Musings: The Bird Market in Sharjah

Thesiger, the first white man to cross the Rub Al Khali (The 'Empty Quarter' - the desert in Saudi Arabia which is perhaps the most inhospitable area on earth) with his Bedouin friends on camel back was once asked if he thought any Arabs of the current generation would repeat his feat. He is stated to have replied that modern Arabs have forgotten how to ride camels and have learnt how to cross deserts in 4x4's instead! In this context, I had assumed that the modern day youth would not be familiar with the art of falconry. It appears that I may have been wrong in this assumption.

I saw quite a few local UAE nationals in their traditional garb in the market. They were examining the falcons.

Imagine a room of dimension 5 metres by 3 metres. Imagine that the right half of the room has a sand pit over which there are wooden slats running horizontally across and on each slat sit three falcons, spaced approximately a meter and a half from each other. The falcons are tied to the wooden slats so that they cannot escape.

Most of the birds are 'hooded' (that is; their eyes are covered) since this calms them down. Some of the birds sat without hoods. There were falcons of various sizes and shapes and colors, including what appeared to me to be a baby falcon - looking miserable on its perch. The hooded birds sat perfectly still whereas the unhooded ones eyed the strangers warily.

The Arabs exhibit no fear of the birds and boldly walk up to them (sometimes even sit next to them). Maybe this is to intimidate the birds into submission. The Arabs stare at the bird which after a while looks away. They check the wings of the birds, its talons, the underside of its feet etc. Then the Arabs stroke the birds breast and then pull the birds on to their arm. The bird's stance is now closely examined.

Outside in the corridor, turbaned Pathans and Baluchis walk around with falcons on their arm. These are birds that have been recently caught and that are for sale (the 'grey market', so to speak!)

Falcons have been described as very brave birds and the only time you know that a falcon is sick is when it suddenly falls off its perch.

I wish all the falcons of the world could be free but this is not in man's scheme of things. One man is however trying very hard to restore falcons to the wild. Every year a team of scientists from the UAE travel to a remote area of Baluchistan and release many falcons into the wild. As per the instructions of Sheikh Zayed, the President of the UAE.

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