BRILLIANT — The sport of flying beautiful birds of prey is alive and well.

Following a meeting of the Ohio Falconry Association in Holloway this past weekend, master falconer Mick Brown of Martins Ferry took one of his raptors to visit a kindergarten class at Buckeye North Elementary School on Tuesday.

At only a few ounces in weight, the 7-year-old female eastern screech owl could have been mistaken for a cuddly toy or learning aid at first, but Brown was quick to point out the hunting bird’s surprisingly powerful talons and beak, as well as its instincts to sight and strike prey.

“She can handle things that are a lot bigger than she is,” Brown said, adding that a bird of prey is not a “pet.”

Brown answered several questions from students and teachers, including how long such a bird would live (about 4-6 years in the wild, and up to 15 years in captivity), how often they lay eggs (annually), and how often they are fed live or frozen food when in captivity (daily). He shared other interesting facts, noting that the owl would reach full size 60 days after hatching in the spring and be able to fly before winter.

Brown also spoke about how he went about taking up the sport, and the care and attention required for keeping such birds.

“We as falconers and people who do education, we have to have those birds trust us to the max,” Brown said.

Brown said he keeps hawks as well as the owl. He added that the eastern screech owl is native to the area.

Afterward, he said he was impressed with the students.

“They asked some pretty good questions. For their age, I think they did pretty good,” Brown said.

He said he also teaches children that, like snakes, raptors will leave people alone if people leave them alone.

“That way they’ll learn to respect birds of prey, learn to respect snakes and so on and so forth. Of course it’s illegal to kill birds of prey and it’s illegal to even possess them unless you have the proper licenses,” he said. “It teaches people not to harm them, because they have a hard enough time on their own.”

Brown normally visits close to a dozen schools in a given year.

The Holloway Old Timers Club hosted the weekend gathering at 421 E. Main St.

“We had a lot of people coming through non-stop. It wasn’t too crowded because every time there’d be a few, they’d leave, go out flying with other birds or just have to go home, and more would come,” Brown said.

He added that while the group was rained out on Friday, there was activity the rest of the weekend. There were about 25 falconers and 30 birds present, and a total of more than 100 people.

“We had Harris’s hawks, we had goshawks,” he said. “We had a great horned owl. We had people from Kentucky. We had people from Indiana, we had people from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, and of course Ohio.”

He thanked the club for providing a venue.

“That place is fantastic,” he said. “It’s just a great place for our event. We do it every year.”

Brown said falconry hunting season ends March 10.

He said while the curious are welcome at the gathering, many also learn more about the demands of the sport.

“It’s continuing to grow a little bit every year. A lot of people come and they come again,” Brown said. “I think everybody’s intrigued by it, and everybody likes to see it or would like to see the birds. But I think a lot of people that realize how much is involved in it, and they really say, ‘That’s not for me,’ and that’s really the smart thing to do, unless you’ve got the time and the money to get into it. It’s not like buying a dog and a gun and you can go hunt. It’s constant maintaining the birds.”

He said proper licensure is required to be a falconer and to visit schools, libraries and other sites as an educator. The birds must be kept in regulation-sized areas that must be inspected.

“We like to take guys hunting with us so they can see everything that’s involved, and if it’s really and truly what they want to do,” Brown said.

Anyone wishing to learn more is invited to contact Brown at mickeyboy9@comcast.net, or the Ohio Falconry Association at ohiofalconry.org or the group’s Facebook page and contact the apprentice coordinator, Jeff Melsop.