In the late 1930s I was a teenager interested in Biology and birds
specifically. I read an article in Natl Geographic by the brothers
Craighead who were later Grizzly Bear specialists. In "Adventures with
Birds of Prey" (July 1937)they reported on their efforts with falconry and I
thought I would try. But there were no falcons in western Minnesota other
than the then Sparrow Hawk. I had seen them stooping (I learned that word
from the article) on grasshoppers.
I found a nesting female, attended by a male, in an old woodpecker hole
in the snag of a prairie cottonwood. There was not another tree within a
mile. I watched the nest for several days, climbed the tree and found that
I could touch the female without disturbing her.
One day she left as I was climbing the tree and I found that there were
two chicks. From then on she would leave the nest as I climbed.
I took the pair when they were about to fly, fed them and trained them
as I had learned from the article and actually got the female to fly to a
bait in my hand.
Through carelessness after about three weeks they both escaped.
I have felt guilty ever since, hoping that they had learned enough, in
my short training, to survive when free.