Feathered Aces

The falcon's dark eyes stared ahead as razor-sharp talons dug into a gloved fist, just before he used the hand of the U.S. Air Force Academy cadet handler as a personal flightline. The bird's target was a leather lure held by another cadet 100 yards away.

Cadet falconers call this male falcon Ace. He is a hybrid white gyrsaker falcon, a breeding that combines the size of the Arctic gyrfalcon with the aggression of the saker.

Master falconers believe this is the perfect combination for the Academy birds that fly during halftime of college football games.

Ace is an appropriate name for the falcon his main handler describes as "the F-16 Fighting Falcon" of McIntyre Mews, the home of the falconry program.

"I call him the F-16 of the group," said Cadet 2nd Class Jeremiah Baxter, who as cadet-in-charge of the falconry team is the primary handler for the Academy's top flying falcon. "The F-16 [aircraft] is extremely agile with the ability of doing flips and other amazing feats. That's really Ace's characteristic. You can always tell when you pick him up in his pen because he's always at his door, amped up and ready to go."

The Academy's falcons perform for 500,000 to 600,000 people each year at sporting events and educational demonstrations nationwide. The first Academy class selected the falcon as its mascot in 1955. A peregrine falcon named Mach 1 was the original mascot, but the first falcon to fly at an Academy football game was Lucifer on Oct. 20, 1956.

Twelve cadet falconers make up the Academy's falconry team, with four chosen each year to replace graduating seniors. New cadet falconers begin training in January under upperclassmen, the officer-in-charge and master falconer Sam Dollar. Daily duties include feeding, checking each bird's health, training, cleaning the mews and maintaining equipment.

Cadets must pass the Colorado Department of Wildlife raptor licensing exam before being admitted into the program. Cadets in previous classes sometimes called the falcons "feathered missiles." While the falcons never become pets, today's cadets develop a natural affection for them. Many of the birds earn nicknames from the cadets, based on their personalities and individual characteristics. Cody is "Grandpa." Echo is "Oscar the Grouch."

Aurora, the Academy's official mascot, is affectionately known as "our little diva." The gyrfalcon can be aggressive to the point of "demonic," as some falconers describe her. However, the "little diva" knows when she's on stage and turns into an ideal performer at football games and educational demonstrations.

"When she's squawking, you just know she's angry, and she wants you to get out of her pen," said Cadet 2nd Class Ryan Wichman. He has been wounded by Aurora four times in the two years he's worked with her.

"But you take her to football games or special events and she perks right up and is one of the prettiest animals I've ever seen," Cadet Wichman said.

Falcons become accustomed to people through a crucial process called manning, said John Van Winkle, an assistant falconry officer in charge who has worked with the program since 2001.

Once a baby falcon, or eyass, is about 8 weeks old, it is fitted with a connecting strap, called a jess, and then a hood. The falcon is quiet while covered by the hood. The first step in the manning process is to train the falcon to sit quietly on "the fist," or the falconer's heavily gloved hand.

The next step involves encouraging the falcon to jump a few inches and eventually a foot from its perch to the falconer's fist for food. The distance gradually increases to 10 to 20 feet and the leash is soon replaced by a creance, which resembles a kite string. The falcon soon progresses to jump to a lure instead of food in the falconer's hand. The lure is a small leather pouch with a piece of quail meat.

Once the falcon repeatedly leaves the fist and flies directly to the lure, it is ready to fly free, Van Winkle said. The bird is fitted with a transmitter the size of a small thimble that allows it to be found if it doesn't return on its own.

Many cadet falconers could hardly recognize a falcon before they began preparing for the licensing exam. But, they often recognize the draw to joining the team.

Working with the birds can fill a void, as it did for Cadet 2nd Class Calder Goc. The cadet from Florida found herself needing something to care for after arriving at the Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., three years ago.

