♪♪ -Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

Today you'll hear how a community came together.

-I really appreciate how they are really looking out for people who want to enjoy the land-- -To save open space from development.

And we'll take you on the road and on the trails with cyclists who keep on rolling.

[bicycle gears whirring] But first, we'll take you to Temple, New Hampshire, where a master falconer gives folks a hands on experience with some amazing raptors.

♪♪ In temple, New Hampshire, just beyond the Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm, you'll find an old red barn.

♪♪ The Grouse Woods at Red Gate Farm is home to an abundance of wildlife.

♪♪ The landscape has been tended to by the Connolly family for decades.

♪♪ It's where we meet Henry Walters.

[gravel crunches] -The birds are here in our aviaries, which are, ♪♪ modified from old-- This was the old dairy barn and was then turned into Basset Hound kennels and then we’ve, we've turned them into hawk aviaries.

♪♪ -Are they happy to see you when you come home?

-They are happy to see me.

♪♪ Oftentimes they're-- ♪♪ The falconer’s main job is really figuring out what time of day they're, they're eager to fly.

♪♪ ♪♪ [hawk screeches] ♪♪ -Henry is a master falconer.

♪♪ His road to New Hampshire began at Harvard, where he studied Latin and ancient Greek.

♪♪ After graduating, ♪♪ a traveling fellowship took him to Ireland.

♪♪ [gravel crunches] How did you gravitate from there, to here?

-I went to Ireland to do my falconry apprenticeship, it’s still passed down by the apprentice system, and lived there for a couple of years, learning from a couple of great falconers and at that point working with birds was in my blood.

-This is Mahoo?

-Mahood, an Irish name, out of a Samuel Beckett novel-- -How do you spell it?

-M A H O O D.

-Monadnock falconry is Henry's business and passion.

He leads visitors on tours where they come face to face with raptors.

Okay.

[Willem whistles] Oh he heard that.

♪♪ [Willem chuckles] You like that, huh?

-So this is the one bird of prey out of all those that we work with-- The one species that's willing to see you really as part of his hunting group right from the beginning.

With others it might be 2 or 3 weeks of working with him each day before he's willing to take your glove and trust it as a as a perch and trust you as a, as a partner.

♪♪ -Monadnock falconry began out of a love for birds.

♪♪ Henry teamed up with Martin Connolly.

Martin grew up in the Bronx.

It's where he nursed an injured kestrel back to health, right in his bedroom.

♪♪ That boyhood experience turned into a lifetime of falconry and raptor rehabilitation.

♪♪ -Birds will come into us, given by good Samaritans, by New Hampshire Fish and Game.

If if we can't help them directly, we'll pass them on to other rehabilitators in the state.

♪♪ -Martin was sick the day we filmed and couldn't join us.

♪♪ Several weeks later, he died.

♪♪ -Should we head up this way?

♪♪ [gravel crunches] -Marshall Hudson introduced us to Henry.

He's a retired land surveyor who, by the nature of his work, comes across interesting people and places around New Hampshire.

-And just tuck in a little piece of pheasant here.

-Yes, that’ll do it.

-And if you give him a peek at what you've got there, Now go ahead and open your fingers-- They'll take it right out, yeah.

-He writes about them for New Hampshire magazine.

♪♪ Henry is one of those stories.

-He's not very heavy.

He’s lighter than you would think and looking him eyeball to eyeball is kind of this ♪♪ eyeball to eyeball feeling when you're, checking each other out.

It's kind of a neat feeling.

♪♪ -Mahood is a Harris’s hawk.

The species is non-migratory.

It's found from the southwestern United States to Argentina.

Mahood arrived here from a bird of prey center in upstate New York, where his injured mother nested and raised chicks.

♪♪ -His mother had been injured in the wild and had chicks in, in-- At a bird of prey center in captivity.

And so he physically has never been injured, but he doesn't have-- The way he's orphaned from that social group that-- That he would need to survive in the wild.

♪♪ And so our hope in working with three Harris Hawks here at the moment is that they will form sort of a social-- The same sort of social group that they do in the wild.

♪♪ -Besides being a master falconer, Henry worked as a biologist for New Hampshire Audubon.

♪♪ He co-founded the New Hampshire Young Birders Club.

Take a walk with him and you'll learn something interesting about these birds.

♪♪ -And his eyesight is so good I mean, he's seeing 8 or 9 times more detail than than we are so I usually take my cue from him if he's seen something move here.

If I follow his gaze, usually I stumble across whatever he is, looking for.

♪♪ [leaves rustling] Oftentimes when we see a bird of prey in the wild, it's a 3 or 4 second thing, it happened so fast.

We don't get to appreciate that there's a whole life happening there.

And oftentimes, working with birds in a falconry setting is the way of-- Whoo!

is the way of, appreciating that.

Hey oh!

[whistling] -The most important for you is connect people with the, -I think because it was my portal into a delight in the natural world, into a, into a further knowledge about the natural world and, I have children of my own who I, I want to connect to the natural world.

This is, I think this is a way of feeling a connection that doesn't have to be taught, but can simply be felt.

♪♪ He's eating here, and when he's got a larger piece of food, he'll really drop those wings and mantle over it in a way that clearly says, hey, this is this is mine, and, keep your distance.

♪♪ -As our videographer Adam Goodine found out -Somethings stirring there we’re stirring something up.

Hawks look for any vantage point to hunt from.

-His best chance to catch it will be-- [Henry whistles] Yep, that's the spot!

[laughter] Sorry about that.

-Well Adam, how are you feeling?

-Pretty cool.

-You've got a perfect-- A perfect launching point from there.

Marshall, if you give him a glove, he may hop over to you.

♪♪ [whistling] ♪♪ [leaves rustling] I think probably voles down here.

-Yeah-- -That may not be the spot.

♪♪ ♪♪ [leaves rustling] As soon as we get into this brushy stuff here, he's are-- All of a sudden doing sort of a double thing all the time, keeping one on us where we're going, and also looking out for himself and looking for prey and if we can help in that, great and if we we can't, he's going to do it himself.

But he's not altering much of his wild, his wild habits to, to suit us.

Certainly if he goes and catches prey he's not going to bring it back to us.

He's always in it for himself.

May I give you a bit of food here?

See if he’ll come down to you from there-- Be great.

[Henry whistles] Puff your hand out-- Here he comes.

[whistling] Oh!

-He saw something-- -Got something better.

-He's got something better.

Saw a ring-necked pheasant.

You saw him flush it.

[leaves rustling] [yelling] Hey hey hey hey hey woah!

♪♪ [leaves rustling] ♪♪ [whistling] ♪♪ -Well, he got a pretty late jump.

It's gonna be a hard a hard bird to chase down, but he's not daunted.

Oh, -Now, now what might he catch?

-Everything from voles and chipmunks to, to rabbits and pheasants there’s some pretty large game.

He's got ducks off this pond, so he's pretty quick.

He's built like a sprinter, as opposed to a falcon getting way sky high and patrolling a big area at once.

♪♪ ♪♪ [bell jingles] [chuckling] -There you go!

♪♪ -Now tell me you didn't feel a little thrill of emotion when that happened.

♪♪ -If you turn your back on him, he likes coming to the back of the glove a little-- It's a little easier for him to land.

♪♪ -Henry's tours are hands on.

-Oh he dropped it there.

-And Mahood is happy to participate.

This species actually spends quite a bit of time on the ground, which is quite comical.

They're they're quite long-legged.

-What Henry and Martin have started here at Monadnock Falconry, is more than a bird in hand.

It's a bond with the natural world, and the birds he works with.

-Yeah, there's, there's so much love going that way and a desire for there to be some emotional connection.

There certainly is on my end.

It's very unclear to me, even after 18 years of working with birds of prey, whether, what emotional bond is there on the other side.

♪♪ To be let into that world and to be invisible, except as a hunting partner is a thrill.

♪♪ ♪♪ [bell jingles] ♪♪ -When town property in Bow, New Hampshire came under threat from development, folks took notice.

Then they acted.

The result was the creation of Bow Open Spaces.

Within a few years, the nonprofit protected thousands of acres of town land through conservation easement.

People from Bow and surrounding communities now have places where they can get out and enjoy friendship in the company of nature.

♪♪ [children yelling] A passion for the outdoors and the lessons it teaches remain strong among this young group.

With the help of their counselors and Bow Open Spaces, they can exercise it.

-So if you guys are ever hiking with your parents or with friends, you're going to know how to go on the trails.

So we have our Bow Rec Day Camp children.

They're here for ten weeks.

This is week number one, so they just got off school last week.

♪♪ ♪♪ [children conversing] I had reached out to Bow Open Spaces to make that connection because they maintain the trails and the markers and everything and I just wanted to make that a big part of the children's day each day is being out in the nature, whether it's a trail hike, playing games like camouflage, building lean-tos, going on animal hike hunts or footprint hunts.

♪♪ So what trail do you think we should take the right or the left?

[children shout left disjointedly] Point to the one you think we should take.

[indiscernible] -Left!

-Left, you guys are right that's a snowmobile trail.

