On a chilly weekend afternoon you might see a man slowly making his way through an overgrown field between the metal pole barns and warehouses that make up Evansville’s far East Side.
He watches the ground ahead of him while the tall, thick, dried gold weeds seem to swallow him whole. Almost randomly, his head looks up, scanning nearby trees for his hunting partner.
With the jingle of bells a dark brown bird of prey pumps his wings effortlessly and glides to another tree somewhere just ahead of the man.
On the ground, the man kicks brush piles and thorny castles to route out their target.
Sudden movement erupts as a rabbit sprints from the thicket. “Ho!” the man shouts and the hawk launches from his perch in pursuit. Wings flare and both bird and prey start making erratic turns followed by bursts of wing pumps as the hawk maneuvers around tree limbs, over fences and with one final 180 degree drops like a stone on top of his prey.
READ MORE: Boonville man is one of Indiana’s few falconers | VIDEO, GALLERY » Evansville Courier & Press.
