Lower Beaverdam News Today

Rodney Stotts’s journey with falconry means knowing when to let go

Much of DC beyond the original L’Enfant city and Georgetown consists of “streetcar suburbs,” namely late-19th and early-20th Century communities that grew up around streetcar lines. While electric streetcars didn’t extend to Maryland until the 1890s, Washington’s first steam railroad line, to Baltimore, opened in 1837, and commuters from Maryland rode trains into the city as early as the Civil War.

Rodney Stotts is one of the few Black master falconers in North America, but he didn't always look destined for that path. He details his journey from drug dealer to master falconer in his new book, Bird Brother.