I thought this would be a good place for people to tell some of their hawking tales?
After, a good seasons' hunting I can recall some good hunts as well as some bad ones. I started the season well then a terrible thing happened, I lost my male harris hawk on some land that I had just aquired at the time. Only after going on this land a couple of times and examining the land did I realise what might of happend to him.
Uknown to me there was a wind trap in between small two hills with constant wind currents. The currents blew savagely in all directions and the vally headed towards the motorway.
After losing my male harris I went back on with a female harris I walk down and then up the vally and then recalled my harris that was on the otherside of the vally in a tree. As she was flying towards the me the wind currents got beneath her and blew her straight towards the M6(which was a fair distance away) the currents must have calmed down near the motorway and she landed on a fence. I ran to down and to the side of the feild got the bird on my fist.
There was virtually no wind on that day but somehow what wind there was was collected in this vally and was strong enough to blow my birrd off course.
On the day I lost the male there was abit of wind not enough to put you off flying, but unknown to me at the time the vally would have been like a tornnado. Only after examining land did I find out how my male harris might of been lost.
A very expensive lesson learned. I now always examine the layout of any land I get and always use telemetry.
sorry to hear that bud its a ****e thing wen it happen especially wen you know it could of been prevented. I lost a female peregrine bout 2 years ago she was only young first year bird coming on a treat big ****er flew free first year at 2 pound so a decent size. Had flown her free bout 15 times and she was starting to go up a bit. On they day that I lost her I didnt have telemtry on her and that was the day she went up too about 800 foot and on this day there was a bit of wind about anyway she got up too this height and with wind was strugaling then must of saw something down wind cause she just went. And that was the last time i saw her part from 4 days later wen I got a phone call of a warden in warrington so I rushed down thinking they had her but wen i got there it turn out they had found her dead in the canal attached to a drake mallard both drowned. to say i was gutted was an understatement I was ****ing heart broken she was all set for being a belter but like joe said you learn from your lessons and belive me i will never fly without telemtry again .
all the best
rob
ps joe youve posted they same post 2x in hawking waist coat
Thanks for letting me know about repeating my messages Rob must be my age lol.
Never got my harris back either mate.
It is Mat Baine, he's a decent lad went out flying with him all last season and will be again this year.
Going Scotland for a weeks hawking in October with him and two other lads should have some tales to tell when I get back.
Only got the Harris you seen last season so never got her on a hare. Don't think she had seen much until we got her. She was a bit to heavy when you seen her at the feild meet so wasn't at her best. She killed loads of Rabbits(lost count) and was just getting the hang of phes.(She hadn't been on any til we got her) One thing I noticed is that she can step up a gear and goes into turbo speed. I seen that kind of behaviour in Lurchers when running the hares at Lincoln the dogs that caught hares regularaly had that bit of extra speed when needed. Will try her again this season I think she'll be excellent. Think it was phil hudson who bred her.
I got a female Redtail for the hares this season. Am going to try abit of lamping with her as well she flys at 2lb 10oz. was bred by Dave Kenyon?
was the bird of jon I know you said it was bred by phil but jon had one bred by him also i think carl did aswell. yer i know dave kenyon not far from me wigan well his lad is anyway andy kenyon!
Were abouts you going in scotland if youve not sorted it yet could sort you a nice cottage with more rabbits than youve ever seen and blue hares, up in sutherland though bit off a treck.
Didnt know you were into the dogs aswell ive just been giving a mate a hand at the mo bringing on his salukixgrey bitch she looks like shes gonna be a cracker mainly go out with the lads for the fox though with the old bullx's
Im going picking that spar up at the weekend well hopefully if shes ready but wens shes right we'll get a day out?
No the bird I got off a lad near John he hardley had it on anything but manned her up beautifully she's very well mannered. sold her because he didn't think it was fair on the bird not flying her much. He wants her back now because he can come out with us and weve got loads of land to fly. Not selling her though.
Had dogs for 25 years but got fed up with the way things are when you run a dog sick of all the mither. finally got into hawking wanted to do it for years. It's fantastic.
The place were going is in Sutherland found it on the net Highland Hawking, you heard of it?
Where you gettin your Spar from? Are they expensive?
yer i know it, its run by hugh hagerty its bout 10 mins from the cottage i was gonna tell you about lol wen your up there make sure you get down to dunrobin castle n see the falconry display i used to work there its run by a good friend andy hughes. wen you go mention my name n andy will sought you a days hawking out with the harrises or peregrine which ever you want. if yuo fancy it and tell us the excact dates i'll sort summut out for you.
As for the spar the can be expensive but mines not will tell you bout it wen i see you lol but like i said we'll get a day out this season for defo!
yes i will be imprinting my spar have done p/r's in the past but imprints are the way too go for defo!
as for sutherland being the place for rabbits your not wrong mate its teeming with the ****ers I used too kill six or 7 a night with a single bird without trying and only being out for 3/4 hour.
makes hawking boring though wen your doing it for 6 or 7 months every night but for a week or 2 you cant beat it.
will sort something with our andy thats if me n my dad arnt up there we go up quite a lot
Rob is that your brother andy if it is tell him im sorry but i aint bending over backwards for him me m8s must of been having a laugh i dont know i was bladdered at the time ,hope your doing ok .
