Falcon Surgery - To Fly Again

This morning I had my driver take me to the Qatar Falcon Center. From the guidebook, it sounded like a place where men came to look at falcons and possibly purchase them. From the actual experience it was a whole heck of a lot better!Walking into the courtyard there were signs: "hospital. staff only" on all doors except one which said "client entrance." i was thinking there is no way I can act like I want to buy a bird but we walked in to see. One falcon was sitting on a rail in the waiting room. She was hooded. (I asked later if they were male or female birds and was told almost always female because they are bigger).
Several men had entered before us with falcons on their hands and were disappearing into the back rooms. I was afraid that we would be asked to leave because it was now pretty obvious that this was a bird hospital. But one of the staff saw us and said we were welcome to come on back and see what they do. What a stroke of luck.In the main room, there were three men in blue coats who each had a falcon on the table under anthestic. In each case, they were pulling up and looking at the wings. The man who had invited me back called to me and opened up a room where about 10 birds were sitting on rails. he said they were all in the hospital for treatment. I'm trying real hard not to think about bird flu. he said I could take photos so i'm snapping away and even though most are hooded, some are not so I am careful not to use a flash. He comes back in a minute and asks if I would like to hold one.
thirty thousand dollar bird
Wow. You bet. He picks up a glove and carefully unties the bird from an eye hook on the rail and ties it onto the glove before he puts his hand down so that the bird can step onto his hand. He shows me how to angle my arm so that the bird won't walk up my arm and then I put my hand into the glove as he slips his out and I am holding this magnificent beautiful 1 kg hunting falcon. He told me the kind but it wasn't a name I recognized. Then he told me the cost. The bird on my arm was $30,000. Yes, again $30,000. I don't think I have ever picked up and held something worth that much money.
The bird is hooded but he says I can stroke her. I stroke her twice and she moves her head to "stare" where I am touching her. I obviously do not have the master's touch. She knows I am a stranger. We change the glove again so that he is once again holding this beauty and reverses the process of tying her back to the perch.
I am allowed to go into the surgery room where they are putting some pills down a falcon's throat who is not happy about it at all and expresses her displeasure loudly. Back into the "feather" room. These birds have all come to the center to have feathers replaced. What an interesting notion. I never knew you could do that to a falcon. They had several boxes of wings and would take out a wing, match the feathers (good thing that birds of a species all have the same plummage), then start cutting off the bad feathers and replace them by inserting a bamboo skewer (yes the kind we use to do shishkebob) and gluing it on.
Peregrin getting new feathers
They were very careful to match length and feather. In some cases they had to also insert a wire along the wing to strengthen it. I was told it is 70 riyals to replace one feather (about $20) but only 40 riyals if you bring in your own feather. One man was there for 10 feathers replacement. The specialist kept telling me it was "last year's bird" as he worked on the 10 feathers replacement. When I asked him what that meant, he said they buy a new bird every year most of the time but this bird had been kept over the summer and had injured his wings by beating them against the cage. The other birds in for feather replacement had mostly injured the feathers during hunting.At the end of the replacement, the bird is taken off the anthestic, wrapped in a towel, and someone holds it for about 5 minutes which is all it takes to wake up and then be fine to sit on a perch or go fly again. When she comes out of the little gas mask, her head looks like it will flop off. no muscles at all and yet in 5 minutes they are ready to go. amazing. And what a rich sport.
This is the season so he says they will be busy until March and then things will die down as the birds are not hunting.It was hard to leave as it was so interesting. Not at all what I expected from the guide book and how lucky to have them be kind enough to answer all my questions and not mind me watching for an hour. fantastic.

More Pictures
one year old Peregrin
bird owner and falcon
checking feathers