The year was around 1981; not long after I moved to Canton from Williamsport in the autumn of 1979. In those days, small game season closed around the end of the post Christmas flintlock muzzleloader and extended deer archery seasons.
It was early February when a group of us called a local farm owner near East Canton. We were after rabbits and maybe a stray pheasant left over from the Game Commission autumn stocking and the birds that this landowner had stocked from a private source. He was agreeable to the hunt and participated with us. On this hunt, we were the dogs, the falcon was the hunter. Mike Kuriga released the bird which took a perch in a tree and we tried to flush game to it. To say the least, it was an interesting experience for all of us; 5 to be exact.
I met Mike Kuriga, a licensed falconer back when I still lived in Williamsport. I had him on my daily Monday through Friday radio show which I did for many years on WILQ FM radio, a 50,000 watt country and western station. The day that we hunted in the East Canton area, he had a Harris Hawk, named Miss Tear. In those days, there were only 77 licensed falconers in Pennsylvania, and the Game Commission handbook stated that small game seasons would be “disseminated to licensed falconers. I found out that those seasons ran until the end of March.
Mike explained to me while I visited his residence and saw his falcon site that as an apprentice, his was under the tutelage of a licensed falconer as an apprentice. One thing that he had to do was capture a falcon/hawk. Since these birds are both controlled by Federal and PA State regulations, this was a mighty task as you can imagine and he needed a special permit. His apprenticeship lasted for some years until he attained the title of “licensed falconer.”
Mike and I hunted with his falcon in many areas in Williamsport, including in the city limits since we did not use firearms. He told me of his many hunts with the warden at Allenwood Federal Prison. I know that he and his falcon saw many ring-necked pheasants because the prison abutted State Game Lands 242 near Elimsport.
Jim Collins is an outdoor writer for this newspaper. To contact him, email jimcollinsinsurance@frontiernet.net ; or write to him at Outdoors With Jim Collins, 87 Windfall Road, Alba, PA 16910.