Donors

Stephen Baptiste, David Jamieson, Brian McDonald, John Swift, Michael Yates

William J. “Bill” Shinners 1933 – 2007

Bill Shinners was NAFA’s founding Vice President

and host to its first field meet in Reno. Will, as he

preferred to be called in his later years, was born

to fly hawks. He did so with skill and passion until

he became physically unable a few years before his

passing. He left behind a loving wife (Carrie) and

absolutely true. In May of 2003 he was interviewed

for the Archives of Falconry’s Oral Histories

program. His own words below, taken from the

transcript, tell important parts of his story:

I was about ten years old in the fifth grade,

the teacher was reading us Ivanhoe. That was

my first exposure to falconry. My eyes rolled

back in my head. At the end of the book she

asked why knights wore armor. My answer

was “to keep the falcons from hurting their

and all day when I was working to think about

hawks. So at about that time, about 1950, I

guess, I would be 17 years old. I had Hawks

in the Hand. I read that. And that’s the only

book the library had, but somebody told

me about the university library. I went up

there and I found the Frederick’s book and

they had a display from McGill University. I

wrote McGill and they put me in touch with

Tom Ennenga and the trail started. Anyway, I

chance you could catch a prairie falcon?” I

called him up on the phone and I said “I

think so.” I went out that afternoon and I

caught a prairie falcon. The first one I ever,

ever, ever caught. And I sent it to Ennenga

and he fired right back and said anybody

who could catch a hawk that fast has got to

be a falconer. So I passed.

By then I had run into a young man named

James Nicholson, who was in the same

enough to catch jackrabbits, but it would try.

I think I caught my first head of game [with

a longwing] with Jezebel, that was a [1958]

passage peregrine from Brian McDonald.

And it was a duck. I remember the high, the

excitement. What we did, we got home with

the duck and we had the duck for dinner, of

course. And we sat the hawk on the perch in

the kitchen and we ate the duck...

About 1957 or ‘56 I wrote [Brian McDonald] a

his sweet self to see that I got a peregrine.

Well, that was also a fortunate, fortunate

acquaintance because he took me on to the

beach three times. And you [Mike Yates]

took me once. So I have four experiences

on the beach.

I went to school with [David Jamieson],

although I didn’t know him a lot. And David

was a true falconer. It was in his blood. And he

heard through the grapevine somewhere ‑‑

play. I needed somebody to clean the hawk

house and steal pigeons. I gave him a book,

The Lure and The Cure, the reprint from

Bate and Slice Society, and said “go read

this.” And he did. And the rest is history.

David went into the breeding business...

he tried to get me to go into the breeding

project with him and I told him you’re just

wasting your time. I’m not going to do it.

All of history they tried this and it’s just not

finished it off. David and I spent 27 days in an

18‑foot trailer somewhere. The temperature

was 40 degrees below zero at night. And it

would warm up to ten below zero in the

daytime. We were this close face‑to‑face for

all those days and I remember one time

we ‑‑ I think it was my smoking cigarettes.

He would ask me to go outside and I would

say “no, it’s too damn cold.” He finally said,

“Listen, this is my trailer.” And I said, “Yes,

was a Trekkie. And we kind of hacked her

and she was an imprint. I raised her in my,

rolled up in my shirt. And she would follow

me around in the garden like imprints do. I

talk, she’d talk. She never screamed, but she

would talk. She thought she was people.

She was a high flying bird...and I kept her

nine years. And I had one little old pickup

truck that I had all the time. And on a few

occasions...I turned her loose and got in that

was the best bird I ever had by far. And one

day I caught three ducks in one flight with

Uhura. She went up and knocked down a

duck right at my feet. I grabbed it. It was a

bufflehead or some little duck. I grabbed it

away from her and she took off and caught

another one and I grabbed it away from her

and she took off and caught another one. All

within a ten minute span. I’ve got a picture

holding all three of them with her with a