Celebrate Birds of a Feather (and those that aren't)

Maybe it’s to celebrate a brief sighting of football Tuesday as the Atlanta Falcons gathered for an unofficial players-only practice in Buford.

More than 30 players attended the minicamp (NFL lockout kept coaches away), which shows a lot of Falcons make the metro Atlanta area their offseason home. So maybe we’re celebrating the concept of teamwork. Or could it be we’re toasting the current face of the Falcons, quarterback Matt Ryan, for his recent nuptials?

Or possibly, could we be admiring the majestic falcon merely because this beautiful and impressive bird of prey is just so mesmerizing?

Or could it be that this video, shot more than six weeks ago on a partly cloudy afternoon at the Freeman Poole Multipurpose Center off South Hurt Road, just needed to be unleashed to the world today?

Or maybe it’s to celebrate the senior center itself, that was over the course of several days last month, thought to be on the county budget-chopping list. Freeman Poole has survived for now, but with the current economic climate as it is, who knows if the falconry seminar put forth by Richard Krause, Phil Stoddard and Stoddard’s bird, Aly, will be the last time such is ever presented at the center?

Celebrate today what might not ever come tomorrow.

So according to this, falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor." Here’s what the Georgia Falconry Association has to say about the sport that evidence suggests may have begun around 2000 BC in Mongolia, Mesopotamia or China.

In medieval Europe and East Asia, the popular sport owned a status symbol among the nobles. It reached its height in European popularity in the 17th century, but soon faded as guns became more widely used in hunting.

North America was introduced to falconry in the 1990s. The 20th century saw both advanced veterinary practices and the advent of transmitters attached to free-flying birds to help prolong average life spans for these beautiful birds.

Speaking of birds, the Hawks have to get out of the gates fast in Game 6 Thursday night at the Highlight Factory. This Bulls series is still winnable, but first things first.

And that’s to celebrate life in everything we do, including in the posting and viewing of a random video featuring two men and a falcon at a senior center in Smyrna.