pointer
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Everything posted by pointer
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The weather over the last two weeks has been terrible but I cant complain about this seasons weather overall.
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The plan for the weekend was to go out locally this morning because the forecast was for snow in the dales, then tomorrow we were going to go to the dales. However the forecasters got it wrong and the weather wasn't bad today but is due to get worse tomorrow. We arrived at a farm this morning but guns could be heard going off in the field bordering our permission. We figured it was pigeon shooters so didn't hunt the area as I don't like my hawk being near shooters I don't know and we may have affected their sport which isn't right. So I went to another place and ferreted a few sets under thick
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I liked the Emma Ford book, its basic but I used it when building my hawks aviary and the food and health care section is good. I also handed it over to the engineer who made my two bow perches. However like a lot of books if you take away the housing,feeding and basic care the hunting part is small.
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No I can't stop her and she will put in a massive effort to catch one. So I've avoided them and as I'm now flying mainly off the fist at bolted rabbits if a pheasant gets up Ive got hold of her. On the land I have where she's following on we don't run into many pheasants which is good because they drag her away. I'm happy with rabbits and the odd squirrel or rat. She flew a lamped rabbit tonight but it kept jinking just in time to make her miss. She got up off the ground twice to try and catch it so I can't fault the effort. The only rabbit we saw in five fields.
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Personally I'd buy martins book and nick Foxs "Understanding birds of prey".I also feel that other books are useful to the Harris Hawker that will use dogs and ferrets. I still think Plummers "ferrets" is a good read as is "the versatile gundog" by Guy Wallace.(There will be good spaniel books I'm sure if you prefer them to HPRs). If your new to hunting I would get your local library to order you in all kinds of books on Falconry, the better ferreting and dog books(avoid the Bezzant rubbish ) and a few shooting books could be helpful. Where to find quarry to shoot is much the same as where t
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I get to walk over some large bits of land but soaring and the pursuit of pheasants can cause problems. I now avoid pheasants whenever possible.
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Sorry I've just seen your post. Rain is worse than wind, my hawk can handle fairly strong wind now. In fact she can handle strong wind but uses it to go high and wide and can then see stuff way off permission and it scares me so really she can handle the winds easily but I can't handle the stress lol.
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I wish I had something more to post but the weather has stopped me getting out this weekend. She caught another rat in the week plus missed a single rabbit in the lamp.
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Your asking an impossible question. The reason why there are so many types of hunting never mind the uncountable number of other hobbies is because different people enjoy different things. Look on the ferreting section at the lads who use nets, they choose that way of hunting over all the others but you would have to pay me to use a net again to catch a rabbit. I have seen hare coursing but never wanted a hare coursing dog myself. Only you can decide if hunting with a hawk provides enough entertainment, as for an adrenaline kick I can recommend skydiving.
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Hunting with a harris hawk takes no more commitment than running a lurcher or working terriers etc etc etc. Any hobby taken seriously takes up all a persons spare time, I knew a stamp collector and a couple of metal detectorists that were obsessed with what they did. Serious fishermen make your average harris hawker look like a part time messer lol. The fact remains that you have to really want to do something,anything. I would love to give fish keeping a serious go but my hunting and fishing means that its impossible and having a two four foot tanks wasn't enough so I got rid of it all.
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Has anybody read the Coulson book? I've seen it reported that its the Harris Hawkers bible but it's not cheap and I do wonder what can be taken from it. They are obviously vastly knowledgable on the subject but hunt different land, different quarry and I believe are into that mass pack hunting with a load of Hawks which isn't practical or necessary in Britain. Still Id buy it if its packed full with previously unpublished thoughts and ideas on how to get the best out of a Harris.
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Well done mate
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Yeah a lot of those rabbits stand little chance of escaping with those fast gosses behind them, I stand further back with my slow harris lol. Mind I don't have a problem with it, they have the numbers to go at and with any type of hunting I've done with quantity inevitably comes enough quality. It's the law of averages.
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Yeah it's real quality footage and they obviously have good Hawks and dogs. I hunt over similar land but we no longer get the number of rabbits they are finding. Parts of Yorkshire clearly still have good numbers. He's been putting more clips up over the last few weeks, they do a lot of hunting. Good for them and the bloke is always ready to answer questions or give advice.
