HIGH FLYING GYRFALCONS: THE GUIDED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. By Victor Hardaswick and Kent L. Christopher.

2011 1st edition. 4to (182 x 261mm). Ppxxviii,259. Colour photographs, colour and b/w illustrations by Nathan Birr, colour paintings by Victor Bakhtin, extensive bibliography, decorative end-papers. Blue boards, silver-gilt gyrfalcon design to upper board, upper board and spine titled in gilt.

"If, as commonly opined in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, the art of successfully flying the gyrfalcon is lost, Vic Hardaswick and the late Kent Christopher have gone a long way in finding it for us once more. Aided by the products of modern captive breeding, radio telemetry, and contemporary pharmacology, these two have produced an invaluable work. The results of taking their theories into the field make for high-flying falcons and spectacular falconry. Yet one need not aspire to towering flights at sage grouse over windswept Western plains to find great usefulness in this volume because the detailed description of imprinting alone makes the book a must. ...This work deserves time and study. It ...will raise the standards of our sport." Foreword by Tom J.Cade, prologue by Jim Weaver. Chapters include: An introduction to high-flying gyrfalcons; Gyrfalcon selection and common misconceptions; Guided development of imprinted gyrfalcons - preflight growth, directed tame-hack and entering, maintaining high pitches in waiting-on gyrfalcons; Is the gyrfalcon too high?; Imprinting; Stress and imprinting; Play behaviour in gyrfalcons; Flying with eagles; Balloons, kites, and other methods used to achieve high, waiting-on flights; Considering dogs; The gyrfalcon as companion (Tom Cade); Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen; Sage grouse at the crossroads - a plea for conservation (Jack Connelly); Maintaining health in gyrfalcons (Patrick Redig).