My Latest Endeavor...

wccmog10

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It’s hard to be 100% sure from the photo, but it looks like a juvenile redshouldered hawk. Generally redtails won’t perch on the wire like that. Their feet are to big for it to work comfortably. Red shoulders have much smaller feet and perch on wires frequently.
 

Tom

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Tom this bird was scoping out Opo yesterday. What type of hawk is this?
I really can't tell from your picture. I could eliminate some possibilities, but I can't be sure. Plus, there are different raptors all over the country and I'm not familiar with the East Coast ones. @wccmog10 might recognize your bird.
 

Ray--Opo

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It’s hard to be 100% sure from the photo, but it looks like a juvenile redshouldered hawk. Generally redtails won’t perch on the wire like that. Their feet are to big for it to work comfortably. Red shoulders have much smaller feet and perch on wires frequently.
He was perched on a branch in a tree and I didn't notice him. When Opo walked out and was in the yard. The bird flew off the branch and landed on the wire closer to Opo. When I came out of the screened porch he flew off.
 

Ray--Opo

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I really can't tell from your picture. I could eliminate some possibilities, but I can't be sure. Plus, there are different raptors all over the country and I'm not familiar with the East Coast ones. @wccmog10 might recognize your bird.
I know we have peregrines here. Wasn't sure if this one was. I will look at a pic of a red shoulder and see if I can compare with what I saw.
 

wccmog10

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Make sure to look at juvenile redshoulder photos. Adults have a red breast and “shoulder” coloration. (the red colored shoulder is actually the birds wrist area, but when they have their wings tucked up for perching it looks like their shoulders)

Peregrines are in Florida during certain times of year for migration, but they typically wouldn’t be there this time of year. There is a possibility of some city peregrines down there that I don’t know about, but the bird in the photo looks like a hawk to me- not a falcon.

Either way- hawks in the yard are always cool!
 

Tom

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Its been a while since I've updated this thread. Everything has been going extremely well. The birds are maturing and honing their skills. They are in fantastic shape athletically and my more experienced falconry friends have complimented me on how strong they are flying. We catch something almost every time we go hunting which is usually 6-7 days a week. I can't remember if I mentioned it previously, but they even caught a quail, which is quite a feat! Many people try to exclusively hunt quail with Harris hawks, and it ain't easy. These birds have been a constant source of fun, joy and happiness. I'm almost always driving home from the field with a big stupid grin on my face. Some people go to the gym every day before work. I grab my hawks and go for a hike for 3-5 miles in rough terrain with intermittent running and sprints thrown in. I leave the field sweating even when temps are in the 30s and 40s. We've now hunted in rain, wind and even snow! This is LIVING!

These birds weigh about 600 grams. The cottontails we hunt weigh about 800-1000 grams. The jack rabbits weigh around 3000 grams. We see lots of jacks, but the birds are understandably tentative about grabbing hold of an angry bucking bronco that large. Additionally, the cottontails pretty much go limp once grabbed. They don't fight much. The jacks fight like hell. They kick at the birds, flail around wildly, or run full speed at hard objects and dive under them in an attempt to knock the birds off of them. Its a challenge any way you look at it. This being the case, jacks are a much sought after prize among falconers. Hard to catch because they are so fast, agile, large, and smart. Hard to hold on to if your bird does manage to bind. Their fur is quite slippery and pulls out easily, making it hard for predators to hold onto them, in the rare case where they get close enough to grab them. My birds have managed to catch two prior today. They've grabbed an additional two, but failed to hang on. Several times I find a clump of fur where the birds made contact and a wiley jack has escaped their grasp. Well after weeks of trying, and dozens of jacks escaping, we finally caught our third one today. The birds ate like kings and went home with full crops. This one jack will feed both of my boys for about two weeks in the off season while the remaining jacks breed and repopulate the area. This field has an overabundance of jacks and a paucity of natural predators. If the jack numbers aren't significantly reduced before spring when their parasites return, a disease epidemic is likely to wipe out all of them. Veteran falconers have seen this time and time again in favorite fields. Rabbit populations tend to have a cyclical nature. A good field one year can be empty the next, and overflowing again 3 or 4 year after that. I've seen it myself. If things go well, I hope my birds will perform the role that the wild predators can't in this area, and keep the population as a whole healthy, by eliminating some of the weaker, slower jacks. Understanding, learning about, and seeing this predator/prey relationship first hand, is one of the most fascinating and compelling reasons why I engage in this "Sport of Kings".

