For the rabbits at least, it was their lucky day.

The hawk--a sleek specimen of the red-tailed variety with a sharp, curved beak and piercing eyes--was off his game this afternoon and his human hunting companion was not the least bit amused.

“I don’t know what’s wrong--this is not like him,” said Mike Clark, shaking his head after the hawk once again swooped and missed during a fruitless quest for prey in open fields here off Borchard and Reino roads recently.

But for Clark--the bird’s friend, hunting partner and master--the lack of a kill was not the problem. Instead, the Thousand Oaks falconer was longing for the thrill of the chase, that moment when his male hawk drops from the sky like a stone and, without a hitch, pounces on his prey.

“You’re constantly looking for that perfect flight,” said Clark, who turns 36 Sunday. “It’s like a surfer looking for the perfect wave, the perfect ride.”

Clark, one of only a handful of Ventura County residents practicing the ancient art of hunting with birds of prey, is outspoken about his falconry.

The sport often draws criticism from animal activists opposed to the hunting itself and to wild birds living in cages, so falconers tend to shy away from publicity.

But Clark, who works as a veterinarian assistant in the condor breeding program at the Los Angeles Zoo, proudly maintains a Web site featuring photos of the latest exploits of his 2-foot-tall hawk.

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He also gladly argues with those he regularly encounters in local fields who question whether he is harming the bird or needlessly killing rabbits.

“The animal rights people get so mad,” Clark said. “But it’s one of the oldest sports and it’s so strictly regulated.”

Pat Moore, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game, which along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires owners of birds of prey to register their animals and obtain hunting licenses, said wildlife generally live longer, healthier lives in captivity.

“It’s tough out there when you have to forage for your own food,” Moore said. “There are predators, droughts and you don’t get health care.”

Complaints about falconry--which reached peak popularity in medieval Europe and is enjoying a resurgence--are often fueled by a lack of understanding of the sport, said Kim Stroud, director of the Ojai Raptor Center, a treatment center for injured birds of prey.

“There are good falconers and bad falconers,” Stroud said. “Those that are doing it for the flight of the bird are the good ones.”

Stroud said those worrying about the prey are probably forgetting that the animals would be eaten by hawks, owls or others whether the birds are captive or not.

“They’re carnivorous,” she said. “You can’t feed a raptor oatmeal.”

Fascinated with birds of prey since he was a boy, Clark took up falconry in 1988, initially serving as an apprentice to a master falconer.

Since then, the tanned and rugged Clark has trapped 15 red-tailed hawks, plus a number of goshawks and Cooper’s hawks. He has caught most of them on the Oxnard Plain, where they can be easily seen during the fall and winter, scanning the cropland from telephone poles.

“All those fields near the outlets off the freeway, they just see fields of gophers,” said Clark, who is also the lead singer for a 1970s cover band called Knight Fever.

Clark said he prefers working with red-tailed hawks even though they are far from the most athletic birds of prey. Red-tails are perfect for the Conejo Valley, he said, where they can hunt for their favorite kind of prey: rabbits.

Other falconers try to persuade Clark that hunting with peregrine falcons is the only way to fly. But he said those birds, the fastest animal in the world, require huge open spaces to hunt, a vanishing commodity in the Conejo Valley.

“They soar so high, they’re just a little speck in the sky--you can’t even see them.”

He recently recaptured a stunning, mostly black red-tailed hawk he named Oprah, which Clark says is the best bird he has ever had. She escaped last summer during the off-season when he briefly removed her from her cage.

After noticing her flying over the Ventura Freeway last fall, he set out to reclaim the 4-year-old bird. Using live bait and a monofilament snare, he trapped her in an open field next to the Hyatt Westlake Plaza a few weeks ago.

“She got a little freaked out, but she’ll be OK,” he said. “I know she recognizes where she is. This was her home.”

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Clark said he won’t hunt with her until March after she has learned to trust him again. The birds, which are not tethered, learn to return to their handlers on command after a gradual training process.

Although Clark’s hawks hunt rabbits, he feeds them a steady diet of quail meat. In the field, he exchanges the quail for their prey. Counting the cost of the meat, medical care and entrance fees to regular falconry meets, Clark figures he spends about $5,000 a year on the sport.

When he hunted with Oprah during the previous hunting season, she never killed the rabbits she caught, but clutched them with her powerful yellow talons until Clark offered her the quail. After Oprah released them, the rabbits would quickly bound off.

But the 2-year-old male hawk he now hunts with is more aggressive and instantly kills his prey. Clark freezes the vanquished quarry and will feed the meat to the birds in the off-season.

While Oprah remains the object of his affection, Clark said he would be at a loss if the male hawk flew off. Not only does he plan to mate these two, but the male has also become a superior hunter after their nearly daily outings.

Clark attributed the bird’s recent sub-par day to a minor viral infection on his claws, a common occurrence for hawks.

Clark said everything associated with the hunt excites him--from the sound of the bells that he dons around the bird’s neck, to the leathered glove he must wear to hold the hawk, to the dogs--German short-haired pointers--that aid in the hunt.

“When he feels the sun in the morning, he starts stretching his neck looking for me,” said Clark, who is single. “He’s always ready to go everyday. It’s pretty funny.”

The hawk, with canine assistants Daisy and The Booster, recently started bagging jack rabbits, which are much larger than a standard Conejo bunny and a coup for a red-tail, said Clark. So far this season, the bird has caught 82 rabbits.

Clark said he prefers not to count his kills, but so many people ask him, he feels compelled to keep a record.

Despite the occasional falconry critic, Clark said he also encounters enthusiastic reactions from people who notice the caged and hooded hawk in the flatbed of his truck, or witness the bird land like a butterfly on his gloved arm.

“To see a bird of prey up close is pretty rare for most people,” Clark said. “And the red-tail, its eyes are so huge, and it has these giant yellow talons. They’re so beautiful.

“And then, it’s just something in your backyard.”