Joseph Pravongviengkham entering the greatest stage in falconry, with Ryan Grisco alongside.

45 years of high flying, hard hitting falcons showing their prowess in a pomp & circumstance celebration of season’s end. “Gerald Richards had a vision when he imagined a competition for falconers to showcase their falcons’ skills at the end of a hawking season” posits Patrick Shane as he takes the mic, opening the awards ceremony following the 45th Annual Utah Sky Trials.

A fitting sentiment, touching on the sense of new beginnings that manifested in the form of this year’s event. I felt it, from the moment we crested Five Mile Pass and the sweeping panorama of Rush Valley lanced a shiver of anticipation throughout my soul. To the moment of yanking the e-brake as we parked, the rising sun igniting the fog, a golden aurora enveloping the growing line of four-wheel-drive vehicles setting the stage for the battle of champion falcons.

My arrival as a spectator marked my second year of attendance, it also marked the revival of one 1986 Isuzu Trooper, an iconic falconry vehicle in the American west that Robert Bagley of Marshall Radio Telemetry had entrusted my wife and I with the restoration of. Dragged out of his barn by Darryl Peterson after nearly a decade of sitting, with two flat tires, abundant rust, a heart who’s penchant for life was unknown but whose bowels supported the life of numerous field mice, I envisioned the moment the hawk box still in the back would sport a falcon riding once again into the arena of the sky trials. Just months before the trials, with certificate of title showing Robert’s original ownership in hand and a vision in mind, my wife and I set to work.

Last year right around the same time I remember thinking to myself, “there should be a falconry based podcast.” I distinctly remember thinking, “I’m sure hundreds of falconers have had this same thought, there’s probably a reason why nobody has done it.” Then I drove to Guitar Center and started buying recording equipment. You see, that thought was the only trigger I needed. I knew if a lot of people had considered an idea, then there was merit to it. I did not care if it had been done before or not, but the fact that I didn’t know of a falconry podcast, told me one should exist. That thought turned into a life-changing series of relationships with so many talented, experienced, and insightful falconers, all of whom I now consider my friends. Those relationships turned into opportunities, and that’s where this starts to tie together. Riding on the hawk & dog box in the back of Robert Bagley’s restored Isuzu Trooper was a falcon bred by Steve Jensen.

The second podcast we recorded was with Steve Chindgren, I’m sure most of you are familiar with it. It was my first time meeting Chindgren, whom I had long considered and now am more sure of in my consideration as one of the greatest falconers of all time. Besides being an exceptional game-hawker and 6 time Sky Trials champion, Steve gets a lot of credit for the popularization of captive breeding with his classic film, “The Backyard Falcon Breeder.” Though he stopped breeding falcons 13 years ago, with the final bird he produced being Zander (flying yet again in this year’s competition with a string of trophies under his belt), Steve’s project and dealings had produced a lot of birds, and procured a lot of favors amongst prevalent breeders of the last few decades. One breeder’s project whom Chindgren had given a gyrfalcon to years ago was his friend Steve Jensen.

It was a common practice amongst breeders to transfer birds to each other, perhaps in exchange for one of the offspring produced by it down the road. Let’s just say Steve Chindgren is “owed” a lot of birds. Fate works in mysterious ways, and tragedy enters this story. Steve Jensen, a rugged figure with a larger-than-life persona, would be struck with a life-altering health crisis, which many of you as his friends are well aware of. A horrifying topic, I’ll keep it brief by summarizing that at one point, the doctor’s had told his wife to prepare for a funeral, though perhaps in more diplomatic wording. Tragedies are not known for their good timing, and with a project in full swing with young falcons hatching, Jensen’s wife was in a tough position taking care of everything on the ranch as well as her spouse in the hospital fighting for his very life. Favors were needed, the young falcons needed to go to new homes to wind things down and free things up for the Jensens. Flying three high-caliber game hawks, gyr-peregrine hybrids each, Chindgren was not wanting of another bird, but through conversations with me he’d learned of my dream to fly a gyr on Sage Grouse.

So it was with a heart clouded in a mix of emotions that I affixed anklets to a young gyrkin cast by Steve Chindgren outside of the chambers on Jensen’s ranch. Into my possession was being transferred a beautiful falcon from a man on his death bed that I had yet to meet, by way of his wife who was fighting to keep everything together. The whole situation was surreal. Steve Chindgren tearing up over the condition of his old friend. Me not knowing him but feeling both awful for him and his family, yet overjoyed at the glorious beauty and raw potential of the new charge now sporting a Tait hood on my fist. Standing with my dreams literally in my hands, outside of a breeding chamber being locked back up by a broken but tough woman on her way to her husband in the hospital, where she’d spent so much time and would continue to frequent for the past and coming months. How was I supposed to feel?

