Top: Birds of Al Nye, Jim Ruos and Bill Harry, Arthur-Peregrine Bottom: Potomac Falcon Association

JAMES L. RUOS

(1934-2019)

by S. Kent Carnie

ith the passing of Jim Ruos,

American falconry has lost an

irreplaceable champion. His

personal role on all of our behalf,

now beyond the memories of most in our

community, is reﬂected in the fact that today we

have nation-wide legal falconry with practical

regulations.

Trained as a wildlife biologist, early in his career

he joined the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

(FWS) where he served in what is today the

ofﬁce of Migratory Bird Management,

specializing in dove management. Despite this

ofﬁcial specialty, as a dedicated falconer well

versed in raptor biology, when questions arose

within The Service pertaining to birds of prey

they frequently were referred to Jim.

By the latter 1960’s Jim had joined Fran

Hamerstrom on NAFA’s “Legislative” Committee

(eventually, Technical Advisory Committee)

seeking regulated legal falconry ﬁrst at the state

and then federal level. His federal position

made him a key player when the Feds assumed

responsibility for birds of prey by amendment

of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1972. Having

helped develop a NAFA-proposed model state

falconry regulation, he was instrumental in the

FWS using it as a “strawman” for development

of the new federal falconry regulations.

With all that in his background, he was the

natural within The Service to

shepherd those regulations

through multiple iterations

between 1972 and 1976,

ensuring that extreme

counter-regulations from

our opponents were met

with logic, reason and

biology. With the same

bases, Ruos also played a key

role in the FWS Environmental Assessment

supporting falconry and the ﬁnally accepted

regulations. Jim was not some falconer “mole”

surreptitiously inserted into FWS ranks but

their recognized “go-to” raptor guy. What we

got from Jim were regulations based on science

and reality, free from the emotions and half-

truths that had been thrown into the regulatory

hopper by those who opposed or just did not

understand the sport.

That same Migratory Bird Management

ofﬁce was completely ignored by FWS

Law Enforcement when, a decade later,

Law Enforcement carried out its infamous

“Operation Falcon,” motivated by arrests,

ﬁnes and defamation rather than biology. Jim

ofﬁcially opposed that “operation” as the facts

became clear. He further aided (albeit behind

the scenes) in defense (successful) against a

draconian revision of falconry regulations

proposed by FWS Law enforcement ostensibly

resulting from their Operation. In so doing he

earned the enmity of FWS Law Enforcement in

an era when, for all intents and purposes, the law

enforcement tail was wagging the FWS dog. Law

enforcement refused to accept that a falconer

within the service could be providing honest

and unbiased criticism. It did not take long

before Jim was forced to retire, his career ruined

thanks to his standing up for falconers and

falconry. Throughout all this, Jim was staunchly

supported by his wife Mary who then helped

shoulder their efforts in establishing a new, if

unrelated, career where they

succeeded admirably. No amount

of success, however, could erase

the wound on his heart, solely

because he had been honest.

At his passing we hope these few

words will bring to light within

the falconry community the

tremendous debt we all owe this

unsung hero!

A Tribute

Jim was an ieplaceable

champi in the falcry wld.

Princess Anne,

8 years old in 1980

Donors: Michael Yates, Robert Collins, James Mosher, Andrew Edwards, Laura Kitchin

Greenleaf, Hal and Theresa Kitchin, David C. Klinger, Tom Gromling, Steven Atwater,

Dorothy Donahoe, Frank Sessions, Essex H. Thomas, Mary Ruos, Bryan Townsend

by Mike Dupuy

I was in my late 20s when I befriended

my Falconry sponsor Jim Ruos. Jim

and I hit it off from the start. Jim was

living in Highland, Maryland at the

time, and I lived 15 miles south in Silver

Spring, Maryland.

Jim appreciated my lifelong interest

and dedication to Falconry, and I

appreciated his encyclopedic knowledge

of raptors and falconry. Among his

many accomplishments, Jim had been

instrumental in creating the framework

for Falconry to be recognized as a

legitimate regulated ﬁeld sport in the

United States.

Not only was Jim the best sponsor I

could have had but he became my best

Falconer friend. He helped me perfect

my raptor ID skills, expanded my

knowledge of trapping, and took me

into the ﬁeld hunting with him.

In old school Falconry when a sponsor

allowed you to serve as an apprentice

it was much more than it appeared

on the surface. They were in essence

making you a member of their family.

Jim worked at USFWS Migratory

Bird Department which was at the

epicenter of the source of the Federal

undercover sting known as “Operation

Falcon”. Jim fought the Bureaucracy’s

attempt to indict and stain the Falconry

community without merit and would

later resign in disgust from the Agency

where he had planned to ﬁnish his

career.

In 1998 Jim and Mary moved to Paris,

Virginia, which immediately became a

destination or overnight haunt where

we could reminisce and catchup. Jim

continued to play a role advising

me in matters of falconry, raptor

research and the politics of falconry.

