In the skies above the Grouse Woods at Red Gate Farm, hawks soar.
These woods, adjacent to the Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm, are the home of Monadnock Falconry in Temple. The establishment seeks to instill its visitors with a deeper appreciation for the environment through the art of falconry. Henry Walters, a master falconer and co-founder of Monadnock Falconry, has devoted most of his life to the study of birds. Now, he is able to invite community members of all ages to revel in the majesty of birds of prey alongside him.
Walters, born and raised in the Midwest, has had a long journey to New Hampshire. It was in Indiana, as a young boy, that his affinity for birds blossomed.
“I remember when I was about 4 or 5, coming across a baby crow stuck in an old well deep in the ground in Indiana, where I was living at the time,” said Walters. “And my father putting a long tree down in the hole so that the crow could walk its way out right in front of us. I’m not sure if that’s where it began, but it had a hold on me, at least.”
He was drawn to the practice of falconry after writing a collegiate essay on Emperor Frederick II’s tome, “De Arte Venandi cum Avibus.” The book, which translates to “the art of hunting with birds,” is viewed as a groundbreaking work in the path to modern falconry.
“It was really some of the first writing in the Western world where people were really paying very close attention to the personalities and the distinctions between birds… for this other motive of flying them as falconry birds,” said Walters. “That really caught my imagination and led me to apply for a fellowship to travel to Ireland as an apprentice falconer.”
After studying at the Irish School of Falconry, Walters saw his passion flourish.
“They took me in, the wonderful people there,” said Walters. “I apprenticed with them, and then went back to work for them for about a year and had a chance to work with about 20 different species of birds of prey there.”
It was ultimately the New Hampshire Audubon that brought Walters to New Hampshire. What began as studying hawk migration patterns from the peak of Pack Monadnock has led to working with the Harris Center and Dublin School as a teacher and nature advocate.
Walters then met Martin Connolly, an owner of the Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm and a fellow falconer. The two bonded over their shared passion.
“There aren’t too many of us in New Hampshire to make that acquaintance,” said Walters. “As the years have gone by I’ve become more involved in helping him with his birds.”
Connolly has been able to do less of the hands-on facets of falconry in recent years, and Walters has been able to step into the role. Walters began to see the potential symbiosis between the dairy farm and the birds, and Monadnock Falconry was born.
“The opportunity opened up to be able to invite the public to the farm to take walks with the birds and also get some ice cream,” said Walters.
A poet at heart, Walters has bridged a connection between the arts and his deep adoration for the natural world.
“It does fit in in a big way with a lot of my more literary and artistic interests,” said Walters. “Writing poetry, writing plays, trying to figure out a relationship to another person or to another thing that is very different from oneself… you’re thinking about that constantly when you’re doing work with birds of prey and it’s also a huge part of the arts.”
As a falconer, Walters has made it his mission to bring his experiences with birds of prey to those that may not have the necessary resources to do so themselves. Walters sees Monadnock Falconry as a unique opportunity to connect his visitors to the environment through an unforgettable experience.
“It’s more just unnameable. It’s very hard to pin down,” said Walters. “Why it is that something without any real emotional ties to a person would be willing to return again and again to a person’s gloves?”
Walters also sees falconry as a way to further his aspirations in conservation. After seeing a historical rift between the falconry and conservation communities due to falconry’s categorization as a type of hunting, Walters has worked to dispel this divide.
“One hope is that the work I’m doing is not just seen as private hunting,” said Walters. “It is really an attempt to get us closer to the natural world and to keep it in the front of our mind as we’re making calculations about how we should live and where, where our culture needs to go in relation to conservation of lands and waters and resources.”
Walters travels the state with his birds to bring awareness to the practice. He also serves as a guide on Monadnock Falconry’s hawk walks. Despite his decades-long career surrounding his love of birds, his philosophy on the practice of falconry is to keep the birds as close to their natural state as possible.
“For me, it’s not so much to catch chipmunks and mice for my own table, but to give the bird as wild a life as I possibly can,” said Walters.