Pretty sure me too. It was an AGP card lol.

I hunt rabbit. For the most part I feed the rabbit back to the birds over the summer but I’ll make a couple rabbit dishes a year.

Wild take is mostly only for juvenile raptors (only exceptions are Kestrels and Great Horned Owls as they are almost impossible to determine their age by plumage). There is a fledgling season where a chick can be taken from a nest, and a normal season where the bird is trapped while it’s on its own.

A fledgling will be imprinted onto humans and cannot be released back into the wild ever. It is way too accustomed to people and can be a nuisance at best and a danger at worst to the public if released.

A wild trapped juvenile is a normal bird that is trained to hunt cooperatively. They can be released at any time or kept their entire 20+ year life.

Wild birds can not be sold, but they can be transferred to other licensed individuals. Any tit for tat stuff can lead to trouble with this.

If wild raptors are kept for a certain number of years, they can be bred and their offspring sold to other falconers or licensed individuals. These captive bred birds cannot be released into the wild but they in turn can be bred too. They have a seamless band put on their legs when they are chicks to differentiate them from wild birds.

Importing birds from other countries is extremely expensive because as far as I know they need to stay in government quarantine for 30 days or so.

My 3 Harris Hawks, all captive bred. Their native range is the American Southwest and Mexico but mine are from Seattle, Los Vegas, and Baton Rouge: https://falconry.party/post/13676

Falconry is set up really well in the US and several foreign countries clubs are petitioning their government to emulate us.

• It’s difficult to get into on purpose. This reduces impulse buys of raptors by completely inexperienced people which reduces raptor harm.
• Self regulated for the most part through an apprentice / sponsor system.
• Clearly defined as a hunting sport with “pet keepers” kept to a minimum as they can lose their license for not hunting. Raptors make shit pets and need to fly and hunt for their mental well being.
• Wild take of raptors. This is a huge one, pretty much no other country that actually has wildlife protections allows this. Falconry in the US is basically built off of wild take as an exclusion to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
• Very difficult to monetize. A falconer cannot use their license to make money. Educational programs can be done but they can’t be paid more than gas money and if they are doing more programs than hunting they can lose their license. Doing abatement (using a raptor to chase off pests at an airport for example) is a separate license which requires 7 years as a falconer minimum.
• Each state has their own club that works with their state government and then there is a national club that works with the feds and other countries.

Derelict.

If the options are to give your cell number or hook email to your phone, I would take email every time. People do not respect your private number and it will be known by everyone at work. At least with email you can shut off work notifications. Also if you are already breaking the rules by going home you can cover yourself a little if someone is trying to find you at work and they can’t.

There are usually a couple more steps beyond just signing in. Sometimes it will require an app or you get a big warning stating hey, the employer is going to gain a ton of access on here, do you agree?

It was a very sad day when I learned that my dental insurance is a reverse deductible. Like you said, they only pay out $2k a year then it’s all out of pocket. Actually so stupid.

I probably wouldn’t do any overnight stays on a ship.

Falconry in the US exists as an exclusion from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Both of these laws make it illegal to disrupt or possess native birds or their parts. Falconers successfully petitioned the government to let them take wild raptors from the wild as long as falconers themselves regulate the participants. If the falconers are not being respectful of the birds it would be incredibly easy to strip their privileges.

In the same sense RC flying is a privilege from the FAA after too many people flew drones into airports and HAM is a privilege from the FCC to keep people from jacking up the airwaves.

I think those only need 1 test to play with them, and that’s because they are regulated by the government. They want people to follow the rules because if they don’t it can come down on all of them.

The biggest one of these that I know of is falconry which requires 1 falconry test, 1 hunt test, 1 inspection, and finding a two year sponsor. Falconry is specifically set up to gatekeep as to protect the sport in the USA.

And DOTA2 has the worst matchmaking I’ve ever seen in casual too. My third game I was placed with the sweatiest sweats and it completely turned me off the game.