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Regents of the wind: a Montana falconer
June 28, 2011
 Marisa Divisidero with falcon. Photo by William Brooks
Marisa Divisidero's rutilant waves of cascading hair barely escape the violent thrashings from the wings of an anxious hawk.
Divisidero, an intense, petite woman, steadies the movements of the five-pound ferruginous hawk with gentle movements of her arm, which is barely protected by a glove patched from a variety of tanned hides. A soothing sound swirls from her pursed lips. The hawk ruffles its neck feathers and settles quietly, close to the human.
Licensed under the tutelage of Ken Wolff from the nationally renowned "Grounded Eagle Foundation" in Condon, Montana, Divisidero helps save injured and sick birds of prey.
The Condon rehabilitation center, the only fulltime professionally staffed rehabilitation care center in Montana, opened in 1987 and is continually returning injured raptors to the wild. About 11,000 square feet provide space and protection where treatments are applied and training for recovery occupies the time of a dedicated staff.
Over 500 native wild birds are admitted to the center each year. Most of the calls for help come from western and central Montana, but where their expertise is required, the foundation reaches across state and international borders. The Grounded Eagle Foundation's specialty is the care of raptors, which make up approximately 60 percent of the total birds that they care for.
The foundation sponsors an extensive education program. Wolff and his staff travel to many schools and seminars to lecture on raptor and environmental awareness. He brings his feathered patients to classes where their awesome presence instills respect and desire to become guardians of these magnificent birds. Children and parents are often encouraged to be involved in raptor releases.
Divisidero, on a much smaller scale, provides shelter, nourishment and, if necessary, healing treatments to her feathered friends. Her cabin, hidden high in the mountains in western Montana, functions like a MASH unit where she is on call 24 hours every day of the year.
State agencies and utility companies use her expert knowledge of raptors as a resource when birds are injured.
When a local power company found a young hawk hanging upside down from a transmission line, twisted in a mass of twine, they called Divisidero. Even though she is terrified of heights, she asked the line workers to put her in a boom lift to get her near the bird. Sitting on the bottom of the hovering basket, she put her head between her knees until she felt the closeness of the flapping wings. She knew that the hawk's life depended on her immediate action. She straightened her trembling body, covering her eyes with a scarf in fear that one look down from her shaking steel perch would throw her into convulsions. Relying on her knowledge of bird sounds, she calmed the frightened raptor. Reaching across the edge of the basket, Divisidero was able to cut the strings. Cradling the fledgling hawk in her arms, she descended back to solid ground where she joyously expressed her gratitude to a crew of chuckling workers.
"Everything that lives on this earth has a sacred right to be here," Divisidero says. "I am grateful that I have the opportunity to help them along the path of life."
Her lifelong fascination with these noble birds, which manifest the very essence of beauty, speed and audacity, has led her through years of intense apprenticeship where she studied the history, anatomy and behavior of birds of prey.
Divisidero has also received the honor of Master Falconer, a title that gives her the right to fly and own three birds and teach students the art of falconry, which demands a supervised period of two years of constant involvement with the behavior of falcons, hawks and eagles.
Falconry was originally a means of livelihood, but was developed to an art form in Western Europe during the time of the Crusaders. Following or riding with a white falcon on a noble horse was considered one of the most exclusive privileges of the nobility. The falcon was introduced into medieval French and German lyric love poetry as an erotic symbol.
Divisidero's love for these fierce regents of the wind is now expressed in her daily guardianship and efforts to educate the public.
Birds of prey are making a remarkable recovery from threats of pollution and loss of habitat, she says, thanks to a ban on DDT, a pesticide that caused bald eagle eggshells to become thin and fragile. This ban has helped to re-establish the presence of raptors in the prairies and valleys of Montana, according to Divisidero.
Western Montana is also a major bald eagle migration route, while the prairies of central Montana guide the golden eagles to their winter habitat. Road-killed deer are often seen in these parts of the state and eagles, heavy from scavenging on these easy food sources, are exposed to injuries from automobile collisions.
Federal and state laws protect the raptors from being hunted or harassed in their nesting areas, but occasionally birds need to be treated for gunshot wounds and long periods of rehabilitation are necessary to enable them to return to the wild.
"Rehabilitation of injured wildlife is the most rewarding aspect of my life," Divisidero says. "How can anyone not be moved after attending to an injured eagle or a great horned owl? It is my privilege to be able to help them and set them free."
This has become the motto for Divisidero, a woman who has made the prairies and open spaces of Montana a place that she joyfully and proudly shares with what native Americans call the "messengers of the Great Spirit."
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