Hey Rob you've flew goshawks aint ye m8. I aint but will be. Can you give a bit of advise about em such are the german Gos'es any good etc. Aslo do you know any1 who has em.
yer ive flown a gos and will be doing again this year there hard work pal and im talking pr not imprints, imprints are alot easier and ****ing noisey. youve probs heard andys from the club lol. the bird i flew last year was 1/2 and 1/2 finish german people say that the finish have better tempraments but i wouldnt know only having flown one. this **** is temperamental and extrmely hard work they just dont forgive n forget like a harris and there no its 1/2 ounce over it'll be ok it wont it WILL play up maybe not imprints but pr's do. I srated my bird without a dog cause i was living in sutherland at the time n dog was in england so wen i brought him bck it was a ball ache to get him used to it and he never really did but did kill a bit of gear over the top of my springer late on in the season. this year though he'll be hammerd with dogs so should be right with them we'll see though lol!. wen you planning on getting a gos nxt season ? carl from the club flew a german female a season bck never saw it kill owt but phil hudson told us it was a goodun.
thanx for advise m8. Will be getting a gos probably next year but cant make me mind up wether to get a German gos, finnish or a hybrid? The German is cheaper. Them imprints are noisey b******s its hard decision to make m8.
I do remeber Andy's Gos went ferreting once and Andy turned up at the same place. My harris caught a cracking Rab which bolted from a warren(She had five rabs that day) then put my harris away and took a walk with Andy and his Gos. Had a great time watching it fly at pheasents. Unbelievably fast wicked chase.
Think I will stick to this red T and my Harris for now.
You got a gos ordered Rob for this year or waiting for somthing to come along?
Have you ever seen a harris hawk fly after recovering from a borken leg? Only I have a superior female that broke its leg a few months ago. The break did not go all the way through the leg so the vet didnt pin it just put in plaster. The plaster has been off now for 2 months and the vet said it would be ok to hunt, but Im not sure what do you think M8.
Johnny maybe your asking the wrong questions? You seem to know what your doing with your owl regarding training the dummy bunny etc.
Have you thought about where you going to fly your owl or getting permission to fly your hawk when you eventually get one.
Take some time out and learn the layout of the land you intend to fly learn your field craft and join a club to get useful info.
Start monitoring your owls wieght and get used to charting it down when you get your hawk.
These are all things you can plan and develope has you rear your Owl. I sure your doing the right thing by getting used to things to many people rush into things (me included) and end up with some form of disaster usually to the hawk. keep it up J.A your doing ok.
Joe ive been taking the owls weight daily ,i reckon his flying weight will be about 1lb9oz ,he,s nearly 6 weeks old now ive started putting him in the aviary for a few hours a day , its going like clock work hopefully in the next week he,ll be flying a bit more and ill do most of the manning in the aviary and then get him on his creace when he,s confident flying ,
Whats the harris like to train and fly ?
and is there an do,s and donts where you,ve made mistakes with your birds ?
Harris hawks are great birds to fly if you have put the time in with them. I had mine out regularly last season and I had some exeptional days out with her. She became incredibly fit and this had a enormous impact on her hunting performance her speed, flexibility, agility and strength all improved. I think its great watching a good harris hawk adapt itself to hunting in the different terrains we have in England.
I do rate harris hawks I don't rate some of the people who own them though!
A lot of flying makes a huge dfference but you need a lot of land and quarry to really get a bird to its peak and unless the land you hawk over is unusually well stocked you're overhunting the land if you hawk the same spots within two weeks of a previous visit.
You work out how much ground you can cover on a days hawking and that adds up to a lot of ground if you can find the time to hawk every day. I wish I could as I have really struggled for the past few seasons for time and quarry.
As i may need some help in the coming weeks i think i know most of manning but i could have some hiccups .
Im going to do me training mostly in the back garden its about 100 metres long so the creace work should be ok but ive heard to train him on the creance in different surroundings ,
am i right or wrong ,any response would be of great help ,
Hi johnny i have a bengalese eagle owl that i am in the middle of training now I think the creance work is okies in your garden as you have the space available and at 100 meters thats double the size of creance's i have seen advertised.
I may be wrong in my statement and if so i apologise to peeps out there i am very new to falconry.
Yea dead right Andy, its really important to try and not overhunt the land you fly. I try to fly at different locations all the time. I'm fortunate that I have time and permission on lots of land to fly my hawks, however there are some who dont have those privilages, but that dosn't meen that you still can't have some great days out. It does meen owever that your bird may never reach its full potential.
I would advise anybody to join a hawking club. Its a great way to meet other people who enjoy falconry as well as going on field meetings, watching your hawk and other species of hawks fly. It's also a great way to get invited to fly your hawks on some of the club members land.
Is it just me or is everyone praying for the Moult to finish? RTs on eggs Harris's got 2 young, falcons look like they've been in the spin dryer Cant wait to get back out!!!!
Last season was a bit up and down, had some cracking flights out of all my birds, took Hare, Rabbit, Feather, my male Harris wacked a hedgehog (no harm done to either of them) and I came home one evening to find my female redtail had screwed one of the neighbours cats up in a little ball, not amused!! Flew my male RT late this year and finished the season with a 70 yard straight line sprint on a rabbit.
She flies well at 2/10 but I've taken game with her at 2/12. She'll take anything, I normally fly her at rabbits, hares and pheasants but shes had everything from squirels to mice. She killed two wild cats on one of the farms I fly on a couple of years ago and I had about four phone calls from other farmers to see if I could do the same for them! Too risky!! My male RT is a better hunter, faster and more agile. He's got a great temperament and will come off a kill instantly for a tid-bit thrown to one side.
Yeah, pleanty of Hares, Lincolnshires flat as a fart so it really suits them, plenty of other game too, Farmers can be a bit funny though, just lost my best ground to a shooting sindicate. Been flying over it for 10 years but farmer had to give in to guns as they pay £2000 a head per year. Will have to get off me arse and find some more!!
I think the creance work is okies in your garden as you have the space available and at 100 meters thats double the size of creance's i have seen advertised.
