Long before you ever notice a hawk circling overhead, it has already noticed you. Bucks County is full of wild things hiding in plain sight, tucked into telephone poles, bridge girders, and the edges of our own backyards. Most of us drive right past them without a second glance. 

On my podcast, Bucks Co Living, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Courtney Douds of Raptor Jawns, a master falconer, licensed clinical social worker, and the founder of an educational program built around rescued birds of prey. Courtney shared how a single movie scene at age thirteen turned into a lifelong obsession, and how that obsession eventually reshaped her entire career.

Here’s a preview of that episode:

Why I Had This Conversation

I wanted Courtney on my show because her story is proof that Bucks County holds more layers than most people realize. We talk a lot on my podcast about houses and neighborhoods, but rarely about the wildlife that shares those same streets with us.

Courtney is a master falconer in Bucks County, which is one of the most tightly regulated pursuits in the country, and she has built an entire second career teaching people what that actually means. She also runs a private psychoanalytic practice, which meant our conversation moved between hawks, toddlers, and Freud in the same breath. I knew that combination would make for a conversation our listeners had never heard before, and it did not disappoint.

Watch the full episode here:

A Childhood Obsession That Never Faded

Courtney told me she discovered falconry at thirteen, watching a single scene in a movie where a character's bond with his falcon stopped her in her tracks. She had never been an outdoors kid in the traditional sense. Her family was not hunters or naturalists. But something about that relationship between person and bird clicked, and she has spent every year since chasing it.

By the time she reached Columbia University, she had already found her way to real falconers on Long Island, and she knew this would not stay a passing interest. What struck me most is that she did not wait for permission or a clear plan. She built her education and eventually her career around a feeling she could not shake, and she trusted that the details would sort themselves out later.

Building a Life That Makes Room for the Wild

Courtney is a licensed clinical social worker who went back to school specifically so she could support a falconry habit. That is not a typical career motivation, but it worked. She built her private psychoanalytic practice with enough flexibility to hunt several days a week during the season, something most working parents would never think to plan around.

"I knew that my job is to stay the course and be steady and do what I think is ethical and right and helpful in all those scenarios, in order to help those people and creatures."

That line stuck with me because Courtney was not just talking about her birds when she said it. She was talking about parenting a toddler, sitting with a therapy client who is struggling, and training a bird that just does not want to cooperate that day. The skill underneath all three is the same one: staying steady when something does not go the way you hoped.

Two Birds, Two Very Different Personalities

One of the moments I keep coming back to is how differently Courtney describes her two current birds. Medea, her red-tailed hawk, bonded with her almost instantly. Hecate, her eastern screech owl, hatched during the pandemic and was never socialized the way Courtney would have liked, so she now has strong opinions about hats, glasses, and anyone with especially poofy hair.

Courtney pointed out that both birds are native to Pennsylvania, which means the animals she brings to events and schools are literally the same species living in our own backyards. That detail changed how I think about the wildlife around Bucks County. We are not talking about exotic animals from somewhere else. We are talking about neighbors we rarely notice.

Bringing Birds of Prey into the Community

Through Raptor Jawns, she now runs live demonstrations for birthday parties, open houses, and schools, and she is expanding that programming as two new captive-bred birds join her flock next month. Because they were bred rather than taken from the wild, she will be able to train them from day one and let members of the public hold and feed them.

She specifically mentioned her wildlife education programs, including sessions built for classrooms, where kids get to see a hawk or owl up close, sometimes for the first time in their lives. If you want to bring that experience into a school setting, Courtney's wildlife education for schools is designed for exactly that.

"This bird has to serve a purpose for it. You need to make hunting, survival, living easier for it, or you are not building a relationship with the bird."

That is a different definition of relationship than most of us are used to. There is no cuddling involved. The connection is built entirely on mutual purpose, and Courtney has structured her entire program around giving people a taste of that.

What Changed for Me After This Conversation

I came into our conversation expecting a fun segment about hawks and owls. I left it thinking differently about how people build a life around something they cannot let go of, even when it does not make obvious career sense on paper.

"I must live with a bird of prey in order to be happy. I am not gonna give that up, so I gotta find a way to make it work."

Courtney did not treat falconry as a hobby that had to shrink to fit around parenthood and a therapy practice. She found a third form, education, which let her keep the parts of falconry she loved most while building something new for her kids and her community. That is a shift in thinking I plan to carry into how I talk about career changes with future guests.

Want to hear my full conversation with Courtney on falconry, therapy, and how she built a life around the birds she can't live without?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a master falconer?

A master falconer is the highest licensing level in falconry, a heavily regulated form of hunting that requires years of apprenticeship, state permitting, and ongoing wildlife agency oversight before someone can train and fly their own birds of prey.

What does Raptor Jawns offer for events?

Raptor Jawns brings live, rescued birds of prey to birthday parties, open houses, and community events, along with dedicated wildlife education programming for schools and other group settings across the Bucks County area.

Can Courtney Douds help with therapy services, too?

Yes. Alongside Raptor Jawns, Courtney runs a separate private practice as a Lacanian psychoanalyst, offering virtual therapy sessions for clients seeking a psychoanalytic approach.

Apply as a Guest on the Bucks Co Living Podcast

Bucks County is full of people quietly doing remarkable things, whether that is running a falconry program out of their backyard or building a business most of us have never heard of. If you have a story like Courtney Douds of Raptor Jawns, one rooted in this community and worth sharing, I would love to have you on my show!

Bucks Co Living is produced by Icons of Real Estate, the #1 Real Estate Podcast Network. If you are a real estate professional, apply to be a guest speaker across the network!