pointer
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Everything posted by pointer
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My hawk caught her first rabbit in the lamp last night. It was only half grown and it was easily flown down. It was a very clear night so the bunnies weren't far from safety so I fed her from her kill and boxed her up. We then got the lurchers out for a few runs. My bitch is clearly too old now for work and although I had a vet check her eyes a few weeks ago her sight seems to be failing. I should be buzzing about getting my hawk started on the lamp but I'm feeling depressed about my dog. So sad they have to get old.
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The plan was to go Lamping last night but fog made that impossible, these things happen but it meant I didn't hunt her yesterday. With more mist and fog due tonight we went ferreting for an hour but although she had some good flights she didn't catch anything. One bunny towed her across the field before breaking free and then managing to get to ground before she made contact again. She then missed another one and three more bolted before she returned to us, after that we had to dig the ferret out. By then the light was fading so we had to stop. Just one of those days when things don't go right
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What bird do you fly ?? Ive been lucky enough to have mates who sorted me out some fantastic land to fly my hawk over, it was a struggle for part of last season messing about on bits of land with low rabbit numbers. Mixi comes and goes, it's hitting my local areas now as it always does this time of year. Last year was particularly bad, it remains to be seen what survives this outbreak.
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I was late getting back from work today and by the time I'd grabbed my hawk and gear it was almost 7 pm. With the light starting to fade in an area of heavy cover I wasn't expecting much but she was keen to be off and flying. She circled around before crashing into cover, she had the rabbit by its back end and was struggling a bit but I got to her in time to secure her quarry. She is very calm on a kill now.
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Thanks mate. I've been suffering with a cold the last two days ( man flu ) but she got to kill another rat yesterday and she caught another two rabbits this evening. She was a bit overweight today and it showed as she gave up on a rabbit that she maybe would have caught if she was bang on weight. I was with her on kills when more rabbits were bolting as often happens which is annoying as many sets weren't occupied.
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Thanks mate, I remember you said a while ago that they get better every season. I stood on top of a dry stone wall today and a couple of rabbits poked there heads out of holes but she didn't try and get them, she just gripped the glove tighter in anticipation. Then when they were clear and running she was away after them. It was a new thing for me to experience........ A hawk waiting for a rabbit to bolt even though it could see its quarry. It's something the best of ferreting dogs learn but some dogs never have the patience so to see a bird do it was great. Although I didn't want to stop
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Yeah I lost a few days when my hawk got soaked after moorhens last season. For the record I don't go looking for rats we are just running into them and the vast majority get away. I can see how much my hawk has improved, she couldn't seem to catch anything last season. She just seemed to have so many near misses. I've seen a massive improvement this week with how she isn't overshooting rabbits and seems to turn with them back uphill. She looks way more persistent. The trouble with not having experience with other peoples hawks and basically just doing it all from scratch is I don't know what a
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There's been a few lads on the Facebook sites getting rats this week, one with a goshawk was trying to get magpies but his hawk has been nailing rats instead. I think having ratting dogs will increase the chance of my hawk catching a few herself, there were a few times last season when the hawk and dog were catching rats at the same time. As for moorhens they came in handy for me last year with such a low rabbit population. They might be easy to catch at times but I found that with them diving into the water or hiding in reeds they could also give some sport and usually got away. My pointer ha
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I found it really strange when reading diaries on IFF that rats weren't a regular quarry for any bird of prey as they are just so numerous. All hedges around fields once cut will have rats in them and most farms have a few around the buildings. I've bolted rats high up on the north York moors and last season in Teesdale miles away from a farm building. Pheasant pens and game crop usually have a good rat population as do flight ponds. Every fishing lake I've been on has rats as does every water course. I know that last season my hawk became obsessed with rats and it is hard to get her to m
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Another nice hunt about but again the cover made things difficult and she couldn't connect with anything. Not wanting to blank without giving her every chance we walked a hedge and she was able to catch a rat feeding too far out from safety.