"My mother went to law school when I was in high school, and her school started about the same time my little brothers got out of their school," Cadet Goc said. "I kind of raised them for two years. But, when I got here I didn't have anything to take care of, so I felt lost. When I heard about this, I thought it was an awesome opportunity."

The cadet's caring instinct really kicked in when Buzz, an American kestrel falcon, arrived at the mews. The 1-year-old bird had a damaged wing and weighed 100 grams when he arrived after he was rescued and rehabilitated at the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center about a year ago.

The kestrel is unique in many ways, other than being the smallest, now weighing 107 grams. He makes a sound like a rubber duck and isn't housed in a pen like the other falcons, but is in the front area of the mews, which makes him the center of attention. He gets plenty of notice from the cadets, especially Cadet Goc.

"In the beginning, I just made sure I held him every day," Cadet Goc said. "That way, he knew he was getting cared for. We still feed him piece-by-piece, straight to his mouth. It gets him to trust you because he knows you're not going to hurt him; you're just giving him food."

If Cadet Baxter can describe his favorite falcon as an F-16, he and his fellow cadet falconers might be compared to the C-130 Hercules, the workhorse of the Air Force's inventory. Academy cadets already have a demanding schedule, but falconers also commit to the almost daily care for the residents of McIntyre Mews, along with extensive travel to represent the Academy and the Air Force as they educate people of all ages about falcons.

"It's not easy, but you get to a point where you have to judge what you do with your extracurricular activities," Cadet Baxter said. "You ask yourself if it's worth it and you have to really know that what you're doing is making a difference. A lot of times, when you get to talk to little kids like we do, you know it's definitely worth it. "That's why I like to call us a team because it gives us more of an identity."

Retired Col. Larry Schaad, a former falconry program director, visited the mews recently and talked about what that team identity means to the program.

"The birds were great, but the cadets were what were special," Colonel Schaad said after his tour. "These kids are truly special and tremendous ambassadors for the Academy and the Air Force. Things have changed just a tad about the mews, but that hasn't."

Something else that remains the same about Academy falconry is the impact of a falcon in the Colorado sky on a college football crowd. Cadet handlers display the falcons on the sideline during the first half of Academy games. Shortly before halftime, the backup bird and handler position themselves high in the stands where the falcon can be released in case anything goes wrong with the primary flier. The primary falcon is then taken to the top of the stadium where it can see its handler at midfield swinging the lure. The bird is then released and dives immediately for the lure.

"The football games are great, especially for the cadets," Colonel Rhymer said. "They usually only get to work the games a couple of times, usually as seniors. You spend three years in the program and get to go in front of a crowd and show them what the bird can do. I remember when I did it. It was really cool to stand out there, spend the lure, have the bird do what it was supposed to do and give a demonstration in front of thousands of people."

Even the main handler for the Academy's ace flying falcon sometimes finds himself amazed at what the bird can do.

"You can see him fly out here at practice, but you can never get fully prepared for what you'll experience at the game," Cadet Baxter said. "The crowd is kind of going crazy and it never fails that the birds are always going so much faster at the games. I think they hear the crowd and think it's time to amp it up."

While watching falcons interact with the cadet falconers, it's easy to forget they are wild animals, no matter how well trained. Like any undomesticated animal, they are still prone to unexpected behavior, as Ace showed when he singlehandedly changed when Academy falcons perform during a game. Dollar, who has worked with his own falcons and Academy falconry for decades, saw Ace do something at a night game two seasons ago that almost left him speechless.

"Once Ace got outside the lights, he couldn't see anymore," Dollar said. "As the teams were setting up, practicing, one of the team's punters was punting the ball and he'd come out of the black sky and attack the football. Then, the opposing team would do the same thing and Ace would come flying through the air and hit their ball. The ball is leather, so it looks like their lure. The incident threatened to delay kickoff, so now we can't fly pre-game anymore."

Still, Ace's unprovoked attack on the football demonstrated how effectively falcons are trained at the Academy. Falconers just prefer their birds limit their targets to the leather on the lure instead of footballs.