Steve Jensen is one tough hombre. There was not just life, there was power in his grip as we shook hands amidst the circle of camp trailers at Grouse Camp in Wyoming. Here was a man still recovering, hundreds of miles from home where he towed his Airstream to one of his favorite places, grouse camp, sharing the company of lifelong friends and game-hawkers. The smile that lit his rugged features will never leave my memory as we flipped open Steve’s truck-bed shell to reveal the 7/8th white gyrkin he’d charged me with; in good health, fresh off of several attempts at grouse, life’s not a movie but in that moment, it sure felt like one!

I was torn, I wished I were entering the Sky Trials with Steve Jensen here in attendance! But over the phone just weeks before the trials, he’d conveyed pride in our accomplishments having flown so many days of the season and being well on our way down the path of producing a successful grouse hawk in the coming years. You see, as most long-wingers will tell you, gyrs are a highly intelligent falcon with incessant prey-drive and a booming personality; slow to mature and often slow to develop consistency. So despite flying 5 days a week for an entire season, what he will do when he leaves the fist remained a bit of a mystery in the weeks prior to Sky Trials signups, though what he did was nearly always one heck of a party! A relentless flyer, Simo is sub-six minutes to the drone at its maximum height, which I’ll not mention for legal self-incrimination reasons. The point where he’d break off a homer, despite being outflown by so many, is measured in miles. In fact, Darryl Peterson is laying the groundwork for middle-eastern style falcon races herein the United States using my gyrkin’s sister, talk about an inspiring wingbeat! Though he was reliable in terms of circling back, the question of each day was how can we get a higher pitch out of this bird… Gyrfalcon flyers the world over know the challenge I am embarked on as a new long-winger.

Employing so many techniques, tips and tricks, ideas shared by so many experienced falconers, as I said before I believe we’re well on our way. In order to not meet the famous gyrfalcon “short-career-syndrome”, if I wanted to hawk grouse with any semblance of safety, Simo needed to fly high, every time. Sky Trials were never a consideration, it’s producing a bird that will take game from a stoop, not a tail-chase, that will best prevent Simo from being killed by an eagle after a miles-long tail-chase, as has happened to so many others… that’s the quest I’m on. On the phone with Steve Jensen weeks ago, we agreed he’d done well this season, and a fresh start the following would be the best approach “just make sure you bring him to the Sky Trials regardless, I want to see my bird again…” he concluded. Season effectively over, I would shift all of my attention to the vintage turbodiesel Trooper now taking residency on my driveway.

I worked tirelessly for several weeks on the Trooper in every spare moment. We cut out rusted sections of metal, replacing it with carbon-fiber, we traded moldy canvas interior trim with tooled Argentinian leather. From bringing the motor back to life, to painting, giving it a premium sound system where no sound system existed prior, to modifying Robert’s old aluminum hawk & dog box to fit our two setters. I worked on the Trooper in the driveway through five snowstorms. The thought of a grand reveal for Robert ever on my mind.

With diesel engine purring and freshly polished wheels shining, surprising Robert outside of his office was a moment I’ll never forget. I think it may have jerked a tear to his eye, “if only you knew all of the adventures I had with my young family in this vehicle, all of the falconry its seen, I’m so glad to see the legacy of it is in good hands” he said. Then we drove it to Wyoming for the last few days hawking with Steve Chindgren of the season, and did so on 33 miles per gallon, something we could only ever dream of in our Land Rovers!

Speaking of which we had spent a lot of money on fuel driving to and from the House of Grouse in our Land Rover over the course of the season. Yeah, we spent a lot of blessed time out there in the high desert. Our friendship with Steve Chindgren and so many of his friends had grown so much, I feel connected to the House of Grouse, and to DC, Badger, and Zander, his expert game-hawks. I am so much more familiar with Steve’s story and his passionate love for falconry. I’ve watched respectfully from a short distance away as he stood over his legendary falcon Jomo’s grave atop a windswept vista overlooking the domain of the Mighty Wind River mountains. So many yards off a meandering two-track through the hills, a spiritual connection must lead Steve back to this precise location each time he comes, as the only marker is a small slab set flush to the earth, not visible from anywhere but standing directly over it, amidst millions of acres of sage laden desert.

