American Falconer, Bruce Haak

Bruce Haak ( pronounced Hawk ) inspired my interest to meet him through his writing.

Sometime back I had purchased an old back issue of a NAFA Journal and found the eloquent writing of Bruce Haak in his article entitled “Kudos For Kudo”.

This article had stuck in my mind, so some years later when Bruce published his first book ‘The Hunting Falcon’, I began to feel we would get along real fine.

I managed a day and a meal with Bruce and his wife on my first visit to America in 1995. When I returned in 1997 it was already planned for Bruce and I to go on our first Idaho state hawking trip. Where we hawked and travelled across the state and into Wyoming, visiting friends along the way. So enjoyable was this trip we repeated it again in 1999.

Bruce is a non-game biologist working for the State Fish and Game department. Well, he calls it work, but some of the tales he relates to me of his working day sounds more like the sort of things I like to do on vacation.

In his spare time, Bruce has produced some fine falcons from his domestic breeding chambers. In this picture Bruce is holding one of a cast of Anatum peregrines ( Moxie and Mocha ) , that he produced and flew from 1997 onwards.

Bruce is a fine example of a perfectionist falconer, always striving for the superb flight. He is great company, be it on a road trip, sitting in a hawk blind or enjoying and comparing the fine qualities of real ale.