My Latest Endeavor...

Tom

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Birds freak me the eff out but I admire your work and appreciate the stories. Good stuff!
I have video of the hawk flying straight toward camera and landing on my daughters gloved hand. I'd post it for you if I could figure out how to do it with out a Youtube channel. :p
 

Moozillion

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Fascinating thread, Tom, and wonderful photos!! She really IS like a feathered dragon! And headstrong!!!!
Great fun to read about the Adventures and Misadventures of Tom and Minerva!!!!![emoji2][emoji2][emoji2]
 

JoesMum

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I watched a programme on BBC last night featuring people who flew Golden Eagle and White Tailed Sea Eagle in Scotland. The sea eagle makes an enormous Golden Eagle look small... I guess you need strong arms to hold them!

Watching the Sea Eagle take a salmon from a lake was amazing!
 

Moozillion

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I watched a programme on BBC last night featuring people who flew Golden Eagle and White Tailed Sea Eagle in Scotland. The sea eagle makes an enormous Golden Eagle look small... I guess you need strong arms to hold them!

Watching the Sea Eagle take a salmon from a lake was amazing!
Linda, after I read this I looked up White Tailed Sea Eagle: :eek: HOLY MOLY!!!!!!! That's a HUGE bird!!!!!!
 

Levi the Leopard

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Tom, a friend of mine mentioned that she knew of a falconer who made a decent living flying his raptors in airports. He flew them on a regular basis to keep the pigeons and geese away. Something about them causing damage getting sucked into the engines...?

It sounded interesting. Any truth to that?
 

JoesMum

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Tom, a friend of mine mentioned that she knew of a falconer who made a decent living flying his raptors in airports. He flew them on a regular basis to keep the pigeons and geese away. Something about them causing damage getting sucked into the engines...?

It sounded interesting. Any truth to that?
There are falconers in the UK that do this at airports...and Rufus the Harris Hawk that keeps the pigeons away from the Wimbledon tennis courts has celebrity status and his own twitter account :D
 

Tom

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Tom, a friend of mine mentioned that she knew of a falconer who made a decent living flying his raptors in airports. He flew them on a regular basis to keep the pigeons and geese away. Something about them causing damage getting sucked into the engines...?

It sounded interesting. Any truth to that?

Yes. I have a couple of friends that make a good living doing that. Its called bird abatement. They have contracts with airports, golf courses and trash dumps. I'd much rather work around a golf course than the dump...
 

wellington

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Tom, a friend of mine mentioned that she knew of a falconer who made a decent living flying his raptors in airports. He flew them on a regular basis to keep the pigeons and geese away. Something about them causing damage getting sucked into the engines...?

It sounded interesting. Any truth to that?
There is truth to birds flying into plane engines. Very dangerous for both plane and bird. Airports usually use animals for removal. O'Hara airport here in Chicago uses goats, sheep, llamas and even a burro to eat down the weeds and grasses which also help to keep the number of birds down. They rent them from someone.
 

Tom

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Minerva is alive and well. After a great start, we've had a rough season. I had to get some advice and apply it. Had to rethink some things, and start doing things a little differently. Getting performance out of your bird takes much more than looking at a number on a scale and waiting for instincts and training to kick in. Every bird and every situation is different. The things I've figured out with Minerva this year, may or may not apply to any other bird I work with in the future. All of them are different and adjustments must be made to allow for these individual differences.

After such a strong start, I started seeing lots of the same old stuff from last year. Moments of brilliance bookended by lack of attention and self hunting. I had to change things up. I was failing to be a "good" hunting partner for her. There had to be more reward and more fun to keep her interested. Last year my thought process was that if she failed to catch game, she'd go home hungry and try harder next time. That is certainly how it works for wild hawks. But a wild hawk doesn't need to cooperatively hunt with anyone, and cooperative hunting is my goal. Now when Minerva doesn't catch game, we go home to a familiar training area and I work her butt off, for a reward. She doesn't get free food for poor performance. She gets a hard workout with a substantial reward.

I learned another important lesson that was broached last year. DIfferent foods have different nutrient qualities. Rabbits are very lean and offer relatively poor nutrition. I can feed her a lot of rabbit, make her feel full and rewarded, but not put a ton of weight on her. Quail, on the other hand, is very high in nutrients and is considered a very "rich" food. If I tank her up on quail, she gains a lot of weight. Tank her up on rabbit and she feels "fulfilled" mentally and physically, but remains at a good working weight and is very in tune with me and the work. I mix in rodent and quail for good nutrition, but use lots of rabbit meat for bulk.

Sounds like a bunch of fancy talk, but how well does it all work? We haven't had a bad day since I started implementing this new info about 3 weeks ago. We went over a month without catching a rabbit and had some rough days in the field. She caught two rabbits in the first week we started this new plan, and then, to my shock, disbelief and utter elation she took her first jack rabbit this last saturday. She wouldn't even try for jacks last year after that first one kicked her off. She just looked at them and watched them go by. Think about it... A 2 pound bird has got to be feeling pretty good about life to think it is going to latch onto a 6-7 pound jack and have a good outcome. Well, Minerva is feeling that good now:
IMG_4650.JPG
She is so big that the jack doesn't look that huge, but HOLY COW!!! That animal was powerful and heavy!

Being the pragmatist that I am, I keep expecting to have another bad day, but so far so good. Going through a difficult time and persevering has taught me another good lesson, and now me and my team of girls and I are reaping the rewards. All the naive rabbits are already gone for this season. Only the hardened pros are left. Every catch from this point on will be hard earned and we will have to be on our game every time we go out.

I attended my first falconry meet last week and I will write about that next time. You can look up "California Hawking Club Annual Field Meet" for a pre-view. Met some great people and learned a ton!

I leave you with this catch. Just three days after catching the jack, and our first time out hunting after returning home from the CHC meet. It was a glorious day with three amazing flights/chases, that ended in this:
IMG_4685.JPG

Look at where her feet are in relation to the big branch…
IMG_4688.JPG
 
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wellington

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Well, ending on a positive note, like your doing now in your training at home, working her hard for big rewards, when she fails to hunt in the field works, much better on dogs, ending all training on a positive note. I guess it can be applied to all animals.
Glad your getting things worked out so you both can really enjoy your time together.
Btw, that rabbit does look big. I thought it was too big to be one at first.
What is the largest animal they can take down, do you know?
 

Tom

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Well, ending on a positive note, like your doing now in your training at home, working her hard for big rewards, when she fails to hunt in the field works, much better on dogs, ending all training on a positive note. I guess it can be applied to all animals.
Glad your getting things worked out so you both can really enjoy your time together.
Btw, that rabbit does look big. I thought it was too big to be one at first.
What is the largest animal they can take down, do you know?

Jack rabbits are generally the largest and heaviest prey any normal hawk hunter takes. Some of the larger jacks can reach 7-8 pounds. This one felt like it weight about 20 pounds when I picked it up to put it in my hunting vest, but it was probably in the 5-6 pound range. Some of the falcons will take large ducks or pheasants. There are nomadic tribes in Mongolia that hunt wolves from horseback with Golden Eagles. The eagles know to grab the snout of the wolf and hold it shut. I've seen video of Golden eagles taking sheep off of cliffs.

Some of these raptors are capable of amazing feats.
 

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