Austin, Texas: Trained Harris Hawks have been used to drive those pesky, annoying grackles, whose high pitched chatter have irritated many in the cities. They gather sometimes in the thousands in trees to roost at night in various parts of a city especially in shopping centers or fast food restaurants where, besides their noise, they leave the parking lots and cars covered with their white deposits.

This is where the Harris’ Hawks come in. These raptors have been trained to, when released by its trainer or falconer (Falconry is regulated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and requires bird owners to have a license to possess a bird of prey) dive into a flock of grackles and kill one and bring it back to the owner who rewards it with a treat of meat. After this is repeated several times, one hears a high-pitched woody sound coming from the grackles and starlings that say ” this is not a good place to be”. They quickly depart.

The falconer will repeat the same performance 2-3 sometimes more in the early morning before the grackles are gone for good. The property owners say this is pest control and gets as natural as it can get.

In the wild, like many birds of prey, they hunt small birds, rabbits, mice, rats, reptiles and grackles for meals. Often times, this time of the year in Austin (Spring), the grackles flee the city to avoid the hawks and go into the country side during the day in search of food. By late afternoon they want to go to where food is more plentiful so they head back into the city and are less likely to encounter nocturnal birds of prey, so they think.

Written by Jack Kidd condensed from an article by Ricardo Gandara of the AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF in Austin, Texas. The falconer is Steve Olsen with the help of his wife Jill and their 2 trained Harris’ Hawks, Viggo and Meego.