Polymath, content creator, falconer and sailor
The Birds
Raptor Conservation & Falconry
As falconer, I am engaged in raptor conservation
.......
Raptor conservation and falconry need each other
Things and people aren't always what they appear on first sight. Squint your eyes and look at the island, and you might see something you didn't see before.
Likewise, some might see me as a falconer, hunting with my northern goshawk. Others might see me as a raptor conservationist, helping others on site in the most diverse raptor country: Kenya.
Some might consider this a contradiction. But the truth is, I am both, and good falconers are interested in conservation, and good raptor conservationists must have falconry skills to handle and rehabilitate birds.
On this site, I want to focus on the conservation effort.
For my falconry, please check out the Facebook page I made for my bird "Hermine".
..........
......
.......
,,,,
.....
The boats and sailing
Passion N°1: Born 1973 in the German port city of Hamburg, I've always been passionate about ships and wooden sailing boats in particular.
To me, sailing is not so much a competitive sport, and rather the connection to nature and its laws. As engineer I might be fascinated by the carbon foiling monsters of the America’s cup. But my true passion were always the working boats made of wood, and built for seaworthiness and for blue water cruising. I love their aesthetics, their evolutionary development over many centuries to end up with timeless beauty, ruggedness and proven utility.
2 types stand out. Many true boat enthusiast might know these ancestors of the modern cruising yachts:
-
The Colin Archer type rescue boats
-
The Bristol Channel Pilot cutters
Today, I own and sail Gaviria II, a 30 foot Tahiti Ketch, which is a 1923 scaled down version of the Colin Archer type.
I am also member of the association for Madcap 1874, the oldest Bristol Channel Pilot cutter still afloat.
The birds and falconry
Passion N°2: Since early childhood, I have a strange fascination for raptors or birds of prey. I always loved to observe them in the wild, draw them, and study their biology. I volunteered in conservation work, but also dreamed of becoming a falconer.
I console myself in the fact that over the history of humanity, I am not alone. While falconry, the art to hunt with a trained bird of prey, certainly originated as a means to procure protein more than 4000 years ago in central Asia, it has long since become an art form and, and some call it the sport of kings. It belongs to the UNESCO world cultural heritage. The practice of falconry in early and medieval periods of history is documented in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Modern falconers share universal values, traditions and practices, including the methods of breeding, training and caring for birds, the equipment used and the bonds between the falconer and the bird.
Today, I fly my own bird, a female northern goshawk (accipiter gentilis) called Hermine, which I raised and trained from a chick to become a formidable hunter. I equally support the conservation of raptors in Kenya.