2014/15 Season

[pointer 543]

I've just been spending a bit of time with the pup each day and showing it stock, nothing much really. My hawk is starting to get used to it and dosent scream at her as much. I won't do anything with her this season except for tagging along on a ferreting session or two.

[Accip74 7,112]

I've been away & just caught up with the thread, a good read as usual pointer.......I see you've give up on cast flying, you're not missing much mate, one bird, on its quarry.....that's what it's all about IMO...

[pointer 543]

I pushed my luck this evening and went out in fairly strong wind. It was nothing that my hawk can't handle but she loves soaring about and can get blown away. Everything was going well but my hawk was going up a bit high for my liking and away from me. I tried whistling her back in but she went out of sight. We were in a low area so didn't have any idea which way she had gone, I wasn't too worried as she knows the area and always swings left to the ponds. I headed over to where I expected her to be but I couldn't see her so I went back up the bank and tried to get a reading. The land is all hills and dips and I was getting a signal then losing it and basically going around in a circle. It soon became dark and we drove to where I thought the signal was strongest but we couldn't find her. We went back home thinking we would try again at first light as I wasn't getting much done using the telemetry and in the woods and the cover without a torch it was pretty hopeless.

When I got home I decided I'd try again tonight starting from the high ground and using a lamp and battery kit. It still took forty minutes to locate her but we did. The receiver was telling me she was close but the trees and bushes were packed in tight and only when we heard her bell were we able to pin her location down to the the lower branch of a tree about eight feet up. After a bit of tempting she came down for food and I could see she had been eating something and as my mate moved the lamp to the side there was a well eaten hen pheasant, it was freshly killed so I'm fairly confident she caught it. It was in such thick cover hidden from sight I doubt she came across it any other way.

Maybe I took a risk in the wind but she wasn't that far away really and I think I need to practise more with the telemetry. She loves pheasants so tracking her down is something I should get used to and competent at. There's always the risk of losing a hawk in a bit of wind especially when I've only got an hour to hunt before it gets dark but if I don't do that Id seriously limit the time I spend out hunting with her. Anyway that's why she flies with a transmitter on but clearly I need to learn how to read the receiver signal better and from now on the lamping kit comes with us.

[charlie caller 3,654]

Shes going great mate, and she will be getting fit now I am the same as Youcanthide this is doing my napper in, my male redtail is ready to go free and is smashing the lure/carcass, but the bloody wind and rain here is atrocious at the minute, just hope it dies down soon so I can get him his first kill.

[pointer 543]

She's getting fitter that's for sure and I'm flying her heavier than last season. Last season she didn't venture to far and didn't do much soaring, looking back she was never fit but I didn't feel I could lose her, now that she goes higher and gets the chance to fly a few pheasants over good distances I feel more stressed at times lol.

 

I hope you get your Redtail going soon mate, I've only got another week or so before I'm limited to weekends and the odd day off work, I'll try and keep her fit with a bit of lamping and high jumping.

[pointer 543]

She was too heavy on Tuesday after eating that pheasant and it was probably too windy anyway. Wednesday was a waste of time we didn't see anything. We wanted to go up the dales for an hour before dark yesterday but the forecasters were saying it was raining so we went to a local spot but it was far too foggy. All we could do was go to another place lower down and fly the hawk for half an hour, there's not much stuff there and she only got to chase one phesant which got away into cover. Very Strong winds are predicted for the weekend so it's not looking promising for another few days.

[charlie caller 3,654]

Lamping will certainly keep her fit pal thats for sure I would not keep a hawk if it was not for lamping, unfortunately when you have to work for a living and the dark nights come its lamping or nothing, good job I really enjoy it, hope the redtail takes to it, pretty sure he will.

[pointer 543]

I'll do more lamping but we don't have all that many places to go, it's all fields and banks full of that reedy stuff and bracken. With 30/40 mph gusts this weekend it's not even an option. I'll have to try and get permission in either other parts of Co.Durham or even better for lamping and ferreting the big grass fields of North Yorkshire. Mind for daytime hunting the parts of the Durham dales we walk over full of cover is great.

[pointer 543]

With strong winds due for the next few days I thought travelling up the dale might be worth it even though we would have less than an hour to do anything. It was a tough call to make as lamping might have been the better option but I decided to make the most of the available mid week daylight opportunities left to me. On the way up I was beginning to think I'd made a bad choice as we hit traffic then got stuck behind a horse then tractors and had to pull over to let an ambulance pass. By the time we arrived our hour was down to forty minutes. My Hawks weight was up and she was giving up on rabbits that would have been caught with the right commitment.

I'd chucked the dog in the motor but hadn't took him with me as my mates hawk doesn't like him yet and although we split up I didn't want to upset his bird in any way. Anyway my mate had been unsuccessful as well and with the light fading he put his hawk away and took his lurcher out for a quick blast around the reeds. I hate blanking and although it happens a lot I don't like to give up until the very last minute so I got the pointer out and had him hunt down the dry stone walls around the grass field. He knows what his job is here and eventually after a bit of fine tuning where two walks meet he gave a solid mark. He was told to sit the hawk was put on to the top of the wall and I flushed the young rabbit out which the hawk caught. It could have got away if it had ran across the field but it tried to get back into the wall a short distance away and even my fat lazy bird was able to land on it. With bad weather due I let her have a good feed off it with the dog close by hoping she understands the role the dog does. She hates him I know that and probably always will but she should know by now what he does for her.