I didn't get any pictures, but the boys also got to do an educational falconry show at my daughter's school recently. The kids are studying Medieval times, which is when falconry really became widespread and known throughout the world, but especially in that part of Europe. The teacher asked me to come in and give the kids a lesson, and I was happy to do it. They got to see the birds up close, pass around a pellet that was cast up that morning, see all the equipment we falconers use, and then they got to see the birds fly and a simulated hunt on a lure. I explained how a person's "station" in the social hierarchy determined which birds they were allowed to posses and hunt with. Lowly subjects were only permitted a kestrel, while yeomen were granted license to hunt with goshawks, Dukes and Earls received peregrines, and only the king himself was allowed to hunt with the mighty gyr falcon. The kids seemed to enjoy it. The teacher thanked me and I got a great thank you card signed by all the kids.

Good job boys! Dig in. You earned it:
IMG_0800.JPG
 

Tom

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We went out hunting this morning. I'm not planning on hunting on Christmas Day (Gotta keep the wife happy...), so I was hoping they'd catch another jack today so I could feed them up and give them full bellies going into the cold night and rain tomorrow. Well... wish granted. They had taken a perch on a telephone wire and as I walked over to pick them up and resume hunting, I flushed a jack. It ran away from me and right under the boys. I couldn't tell who tagged it first, but both of them bound to it one after the other. I got there in seconds to assist, and then the meal commenced for these hard working little hawks.

IMG_0812.JPG


Here is what we look like out in the field. The "T" perch gives them the ability to see a long way off and also a little boost of gravity when they take off after prey. My wife teases me, but this hunting method puts game in the bag, so I don't care about being teased.
IMG_0820.JPG


Jack rabbits have huge hearts and lungs, and they carry a lot of blood. This is how they are able to run so fast for so long. Well, it can get a little messy on a kill, so we do a little clean up before traveling home.
IMG_0819 copy.JPG


If these birds could be any better, or any more fun than this, I can't imagine how. When I decided to get Harris Hawks, I really wasn't sure how it would go. So many unknowns, and I just had no experience with them to draw from. Reality has turned out to be better than my wildest fantasies of how it might have gone. I LOVE these birds.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. :D
 
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Moozillion

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We went out hunting this morning. I'm not planning on hunting on Christmas Day (Gotta keep the wife happy...), so I was hoping they'd catch another jack today so I could feed them up and give them full bellies going into the cold night and rain tomorrow. Well... wish granted. They had taken a perch on a telephone wire and as I walked over to pick them up and resume hunting, I flushed a jack. It ran away from me and right under the boys. I couldn't tell who tagged it first, but both of them bound to it one after the other. I got there in seconds to assist, and then the meal commenced for these hard working little hawks.

View attachment 284151


Here is what we look like out in the field. The "T" perch gives them the ability to see a long way off and also a little boost of gravity when they take off after prey. My wife teases me, but this hunting method puts game in the bag, so I don't care about being teased.
View attachment 284152


Jack rabbits have huge hearts and lungs, and they carry a lot of blood. This is how they are able to run so fast for so long. Well, it can get a little messy on a kill, so we do a little clean up before traveling home.
View attachment 284153


If these birds could be any better, or any more fun than this, I can't imagine how. When I decided to get Harris Hawks, I really wasn't sure how it would go. So many unknowns, and I just had no experience with them to draw from. Reality has turned out to be better than my wildest fantasies of how it might have gone. I LOVE these birds.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. :D
SUCH FUN TO READ YOUR POSTS!!!!! :D:<3::<3::<3:
 
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Tom

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SNOW DAY!!!