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Proof That Not All Falconers Are Arseholes Lol
pointer replied to youcanthide...BANG's topic in Falconry
I've joined a few on Facebook not sure of the names but I just typed in falconry and went from there. It's how the Internet used to be with lads posting about a day out hunting with a few pictures not bogged down in debate and theory etc. -
We were out for a couple of hours yesterday and my hawk was smashing down into reeds and cover which was growing out of small pools of water and marshy ground. I could hear Moorhens and saw a couple of rats but she just couldn't catch something. She tried hard and I really wanted her to be rewarded for it but it wasn't to be and eventually we ran out of daylight. This afternoon after work we went ferreting, the rabbits weren't bolting which resulted in several three foot digs through rocky ground which slowed us down. She missed a couple but did get to catch two rabbits one of which turned
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Proof That Not All Falconers Are Arseholes Lol
pointer replied to youcanthide...BANG's topic in Falconry
It's rubbish now, the best stuff on the Internet is now on Facebook. -
Thanks lads, Last season was pretty rubbish until the very end when we got on to better land and started getting regular flights and kills. However I pushed her too much some days trying to get one more rabbit, I was trying to make up for lost time I suppose but I was robbing her too much at times and it had a bad affect on her. I won't do that again, if she's happy I'm happy.
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We were out yesterday but she was a touch over weight and wasn't responding very well. However she was looking for stuff which had me following her through a wooded area with chest high nettles to contend with. It was hard to keep an eye on her and feeling I was only along for the ride with little influence over what was happening I cut the session short. After work today we went out but I had to pick up a couple of ferrets first which meant we didn't get onto the land until later than planned. A rabbit was bolted which the hawk caught and although I wanted to carry on I let her have a good f
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Nice one, keep us posted.
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Another rat tonight which was caught in thick cover. Another fairly difficult extraction after a smooth trade off. I'd have liked to have carried on but I think it best to go for single kills for a while. I like rat hawking but I think I'll take her somewhere tomorrow that only has rabbits. All the local hedges around where I go have rats in them and my hawk is obsessed with rats. She will just keep flying back to where she thinks she can catch one so I need to travel to other areas. The dogs are getting rats on almost every walk but it won't last for long, the food source from the cut fields
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I'm much the same but this summer I've had to do a lot of work around the garage, yard and garden and it has meant I had very little time to go fishing, if I could have afforded to pay people to do the work I would have. I only had about fifteen days out fishing this summer. That is a huge sacrifice for me to make but I felt I had no choice. I had wanted to take part in the WSF challenge and get the forty species badge but couldn't. I also wanted to take my overall species count to 100 but didn't. Working full time and trying to do as much hunting and fishing as I want with limited funds is
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Last season I didn't get going until October and then the hawk was bashing into cover after stuff but rarely catching. It's going to be interesting to see if she has more success in heavy cover areas this time round. For the time being there are rabbits locally but mixy is here so I want to try and get what we can until numbers drop. I'm optimistic that even with mixi there will be more rabbits about than last season.
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Cheers mate, The covers a nightmare, it's been hard to spot her in trees. I didn't take a dog with us today because I wanted to make sure she was responding ok first.
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My hawk has been taken out for short sessions but being overweight she hasn't been hunting properly. On Friday she flew at a rabbit but veered off and landed in a tree. I didn't fly her yesterday and I was seriously hung over today after attending a mates 30th birthday party. My head was still pounding this afternoon when I dragged myself up to the aviary. I could tell she was somewhere near weight by her general attitude and as i walked to where I could let her off she was looking everywhere and reacting to the sound of rabbits in cover and pigeons in the trees. I let her fly into a tree and
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Lost My Little Boys Harris Hawk Please Help!
pointer replied to top-rabbiting-man's topic in Falconry
I hope this lads got his hawk back. I get paranoid about telemetry and I'm alway checking that it's still on the hawk every time I can when she's flying free. I keep a battery tester in the car and once it says the battery is half used I throw it away for another one. Personally I wouldn't fly a bird without telemetry or insurance. -
Cheers mate Its Sam's dog but I might get to see it out ratting lol.
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Keep us all updated, looks great .
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We had just lost our old terrier and Forest offered me a pup. It took a few weeks for Sam to decide if she wanted another dog so soon but he kept a pup back for us. Just a good lad wanting to help out a mate's lass. Anyway here's ours.
