Rodney Stotts
The falconer discusses how his life changed from dealing drugs to setting up his own sanctuary
What prompted the shift from drug dealing to working with nature?
It didn’t happen overnight. It was mostly just a shift into trying to do something better, something that made a difference
– a positive difference. At first, working to clean up the Anacostia River was just a job for me. Working with nature gave me time to think, and the more I thought, the more I wanted to start turning my life around. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. As I tell the young people I work with: sometimes you have to get out of your own damn way.
How did you transition from clearing rubbish on the Anacostia River to becoming a falconer?
After working on the Anacostia, the group I was working with – Earth Conservation Corps – started sheltering injured raptors, such as hawks and owls. The birds we took in were too injured to be returned to nature so we used them to teach kids about birds of prey and conservation. After a few years of that work though, I wanted to do more, and I wondered what the next step would be. What if we could get birds of prey before they got injured, help them through their first year of life (when they are most at risk of getting hit by trucks or cars or snared in electrical wires) and then release them? That’s what falconry is about. And to me that was similar to working with young people at risk: if you can help through the early danger zones, they have a better chance of living full lives.
How does it feel when you release your birds back into the wild?
It feels great when I’ve trapped a raptor, cared for it, and then set it free. By law, if you accidentally trap an adult bird of prey, you need to release it immediately. Falconers can only trap juvenile birds. And you cannot release a raptor that is injured or is not native to your area. Sometimes, before I release a raptor, I ask people to send me intentions, and then I’ll have a small ceremony where I read everyone’s intentions and then release the bird, sending it and the intentions or prayers up into the sky.
What do you want readers to take away from your book?
It’s so easy for humans to go through their day and not think about or even notice nature. That’s a shame because nature is where all sorts of magic happens. Sometimes people think they’re too busy. I would challenge them to at least once a day, look up. There’s a whole world up there: birds, clouds, insects, trees, leaves, branches, stars. And it is there for the taking with a simple tilt of the head.