"The Widmeier Collection at The Archives of Falconry encompasses several hundred items including original sketches, paintings, diaries, manuscripts, photo albums and equipment. The story of how this unusual collection remained intact starts with Widmeier himself who diligently mailed his works from India, to his falconer-friend Minard Stevens who preserved them. Steven’s falconry apprentice Kent Carnie would go on to found The Archives of Falconry and acquire the Widmeier Collection decades later."
The exchange of falconry knowledge from East to West occurred across millennia, yet this trend became increasingly vital as the looming Industrial Age threatened to render the sport's ancient traditions obsolete. Two such cultural exchanges stand out in the 20th Century: the Craighead brothers' trip to India in 1940 – 41 (see: "Life with an Indian Prince," published in 2001 by The Archives of Falconry), and Robert Widmeier’s Army service in India in 1942 - 44.
Robert A. Widmeier (1923 - 1979) was a key figure in the establishment and successful practice of falconry in North America, although his contributions and story remain relatively obscure.
Serving in Army Public Affairs during the U.S. military's development of the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater in World War II, Widmeier somehow convinced his superiors that becoming a full-time falconer amidst his Indian hawking companions would be a strategic public affairs mission. Amazingly, they agreed.
During his tour of duty, Widmeier detailed Indian falconry in pen, ink, pencil, and paint, describing the sport's equipment, birds, the falconers, and the hunt as he saw them, creating an important record of a previously unbroken tradition on the brink of abolition.
Hanging by a Thread
Widmeier's time in India was significant amidst the story of falconry in the contemporary West
As the practice of falconry in the West fell into obscurity with the rising Industrial Age, falconry now hung by a thread in a handful of available books. But aspiring falconers soon discovered ancient texts had limited value without some real-world, visual experiences to illuminate their often puzzling messages.
E arly U.S falconers certainly had British falconry books of the 19th Century, but falconry in the United Kingdom itself was struggling to revive in fits and starts. The classic ringing flight of a peregrine on heron was gone and the goshawk was extinct (from the British Isles). The falcon trapping expertise of the Dutch Mollen family had disappeared with the death of Karel Mollen in 1935, leaving U.S. falconers with even less connection to ancient masters.
Direct Line to the Golden Age
THE 13th Century was arguably the Golden Age of global falconry. This dynamic era saw the convergence of three Empires that famously celebrated falconry: the Holy Roman Empire under King Frederick II in the West, the Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East (the latter Islamic Golden Age), and the explosive spread of the Mongol Empire from the East. By the 16th Century, falconry began slipping in the West. The emerging firearm and Protestant Reformation played a role. But the traditions of falconry within the Islamic and Mongol Empires lived on within a new force rising in the Indian subcontinent – The Mughal Dynasty. Although the Mughal Empire was an Islamic government, its cosmopolitan lineage traced to Genghis Khan and a melting pot of influences from Persia to Central Asia – falconry’s cradle.
THE expansion of the Mughal Empire into the Indian sub-continent is often attributed to its most celebrated leader, the falconer, Akbar the Great. Akbar was an extraordinary statesman and a master falconer often depicted with a haggard goshawk. When Robert Widmeier made contact with Indian falconry, like the Craigheads, he was rubbing shoulders with Akbar’s descendants and their unbroken lineage of falconry masters. Just a handful of years later, the Indian Partition of 1947 saw the end of the Raj and falconry in India. Widmeier returned to the U.S. following his service, and injected a treasure-trove of new information to a fledgling falconry community.
Enjoy this personal account of Widmeier’s rich experience documented through his own words, photographs, and art
The Birds
“Of the shortwings, the Goshawk is difficult to get as usual, and not so easily trained. I had a male last winter; they are prettily colored. The female is sold at a hundred dollars and over, depending on her condition. She is used mostly on large quarry, so the male is the better to keep around, as he will tackle most anything that you might see in a day in the field.”
The Tools
“Falcons and hawks are carried on a three finger glove to give the bird purchase on the hand as well as to save the falconer carrying the bird from obtaining minor lacerations. As sometimes they will grip unintentionally and forget to ease the pressure. Especially with the big Goshawks who kill with the pressure of their feet.”
A Day in the Life
“The falconers of India whose acquaintance through the two years I spent In India have been falconers all their lives and the secrets were passed on down from one generation to another, and so the training and handling of the birds remains the same for how many years I cannot say, but the service rendered from their pupils trained is sufficient proof of their prowess.”
