LIVE OAK — Inside Suwannee County there is a house surrounded by birds of prey perched on eight-foot-tall poles like scarecrows in a corn maze.

The raptors are tethered to the poles, but all 18 of them are well trained and behaved. They were trained by Kitty Tolson Carroll, a licensed falconer and owner of International Falconry Academy.

Carroll has more than 42 years of experience with falconry, ever since she was 13 years old when she saw the movie “My Side Of the Mountain.”

Based on a book of the same name, the movie follows a young boy who runs off into the Canadian wilderness and trains a baby falcon to hunt.

Inspired by the movie and book, Carroll became an apprentice in high school, trained falcons and built all of her own equipment.

“It was a lot of hard work,” Carroll said. “But it’s my passion. I loved every second of it.”

Now, she has her own apprentice, Tara McFadden, who Carroll helped catch her first wild falcon, a Red-Tailed Krider’s hawk called Reaper. Carroll is now helping McFadden train Reaper to eventually use for hunting.

Carroll offers half-day and full-day falconry workshops to introduce people to falconry. She explains how a person can get involved to become an apprentice and, eventually, a falconer.

Classes cover laws, ethics, hawks used, training techniques, hawk safety and behavior and real-world issues.

“The main thing is learning how to read the bird,” Carroll said. “You have to learn what their body language is telling you.”

She also takes her birds on tour. In a show called “Birds of the Gauntlet,” Carroll performs using hawks, falcons, owls and humans, wearing historic clothing of various time periods from middle ages to contemporary.

Her performances include simulated hunt demonstrations conducted with a traditional lure. The birds exhibit extreme speed and agility in the flights, while they dive and swoop during the show.

Carroll’s birds are not only just for show, however. She also offers pest bird control by releasing her birds on pest birds like gulls, pigeons and geese at public spaces.

She is able to help drive away nearly any pest bird species following natural laws and using no poisons or chemicals.

“Even the most persistent nuisance birds tend to find other places to frequent when they see hawks and falcons nearby,” Carroll said.

For anyone interested in learning more about falconry or using hawks to get rid of pests, call 386-776-1960 or email Carroll at hawkmom74@birdsofprey.net.