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To be honest I thought Facebook was for divvies to post hourly reports about what they were eating etc lol but when the hunting forums died I was told to take a look on the Facebook forums. I didn't even know it had forums but some of them are simply superb. It would be impossible to keep up with what everyone is doing but some lads are out there flying all sorts of birds of prey and getting stuff done. No theory, no big talk or bragging just keen people out hunting as it should be. Some of the videos I've seen posted on there of Harris Hawks opened my eyes to the possibilities of what they
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I find it strange when I see posts saying " buy a good book " because the Internet contains far more information than any book ever could. To be honest it amazes me that books and magazines are still produced. The Facebook pages in one day will show more accounts of hunting with Hawks with pictures and video than all the falconry books put together. Nothing seems to happen on the IFF but the threads are still there regarding how to build mews, where to place perches etc, etc, etc. No book I've read tells the newcomer how to realistically handle a squirrel that's biting your hawk up and the inj
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I'd read most of the falconry books before I bought a hawk and I think Nick Foxs one is by far the most informative. The rest are a good read and the Hollingshead ones make you want to fly and hunt a hawk, he puts his stories across so well that he is by far the best writer. You can feel the passion he has for Harris Hawks. However with most books if you take out the what food they can eat, housing and ferreting section your left with something that can be read in a short time and there's only so much that can be put in. The Internet was the only place I could research the finer details, p
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We had travelled for almost an hour yesterday to be met by fairly heavy rain. The forecasters had got it wrong and after waiting half an hour the sky was only getting darker so we head back home. On the afternoon the Hawks were taken out but didn't see much except for a rabbit that my hawk caught in the fork of a tree but couldn't keep hold of. She was left with feet full of fur. One lucky bunny. This morning we were out checking land I haven't hunt over with a hawk but had good days with lurchers in the past. I wanted to make sure I knew the boundaries. It's got potential and some nice
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Too wet and windy to fly the hawk yesterday. Today after a morning spent out with the dogs I took her out but the wind was strong. She caught a rat then went on the soar and went high and away from me out of sight. I tracked her down at the edge of a field on top of a moorhen. Unfortunately a tall fence that I couldn't climb over was between us and I had a fairly long walk to get to her praying that she wasn't eating too much moorhen. Thankfully she hadn't and with the wind getting even stronger I wasn't going to push my luck any further and went home.
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We struggled to find rabbits to ground this afternoon but just about bolted enough or flushed enough from cover to make the trip worthwhile. My mates hawk caught three and mine got to grab two..........and a vole, I don't know how she spotted it never mind caught it in bracken. The ferret bolted a rat which slipped into the stream and swam underwater before going somewhere into the bank. My hawk had gone after it and was on the ground looking around for it when two rabbits bolted which would have made for good flights, typical. Don't know where rats come from that high up but you get the odd o
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Had a walk out with the dogs this morning seeing a few points from the pointer and runs with the lurchers. They didn't get many but they did find and mark sets that we didn't know where there. This afternoon we had an hour out with the Hawk where a few things were flown at but missed, then a squirrel was spotted but I didn't want my hawk going for it because she took a few nips the other day and I'm keeping an eye on her feet and she's on antibiotics just to be safe. Anyway it got away even though the hawk did clip it's rear end. After that we had a moorhen running along a stream. It kept swim
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We had another session in woodland the other day where half a dozen squirrels were flown. The sport is superb and both Hawks got to catch hold of a squirrel each. The Hawks are starting to work well together and it's clear that one will hold back letting the other fly something only getting involved if the other hawk misses. My view on cast flying is changing a bit and in woodland most stuff still gets away so I still find it sporting. We had a good afternoon yesterday. A mate had invited us up onto his permission and the Hawks got to catch five rabbits between them with some nice flights
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Good choice, so far my pointer pup is very sensible and apart from eating her kennel hasn't been any bother at all. That could all change when she grows up and realises what her nose is for lol but so far so good. My hawk doesn't like her but a summer spent moulting with the pup kennelled in front of her aviary should sort that out.
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Nice one mate. All the breeds can do the job for a hawk I suppose it's just down to personal preference.