There was some patchy snow on the ground a couple of weeks ago, but today is there first official day of hunting in actual snow. This is the same field from the above post where I'm carrying the boys on their T-perch.
IMG_0830.JPG

They acted like it was any other day and didn't seem to notice or care about the snow in any way.
IMG_0829.JPG

Here is the result after about 8 minutes of "hunting".
IMG_0835.JPG

Rick has apparently decided that he is the master of all jack rabbits. If he sees one, he catches it now. And he hangs on tight too. The above jack was the first one we saw today. I didn't even see it. He dove in to a big bush and latched on. I have to dive in to the same bush to help. We all got muddy and soaked. Their feathers were so wet and matted that they could hardly fly after. I had to carry them back to the car.

Its too cold outside to put them in their enclosures when they are in this condition, so they got to hang out in the house with us to dry off for a few hours:
IMG_0836.PNG
IMG_0838.JPG
 

Tom

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Ok now.. you may have reached Rockstar status for me @Tom. As a teen I used to go out hunting with a friend that was an experienced falconer. Loved every minute of it.
Haha... What was my status before?

The social nature of this hawk species allows me to take friends and family into the field with me with no issues. There is no change in their behavior with new people in the field. They are just tolerant and accepting of anything and everything. It has been great fun for me to share this amazing "sport" and to be able to have other people experience and see the magic of what we are doing out there in the fields. I've taken people of all ages and backgrounds out into the field, and so far I think all of them loved every minute of it too.
 

Tom

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It is cool to find another Falconer on this forum. I am a master falconer and have kept Harris hawks, but never in a cast like that. I am a one hawk guy; no dogs either.
Big jacks in Sac. My friends go up there from time to time. I haven't been yet because my birds were not yet taking jacks, but they are now:
IMG_0891 copy.JPG

This is their 7th one for the season. Caught up in Bakersfield. This is by far the largest we caught. It was over 7 pounds.


What are you flying now? How is your season going? Going to the meet?
 

Calaveras

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I have a busy
Big jacks in Sac. My friends go up there from time to time. I haven't been yet because my birds were not yet taking jacks, but they are now:
View attachment 284422

This is their 7th one for the season. Caught up in Bakersfield. This is by far the largest we caught. It was over 7 pounds.


What are you flying now? How is your season going? Going to the meet?
I have a new apprentice so have been Waiting until the beginning of the year to trap a bird with him. I will probably get a red tail when we go trapping so we can do it together. I have had a Harris for a few years now. It can make you lazy and take catching Jackrabbits for granted. :) They are so good at it.
 

Tom

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I have a busy

I have a new apprentice so have been Waiting until the beginning of the year to trap a bird with him. I will probably get a red tail when we go trapping so we can do it together. I have had a Harris for a few years now. It can make you lazy and take catching Jackrabbits for granted. :) They are so good at it.
My little boys have been reluctant to go for the jacks. Its taken time, but they are gaining confidence. I enjoyed my redtails, but I'm having a heck of a lot more fun with my boys now.
 

Calaveras

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The reluctance to tackle the jackrabbits is the reason I went with a female. They seem more willing to take them on. It depends on the bird(s).
I have a few fields with cottontails, but not as many.
 

Moozillion

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Hey, Tom- with all the animals you've worked with over the years, did you ever work with ravens? As intelligent as I hear they are, I don't know if that would make them easier to train or harder! @Tom
 

Tom

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Hey, Tom- with all the animals you've worked with over the years, did you ever work with ravens? As intelligent as I hear they are, I don't know if that would make them easier to train or harder! @Tom
Many times. Just did a week with them in Chicago last fall. I wanted to meet up with Barb while I was there, but it didn't work out.

Some of the people I work with think they are the smartest animals on the planet. I don't. I think orangutans are by far the smartest animal. Ravens are highly trainable, but also usually aggressive too.
 

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