Jump to content

I'm Sick Of The Wind


pointer

Recommended Posts

She has only recently started to soar around us when out hunting bushes and hedges. When I go to the dales I've only flown her off the glove at bolters. She did attack a ferret earlier this season but seems ok with them now. I can see the benefits of having the hawk soaring so its something I can look to in the future.

Link to post

  • Replies 82
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Well that's me done for the season, the cut on her foot is still an issue and i was back at the vets on Monday for more medication. The plan is to see what another few more days does on the antibiotic

I had an invite out after work today, we only had an hour before dark but she had a few flights at rabbit before perching up in a tree looking down. She wouldn't move on so I had to go back to get her, as I got near she landed in the narrow ditch and stood looking into the reeds. The hawk was agitated and because she looked so sure there was something in there I slowly walked down the ditch towards her treading on the short reeds and she suddenly jumped at something which turned out to be a vole. Now usually that would be nothing worth posting about but it was the way it happened that I found quite enjoyable to see. The nearest thing I can describe it to would be flushing out a rat for a terrier, it was certainly the first thing she has caught whilst actually being on the ground waiting for her chance to catch her prey. The way she was looking into the reeds tilting her head reminded me of a marking lurcher or one waiting for a rabbit to bolt

 

Anyway It was a bit different from the usual dive down from a tree or flight down a hillside and was her 50th catch of the season. Thats nothing special but I feel we have made progress lately and with more land available for us to hunt over next season and with my hawk working better over the dogs all the time I'm optimistic we will only get more success as a team.

  • Like 1
Link to post
  • 2 weeks later...

Nothing much to post about lately, mixi has hit the area again and so the hawk or the dogs were getting easy kills. Then my hawk caught a baby rabbit in a blackthorn bush. She cut her toe doing it as she dragged it up into the bush and although I cleaned and sprayed her feet with F-10 as I do all the time her toe started to swell up so after a trip to the vets she was on a course of anti- biotics. I didn't hunt her for a week but let her fly around a few trees every day.

Today she was overweight but as her toe is back to normal I let her follow on and although she was hanging back ignoring quarry being flushed further ahead she did grab a rabbit that doubled back and she couldn't resist the temptation. I'll fly until this weekend and put her away for the moult it's been a pretty lean season with little to show for it.

 

A2142E87-99F3-4B25-949D-D48BC8C75488.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to post

My hawks foot is healing nicely but I didn't want to risk her opening up the cut again or getting bit so I've had to turn down the invite to fly her through woods where squirrels live. So I've been flying her on scrappy bits of land where nothing much is ever seen just to get her out and about. The hawk though had other ideas and caught a rat on Thursday and another this morning. Thankfully she wasn't bitten by either, I'd give Usain Bolt a good race when I see her fly at squirrel or rat. Mind seeing as I need to kill something upon arrival I'm more like Oscar Pistorius.

Link to post

Well that's me done for the season, the cut on her foot is still an issue and i was back at the vets on Monday for more medication. The plan is to see what another few more days does on the antibiotics and metacam and then if needed she needs to be sedated and given more treatment. It's not good having to treat her when ideally she would be put away to moult but there's no choice.

 

The season didn't go to plan. We didn't get out as early as I'd have liked so lost a few weeks there and her injury has cost her most of this month. I've been flying her the odd time where I didn't expect to see anything but these hawks seem to always find something to fly at and around here that's often a rat which is the last thing I'd want when her foots not 100%. So that's why I've laid her up completely and can't risk even giving her some light exercise.

The biggest advance we made was being able to go out with my pointer, something which she wouldn't tolerate when I first got her at the end of last season, in time she would also follow along when I also had my lurcher out. However whilst she was making a few kills out with the two dogs I knew she wasn't going in fully committed if one if them was close to the quarry. By mid January though this had changed and she will now crash down in front of either dog. She will also work happily with Arcticguns spaniel so I think we have progress in that area.

Rabbit numbers have been very low which inevitably had an effect, we cannot hunt what isn't there. Up until New Year things were looking bleak but Zola1 and Will.i.am got me out into better land and by using ferrets we were able to get her flights on the dales rabbits. Rabbit numbers up there are nowhere near what they were a few years ago but at least we could find some to ground. Seeing her flying down the steep banks and getting in good long flights turned the season around for us and until she cut herself we were getting some hunting done.

I'd been invited out into woods and other land but her injury has meant that we couldn't go but hopefully it will be available to us next season.

The weather always seemed against me but maybe that's just part of this game and I have to accept that, a lack of quarry has been our main problem. I had planned to make lamping a regular part of this seasons hawking but that didn't happen. I tried her a few times on the local lamp shy bunnies with no success and when I could have got onto better land recently the wind was gale force or raining.

I wanted to take at least 100 head with her but we fell short at 59. This is partly my fault for not getting her out onto land which actually contains something for her to fly after and a particularly windy season. Up until January she certainly missed some stuff due to her not being 100% with dogs. With a late start, losing a couple of weeks after another hawk grabbed her and then losing this month to a cut foot I'm sure we can do better next season.

  • Like 2
Link to post

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...