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German Male Goshawk


david901

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The hawk was cropped right up on his pheasant Wednesday and fasted yesterday.

I had planned on hunting him today, but when I weighed him he was still slightly overweight.

With these smaller birds an ounce makes a big difference and its not the first time he has spent a night out on the town so to speak.

So I played it safe and just did a bit of fitness work.

Hopefully the weather is OK for tomorrow and I will get him out, though it will probably be at crows.

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this is the one, although there are longer versions

A couple of pics of the imprint gos doing what she does best.....LOL She has had a few rabbits as well and hopefully if the weather stays dry and cold, I can do a few streams for some duck before th

Its been raining non-stop here for the last few days. Yesterday was a "fast" day for the hawks, so I wanted to get him out hawking today. I waited ages to see if it would stop raining, but it didn'

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The hawk was cropped right up on his pheasant Wednesday and fasted yesterday.

I had planned on hunting him today, but when I weighed him he was still slightly overweight.

With these smaller birds an ounce makes a big difference and its not the first time he has spent a night out on the town so to speak.

So I played it safe and just did a bit of fitness work.

Hopefully the weather is OK for tomorrow and I will get him out, though it will probably be at crows.

I would of still took him out as he would of went better as I'm flying my female at 2lb 8 1\2oz and she is about 4 oz over weight .

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Hi Sean

 

If she is recalling well and catching game at that weight, she ain't overweight. :D

 

Whenever I push his weight up around 1lb 6 he flies well, until he gets bored or peed off, then he does one.

Usually I get him back in the same area the next day..LOL

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I meant to say Sean, your goshawk is a credit to you. She is certainly doing the business for you.

 

In my last post I neglected to say that I only use his weight as a guide.

I think you can tell a lot about how a hawk is by its body language and its behaviour as you approach.

If he has to be tempted to jump on the fist, he ain't ready to go hawking. Sometimes I can overcome this by walking with him and letting him pluck a wing.

He usually comes into condition to fly. But sometimes I don't feel confident about his demeanour and with experience I know when to call it a draw.

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Determining flying weight of a goshawk is such a fascinating subject.......

 

So many variables......manning, temperature, time of day, type of food, type of quarry........who's in the field? But no matter the factors, there always seems to be an optimum weight, a kind of equilibrium where you can always get a result & have decent recall.

 

I remember having a trip to Norfolk arranged on an estate, which had been well planned in advance.......I'd been out the day before & of course I'd over fed! My bird was an ounce over next morning, a fcuking disaster from my perspective, so I left him till the last hour of daylight.........he was still well over, but we had a great flight on partridge & then he took a hen pheasant in the air, which up to that point had been his most impressive flight........but I never successfully flew him at that weight again?

 

That summer I moulted him out & due to my circumstances I kept him tethered & manned.......end of the summer I dropped his weight to his average top flying weight from the previous season......about 1lb 11 1/2 oz.....with still high temps of end of August, I thought 'fcuk it' & flew him over the road from my house on green rabbits........he caught first 7 rabbits on the trot, over seven nights with no recall needed......he was on fire, until he missed haha........then I had a tense half an hour with the lure!

 

......but 4oz over weight in these temperature & good results?? Never!! Haha....

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Its been raining non-stop here for the last few days.

Yesterday was a "fast" day for the hawks, so I wanted to get him out hawking today.

I waited ages to see if it would stop raining, but it didn't, so as the dog needed out anyway,

I thought I'd take him up to a local farm to check if there was any pigeons in the sheds.

The sheds were surprisingly empty, but there was 2 crows out in a field 80 yards away.

I got the hawk out and got him ready for flying out of sight of the 2 crows.

I figure with the rain, he could have one decent flight before getting soaked, so I showed him the crows and released him.

He closed the gap fairly quickly and got on terms with a crow.

The flight was a good exiting one but the crow out-flew him, so fair play to it. He ended up in a tree and so I called him back.

He flew to a tree nearby me, but wasn't ready to come down yet.

I let the dog run about and a short time later he pushed out a Jackdaw hiding near to one of the sheds.

It was obvious the way it was flying that it was water-logged and was flying poorly.

The hawk needed no invitation and came down straight away and nailed it.

The first flight at the crow was a cracker and the second one at the Jackdaw allowed the hawk to get rewarded.

Not bad for a rainy day.

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The weather has been terrible here as it is everywhere else.

 

I got the male out a couple of times in the high winds and rain.

Had a few good flights, one was at a group of 3 magpies that got up about 150 yards away.

He chased them right out of sight and I had to track him down, but unfortunately no prize.

He chased a few pheasants - all cockbirds.

One chase, again went out of sight, I tracked him down sitting on the ground in some long grass.

I don't know if he grabbed the pheasant in the air and lost it or it bailed and he followed it into the cover.

 

I was hoping to get a crack at duck with him again soon, but with all the rain, the duck could be lying anywhere, especially in any flooded fields.

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Loads of high winds and rain which has curtailed a lot of hawking.

It means when its dry, even though its very windy we go out.
Today he had a good chase at a woodpigeon, he saw them flying about a wood, so he flew up higher than the trees and came storming in.
I hoped he had connected, but no luck.
I had a slip at an out of position crow. It was too far away and into the wind, so he didn't get on terms with it.
I tried further down the farm but got nothing up so I thought I'd call him down to a full lure.
He came down straight away and it was only then I noticed his deck feather with the telemetry was hanging off.
At first I thought the feather had broken off, but it soon became clear that it was pulled out. He must have caught it in a branch.
Usually I use a plectrum type fitting, but this year I used a brass tail mount that is glued/crimped on.
I considered that this may have been a contributing factor, but on reflection it meant that only one feather was lost instead of two if I had been using the plectrum type mount.
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Loads of high winds and rain which has curtailed a lot of hawking.

It means when its dry, even though its very windy we go out.
Today he had a good chase at a woodpigeon, he saw them flying about a wood, so he flew up higher than the trees and came storming in.
I hoped he had connected, but no luck.
I had a slip at an out of position crow. It was too far away and into the wind, so he didn't get on terms with it.
I tried further down the farm but got nothing up so I thought I'd call him down to a full lure.
He came down straight away and it was only then I noticed his deck feather with the telemetry was hanging off.
At first I thought the feather had broken off, but it soon became clear that it was pulled out. He must have caught it in a branch.
Usually I use a plectrum type fitting, but this year I used a brass tail mount that is glued/crimped on.
I considered that this may have been a contributing factor, but on reflection it meant that only one feather was lost instead of two if I had been using the plectrum type mount.

 

it should grow back, what tranny you using?, im going back to backpacking next season doubled up with the tail mount, just using a RT+ at the mo, going to use a scout aswell, the good thing about the backpack it stays on through out the moult, my male's lasted 5 season before it came off

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Hi Bullet

 

I use a Falconry Electronics transmitter.

Its a decent transmitter that has served me well over the years.

I have never used a backpack with a gos though I helped my mate put one on his Gyr/saker that seemed to work out well for him.

The backpacks are good if you fit them right, had one a male Harris for 3 seasons no bother. I did put one on the gos when I picked up, but I fcuked it up.......not sure if it was the pressure of people watching or whatever haha.....but it came off after a month or so.....

I then got a merlin micro from falconry electronics & switched to a leg mount & never looked back. I've got the Marshall Micro now for leg mount, which is great.

If leg mounting is not your thing, then the backpack is well worth go.....

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