About Us

Thomas JV Cullen III
Chief Falconer

Tom III began working with birds of prey back in 1961 at the age of 10 years old after having watched a Disney film called, Rusty and his Falcon. He spent the next 9 years learning and gaining experience from all types of native birds located in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York State. While attending college in England, he began working for Phillip Glaser, at the first of its kind, National Bird of Prey Centre, in Gloucestershire, England. After two years he was offered the position of curator and stayed there for the next 7 years flying, learning and managing one of the largest private collections of raptors in the world. After leaving England he spent the next 7 years traveling the world, learning falconry and about different raptor species from areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Botswana, Australia, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and several countries in Central Europe. Upon returning from his adventures, in 1981 he settled down back where he grew up in Goshen, NY. Since then he has established one of the largest privately owned and operated raptor breeding programs in the United States.

In 1996, TC Management Inc was established to design and implement the JFK International Airport Bird Strike Program. This program lasted 2 years under our operation at which time our falconry program, using 12 falcons and 4 hawks, was able to maintain previous bird strike numbers based upon shooting and killing over 60,000 seagulls as they entered the airport property.

At this time in 1998 we began our Falconry Excursions program, our one-of-a-kind falconry experience tours.

In 2003, as a salute to America and the resilience of New York City post the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Tom was hired by the NYC Parks Department to completely control and manage the Bald Eagle Release Program at Inwood Hill Park on the Northern tip of Manhattan Island. During this 3 year project 15 adolescent Bald Eagles were relocated to an artificial nest in the trees of Inwood Hill Park. There are currently numerous Bald Eagle nesting pairs within 50 Miles of NYC, with most of those birds coming from this release program.

Since then Tom has been in involved with several more unique bird management and falconry programs. Tom is currently the Chief Falconer for TC Management and his experience and contacts throughout the world has allowed us to grow into the full service pest bird and falconry abatement business we are today.

Thomas JV Cullen IV
Director of Operations
 

Tom IV was born into falconry. His father and mother have both been master falconers for his entire life and he began handling the birds that were bred at their house since he was able to walk. In 1996 at nine years of age, Tom became the youngest person to pass the NY State Falconers Exam with a score of 92%. After receiving his license he began to work for his father at his various falconry and bird management projects.

Tom had the privilege to attend and graduate from the prestigious New York Military Academy, located down the road from the USMA at West Point, where he learned disciple, strong work ethic, organizational skills, leadership techniques, and character skills that he uses today. He then studied zoology at the SUNY Oswego. He has also learned under the tutelage of biologists Dr. Heinz Meng (the first person to successfully breed Peregrine Falcons in captivity) and Dr. William Robinson, in the trapping and tagging of raptor species for over 20 years. He has since used his life experience to continue his fathers work and build TC Management's falconry and bird management services into the industry leader. Since taking over operations, TC Management has tackled the hardest pest bird jobs around the world, but most specifically one of the hardest environments in the world, New York City.