Mitch Brantley enjoys every second he spends pursuing the 4,000-year-old sport of falconry, but don’t call it a hobby. “This isn’t like bowling or golf, where at the end of the season you put everything away,” he says. "It’s a 365-day-a-year commitment. This is a living creature. When you take it out of the wild, you have a responsibility to take care of it.”
One of only a handful of falconers in South Carolina, Brantley enjoys the demands of the sport, which include studying up on birds of prey, passing a written test and apprenticing under more experienced falconers just to become licensed. He’s currently working toward the sport’s highest ranking—master falconer—a process that takes a minimum of seven years.
During hunting seasons, Brantley takes his red-tailed hawk, Mad Max, into the field as often as possible where they work together to hunt small game including squirrels and rabbits. The bird is released and soars overhead while Brantley walks the ground, flushing out prey.
“It’s a matter of just being out there enjoying nature,” he says. “And it’s a matter of being part of something wild that can, if it wants to, leave at any time and never come back.”
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Mitch Brantley
AGE: 50
HOME: Mullins
OCCUPATION: Gardener at Coker College; retired Florence firefighter
LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: Holds a Blue Belt in Korean martial art of tae kwon do