Saskatchewan Falconers Club work to breed falcons in province

The Saskatchewan Falconers Club is hoping a new breeding project will make falconry more accessible in Saskatchewan.

Once you've experienced it a few times it becomes quite addictive.- Iain Timmins, Saskatchewan Falconers Club president

"Falconry really is a form of very, very advanced bird watching," said Iain Timmins, president of the Saskatchewan Falconers Club. "You can see a bird which you've trained and you look after on a daily basis, doing something that wild birds do pretty secretly."

In most cases, Timmins said, a hunter will train a falcon to fly hundreds of metres above the prey. The human hunter will target an area like a pond, where there are ducks. When the hunter scares the ducks out of the pond, the falcon will dive, hoping to catch one.

"Once you've experienced it a few times it becomes quite addictive," Timmins said. He brought his love for falconry with him from the United Kingdom.

The club works to preserve habitats for falcons, as well as helping falconers in the province pursue their sport. Limited falcons can be taken from the wild, and breeding increases the numbers. It also allows them to create hybrid falcons.

"The problem is the peregrine falcon is not suited to our winters," Timmins said. "Naturally, they will go south at the onset of fall." 

The club has a theory about how to create the perfect Saskatchewan hunting bird.

"If you hybridize them with a gyr, which is a very hardy Arctic-region bird, you'll then get a bird which will have the physical characteristics of a peregrine, but will withstand the winters in the same way as a gyrfalcon can."

The project is still in its beginning stages. Pairs were put together last year and four eggs were produced, but the eggs were accidentally broken by the parent birds.

"We would be over the moon if we could breed two or three," said Timmins.

Any eggs are expected to hatch in June 2016.