Just curious, but is anyone here a falconer?  I have done a little research on the sport to see what it is like.  When I was six, I read My Side Of The Mountain and loved the falcon.  I just wanted to get first hand information.

I'm not, but this is a subject that has always interested me as well.  

I don't know where I saw it, but falconry is alive and well in America.  There is an association and there are regulations guiding the use of falcons for hunting upland game.  some googling should come up with something.

I went to a falconry demonstration this past summer. I did learn you have to be licensed to own a bird. I beleive it is a pretty hard process as there are not that many folks licensed. Keeping a bird seemed rather demanding. It is a fascinating sport and the birds are amazing. Everything the birds do is based on feeding. If the bird is full it will not respond or hunt. In the old days the birds were trained to hunt game and the falconer would trade smaller bits of food for the birds prey (something like that). Different types of hawks were or are used in different ways.

Check the below link, it has alot of good info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry