A hawk at school

Lance is the luckiest kid in the world. Honestly. I don't think he appreciates it yet, but hopefully one day he'll realize just how cool his childhood was.

While other kids bring their stuffed animals or remote control cars to school for show-and-tell, on March 21st Lance got to bring his hawk. Yep, his hawk Fawkes. Scott was a trooper and took part of the day off work so he could come and do a flying demonstration with the kids and answer any questions. Jude, Cole, Lily and I came along to take pictures.

Unloading Fawkes. See that white box in the car? That's her little house when they're traveling.

Scott brought her in with her eyes covered so she'd be calm. I was impressed how quiet she was surrounded by so many humans.

Lance showing the snare they used to catch Fawkes. It has little plastic loops that get caught around the hawk's feet when it comes down to grab the food that's inside the little cage part in the middle. Fairly ingenious way to capture a bird without injuring it.

The kids were all amazed and did a great job paying attention.

Scott took her head cover off so the kids could see her face. The reaction was pretty fun with lots of gasps and "awes".

The coolest thing they did I got on video but not still-shot: Scott had Fawkes fly to Lance inside the classroom. The kids all thought that was amazing.

After the 15 minute presentation we walked outside so Scott could show them how he trains the hawk. It was quite the spectacle on the way out with kids jumping up and staring at the large bird going past.  

There were some technical difficulties with the machine and some crows that weren't too pleased to have a hawk close to their nests, so the outside demonstration didn't go exactly as planned, but they still got to see the hawk fly off and come back when called.

They also got to see it eat part of a squirrel. Yum. :)

All in all, it was a fun time. I'm sure this was the first time the kids got to see such a large bird up close. And the best part was Lance was king for the day--I mean, what other 8-year-old has a hawk as a pet?