Thankfully, as he’d arranged for my acquisition of Simo, Steve seemed to have taken some responsibility for helping a young, hapless falconer on his mission to produce a game-hawk out of it, and he worked with my bird and I for much of the season, working our daily flights in with his own hawking. Meanwhile, with TJ his senior English Pointer of many seasons having passed away leaving the reigns to Scotch, there was a time-slot freed up for other dogs to be run each day. Our Gordon Setter and Llewellin Setter happily filled this slot, much to Steve’s chagrin… Yet subtle delight, as watching two young setters bumbling around the desert discovering their noses and instincts is sure to melt even the most stony of setter loathing hearts. My wife proudly tells Steve’s friends that he once said our Setters were “perfect” though nobody believes he said it and Steve will request the context when he hears the claim himself. Neither of our dogs, both of fine breeding as far as setters go, had been hunted prior to this season. Of course, that meant my dream was now more complex, yet Steve put it succinctly, “next year Israel, you’re going to take a grouse over a point by those setters with Simo.” One can dream right? The main problem according to Steve was we insisted on running two inexperienced dogs together. We wanted “King” our puppy Llewellin, to learn to point and honor Kai, our 2 year old Gordon, who was already ahead of him in terms of most things in life. They’d both eventually point grouse, though King would usually barge in and mess things up. Steve said he was “slightly weetodded.”

Which is all to say, I’m there at the 2020 Sky Trials mentally, emotionally, and spiritually invested in Steve’s falcons’ performance. DC, Badger, and Zander carrying so much legacy, are my chosen competitors in this event. Reading this may be the first Steve learns of this, but everyone else there in the audience besides my wife and I are rooting against him and his falcons. The returning champ is the one to beat. Despite so many experienced and talented falconers flying great falcons, nearly everyone is an underdog to the man who’s all but swept the competition for the past several years in a row. When it’s his turn to fly, I follow their progress effortlessly, my eyes now trained to their manner of flight, to their style, to their technique. Interestingly, that fog I had mentioned earlier had stripped one of several potential challengers from the competition. The first flight of the morning saw said bird easily climb to 1,300 feet, the highest flight of the event, before disappearing into the fog, and then getting lost therein and remaining on the wing for an hour, traveling miles away. This disqualified the bird and delayed things. So while Ed Pitcher and Steve Chindgren had been counting on their later flights being in peak thermal time, which Kenley Christiansen’s Everett employed in a stellar flight, they missed the window and flew hungrier birds as well, disadvantaging them in more ways than one. You can never predict what will happen at the Sky Trials.

With 18 falcons being flown, the first day went much later than anticipated and it was a group of exhausted falconers and fans sharing Ricardo and Annete Velarde’s outrageously good stew at the annual Marshall Radio Soup Night dinner.

4am finds us back in the Trooper and on the road to the mountain fringed coliseum that is the Utah Sky Trial’s field, I, like everyone else in the ever larger crowd assembling, was excited to watch the ten finalists duke it out. Expecting a show, a show is what we got. Ryan Grisco, fresh off of winning the California Sky Trials, was once again perplexed with his falcon’s new odd behavior. A bizarre, repetitive, kestrel-like hover when approaching 800 feet… “He’s never done this before, yesterday we thought it was trying to straighten a bent alula feather, but doing it again today I don’t know if it’s seizures or what?!” He’d say in conversation with Vahe D’Ala, Arnaud Van Wettere, and the famous breeder of the hybrid himself, Dave Jamison. Either way, despite a valiant effort, it would eliminate him the second day. However, Jon Taylor flying the same falcon Ryan flew the previous year would clinch third with another excellent flight, a dazzling stoop on the homers awarding it the necessary points to edge out Zander, who’s hesitation on stooping the pigeons knocked him down a few places. Of course as you can imagine this behavior from the several time champ would frustrate Chindgren, who wrote it off to anyone that would listen as being “because I never ever serve him pigeons, he’s a Sage Grouse hawk, the only time he sees pigeons is once a year at the Sky Trials!”

The mark of a true competitor, two trophies for first and second place is not enough for Steve, who like most of us is so proud of his falcons. As he stood to accept his trophies from a beaming Patrick Shane, Björn Eilers the guest-speaker from Germany and longtime friend of Steve would jest, “you can smile now Steve!” and he did.

Patrick Shane, Steve Chindgren, and Björn Eilers. Photo courtesy of Björn Eilers.

