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In the cool, calm air in Antelope Valley north of Reno, Jim Tigan surveyed the blue sky as his saker falcon, named Beebe, swooped 250 feet above. Tigan let out a quick whistle, Beebe pointed her beak downward and let gravity take over. She saw the lure, a tennis ball attached to a rope held by Tigan, and whizzed by it at around 100 mph."She's one of our slower falcons," Tigan's wife, Kathleen, says with a smirk.Last week, Jim Tigan traveled to the Pebble Beach Golf Course and brought along Fluffy, a steppe eagle. Fluffy has brown feathers, a 5-foot wingspan, yellow beak and sharp claws.Every weekend, the restaurant at the famous golf course is packed with people enjoying breathtaking ocean views from the patio. Oftentimes, annoying seagulls flock for scraps and disturb diners who are paying generous bills for a relaxing outdoor experience.In the wilderness, Jim Tigan said, falcons and eagles circle the sky to scare away predators from their young and to establish territory. At Pebble Beach, Fluffy is doing basically the same thing. Instead of protecting baby falcons, Fluffy is helping Pebble Beach diners."We create a no-fly zone," Kathleen Tigan said. "We put pressure and stress on the (pestering) bird, and they actively leave the area."PHOTOS: Wild animals on the Central CoastThe Tigans are falconers who own Tactical Avian Predators and Raptor Adventures and train predatory birds to scare away pesky gulls, blackbirds, and starlings from golf courses, vineyards, oil refineries, military bases and other commercial properties. They have a variety of birds that help with varying tasks."Everything is scared of the owl," Kathleen Tigan said."(Beebe) is like a big scarecrow," said Jim Tigan. "What we do is abatement. Falcons hunt other flying birds in the wild. We're just using nature. We're altering nature so that it's happening in front of us."The Tigans have two dogs that also help with their work. Ali is a Saluki and Annabelle is a wirehaired pointing griffon. The two are tasked with protecting the birds when they're on the ground.The average price of a falcon, Jim Tigan said, is anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000. Plus, the animals, which can live to 25 years and up, are like family members, so they want to protect them.Jim Tigan has 33 years of experience in the field and started the business in 2002. Katheen Tigan has a dog breeding background but has been involved with falconry since 2006. But they don't do it for the money. They simply love the animals."We very, very, very seldom kill anything in this business," said Jim Tigan, who helped in conservation efforts early in his career saving bald eagles and founded the Alaska Raptor Rehabilitation Center in Sitka, Alaska.The Tigans regularly visit vineyards to scare off birds that feast on a winery's grapes. They take the dogs and a bird on an ATV and let the dogs loose, especially Annabelle because of the hunting dog's strong sense of smell.The dog will let out a small bark when pesky birds are near. A falcon is released into the air, and if the birds don't retreat, Jim Tigan will blow a whistle as a command for the falcon to stoop, reaching speeds near 100 mph. That usually does the trick.When that falcon comes to a halt on the ground, the dog will rush over to make sure other predators don't harm the bird. The dogs and birds get along well, too. A YouTube video, "Owl love for a dog," of Annabelle and the owl Louise playing has been viewed 1.1 million times.