-In the past three decades, Bow Open Spaces president Bob Dawkins has helped extend the local land trust protections over 2000 acres.

Not a bad portfolio for recreation.

-I've been a president of Bow since 1988, and I grew up in New Hampshire, and, I really enjoy, love living in Bow and the nature and especially the forests that we have in the area.

So if we had put it on this one, we'd be walking to another tree.

So Bow Open Spaces, the formation of it, It all started in 96.

-The alarm was raised when town forest land was rapidly developed for the Bow High School complex.

With popular support in 1997, the Bow Conservation Commission created a plan to protect other such land from a similar fate.

Bow Open Spaces was the result.

An independent 501(c)3 land trust that acquired its first property, now Nottingcook Forest, that same year.

But these kids aren’t yet too concerned with those intricacies Instead, the insects receive their full attention.

-I found an inch worm right there!

-Inch worm?

Where is it on the tree?

-Right there!

-It’s right in front of-- -Ohhhh!

Hanging there?

Yeah-- -Hi little inch worm, I’ll name you, Inchana .

[chuckling] [children laugh] -Alright.

♪♪ Bow Open Spaces, So they-- When they came and talked during our camp counselor training, they talked about how they maintain the trails and make it so, you know, everybody in the community can enjoy them.

-And if there's any branches, trees down, we'll take that out too.

So we get that, we'll have a nice clean trail.

People aren’t tripping over things.

-I really appreciate how they are really looking out for people who want to enjoy the land and really just appreciate-- Appreciating the land we're given, and just trying to maintain all the gifts that we have and try to keep them for the next generation.

-It's why volunteers like Mary and her friends come from around New England to help the Bow Open Spaces team keep the trails in top shape and its unique landmarks accessible.

-When we were scoping out the trail system, looking for really cool features in the forest to bring the trail through.

We found this rock and, we called it Buffalo Rock, with a little bit of imagination, you can see the face, the nose, the mouth.

[leaves crunching] -Oh yeah!

-It's amazing in a small, local town forest of 625 acres that you can find things like this.

♪♪ -Looking ahead, do you see a marker on the left or the right?

[in unison] -Left!

-Good job!

And what color is it?

-Red!

-You guys are good at marking those trails.

Alright, let's keep going.

My feeling is they spend a lot of time more in this generation I think, indoors than out.

So I thought getting them outdoors, I love STEM and science with them.

Having them like I said, recognizing the footprints, seeing the inch worm and the animals, you know, stuff they may not always see every day, especially, like I said, if they're not outdoors a whole lot.

So they get to experience that and that's a big part of a camp experience.

♪♪ -Look at it!

So cool!

-Hold on, I see a hole in it!

[gasps] -Go stick your head-- -I see a hole in it!

-There are some people who are very generous with donating, entire interest in their farms.

The development rights.

We're talking properties that are worth millions of dollars.

Instead of having the property developed in the future, they care about their land so much that they donate to easement.

-If we see a frog or toad, do we pick it up?

-No!

-That’d be like someone coming and they’re like, oh you're kind of cute I’m gonna pick you up and-- [children laughing] You know, we have from hiking to mountain biking in Bow, obviously our town pond they fish in, so I mean, they really just encourage people to be outside and they develop programs that that can initiate that.

-Bow Open Spcaes, got motivated and we started building hiking trails.

And now we have six miles of beautiful hiking trails in Nottingcook Forest, which includes two high spots that have 180 degree view of the White Mountains.

So I welcome anybody to come out and check out Nottingcook Forest and enjoy our hiking trails.

♪♪ -Whether you're a long time cyclist or, or just getting started, you'll find this next story inspiring.

Folks from Granite State Wheelers in Dover, New Hampshire, showed us how to keep moving at any age or ability.

♪♪ On the rolling hills and backroads of coastal New Hampshire, you can often spot a biker gang in blue and white jerseys riding in formation.

♪♪ This group, or the Granite State Wheelers, uses road bikes instead of motorcycles, and for some members, the transition has been from human powered pedals to electric bikes or e-bikes.

♪♪ [bicycle gears turning] When the yearning for open roads meets the pangs of old age, a technological change is sometimes the remedy.

♪♪ [bicycle gears turning] -The battery [unintelligible] thirty days-- -The Granite State Wheelers is probably the oldest bicycle club in New Hampshire.

We were founded in 1971.

We have roughly 360 members presently, and we have branches all over the state.

I'm a member since nine years since I moved to New Hampshire.

Most of the members are from New Hampshire, but we have some, obviously from Massachusetts and from Maine.

The way it is nowadays in these cycling clubs is that most of us are north of 50 or 60.

