Falconer Jon Clarkson Brings Birds of Prey Shows to Holiday Valley
Falconer Jon Clarkson Brings Birds of Prey Shows to Holiday Valley
Colden native and American Hawkeye School of Falconry owner Jon Clarkson shares his lifelong passion for birds of prey and returns to Holiday Valley with free public demonstrations.
Of all the “cool” jobs out there, falconer might top the list. It is all in a day’s work for Jonathan “Jon” Clarkson, owner of Ellicottville-based American Hawkeye School of Falconry. The Colden native got his start caring for birds of prey as a young child and later turned his passion into a business and full-fledged career. EllicottvilleNOW caught up with Clarkson for the scoop on his birds of prey experiences, pest control services, and upcoming events.
“So I am a falconer, and we do experiences with birds of prey,” Jon said by way of phone interview. “Holiday Valley has a cabin at Spruce Lake, and we offer several different experiences,” he shared. “On our website you can book with us. The two most popular experiences that people book are what we call the Hawk Walk; what we do is we go up to the cabin, we meet and greet, teach people about falconry, the history about some of the species of birds that we use, how they survive in the wild, how we train them, and then we head off into the woods and do a hike with the birds so people can handle them, and fly to the glove,” he said.
“The Owl Encounter is probably our next most popular, [which is] kind of the same thing but with owls. We do that in the evening time,” he continued. Clarkson also offers family experiences which allow for families to book at a discounted rate. Additionally, American Hawkeye offers experiences for corporate clients, like retreats and teambuilding events with the birds.
“Another thing we do is abatement, so like a pest control service,” Clarkson continued. “We chase seagulls, geese - any kind of nuisance birds you can think of; many resorts and golf courses will hire us.”
When asked how he got into falconry, Clarkson recalls when he received his first hawk at the age of six. “I’ve been doing it most of my life - I was young when I got my first falcon,” he recounted. “I was a small child [when] my grandparents found an injured falcon and brought it home.” Jon added that he was always bringing all kind of animals home from the wild.
“My mom would help me fix them up, and sometimes I would keep them. They brought home a Kestral, which was a small falcon, and we healed her, and I knew somehow that people used birds of prey to train them for some reason, so my mother took me to the library and found an old medieval book on falconry,” he shared. “I couldn’t even read at the time, so she would read about how to train hawks and falcons. She would tell me what they were doing, and that’s kind of how I trained my first falcon.”
In terms of formal training, Jon said that the requirements are strict in New York State. “Most of the states in the U.S. have strict rules and regulations [because] birds of prey are protected,” he shared. “We didn’t find out until a couple years later that you need to be 14 in New York to become a licensed falconer, and so yeah, there are quite a few steps.” Clarkson indicated that there is a written test, followed by two years of apprenticeship under the tutelage of a sponsor, building a facility, having it inspected, and catching your first hawk in the wild. “If you worked really hard, starting today, it would probably take a year of planning until you get your first bird,” he said.
Clarkson keeps eight birds at the moment and says that he would keep no more than twelve at a time. “I’ve got our newest falcon; it is a peregrine falcon, and my kids named him “The Dude” from a kid’s show. We have Lenny and Boo, one of our owls; Ringo, he’s another one of our owls; we have Nakita, Mischa; those are Harris's hawks,” he shared.
On select Sundays, Clarkson does a free demonstration open to the public at Holiday Valley. “We lease the cabin there, and we do free demonstrations for the public on Sundays, and that is how I work out my lease with them. They allow me to use the cabin, so it is kind of like my payment. I keep the pigeons off the property, and we do some free demonstrations for the public.
“Holiday Valley has been awesome to us,” said Clarkson. “When my kids were younger and I was getting started back here - I’m from New York originally and lived in Utah - when we moved back, we were trying to find a place for our business, and Holiday Valley has been great. It is like the perfect place to do this; they allow us to work with our birds up there, and it is really pretty up there, and the trails are great for hiking,” he continued. “We haven’t done these shows in quite some time because I was mostly concentrating on the pest control aspect. We’re really busy this time of year chasing geese and seagulls, and it’s really long days. I wanted to get back to working with the public again and being outdoors, so we are back at Holiday Valley again this summer. It has been really cool to be there.”
Catch Clarkson and his birds of prey in action at a family-friendly demonstration this coming Sunday, August 23 at 2:00pm at Spruce Lake at Holiday Valley. Admission is free and donations are welcome. For additional information, visit holidayvalley.com andamericanhawkeye.com or call Jonathan Clarkson direct at 716-949-9221.