pointer
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Everything posted by pointer
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You clearly have the time, land etc to fly multiple hawks. I know when my hawk was injured last season I did wonder if I could keep two hawks so that I would never be without one to hunt with. I guess I was beginning to convince myself that I could fly them together or one after the other or lamp one or both. Common sense though made me realise that working full time will always make hunting one hawk enough of a challenge for part of the season. I keep holidays back to use up in the hunting season but even then it's not ideal, I've got to know a lad who also has a Harris so that will mean if t
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Now this type of thread is why I pay for an Internet connection every month. Although you have a lot of time available to you what happens when you get those days, often several days in a row, when there's only a few hours when it's not raining or windy? You won't get time then to fly them all. Or do you have other people that would take them out? Also why do you hunt Harris in a cast. I've done it and will do so again this season but only in woodland. I find it a bit unsporting to be honest even if I can appreciate the pack hunting style. It does result in kills though but the few times I've
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That's fine even though the fly is massively more important to the capture of a fish than a hawks anklet is to what it catches. I wish you well, it's a great sport.
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I agree with much of that and training and entering a bird is great. In saying that unless a bird is killed very few of us will get to do it very often........they live a long time and most people only need one bird at a time.
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I was talking about the general state of bird of prey ownership but I'd be interested to know how many birds you fly in a season and for how long etc etc. That would be a far more interesting thread than this one. Out of interest why don't you fly the peregrines? Are you drinking now lol. Surely this thread is a criticism of those of us that don't make our own gear. For the record I think I could soon learn how to make anklets and jesses, I'd imagine theres a few YouTube clips about it. The thing is until I feel like I'm missing out on something I won't bother to try. As for making gear be
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I've only had a hawk for a short time but I quickly learnt that for all the talk about the time it takes up etc etc there's a dark side to falconry which is the keeping and breeding of loads of birds of prey that are rarely if ever flown. Now I hate all that, pedlars do my head in. I thought the dog world was bad but falconry is terrible. Fly a hawk for a little while then pen it up for life for breeding. It's hidden away and not talked about. Yet many in the falconry world would criticise what I do with my one hawk. I'm passed caring, no amount of "doing it right by tradition" is going to
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No drinking I've been up the dales for the evening lol. I was just giving my opinion on a thread you started. Give me one example of how making my own equipment will make my hawk a better worker and I'll agree your right. I'm flying the same Harris as last season, one hawk is more than enough for me.........I'd hate to become one of those pricks that keeps a load of barely used birds of prey. It's bad enough they have to sit in an aviary for months during the moult.
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Your absolutely right, I cannot be fecking bothered. If that makes me a knob that's just fine, I stand behind what I posted. If you feel you have to make your own gear to be the real deal then make EVERYTHING yourself. In fact go to the abatoir and obtain and cure your own leather, anything less is cheating lol.
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I buy everything in, I don't want to learn how to make stuff and I don't feel I'm missing out by never learning. It is obviously seen as important by many in the falconry world but coming from the other hunting sports it's not an issue for me in any way. You get ferreting and terrierman who make their own nets but when I was using nets I could buy superb nylon nets way better than anything I could have made for a good price. When I used stop nets out with the ferrets and lurchers I used the carbon poles and rubber grommets rather than cutting and drying my own hazel sticks. Some people make l
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There's nothing much worse than killing a farm cat right in front of the farmer. When lamping rats with dogs they can turn up anywhere just like chickens so dogs have to be 100% steady to them. Feral cats can be different and mine have killed a couple of them but dogs aren't stupid. All my dogs would have tried to catch a pheasant out in the open but they know that when ratting around release pens they aren't to be touched.
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I bet he will love it.
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No problem at all mate I hope she gives you a good season.
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My hawk is still overweight but we fitted new anklets and telemetry mount and had her out for short sessions. However she isn't responding very well and isn't fully committed to catching what is put up. Still it's good to be out again and we have seen a few nice points by the dog. We've been shooting canny numbers of rats and the dogs are still picking a few up around the stubbles. Went Lamping last night and got a mates young lurcher its first night time bunny, there's always something to keep you busy lol.
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The hawk is slowly dropping in weight so it's just a case of waiting until I can get her back out. Until then I've had to fill the time in with a bit of ratting, rabbiting and carp fishing. However all I want to do is go hawking and it's becoming frustrating not being able to. Anyway I thought I'd spend a few minutes today breaking our lasses terrier pup to ferrets, chickens and the pheasants. At first as expected he wanted to chase them but in time after a few harsh words for me lol he ignored everything to the point of chewing on a stick in the pen whilst the birds gained enough confidence
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Even around buildings if the moon is out it usually means less rats are out and about on any place I've been shooting on. It's usually not as good if it's near freezing as well.
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With nothing much to do but wait for her to get back to a flying weight we've been up the dales a couple more times and as always now that the crops have been cut down the dogs get to catch rats in the verges next to the stubble fields. No big numbers just two or three a time but its fun while it lasts. On Point
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I love it too, I just wish there were more squirrels living on our permissions. I have enjoyed beating rats out of hedgerows for mine as well. It might not be for everyone but I like ratting in any form so it was natural to me to want to catch some with a hawk. I'm happy to leave mine to it if she's got the job under control but if I can't see the quarries head I'm in there ASAP and in a second nothing's able to bite her.
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Don't put that on the IFF you'll have them all getting upset about the dangers of squirrel hawking lol. I imagine I'll be running into some myself soon enough.
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I had mine out for a walk again yesterday, I've started to slowly reduce her food and I'm hoping to get new gear on her this weekend. Once she's somewhere near I'll get her out and about. Until then I'll have another few trips out with the dogs to get a few rabbits in the freezer and I've got to go and pick my new GWP pup.
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Last year my hawk was plain dangerous at top weight. Even when I'd dropped her weight she would lash out at anything that came near her and we had a bit of a job getting jesses on so she could be cast. I walked into her aviary yesterday and she jumped onto the glove like she would have at her flying weight. Once tied to the glove I took her out a walk where she was completely at ease, once back home she hopped onto the scale like she does before a hunting trip. At no point did she try and foot me or act up in any way. Today due to the strong winds all I could do were a few high jumps and have
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Mines only dropped the outer two primaries a few days ago so I'm a bit away yet, it's frustrating because there's rabbits there to get now. For now I'm having to make the most of the pre season time by watching a mates young lurcher hunting around the reeds and ferns. There's no where near the rabbit numbers of times past but it's looking promising. It'll be interesting to see where we are at come Christmas time. Hopefully the hawks well served and a sapling lurcher having done some canny sessions day and night.
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Yeah an early season leveret would be handy, I want to catch as many species of quarry as possible but after last season I'll be happy with a good number of rabbits. Inevitably when hunting with her locally moorhen, rats and the odd squirrel will be caught.
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I know what you mean about the music lol There's some clips on there with gosses and vizslas which are a canny watch.
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Good luck mate, I tried for hare a couple of times last season but it was in fairly windy conditions and at the end of the season when everything that's still alive is harder to get close to. I was just saying to my mate last night after we'd come back from getting his lurcher pup a rabbit that once our hawks are going well we should try for a hare.
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There's a load of stuff on you tube. Do a search for whatever you want to see and I'm sure you'll find vids.