Following the Sky Trials, when the last competitor has flown, there are often “demo” flights as they’re called. Last year Arnaud stooped a merlin to a lure, and again this year Jeff Broadbent would fly his wild Alaskan taken gyrfalcon. Standing there by the Trooper talking with Steve Jensen, I had a little something up my sleeve. Despite having already begun fattening up Simo for the molt, I knew the range at which he’d aggressively pursue the drone was, as yet, unlimited. “Have you seen any of this breeding fly yet?” I asked casually. “No, not at all, one sibling was lost the first week the guy had it, as happens to a lot of gyrkins, Darryl has been training his female for the races but I haven’t seen that, and I’m not sure what the other guy has done with his” Jensen replied. “Hey Zane, do we have the drone in the back of your truck? Should we show Steve what this bird can do?” I inquired with a smile. Steve was excited, I could see a smile tugging at his mustachioed features.

I’ve never bred a falcon. But our Gordon Setter is about to have our first litter of Gordon x Llewellin puppies, and the anticipation is giving me a sense of the pride and joy a falconer must take in the offspring of their project. Mere moments before, Steve had been telling us how the doctors had told him he wasn’t expected to live much longer, less than a year ago. As Montana struck the hood and opened Rush Valley up before Simo’s obsidian eyes, I watched Steve. I knew the kinetic energy that was about to be unleashed on this now empty valley would delight him. With the familiar sound of the drone faintly heard from a speck nearly invisible in the heavens, Simo would explode, leaving the fist like he always does, like the world is his, and we’re just living in it. The twinkle in Steve’s eye will brighten the memory of this moment forever. Together we watched a gyrkin climb with the zeal and joy that only life can bring, and together we appreciated watching life being lived to the fullest.

iPhone shot of Steve Jensen holding the gyrkin he bred, sharing wisdom with young falconers eager to learn.

After Steve had left, we decided to run Kai and King before heading to the banquet/raffle/awards ceremony. Zane mentioned that he’d seen someone’s quail escape earlier that day, and he’d never had the chance to see Kai and King working together. With zero expectation of the quail still being out in the prairie where they’d flown, or maybe zero expectation of our setters who’ve never hunted quail finding them, and little expectation of King, the young “weetodded” Llewellin doing his job, I told Zane to walk them out in the direction he’d seen the quail go. When I looked up from the Trooper where we were loading up camera gear, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Zane had his phone out, Kai, 55 days pregnant, was locked in on a gorgeous point, tail set in a high arch like her mother, Ruby, owned by Caleb Stroh. But it was King that shocked me, according to Zane he hadn’t found the quail, but when Kai went on point, he moved in, caught the scent, and honored the point, holding it long enough for me to walk out. At which point he actually dropped back to move in from a different angle, still respecting Kai. I wasn’t seeing a “weetodded” puppy, I was beholding a proper setter. I’m new to all of this, I’ll admit, whatever buck fever is for dog guys, I had that. I was almost shaky with adrenaline. I’d seen Caleb’s Gordons do all of this a hundred times on so many different types of game… But my own dogs? This Llewellin who I didn’t have high hopes for? Who I’d picked up at 4 months old as a, insecure, goofball of a puppy? Who I’d been running all season out in Wyoming seeing him mess up so many of Kai’s efforts? When Zane flushed the quail I was overjoyed. Between Steve Jensen getting to watching the gyrkin he’d made fly, after things had been so grim for him when he’d passed it to me, to this?! For me, was the perfect ending of the season. The Utah Sky Trials that had faltered for a while after so many years of excellence, was blooming yet again as so many individuals from Shayne Clark, Patrick Shane, Kenley Christiansen, Spencer Bennett and the Utah Falconer’s Association and so many others, this year I saw the glimmer of a new beginning.

Photo of both Setters pointing the escaped quail, courtesy of Zane Muhlestein.

The Utah Sky Trials are in good hands. Steve Chindgren is champion again. My setters have shown promise of being a good team, and I hadn’t left the field before telling a healthy Steve Jensen he’d watch his gyrkin take a grouse in Wyoming next fall. He said the Falconry Told patch would be on the wall in his Airstream. I can’t wait to see what next season holds.

By the way, Steve Chindgren drew a winner for the Cosmic Falcon Patch book giveaway, thank you all for participating… Lots of good podcasts coming up!

All photos taken by Israel & Montana Matson, unless otherwise stated. Video by Zane Muhlestein coming soon.