 

Sometimes I forget what he has done and ignore his good work as I concentrate on the hawk which is wrong of me.

[pointer 543]

The wind was blowing for most of the day and it looked like we had no chance to get out. At 3.00 the trees were bending and it appeared the met office had got its forecast right. I had almost had her doing high jumps for her food but I'm glad I didn't because at 5.00 the wind had completely gone, not just eased off but gone. I drove to the nearest area I fly her and she stood in a tree whilst my pointer worked his way through the reeds and was up to his belly in water trying to find something. The hawk spotted something and took off to another patch of trees and bushes fifty yards away. As I got nearer she was staring down and moving up and down the trees branches. She then dived down out of sight and I had to cross the deep stream and bash my way through the cover to find her plucking away at the first squirrel of the season. It was a tricky extraction but we were back home within an hour of leaving. So glad I didn't just feed her earlier, by the time we got home the wind was blowing again and has only got stronger. The met office are saying 40+ mph gusts tomorrow but you can never tell if you can get time to fly these Hawks even if it's just for half an hour. I've found making the decision to feed up earlier or wait until the last minute on bad weather days to be the hardest part of hunting with a hawk.

Edited October 18, 2014 by pointer

[pointer 543]

Too windy today so had her doing high jumps for her food. I added a weighted rope to her jesses which makes her work harder to reach eight foot, I'd go higher but that's the height of my garage, I suppose I could do it in the yard. Either way I need to start getting her to jump up without getting food as although I chopped her food up she had it eaten in thirty jumps and wasn't breathing hard like she was when I first did it a couple of weeks ago after getting advise from Crowhawker. I'm taking this to mean she is fitter so that's something but clearly I need to get her lifting more weight, doing more reps or going higher.

 

I Spent an hour making up a dozen double clip leashes, they are so easy to use on the glove or to peg her down if I'm helping with a dig to the ferret or just letting her feed off something. I've lost a few or the clips have worn out. I know they are only a fiver off westweald but it's only a bit of braided rope, a clip and some heat shrink tubing. Plus I was bored lol.

[Accip74 7,112]

Too windy today so had her doing high jumps for her food. I added a weighted rope to her jesses which makes her work harder to reach eight foot, I'd go higher but that's the height of my garage, I suppose I could do it in the yard. Either way I need to start getting her to jump up without getting food as although I chopped her food up she had it eaten in thirty jumps and wasn't breathing hard like she was when I first did it a couple of weeks ago after getting advise from Crowhawker. I'm taking this to mean she is fitter so that's something but clearly I need to get her lifting more weight, doing more reps or going higher.

I Spent an hour making up a dozen double clip leashes, they are so easy to use on the glove or to peg her down if I'm helping with a dig to the ferret or just letting her feed off something. I've lost a few or the clips have worn out. I know they are only a fiver off westweald but it's only a bit of braided rope, a clip and some heat shrink tubing. Plus I was bored lol.

I used to do it off a high step ladder, down to a 1m square rubber/foam mat & I made a creance up to include a rope dog lead as the weight......as the bird got fitter, I would soak the lead in water to add more weight...

I found it possible to get 60- jumps at its peak.....that's with a males ration, he would be breathing very hard with wings drooped by the end of the session, something I never saw as much while hunting or lamping.....I would do this Monday to Thursday without fail, unless I lamped on a Wednesday or I was off work....

I also done 40m calls with a rope attached, I done this in the car park behind my then house, off a bow, with a head torch......that would raise a few eyebrows from the neighbours lol

[pointer 543]

If this wind continues I'll have her breathing hard tomorrow lol.

I'll try the rope at night as well. Anything to keep her fitness level up.

[pointer 543]

The wind was fairly strong today but I made the decision to travel up the dales instead of going local. It is a risk as I knew it would take longer to travel there than I would have to fly her before darkness. She followed on through a wooded area but for some reason the rabbits weren't out and about today like normal. She then had a bit of a soar before attempting to catch something in the rushes but missed. Once she had flown back over to me I knew my only option was to walk up the cover and I spotted a rabbit clamped in its seat. I held the hawk up expecting this big rabbit to run across the ground at any moment but it didn't and only moved when the hawk was almost on top of it. The easiest catch I've seen her make but I was happy she had got to take hold of something. The dog then marked a wall but after following it along for a few minutes it must have flushed out the other side without the hawk seeing it.

[pointer 543]

It's been windy over the last couple of days. I would have been out yesterday after work but it started raining. All I could do was high jump her. Not much fun but better than doing nothing.

 

Today I went out but when a gust of wind blew her across the field, a road, and over to a wood I thought I'd made a bad decision in flying her. After a few minutes of whistling and calling she made her way back to me. The wind was only getting stronger and it was going to be dark soon so I headed back to the car. The dog was hunting along the edge of a thick hedge with the odd tree along it. The hawk was following on when a pigeon was disturbed and got itself a bit stuck in a tall bush. I got the dog to jump the fence and the pigeon pushed its way free but the hawk had spotted it and using a height advantage easily caught it, mugged it actually but with the weather we've had lately I'll take anything.