“ The Indians have many trapping tricks up their sleeves, and many a time when we were out for a dayʼs hawking we would come back with a new addition due to the foresight of one of the falconers having in his possession, at the opportune time, equipment for trapping. While flying trained falcons at quarry a great majority of the time wild falcons would come up attracted by our birds and try to chase the intruders away from its domain. So often we were aided with our trained birds to trapping a nice Shaheen or peregrine.”
Trapping, Manning and Training
“Indians train their birds as fast as they can in order to get enough sport from them. An Indian trained a Luggar in less than ten days. Six days after trapping, the Luggar was entered and flying nicely to the lure, stooping both up and down wind, much to the surprise of an Englishman who had a Peregrine he had been training for almost six months, and as yet had hardly put her on the wing.”
Hawking
“There are many different species of falcons and hawks trained, and each species is trained at different types of quarry…The falcons are used in connection with high flying prey, and just about always the flight is followed on horseback to keep the flight and falcons in sight as the distance they cover could never be followed by man on foot except with the type of flights involving other types of game.”
“My newly trained Shaheen had taken a couple brace of duck when on a field jaunt accompanied by my friend Prince Durrannt, an Afghan Prince who hawked with me, [we] saw what looked like ducks in the water of a pot hole some distance away.
“I slipped the leash from the falcon and, unhooding her, put her into the air. She at once flew down wind almost out of sight and slowly came around in a wide circle gaining altitude with fast powerful strokes of her long wings. She made a circle of over a mile in diameter and was about 500 to 600 feet off the ground. She came by overhead, and her bells were ringing as she whizzed by still flying in a wide circle as we walked toward the sitting birds in the water. She kept gaining altitude until she was almost the size of a swallow in the air. By this time, we were within a short distance of the pot hole. While I watched the falcon, Durranni picked up some rocks to dislodge the birds from the water.”
“When the falcon was coming our way high overhead I started to shout to attract her attention, and Durranni and I started to shower rocks at the birds out in the water. Much to our surprise, they started to honk as they slowly took to the air. They were not ducks as we expected, but geese!
“The Shaheen came down in a long powerful stoop, picking up speed till she became an indistinct blur. The geese were well on the wing and honking away downwind. I tried to keep my eyes on the falcon and geese at the same time but couldn’t. The falcon came down, and her wings were whistling and shrieking from the wind passing through the feathers. With a thud she hit one of the geese, and a cloud of feathers spewed forth . . .
“I believe at the last second she must have seen the mistake also, as she lessened her speed; but the whack she landed the goose with would have knocked a duck to the ground dead or crippled. But the goose merely slackened her flight. The falcon, after hitting her with a thump, started to ring up again to a much lower ‘pitch,’ and the following stoop lacked the power and punch of the former stoop. So, after a couple passes at this large bird outweighing her quite a few times, she just tailed it for several hundred yards and then came back flying low. I called her in to the lure and took her up quite pleased that she’d even tackle a goose without being entered to that large quarry. I have heard of geese being taken with small falcons, but that was the first time it had ever been displayed before me. Even though the goose did get away, the flight alone proved more thrilling than just the thought of having a goose in the hunting bag.
“I later lost this falcon after a very entertaining season with her on duck while flying her at hard fast flying blue rock pigeons. The season was at a close, so she had earned her liberty, but with her she took a good pair of falcon bells!”
Returning Home
W hen Widmeier returned to the U.S., organized falconry in North America was a tiny corps facing a challenging journey. It was not a revival as seen in 19th and 20th Century Great Britain, where a few living masters could demonstrate the innumerable essentials that cannot be gleaned from books. For New World falconers, practicing “real falconry” was a daunting mystery especially in the realm of successful gamehawking. Decades later, masters of trapping, manning, and hawking emerged throughout North America seemingly out of a vacuum.
But upon closer inspection, this modern falconry Renaissance owes at least part of its rapid ascendance to key moments of cultural exchange by a handful of adventurous Americans. Widmeier remains a relatively obscure character in North American falconry history, yet his experiences and dutiful documentation through notes and art are remarkable in retrospect.
In only two years, he achieved great success in gamehawking multiple species on a myriad of quarries – a feat that would have stunned onlookers at any American falconry meet even two or three decades later.
Widmeier’s careful notes, sketches, and paintings are fascinating in their own right, but in a broader context, the Widmeier Collection represents the East-to-West movement of falconry knowledge across millenia. A phenomenon that speaks to falconer’s desire to seek, acquire, and preserve this ancient connection to nature.