I continue to use equipment

which Jim designed and shared

with me. It was an honor to learn

the art of falconry from Jim.

Hopefully, I or some other falconer,

will double back and re-examine the

record on Operation Falcon and look

for the records Jim left to the Archives

of Falconry.

Honoring Jim Ruos

by Jim Mosher

First of all, what an amazing falconer and critical

supporter of the falconry community. It’s not too

much to say that without him we wouldn’t have

the active and vibrant modern practice of that

very ancient sport today. He sacriﬁced a great

deal, personally and professionally, in the process

of developing what continue to be sensible and

important falconry regulations. During my active

falconry years, he was a mentor and valuable

source of guidance. We shared both personal and

professional interests in birds of prey.

Jim became my mentor early in my professional

career. He provided his expertise and critical

ﬁnancial support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service for my research program on woodland

raptors and techniques for censusing populations.

Moreover, he was an active participant and

occasional, welcome critic of that work. That grant

supported three MS and a PHD student, all of

whom went on to serve in State or Federal wildlife

agencies.

There’s much I owe Jim Ruos for his support and

friendship over the years. His loss, personally, to the

sport of falconry and raptor conservation is deeply

felt.

His place among the champions of falconry on the

Wall of Remembrance is well earned.

The Best Falconer Friend

Clockwise: Jim and Goshawk in 1986, Jim Banded Peregrine, Cape Charles, VA in 1979,

Jim and Mary in 1975, Jim Mosher with Redtail, Frostburg MD, in 1980

L-R: Goshawk, 1987, Harris Hawk, Otis, 4 year old male, 1985

My best friend, James Ramsay, and I were

intoxicated with hawks. It was middle school

and we had discovered that the new ﬁeld

biologist in town was a falconer. He had a

hawk on a block perch in his front yard! He

put up with our random and enthusiastic

visits and calls, answering our many questions

with deep kindness and great knowledge. ‘Mr.

Ruos, I saw this today’ or Mr. Ruos what is the

difference between this and that’ or ‘Mr. Ruos,

Mr. Ruos, Mr. Ruos.’ He was our hero and

role model. We met in the warm season of the

year, summer, which is short enough on the

49th parallel in Warroad.

When early winter came in November, Jim had

the opportunity to travel to the north shore of

Lake Superior to pick up a big hen goshawk

from Bob Widmeier, a Minnesota falconer who

lived just north of Duluth, Minnesota. He

asked James and me to accompany him. We

would have a unique experience, and we could

help manage the bird on the trip home.

Mr. Widmeier lived in a log home with a huge

stone ﬁreplace. He was married to an exotic

blonde haired, six-foot-tall Canadian woman

with a strong French-Canadian accent. James

and I fell in love with her immediately. Bob

Widmeier was broad shouldered, had greying

black hair and was loud and voluble. James

and I sat in the corner and listened intently

as these two masters of the sport of kings

discussed the subtle points of falconry. We

saw the mature goshawk, all four pounds of

her. She was later named Titan, appropriate

given her bulk. Her stare was piercing and

icy. Widmeier also had a barbary falcon, a

subspecies, we were told, of peregrine. She was

beautiful, petite.

On the trip home snow was falling heavily and

we had 250 miles to cover to reach Warroad,

Minnesota. We had a million questions that

passed the time. I sat in the front passenger

seat and James got to sit in the darkness in the

back seat with the enormous gos on his left

wrist. She was calm, the darkness functionally

a hood to soothe her fears.

Just west of Bena, car headlights blossomed

in the heavily falling snow--from the ditch on

the north side of the road. Mr. Ruos slowed

and stopped by the car in the ditch. They

had slid on the snowy road. There were three

very intoxicated men in the car, and they were

singing. There was three feet of snow in the

ditch, and it would clearly take a tow to get her

out. Pushing it out was impossible.

Only one of the three was willing to ride with

us to Cass Lake where warmth and a tow could

be arranged. James, with the gos on his left

wrist, slid over to the left side of the back seat

so the bird was as far from his new seat mate as

possible. I wondered how our new companion

would react when he saw the bird. We left

the other two, singing loudly. Our new car

“He answered r

many questis with

deep kindne and

great knowledge.”

Our Hero and Role Model

by Steve Atwater

Left, top-bottom: Peregrine Arthur 2yrs Highland 1987, Jim and Peregrine in 1986

Gyrfalcon Athena, Fulton MD in 1967.

Above: Jim Releasing Peregrine Assateague in 1969 Right: Jim and Flinka

occupant sang for a while, too, then seemed to fall

asleep or pass out. The gos was still and James’ seat

mate did not seem to notice the enormous occupant

three feet away, not even when we got to Cass Lake

and let him out at a well-lighted gas station did, he

apparently notice the gos.