Fellow Gamehawkers,

The creation of this club is the result of a collective effort of four guys; Bob Herrick, Mike Maxcy, Brad Felger, and myself, Kevin Triolo. We looked into the world of sport hawking and realized the necessity of a representative group for the Gamehawker: That person who keeps birds for one reason; to hunt with them. That person whose birds achieve greater and greater value to them only after responding to skillful handling, demonstrating that level of trainability that leads to perceptable excellence when in the field in the pursuit of quarry. Are there different levels of the sport? YOU BET!!

This club has been established for those who accept falconry as having no purpose other than recreation and are repulsed at the thought of strapping a purpose onto its back, thus keeping their intellectual approach and practice of the sport pure. As Frank Beebe has written, "the reason for falconry is that it is FUN." Falconry needs no reason to exist and those who practice it need no alibi nor apology nor reason other than it is FUN!!!

Falconry quickly loses its charm and attraction to the Gamehawker when forced into the service of education, character development or social improvement. The best falconry happens on that razor's edge of risk, daring and uncertainty; those elements alone are what keep it free from the criteria of industry and the corporate world, which seek precisely to control the future and eliminate risk. The practice of true Falconry, or Gamehawking is existential in that once that hood comes off, you are suddenly thrust into a situation you can never know the outcome of until you arrive at that point in time.

A Gamehawker's defining relationship is to the sport itself, not his bird, yet all of us know that to be a hunter in the purest sense is to be a naturalist.

A club is profiled by its publications and what is printed in our newsletter will have everything to do with Gamehawking, including articles on dogs, equipment, bird training, quarry species profile, and of course political and legal perspectives.

If you are a Gamehawker and your reason for keeping birds of prey is the passion of the hunt, whether you fly fist hawks or falcons, you are welcome.

Kevin Triolo
Member, Presidential Panel California Gamehawkers Association.

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2007 Los Banos Meet Report

December 27th through the 30th, 2007, The California Game Hawkers’ Association held its’ first annual meet at the fairgrounds in Los Banos, California, and quite simply, all who attended agree that it was a grand success.

About 80 people were in attendance and going by the one on one reports the vibe was very cool and a good, if not grand time was had by all. Our meet grossed about $5400.00 for our club, so check out the Treasurer's report (coming soon).

Many thanks to Brad ("my toe hurts") Felger, Mike Maxcy, and Dave Meyers for donating the time to travel to Banos from their respective homes to scout out an appropriate site for the Pigeon Derby. Mike and Brad also were at the meet hall early to get the tables and chairs and other stuff in order for the meet.

John Milan, Grand Wizard of the Computer and our revered Webmaster: thanks for doing all that crucial stuff that nobody understands but you.

Bob Herrick is our treasurer and thanks, Bob, for your continued contribution to our club and the meet.

The banquet was all you can eat rigatoni pasta and sausage, salad, garlic bread, with pie and coffee for dessert for ten dollars- that would be $10.00.

Special thanks goes out to David Wadsworth for throwing in a hundred bucks worth of pretty good wine which was offered to every one of age as an addition to the meal at no extra charge. By the time most of the wine and food was gone the vibe had evolved into something close to a bunch of friendly, if not kindred Vikings in a mead hall.

The meal was cooked on the premises by Legal Advisor and club secretary Elisa McCormick, Valerie Felger, Mike Macxy, his lady friend Jennifer Aliessi and my son Everett and myself. Thanks to everyone who worked along side one another all those hours in that steaming kitchen.

Yeah, and Elisa, thanks for your time and effort on this club stuff and your communications with Dr. George and everything else you do for membership records, and yes, Baby, all girls should be Brunettes.

Paul Hutcheson worked the chow line and did carnie-barker duty at the raffle which kept everything interesting and kept the ticket sales increasing on a moment to moment basis.

I want to thank my son, Everett for selling several hundred dollars worth of ten dollar raffle tickets before and during the banquet.

Some of the premier raffle items were a tiercel Peale's falcon donated by Art Tawatari, a tiercel falcon of one of three species or hybrids (pending availability) donated by Brad Felger, an oak framed glass enclosed oval coffee table with a taxidermy habitat scene involving wood ducks, pond with lily pads and frogs and even a couple of blue gill partially hidden under the duck-weed.

Also in the raffle we had a telemetry receiver from Communication Specialists, telemetry transmitters from L.L. Electronics, transmitters from Merlin Systems, hoods made by Art Tawatari, David Wadsworth, Dan Fenske, and Jeremy Bradshaw.

Perches from Dave Meyers, falconry themed art work from Nikki Perlatti and many, many other fine, useful and valuable items.

Thanks to Mike's Falconry for the donation of a falconry vest and a 10% discount on all items he sells to CGA members only.

