pointer
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Everything posted by pointer
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I still enjoy a variety of hunting sports and whilst I'm not wishing my season away I must admit that after not catching a fish since September I'm ready to dust the rods off again. I actually spend a lot more time fishing in the summer than I do hunting in the winter now. I can fish just about any day I choose. I'm a bit of a weirdo when it comes to fishing I love the hard fight from a carp or a day at sea after cod etc but I've become obsessed with catching new species. Regardless of size if I hook something I haven't caught before I'm over the moon lol. I've only gone fishing for the last
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I didn't get to where I wanted to go today because the hawk jumped on a rat that ran out into deep mud. I went straight back home to clean the mud off her feet and some feathers.
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The same can be said for all types of hunting but I totally agree.
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Rat from last week
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Left my phone at home on charge so no pic of tonight's kill. Lovely weather, just enough wind to encourage her to circle around above us. She took off across the field and I wasn't sure where she was at first but heard her bell and found her in a water filled ditch with her catch.
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I've read a few of Martins books before and after I started flying a Harris. They make you want to get out there yourself and give it a go and as they mostly cover rabbit and hare hunting its relevant to what most of us are able to do. I do wish someone would write a book in the diary style covering a seasons hunting with any bird of prey. The basic care side and the methods of hunting have been written about now but I think a book done by someone who is out regularly covering the day to day management and hunting over a season would be great.
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Are you on I phone, if so the photobucket app is real easy and fast to use. The weather looks good for the weekend.......,,so far.
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Take a camera the forum has died this season. Mine doesn't look at geese, she sees them several times a week.
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We had a canny hour out today before dark catching one rabbit and missing a few more.
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It appears to me that all the species have pros and cons. I've known of a couple of lads that went from doing regular hunting with a Harris but once they moved onto a goshawk they did very little for whatever reason and now don't fly hawks. It seems that if you fail with a goshawk pride won't let some people go back to the humble Harris lol. I've just came back from an hours hunt where the hawk was unlucky not to catch a couple of rabbits that the lurcher put out of cover and then dived into a stream after a moorhen which the pointer had spent ages locating before flushing out of a big brambl
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Hopefully I'll get to see goshawks out flying sometime and learn more about them. It's probably inevitable that I'll want to fly one in the future but not yet.
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Well you've got me thinking I've always assumed that my only choice of hawk would be a Harris due to time, land, inexperience etc etc. However it seems that some lads are now letting their gosses follow on sometimes and they can go ferreting, the odd squirrel and even hares. A lad phoned me up on Saturday asking if my bird could catch crows, Maggie's etc plus hares on the 3500 acres of land he could get me on. I said no chance on the crows but maybe the hares but I have to admit that I wondered if a gos would be an option in the future as there's got to be pheasants, partridge etc on tha
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I don't think anything could fly in these winds...........well maybe a kite lol Can a gos really fly better in stronger winds, I assumed a goshawk would get out even less than a Harris in bad weather. When my Harris gets blown away she battles back to me and we can often get something done by having her following on through a tree line etc. I'd get a gos tomorrow if I thought I could find enough work for one but I think the scrappy bits of land I can walk across is more suited to the following on style of a Harris. Less chance of losing it etc but it's just something I've assumed.
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This weekend was a waste of time, I went up the dales on Saturday morning with the hawk and pointer. After the dog searched a lot of land without finding anything we were getting back to where we had started ready to try the other side when the rain started. I drove up the valley and saw that the sky was blue at the horizon so I waited in the car for forty minutes until the rain stopped. Just as I was getting the hawk back out the wind started blowing and after a five minute walk it was clear we wouldn't be able to do anything more. The wind only got stronger for the remainder of Saturday and
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For me this season hasn't been about if my hawk can do ok when I can get her out hunting. Taken on the right land with stuff to fly at and we end up having an enjoyable few hours. However having lost so many days to bad weather I haven't been able to do enough hunting to satisfy me. So I've found the issue isn't so much if a hawk can be looked after, kept fit etc with limited hunting but more that with all the lost days I'm not happy. I want to go hunting as much as possible, I expected to have given lamping a proper go but every time the moon has waned away the wind has been gale force, I've
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I can get on the land containing hares, I planned to get my hawk fit on rabbits then try for them later but the weather has stopped me doing that. They will be breeding soon so the chance might be over this season.
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Mines tried to fly after a couple but wind swept her away, I'm having a hard enough time finding sheltered valleys and woodland to fly her on rabbits never mind hares in the open. If you have mates that are already doing it then your sorted.
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There would have to be proven advantages of a cross before I'd want to try flying one, the cost of any bird of prey isn't important. For example they often cost less than many well bred dogs.
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I took it for granted that nobody who can get near my hawk would feed her, my neighbours were told not to even stand about looking at her. It's happened and I'll have to get over it lol. She caught a rat this morning,after it was dead and probably because I take them off her she dragged it into the bushes and I had to crawl in to get them out which will only make her worse. It made me a few minutes late for work.
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Corned beef, not a lot but I would have thought everybody knows that a cooked, salty, fatty foodstuff isn't good for a hawk. I still need to talk to them to make sure this will never happen again.
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Ok you dug the rock ha
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Yeah, they are great neighbours and have done us a lot of favours, I just didn't think I'd have to tell anybody not to feed a hawk. They come round to feed the chickens or see the dogs, I didn't think they would mess with the hawk. It's a lesson learnt.
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My hawk was heavy on Sunday and was hanging back too far when the dog was flushing, then when he was on point I couldn't get her over top of him. Therefore many chances were lost, she did have a rabbit squealing in cover but couldn't hold on and hit a pheasant in the air knocking it down but it got into a huge bush. Anyway they are out of season. On Monday I arrived home to see that my neighbour had fed my hawk. Not a lot but enough to make her overweight. I stayed calm whilst telling him that she must never be fed. She has become a bit vocal of late and sometimes crashes into the window b
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Why cross? What are both species lacking that a cross is needed?
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I don't know why it hasn't been seen as an essential piece of kit for years. Every falconry forum and book goes on about the risks involved with squirrel hawking yet no-one seems to have thought the situation through. I've seen pictures of falconers hands after a squirrel has bit them, it's ridiculous and completely unnecessary to have that happen. Arcticguns hawk had one foot on the back end of the squirrel in a holly bush, I believe that without my help she would have been bitten up, we came home happy after a successful hunt not rushing to a vets. Not only that but we all want to dispatch
