Who we are.
A Full Complement of Raptors to Handle Any Job, Anywhere
Erik Swanson, owner of East Coast Falcons, has been training and flying falcons to hunt and abate pest birds for some 30 years, across the United States and in other parts of the world.
As a teenager, Erik began training police dogs for patrol and narcotics work. He imported genetically superior animals from Eastern Europe and trained them for police and military use. Eventually, he and partners bought and operated a kennel in Florida.
From training dogs, Erik moved on to working for zoos, where he trained exotic animals.
Asked one day
if he could “train that poor eagle – he just sits there and does nothing,” Erik did so. That ignited an interest in working with raptors. Erik became a falconer, and subsequently was invited to work with birds professionally.
Now a Master Falconer, Erik works from locations in Lodi, New Jersey, and Rocky Point, Long Island. He is also an Animal Control Officer and a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator.
Our clients
Whatever problem you’re having with a bird or animal infestation, no matter how unusual, sizable or challenging, we can deal with it. Whether it’s a few birds inside a warehouse or a million birds destroying your crop fields, East Coast Falconry has a solution.
East Coast Falcons contracts for work with any customer who has a bird or animal infestation issue. Some of our past clients have included:
Homeowners
Property management companies
Industrial and commercial clients
Growers
Municipalities
Fortune 500 companies
Big box stores
Sewer authorities
Warehouses
Airports and Air Force bases
Garbage dumps and landfills
Golf courses
Ice skating rinks
Ballparks and sports arenas
How We Work.
East Coast Falcons operates with a team of professional falconers based in the New York Metropolitan Area, and with a network of falconers across the United States and in other countries. We have a full complement of falcons, hawks and owls capable of handling any bird-abatement job in any location in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world.
Different birds tackle different types of jobs. Sparrows in a warehouse can soil stored goods and render them valueless; we work with small falcons to remove sparrows from inside buildings. We use hawks to abate pigeons, and larger falcons – sometimes in combination with dogs or pyrotechnics – to remove seagulls and geese.
Geese, for example, don’t like to get up off the ground, even with a falcon overhead; dogs encourage them to lift off, and they fly away to avoid the falcon.
We use pyrotechnics once a falcon is in the air; in doing so, we condition nuisance birds to connect the pyrotechnics sound to an approaching falcon. The next time they hear that sound, they leave – without a falcon ever appearing.
Our dogs are useful in conjunction with our birds, as well as on their own. Some of our smaller dogs are great for goose control and ground prey, for example. We work with larger breeds as needed in other situations.
On assignment for bird abatement, our professional falconers and our birds often put in 18-hour days, from sun-up to sundown – particularly when we’re working to remove flocks of birds from crop fields, orchards or vineyards.
When not on assignment, we work with our birds and dogs daily, and we hunt with them in season.
To learn more about how East Coast Falconry can help eliminate your problems with nuisance birds, contact us for a free consultation and estimate.
Ancient Sport
The ancient sport of falconry involves using trained birds of prey to hunt wild animals. Historical records indicate that people were hunting with falcons in China as long ago as the third millennium BC. Further references to falconry have been found in ancient Persia and Arabia, and in Medieval Europe. In the New World, the Conquistadors discovered that the Aztecs flew trained hawks.
In the U.S., falconry has been growing in popularity since the early 1900s. Recognizing its historical significance, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010 added falconry to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity.