pointer
-
Content Count
1,570 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Articles
Gun Dealer's and Fieldsports Shop's
Reloading Room
Blogs
Calendar
Store
Classifieds
Everything posted by pointer
-
Nice one mate, I was out last night drinking with family so I nursed a hangover until. 2.30 before I ventured out. My hawk missed a squirrel, a rat and a handful of rabbits. She has never missed so many opportunities from a hours flying. I think it was just bad luck as she was trying hard enough crashing into cover etc.
-
The ones mine has caught were very easy catches but loads have got away in thick river banks.I think they are like rats, dead if they run into open ground but hard to catch in certain places.
-
I can't seem to get going properly, she hit a moorhen this morning but couldn't get a good grip on it through the pile of broken branches it was under. Moorhens seem to keep evading us this season. So much for them being an easy quarry lol.
-
The squirrels normally escape into the ivy covered trees, the one today was running up and down and around a big bare oak and it still out smarted her. Very frustrating but I have to admire it lol. It would have made an easy catty or air rifle shot as it was clinging onto the side of the tree for minutes at a time with the hawk on the other side unable to see it.
-
I'd been out for half an hour on Tuesday just before it got dark when the hawk took off into a tree line beside a stream. Seconds later I heard her crashing through cover but when I got over to her she was stood on the bankside soaking wet. I imagine she had gone for a moorhen or rat and missed. The plan was to go lamping last night but the wind was far too strong. This morning I had a good hunt on two squirrels which lasted around 45 minutes. At times I knew where the squirrel was up at the top of the tree but the hawk would still be convinced it was near the base where she had last seen it.
-
Mine does the same occasionally, noise was something I was worried about when I got a hawk. The first time I heard her chirp as I approached her aviary I thought I'd created a screamer. There's so many horror stories on the Internet about noisy Harris hawks I almost went into meltdown lol.
-
I thought he had just got this hawk, what's the story? Mind I wouldn't put up with a noisy hawk or dog. Few people could.
-
Yeah mate sounds lyk youv been trading off to quick i did that last yr to early just to try and keep her flying and she started to feel robbed everytime id walk to her she wud try fly with the food. Her first few kills of the season should of been left for her to crop up fullyy before the trade off... This helped after the next few kills she caught i just let her full crop on them while i slowly got closer and closer then once she seems almost full up id cover the remaining carcass and show her a full garn garnished glove whilst slyly coverig her kill and let her choose to step up for it rathe
-
I worry more about poison than diseases so I trade off. Last week she killed two but tried to carry them into cover. This is probably due to feeling robbed so its something I need to look into. I don't really go looking for rats she has just caught a few this season.
-
Sounds a good session mate, these hawks certainly do love catching rats, mine gets more excited by the sight of one than a squirrel.
-
Good going mate, I'm hoping to go lamping this week sometime
-
It was raining up the dales this afternoon so I only managed to bolt one rabbit which the hawk caught during a short spell between showers. We did take the lurchers out for an hour as well so we had a canny couple of hours with a few rabbits caught. No pics as I'd left my phone at home.
-
My hawks weight was a bit low which I was surprised at as she had eaten a good lump from yesterday's squirrel plus a couple of chicks but it was a cold night. Anyway her response was terrible and she wouldn't follow, she flew at a couple of pheasants in a wood but was never going to get them. My fault and its a lesson learnt .Ive fed her up today so she may be up in weight tomorrow but I'll try and get something done with her .
-
You did better than I did today, we blanked lol.
-
I'm hoping things will start to pick up now with the cover dying back. Ferreting will become something I can start doing shortly.
-
I don't mind rats and I've enjoyed hunting them with a hawk. I treat them like squirrels and I know they can bite back so I'm on the scene in a second and the rat is secured so it can't harm my bird.
-
Cheers mate. I've had a week of mostly misses but my hawk seems to be finally getting over her hatred of dogs and dosent even scream at strange dogs that walk on past us, its taken a lot of time and some effort to get her to stay in the same field as a strange dog so I feel I'm getting somewhere with her. She also had a short flight on a hare in a wood which although she was probably never in with a chance of catching it was still nice to see. It was the first time I've had her in a proper wood so it's been a fun week with some good hunts on the odd squirrel lately but they escape into the
-
-
-
-
We've had a few little hunts over the past week missing most things but some nice flights on squirrel and pheasants even if they escaped. I've been getting a few rats and the first squirrel of this season so I'm not complaining too much.
-
Well done mate
-
Nice one mate, keep at it.
-
I know that if my hawk was to get lost and stray not too far away she would definitely be shot. Field sports people do not always stick together, they never have. Birds of prey are hated or at least feared by many shooting folk. They say its because the pheasants are at risk but yet they shoot hundreds of the things, even if a bop did get lost for a short time at a shoot it would only kill a few phessies I would think and feed up. I'd imagine most falconers would compensate a keeper for any such loses. Very sorry to hear about your hawk. Please don't give up.
-
I've probably said before but I've been on land this season where two lurchers would hunt up and catch between. 30-50 rabbits in a couple of hours a few years ago. (Early season, numbers drop after Chrismas but still I'd come home with 20 or so.)Now we are coming home with 3-5. Its a massive drop in numbers, I'd imagine any species apart from the rabbit would be at risk of extinction with such loses.
