美国国家公共电台 NPR--On the Kansas prairie, a master falconer develops a unique bond with birds of prey

On the Kansas prairie, a master falconer develops a unique bond with birds of prey²

Transcript³

Just after dawn, Monte Markley gears up on his farm near Augusta, in southern Kansas. He pulls on a special hunting vest and camouflage⁴ cap.

"This is a bull-riding glove," Markley says, tugging⁵ on a bright yellow glove that he uses as a falconing gauntlet.

Murmuring softly, he rouses his new raptor from her perch⁶. "Come on, wake up, there you go," Markley says, coaxing⁷ a female prairie falcon¹ named Storm onto his fist. He trapped her in the wild a few months ago and he's been training her ever since, slowly building trust and loyalty⁸.

Markley, whose gray hair is visible under his camouflage cap, says he fell in love with raptors as a kid.

Like a lot of children of his generation, he read the classic novel My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, about a boy who lives in the wild with a falcon. He dreamed of having a bird of his own, and then one day he got his chance.

"A local farmer came by one day, I was probably 12, and he had a hawk⁹ in a box," Markley says. The bird had fallen out of a tree nest. "My mother drove me into the Augusta public library, and I got the one falconry book that they had and figured out how to keep this bird alive."

He hunted with that first raptor for three years and was hooked. Decades later, he's rated a master falconer.

Will she stay or will she go?

Storm, his latest raptor, is beautiful in a dangerous way. She's his only bird right now.

As Markley prepares for their training hunt, she wears a leather hood¹⁰ over her head and eyes to keep her calm.

She's a born hunter. Her coloration is perfect camouflage. Her wings are the color of dry grass and tree bark. The delicate feathers on her chest are cream-white. Her curved beak¹¹ and talons¹² are like polished blades.

When falcons¹³ strike their prey, Markley says, they punch them with their feet or hit them with their breast bone.

At this stage of Storm's bonding process, each flight is an experiment. It's not a sure thing she'll come back. "There's birds I thought I had it all dialed in," he says, shaking his head. "They take off, you never see it again. It's over, just that fast."

Markley, who's in his fifties now, is my cousin, though we haven't seen each other since we were little boys.

When he heard I was visiting Kansas, he invited me to join him and Storm. He loads her into his pickup¹⁴ truck, and we set out on winding¹⁵ country roads looking for a good place to fly.

Building trust one flight at a time

The day is cold and windswept and the Kansas horizon looks incredibly remote.

Markley says the process of building a bond with a wild raptor is delicate. At first, the birds are furious and terrified. "The first few hours to three days are pandemonium," he says. "Then once they eat that first meal [out of your hand] they start building a little trust. Then by day three or four, they're jumping on your fist for food."

We park the pickup and set off across a stubbled field. There's a frozen pond in the distance. Clouds scud¹⁶ across the vast pearl blue sky.

It's a nervous moment as Markley slips off Storm's hood and releases the jesses that tie her to his glove.

"Hey girl," he says softly. Then he gestures gently sending her up into the wind. Storm shrieks¹⁷ and climbs fast. "She's probably 400 or 500 feet right now," Markley says.

He lets her prowl the sky for a bit, then releases a domestic pheasant for her to hunt. This is the test — will Storm hunt with Markley or fly away?

He runs forward across the field, calling out to direct the falcon toward the prey. Storm responds, darting¹⁸ down out of the sky. There's a quick strike, a violent tussle¹⁹ on the ground and the pheasant falls dead.

This time it works, Storm decides to stay. After a little coaxing by Markley, she settles and waits for us, perched patiently on her prey.

"You know, there's really no tether other than that trust," Markley says.

A raptor that escapes from a falconer just goes back to being wild. It happens all the time, Markley says.

But he's clearly relieved. He sits next to Storm in the grass grinning as she shrieks. "You're a fuss-bucket this morning," Markley says fondly, rewarding her with little bits of pheasant meat.

If their bonding continues and deepens, Markley and Storm will be together for a long time, hunting the Kansas plains for a decade or more.

1 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

2 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

5 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

6 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

7 coaxing   

v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应

参考例句：

• No amount of coaxing will make me change my mind. 任你费尽口舌也不会说服我改变主意。
• It took a lot of coaxing before he agreed. 劝说了很久他才同意。 来自辞典例句

8 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

9 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

10 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

11 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

12 talons   

n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部

参考例句：

• The fingers were curved like talons, but they closed on empty air. 他的指头弯得像鹰爪一样，可是抓了个空。 来自英汉文学 - 热爱生命
• The tiger has a pair of talons. 老虎有一对利爪。 来自辞典例句

13 falcons   

n.猎鹰( falcon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Peregrine falcons usually pluck the feathers and strip the flesh off their bird prey. 游隼捕到鸟类猎物时，通常是先拔掉它们的羽毛，再把肉撕下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Though he doubted the wisdom of using falcons, Dr. de la Fuente undertook the project. 虽然德·拉·富恩特博士怀疑使用游隼是否明智，但他还是执行了这项计划。 来自辞典例句

14 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

15 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

16 scud   

n.疾行；v.疾行

参考例句：

• The helpers came in a scud.救援者飞奔而来。
• Rabbits scud across the turf.兔子飞快地穿过草地。

17 shrieks   

n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• shrieks of fiendish laughter 恶魔般的尖笑声
• For years, from newspapers, broadcasts, the stages and at meetings, we had heard nothing but grandiloquent rhetoric delivered with shouts and shrieks that deafened the ears. 多少年来， 报纸上， 广播里， 舞台上， 会场上的声嘶力竭，装腔做态的高调搞得我们震耳欲聋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 darting   

v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• Swallows were darting through the clouds. 燕子穿云急飞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Swallows were darting through the air. 燕子在空中掠过。 来自辞典例句

19 tussle   

n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩

参考例句：

• They began to tussle with each other for the handgun.他们互相扭打起来，抢夺那支手枪。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。