[indistinct chatter] Our oldest one is 83, I'm 76, so I still ride a normal road bike, but I know that five, six, seven years or so I have the option to use an e-bike and can still be part of the club, can still be part of the group rides that we do and this is besides doing something for our health.

It's obviously also very good from a social aspect.

♪♪ So, so we'll see.

Switch your lights on if you, if, if you have them.

So-- And let's stay together as a group.

-The Granite State Wheelers ride 2 or 3 times a week, in groups ranging in size from 5 to 25 riders, on trips lasting up to 50 miles.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] For president Michael Claus, regular riding is more than a means of exercise and camaraderie.

-Today we, we have a group ride from Dover riding through, to get a little bit of Madbury, Durham, and now Newmarket, and then we go alongside the Great Bay.

So it's a 30 miles, right?

♪♪ And it's really nice.

It's rolling hills.

You really have to work hard, but you go alongside the Great Bay, have beautiful views.

It's hardly anything nicer than cycling here in New Hampshire.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] ♪♪ [traffic drones] [indistinct chatter] And when you look into nowadays what people say about healthy aging.

So moving sports is one thing, but the social aspect is a very big thing too.

So-- And if you stay connected with people in a group, we meet 2 or 3 times a week and on weekends and ride and afterwards we always have a, have a beer.

And because it just fits together, it's fun.

[traffic drones] But I would think we have getting up to 10-15% of e-bikers, -Though modern e-bike technology has been around since the 1980s, their availability has become more widespread in the last decade.

-On an e-bike there's an electric motor in there.

-Yeah-- -Bigger, you know the the frame looked a little bit bigger because the batteries have to stay somewhere.

They also heavier than the regular road bike.

E-bikes category one, two and three, you still have to pedal.

You get assisted, it's kind of doping.

Electric doping.

-Major bike manufacturers have incorporated the technology seamlessly with modern frames.

You wouldn't even know they're e-bikes.

With batteries getting smaller and their range capability expanding, e-bikes are able to help propel more people, especially the older or the different abled.

-My name is Douglas Ruby.

I'm from Groton, Mass.

26 years ago, I had a heart attack, and I found that, ♪♪ you know, I'm cardiac limited.

♪♪ I found that on a regular bike I would go out on a ride, and if I pushed myself too hard, I was laying down on the side of the road, you know, and it would ♪♪ [gravel crunches] have to have somebody come get me and then I was asleep for two days.

[Douglas laughs] ♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] And the e-bike has allowed me to do heart rate and cadence management so that I can go on long rides, keep my exercise aerobic instead of anaerobic, ♪♪ be able to ride with a group at a reasonable pace over longer distances, 40 to 60 miles.

♪♪ [gravel crunches] So I've been riding e-bikes so I could keep up with my daughter, and so that I could go on lengthy rides where you have the group experience.

♪♪ ♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] -For some, the technology has meant the difference between riding and not riding.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] -I had a stroke while riding my bike.

I can't walk without a cane, but I can ride the e-bike.

My son said when I got my stroke-- I had my stroke while riding a bike, my son said, you're getting an e-bike.

[Ken laughs] I ride 2 or 3 times a week with different groups.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] I'm retired, but I don't want to be a couch potato, so I want to be outside and to me, the bike is one of the only things I can do outside that doesn't hurt me.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] So e-bikes let people ride bikes that otherwise couldn't.

♪♪ [birds singing] -We would have lost quite a number of the guys behind us here who rode with us today.

I think we were 14 and we have 5 or 6 e-bikes today, and I believe that most of them would not have been able to continue riding a regular bike.

So if not for an e-bike, they would have had to do something completely different sports wise or staying healthy.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] -I won't say that I can do what I did when I was 20, but I can ride in a group ride with, good riders.

There's always somebody I can ride with.

♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] The bikes that you see us riding, are riding them because it allows them to do this kind of a ride, ♪♪ [bicycle gears whirring] and ride in a group.

♪♪ -Well, we've come-- We've come again to that time, or part of the program that I like least the time we need to say goodbye, but we shall.

Goodbye.

I'm Willem Lange and I hope to see you again on Windows to the Wild.

♪♪ Support for the production of Windows to the Wild is provided by the Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust, the John D. McGonagle Foundation, the Bailey Charitable Foundation, Road Scholar, and viewers like you.

Thank you!

-Make a gift to the wild and support the Willem Lange Endowment Fund, established by a friend of New Hampshire PBS.

To learn how you can keep environmental, nature and outdoor programming possible for years to come, call our development team at (603) 868-4467.

Thank you!

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