Talos
Chapter 1
Overview
ARCHIVE RECORD 001 | CHAPTER 1 | TALOS
Talos was the beginning of Wings to Valhalla’s recorded falconry archive. His season marked the shift from preparation into practice — daily work, early mistakes, first flights, hunting attempts, and the gradual lessons that only come through time in the field.
This chapter preserves that first season as the foundation for the records that followed. Not as a perfect example, but as a starting point: the bird, the process, the setbacks, the progress, and the lessons carried forward.
Trap Date: 10/5/2023
Accepts Food: 10/7/2023
First Step-Up: 10/12/2023
First Hop: 10/13/2023
First Creance Flight: 10/18/2023
First Free Flight: 11/1/2023
First Hunt: 11/4/2023
First Successful Take: 12/31/2023
Season End: 3/31/2024
Release / Archive Closed: 5/14/2024
Stories / Records
Entries below preserve events considered relevant to the bird’s development, hunting progression, or long-term record.
10/16/2023 — Avian Veterinary Checkup
On Day 11, Talos was taken in for an avian veterinary wellness check. There were no visible concerns at the time, but as a newly trapped passage Red-tailed Hawk, establishing a baseline with a licensed professional was the right step.
The clinic staff were excited; Talos was their first Red-tailed Hawk patient. He was examined beak to talon and given a clean bill of health overall. A fecal and gram stain were also performed to check for internal parasites.
The results confirmed roundworms and coccidia. Treatment began immediately with Panacur for the roundworms and Ponazuril for the coccidia, administered once daily for five days.
This became one of the first practical tests of the season. My time volunteering in raptor rehabilitation proved valuable here, especially the handling skills learned there: proper hospital holds, safe restraint, and administering oral medication without adding unnecessary stress.
Once treatment was underway and the parasite load was addressed, Talos began to settle into a more balanced condition. With his health confirmed and treatment in progress, we were able to move forward into tethered flight training on the creance line.
Lesson retained: Early veterinary intervention establishes healthier foundations for training.
10/05/2023 — First Raptor Taken for Falconry
Day 1 began late in the day under light rain. My sponsor and I headed out looking for my first passage raptor, watching the weather work in our favor. In wet conditions, birds often hold longer on exposed perches; the added moisture can make flight less efficient, and many will sit tight rather than spend unnecessary energy.
After several hours, we spotted a strong-looking Red-tailed Hawk perched on a power line, settled into the rain. We placed the trap and waited, but it did not take long.
The bird committed, stooped to the trap, and was secured quickly. Once safely hooded, he was placed in a giant hood for transport back home. There, we fitted him with anklets, jesses, and a swivel before securing him on the screen perch.
When the hood came off, Talos was officially entered into the record — the beginning of Archive Record 001.
Record retained: Initial capture and beginning of training.
11/04/2023 — First Free Flight
After several weeks of training, manning, and familiarization, it was time for the first free flight. Until that point, every step had been controlled: jesses, creance line, measured distance, known outcomes. This was different. This was the first real test of trust.
We headed to a field bordered by trees on all sides, giving us a natural corridor to work through. I was nervous, but the decision had to be made: trust the bird, trust the training, and trust the process.
The first few recalls were hesitant. He came, but without much urgency. As we moved farther along the field edge, his confidence increased. He began moving tree to tree, following along and staying connected as we walked.
There were even a couple of slips after quarry as he worked through dead leaf piles on the ground, likely searching for mice or other movement. Nothing came from them, but the behavior mattered. He was looking, thinking, and engaging with the field.
We worked for over an hour and made it back to the truck with feathers intact and a crop full of food.
Lesson retained: Free flight begins where control ends; trust has to be tested before it can be proven.
12/31/2023 — Active Hunting and First Success
In the weeks following his first free flight, we hunted every chance we had. The training had progressed, but hunting exposed a different kind of weakness: my own lack of experience finding consistent game and securing productive land access.
I had underestimated how important hunting ground would be. Several trips to local Wildlife Management Areas produced chases, effort, and lessons, but no success. There were also a few frustrating rounds of chasing the bird down when he failed to see me as part of the hunt. That mattered. In falconry, the bird has to learn that the falconer is not just present, but useful.
That lesson took time.
On New Year’s Eve, while hunting with my sponsor and a local friend, things finally came together. We had worked through a large portion of the field and were making our way back toward the truck when he settled into a conifer and began watching with intensity.
We started working the cover beneath him. After some brush beating, a rabbit flushed.
This time, he was ready.
He locked on quickly and committed to the chase. I moved in to assist, helped dispatch and secure the catch, then allowed him to feed and fill his crop. It was not only his first successful hunt; it was the first time the full picture started to make sense.
The bird, the falconer, the cover, the flush, the assist, and the reward all connected.
Lesson retained: Success required more than a trained bird; it required becoming useful in the field.
03/02/2024 — Enter Wren: Evolution of the Program
After the first successful hunt, we continued to struggle with consistency. The bird was capable, but I was still learning how to find productive ground, read habitat, and put him over game. We hunted often, played more rounds of chase-the-bird than I would have liked, and took plenty of long walks back to the truck.
Somehow, we kept moving forward.
Shortly after the state club meet, I met a fellow falconer who introduced me to a different side of the sport: working with a dog. Wren was a year and a half old, already started, and already knew what a rabbit was. As a Jagdterrier/Beagle cross, she brought intensity, nose, and drive into a program that had been missing consistent game contact.
That changed the season.
In the final month, with Wren working into the team, we secured three more rabbits. The difference was not just numbers. The hunts had shape. The dog searched and pushed cover. The bird watched and responded. I began to understand that success was not only about training the hawk, but about building a system around him.
By the close of hunting season, we had completed 37 hunts, taken 4 rabbits, and spent 168 days together from trapping through the end of the season. What began as a first bird had slowly become the foundation of a working program.
Lesson retained: Consistency improved when the hunt became a team effort, not a single-bird pursuit.
05/14/2024 — Release and the Closing of a Chapter
After the season ended, I wrestled with what direction I wanted my falconry program to take next. Talos had taught me more than I expected, but the season had also made some things clear. We had struggled to find consistent slips, I had grown attached to him, and I had to consider what was best for the bird rather than what was easiest for me.
In the end, the decision was made to release him and let him return to what he had always been: a wild Red-tailed Hawk.
With a heavy heart, my sponsor and I headed out to find a good release site. We looked for a place with suitable habitat, distance from obvious hazards, and enough room for him to settle back into the landscape with the skills he had sharpened during the season.
I took him from the giant hood and let him sit on the glove one last time. Looking back from Day 1 to that moment, it was hard to measure how much had changed. I had learned about falconry, about working with a raptor, and about myself.
We removed his jesses and anklets, then let him sit on the fist while offering food to help him start that transition. In my head, I had imagined a clean flight away — wings open, distance growing, the chapter closing in one clear moment.
That is not what happened.
He flew to a nearby tree, turned, and looked back as if waiting for the dog to come out of the truck and the hunt to begin.
We stood there for a while and watched. He did not rush off. He simply sat with his freedom returned, quiet and familiar in a way I was not prepared for.
Eventually, we had to drive away and let him settle back into the world he knew before our paths crossed. It was hard to leave, but it felt right. He was no longer mine to guide. He was back where he belonged.
Record retained: Archive Record 001 closed with release — not as an ending alone, but as the return of a wild bird to the life he came from.
Photos & Video Archive
Media records will be added over time.