On Sun, 12 Oct 1997, Tom Foote wrote:
>
> On Sun, 12 Oct 1997, Michael Price wrote:
>
> > Is a RTHA X RLHA hybrid inconceivable in nature? Could this have been a
> > falconer's experiment? !!?
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Michael, Michael...go to your room! Shame, shame, shame... :)
>
> Let's not add to the anti-falconry stuff that's already
> out there..
>

Given the myriad hybrid falcons falconers produce, it seems like a
reasonable question, not abuse! Given that I became interested in birding
through falconry (or vice versa, they were so closely intertwined it was
hard to tell), I don't think I'm anti-falconer. But in my extremely
limited experience, I've encountered Gyr-prairie, Gyr-Peregrine, and
Peregrine-Lanner hybrids, albino Red-tails, and all sorts of other
oddities being flown by falconers. They do produce some weird birds that
the uninformed birder can be very confused by. This was ten years ago -
have things changed a lot since then?

> Now, let's see...a rough legged hawk has really, really
> tiny feet..a redtail has feet like rat traps..so why
> would any falconer want to create a hybrid of those
> birds? If anything, it would dilute the redtail genes
> which wouldn't be at all desireable as a passage redtail
> makes a pretty good game hawk just the way she is..
>
> Trust me on this one..falconers don't monkey around
> with buteos.

A very reasonable answer.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu