the millennium falcon - not the space ship

So, Squirrel Vader and his Expanding Legion Of Evil are driving me absolutely batty.

I am toying with the idea of Falconry to bring the situation back under control.

Obviously, it is a complicated solution for a trivial problem. However, I am a complicated man, who has trouble leaving matters trivial.

I quickly looked in to the licencing requirements for Ontario. Obviously, one needs to be dedicated to the pursuit.

I am nothing, if not obsessive, dedicated, and overly fixated on subjects I should not be.

Two species considered domestic to Ontario have caught my eye:

The Gyrfalcon, mostly because the name is cool and their far southern winter range appears to cover the Ottawa Valley;

and

The Merlin, again, a cool name and their summer range appears to cover the Ottawa Valley.

Of course, I have not done any really serious research yet. I do not know what you feed them when they are not hunting. No idea how to house them. Are there Falcon kennels when you go away on a trip? No idea!

I have chosen a name though, I will name her Millennium. Milly for short.

Back to the unknown factors.

Can a falcon be trained to hunt only squirrels? Can a falcon be trained not to hunt, harm, eat birds hanging around feeders? Can a falcon actually be used to hunt squirrels or is it not allowed by law? Can a falcon be allowed to hunt anything within the town limits? Do I actually want a falcon to hunt squirrels that are part of the Expanding Legion Of Evil? Can I train a falcon to ride a saddle mounted on my future dog? Will the two of them get along? Will both of them be able to resist tormenting, or worse, the various neighbours' cats? Who themselves love to hang out in our back forty. More so, since all these birds started coming out in force.

All good questions and concerns. Probably only the tip of the iceberg. Many more questions will make themselves apparent over the coming days, weeks, months.

I will let it simmer for now. The big endeavour right now is getting to and from the Scouts Canada National Jamboree this July.

Who knows? I may be enough of a knob to follow through on this and the three of us will be able to sell our services to various peoples securing the feeding grounds of their various wingèd friends, visitors, and companions.

I will most likely need to get a cloak and floppy hat though....

Ah, the potential. 

We can be stars.

this falcon, a potential future friend (courtesy audubon.org)

not this falcon, although that would be super cool (courtesy wallpapercave.com)

May the 4th be with you!!