Also, Ed "I always get my grouse" Levine of Merlin Systems is offering a 10% discount on all transmitters and accessories (antennaes, tail mounts, batteries, etc.) to CGA members only. I have used every telemetry system out there, and all I can say is "BUY ED'S STUFF!!!" to me it is the best available.

The David Morgan company came forward with 2 full kangaroo hides for the raffle and Bob Winslow also donated some kangaroo leather which actually amounted to about 1.25 hides.

Mitch Freeman and Wally Imfield were there with T-shirts printed with the CGA logo and also decals.

David Wadsworth also donated several cases of "Red Tail Ale" as raffle prizes, which I noticed were opened and the bottles passed around the tables by those who won them. Yuppa!!!

I also want to thank Shawn Hayes for hanging out at the weathering yard just making sure all the birds there remained safe.

Scott Timmons was responsible for the audio visual equipment and he also ran some of his fine falconry videos. Some very impressive slo-mo shots of red-tails on jacks, great footage. Scott's efforts on that equipment (rental) amounted to $300.00, quite a donation. Also, thanks to Dave Meyers for helping Scott set everything up.

Thanks also to Rich Jones for the great leashes and ring perch he tossed into the raffle as well.

During the raffle, I saw that Dan Fenske had won one of the drawings and had his choice of several hoods: he chose his own, which he had made for the meet, walked across the room and handed it to my son, it was the embodiment of the tradition of our sport actually being handed down from one generation to another, thanks Dan, that meant a lot both Everett and myself.

Gary Alten gave a very well prepared talk on his petetion to the commission to delist the California peregrine. This was a seven month project shouldered by Gary, independent of any club associations.

George Allen from the "Service" was our featured speaker and elaborated on several topics that affect falconers and falconry directly.

As things quieted and everyone was winding down from the mellow combination of a satisfying meal and just enough booze, into the late evening I joined the very talented guitarist Keith Richman on harp. Next to the fire we kicked around some blues and everyone passed around a bottle and smoked until pretty late.

What was most evident throughout the course of the meet was everyone's support of their new club and what it stands for, Game Hawking,the traditional sport of Falconry as a hunting sport, practiced as it has been for 4,000 years without any effort to redefine it, make an ailibi for it, or an apology and just fold ourselves into it the simplicity of it, we don't want to save the world, just fly our birds and take some game.


Kevin Triolo
Member, Presidential Panel California Gamehawkers Association.

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Pigeon Derby Report

On December 30, 2007 the CGA held it’s first annual pigeon derby. At 8:22 a.m only a few miles from the Los Banos Fairgrounds under chilly but rain free conditions the first of nine falcons lifted off the fist of a gamehawker officially starting the derby. Kevin Triolo, Dave Meyers and Dave Kanelis volunteered to judge the event.

Soon after the last bird was called in the judges conferred and awarded Janie Rand a first place plaque her three year old Gyr/Peregrine "cane" took a quick pitch of approx. 2000 ft and folllowed with an eye popping stoop. Janie started Falconry late in life and has been practicing the sport for only ten years, nice job rookie. Second place was given to Mike Orr and his eight year old Gyr/Peregrine. John Persno and his Gyr/Peregrine took third.

Many thanks go to Kevin Triolo for obtaining the three very nice plaques, Dave Meyers for putting together the contest and Mike Maxcy for finding the landowners, (whom attended), and attaining permission.

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Introduction letter from the CGA to the DFG

The presidential panel and staff of the California Gamehawkers’ Association would like to introduce ourselves. The CGA was founded in July of 2007 to provide a representative group for dedicated falconers in California and across the country. Our purpose is threefold: to promote excellence within the sport of falconry, to recognize falconry as exclusively a hunting sport and to assure its continued legal protection.

The California Gamehawkers’ Association is committed to supporting conservation efforts, game species management and the legal practice of hunting. To that end, all of our members are required to submit copies of their current falconry license, hunting license and appropriate tags with their yearly registration. Our affiliates include sport hunting and conservation groups such as the California Waterfowl Association, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and the California Rifle and Pistol Association. We anticipate future affiliations with the NRA and Safari Club International.

We currently have 70 licensed, active members and our numbers are growing quickly. The club’s first field meet event, held in December, was a great success and included guest speakers such as George Allen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Publication of the first issue of the CGA’s journal, The Gamebag, is set for April.

We look forward to being a part of California’s hunting community for many years to come. You are invited to contact us with any questions you may have.

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Letter from the CGA to George T. Allen,
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

George,

Thank you so much for making the trek out to California, especially during the holidays! We now have a better sense of the issues affecting falconers and what directions we should go with regards to managing our efforts.

Wishing you a very happy 2008.

Regards,

Elisa McCormick
California Gamehawkers Association

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