Name? 

Mark Waller

How long have you been an OFA member?

1972, since its inception.  

Positions in OFA?  

Former president; former secretary. 

Where do you live? 

Owasso, OK 

Job or School? 

Attorney in Tulsa, OK. 

Family? 

Wife Terry; son Tres; daughter Aimee; son Luke. 

What got you interested in falconry? 

Liked birds, liked hunting, watched Walt Disney's show on "Varda" the peregrine falcon, and was mesmerized by the goshawk scene in the movie "The Vikings" with Kirk Douglass and Tony Curtis.  Once I got my hands on some falconry books, I knew falconry was something I wanted to do. 

Who was your sponsor? (or mentors and influences?) 

 Jesse Woody, an Oklahoma legend. 

What birds do you currently fly? 

9-yr old gyr-peregrine and this year's passage tundra peregrine. 

What birds have you flown in the past? 

Peregrines, one Barbary, Prairie falcons, Gyrfalcons, Gyr-Peregrine hybrids, merlins, kestrels, goshawks, Harris Hawks, Redtails and one fine Savannah Hawk.   

What was your favorite bird and why? 

Toss-up between two hybrids, LB and Taz, and Ella the passage gyrfalcon.  Both tiercel hybrids did everything I could ask of them, for 8+ seasons each; the gyr was my first large longwing that took lots of game.  Our Tulsa group had not seen much game taken by large longwings in 1982, so she was pretty amazing to watch over three seasons.  And I should not leave out Dip Jr the kestrel; my son and I had a lot of fun with him over 6 years. 

What birds do you plan to fly or would like to fly? 

More merlins or tiercel perlins.  Small falcons have so much potential but they take as much or more effort to realize their potential as do the large falcons.  The right one could be a lot of fun.

Favorite Quarry? 

Prairie Chickens and Sharptails; I really wish we had more access to huns.   

Do you have other animals? 

Son Luke has a Viszla and my wife Terry has a Cavalier spaniel.  I feed them so the dogs think they are mine. 

Favorite falconry story?  

My female Peales was high overhead on a thermal and we could not get a flock of scaup to flush off a large pond.  Rocks didn't work but my apprentice Richard Day dove headfirst into the pond, resulting in widespread duck panic and a kill.  That's when I knew I'd made a good call sponsoring Richard (a/k/a the most enthusiastic falconer ever).    

Funniest falconry story? 

Second hand, but it involved Alan Beske's lure falling out of his hawking bag, with the long lure line tied to his bag, and him running several hundred yards across a muddy wheat field with his falcon presumably overhead.  Problem was, his eyass prairie had stooped down and bound to the lure, and Beske didn't know she had done so.  He finally flushed the gamebirds, but his bird was nowhere to be found.  He finally looked around and noticed this big brown blob at the end of his lure line.  Those eyass prairies are pretty tenacious.  According to Beske, she was completely covered in mud but never let go.  Great visual.  

Favorite quote? 

Probably something from Calvin and Hobbs.

What is the best tip that you would give someone new to the sport?  

Don't let others tell you that a certain species of bird can't do certain things.  In the 70s if somebody told me a kestrel would catch 250 birds a year I would have never believed it.  I would not have thought redtails would regularly catch crows either.  For a traditional sport, falconers have pushed the envelope quite a bit in the last 30 years. 

Who have you sponsored? 

Steve Little, Richard Day, Tim Jessell. 

What goals do you have for your falconry experience? 

The unattainable one (for now it seems) of actually relaxing and enjoying the experience once the flight is over.  I rush too much these days.