BORCH'S FALCONRY - english
I was in Karachi, Pakistan in 1979, when I happened across what is now 'Mr Mehboob's shop in central market. Having at the time already been a falconer for several years, this place fascinated me. Literally hundreds of hoods and all manner of furniture I could have spent a small fortune. However I managed to get into a sort of conversation with Mr Habib, who was running the joint, and we got talking about falcons and the like.
Mr Habib proceeded to tell me about the Afghani 'Eaglers' who came down every year to sell their wares and and stock up on what they couldn't make themselves or what ever they could trade-on when they got home. Now as they were not due for a couple of months, he suggested that I should travel north to meet them.
I was round to the train station as fast as the rickshaw would carry me. In those days travel in western Pakistan was both difficult and dangerous but I managed to secure a ticket for Quetta, which was the old capital of Baluchistan.
Leaving Karachi, the railway follows the Indus river as far as Tarkapur and the heads NW for Quetta. This is a land of barren mountains, deserts and stony plains.
After a week I arrived in Quetta and managed to find a guide who would, at a price, take me up the Afghan border along the Suleiman mountains, via Chamman, to Peshawur and the Hindu Kush.
We hired the necessary ponies, bought supplies and set off on what was to be four weeks travelling in one of the harshest environments on the planet.
Along the way we saw many birds of prey, but one day sticks in my memory more than all the others.
We were approaching a place called Rawab Pindu and to get to it we had to cross a mountain range of about 12000ft. Now this was a well worn track, used by generations of traders from the north and as we rounded the summit it was as if the whole world opened up in front of us. Looking down from about 9000 feet the desert plain seemed to stretch to eternity.
Gradually dropping down the mountain, we got to about 2000ft when I spied through my binoculars, some several hundred feet below, two birds flying along one about 500 to 1000 feet above the other, which was quartering the ground at about 50ft. I looked hard and long and yes they were a Pair of Luggers. The tiercel was quartering and the Falcon was waiting on above him.
Keeping the birds in sight, we continued our descent, until we were about level with the falcon. Yes definitely a lugger. We sat and watched them for what seemed like no time at all when the tiercel put up and started chasing what looked like a chukkar. He soon broke off the chase when his partner folded and came in at tremendous speed from her pitch and caught it.
Wow! I watched the Falcon break into the catch and eat her fill, whilst the tiercel sat uneasily on a nearby rock. When she had eaten, she dragged the remains of the carcase around for a bit before leaving it to feek and preen whilst the tiercel finished off what was left.
Remarkable!
© 1996 Jeremy Masters All rights reserved
BORCH'S FALCONRY - english