“You are never master of the hawk; the falconer is the servant of the hawk.”

That's the conclusion of Ohio's acknowledged godfather of the state's 65 licensed falconers, John Blakeman of Huron, after 40 years of dealing with raptors. He's among a handful of falconers in northwest Ohio who are continuing a practice that dates back at least 4,000 years in which a hawk or falcon is captured and trained to become the falconer's hunting weapon, exerting its superlative natural killing abilities to the service of its captor.

But like the desert sheiks in pre-Christian times who wanted to hunt with raptors, the modern falconer must fi rst succeed in a test of wills between himself and a hostile bird.

“There's no affection at all,” said Michael Stewart of Wood County. Th e heating and air-conditioning specialist has kept a series of red-tailed hawks since 1998. “The bird tolerates you.”

Daily repetition focuses on training a newly captured bird to “hop the fist,” to step on the falconer's gloved hand and accept food. Learning that the falconer is the source of food, the bird gradually accepts the tethers, hood, and bells that accompany captivity and learns to respond to a call. The falconer prepares the bird to hunt by building up its strength, lengthening the distance and angle of short flights.

The falconer is also learning. Ohio and Michigan both require a two-year apprenticeship under a master falconer. The state inspects areas where a bird will be kept — an indoor and outdoor facility are required. A written test is administered. If all requirements are met, the state issues a license that allows the new falconer to trap an immature bird. These are birds that are adult sized, but have not found a territory to claim. Naturalists say that left in the wild, 60 to 80 percent of these adolescent birds die.

Mr. Blakeman estimated the initial cost of facilities and equipment is about $1,000. Th ere are ongoing costs of food and veterinary care.

It will take a month of training every day to ready a hawk to hunt and return to the falconer, and maintenance exercise is practiced every day for as long as the bird remains with the falconer.

The payoff for the falconer is not whatever his bird kills, but the privilege of being part of the bird's hunt.

“You hunt to watch the flight — a 2,000-foot dive, a 100-yard chase. There's nothing like it,” Mr. Blakeman said.

“There are very, very, very few people who can say they've been in the presence of a red-tailed hawk which is hunting,” explained Mr. Stewart. “It's what real hunting is about.”

There is a challenge for the falconer of controlling an animal that is never really tame.

Mr. Stewart keeps hawks he has trained for about two years and then releases them.

“In less than a week, they are completely wild again,” he said.

First Published January 8, 2011, 11:47 p.m.