My Latest Endeavor...

Tom

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This is just beyond fascinating! Thank you for the detailed anecdotes and explanations. I could sit and read this all night long.

To me, it's especially interesting to read of their intelligence. Birds are so much brighter than humans give them credit for. A while back at a CTTC meeting we were shown an episode of "Nature" that centered on crows. My mouth hung open in astonishment at what they are capable of doing. They make tools to use to solve problems...something that was thought to be reserved for higher level intellect.
They look at a treat that is inaccessable , size it up, and think about how to solve the problem, and then do complex processes involving 3-5 steps to get the treat. And this is the first time they have ever confronted this particular series of obstacles!
And best of all...crows can recognize one individual human, that it doesn't like, in a huge busy crowd of people. And when that crow's fledglings are still in the nest, the parent can describe that bad human to the babies, so even though the baby has never seen that human before, he will recognize and avoid the human if he is seen.
One of the trainers I work with is of the opinion that ravens are the smartest animal on the planet. Smarter than dogs, dolphins, elephants, etc... I think apes are smarter, but not by much. Orangutans are human-like in their intelligence. Its eerie.
 

TriciaStringer

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Will you actually hunt with 3 birds at once? That huge perch you carry in the field only has 2 perches, doesn't it? And 3 would be kind of heavy.

BTW, rabbit is AWFUL!! I've only had it one time and never again. Yuck!
@TriciaStringer sorry, but I had to warn him! ;)
Anything cooked in Louisiana is better. Ha!
 

Jan A

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This is just beyond fascinating! Thank you for the detailed anecdotes and explanations. I could sit and read this all night long.

To me, it's especially interesting to read of their intelligence. Birds are so much brighter than humans give them credit for. A while back at a CTTC meeting we were shown an episode of "Nature" that centered on crows. My mouth hung open in astonishment at what they are capable of doing. They make tools to use to solve problems...something that was thought to be reserved for higher level intellect.
They look at a treat that is inaccessable , size it up, and think about how to solve the problem, and then do complex processes involving 3-5 steps to get the treat. And this is the first time they have ever confronted this particular series of obstacles!
And best of all...crows can recognize one individual human, that it doesn't like, in a huge busy crowd of people. And when that crow's fledglings are still in the nest, the parent can describe that bad human to the babies, so even though the baby has never seen that human before, he will recognize and avoid the human if he is seen.

.
 

Tom

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Season 3 for the boys is off to a flying start. HA! Flying start...

Cottontail season opens on October 1st. We went to one of our usual areas and between the drought and the die offs from the RHD disease last year, there were hardly any rabbits to be seen. I decided to leave the area and look elsewhere and, of course, they caught one on the way back to the car. These little boys don't do much damage on their initial grab, so I decided to trade them off for a pre-measured meaty reward and let this rabbit go free. Hopefully she/he will live through winter and do some breeding in spring. I won't be hunting that area again this year. Because I was trying to minimize the damage from the talons, I didn't take any pics of this one.

On day two we went north to a totally different area, and up there the rabbits were literally everywhere you looked. The boys put in some spectacular chases, and Rick finally nabbed this giant one all by himself while Morty was off chasing a different one:
IMG_5255.jpg

Today was day three, and we headed to another field that is usually jumping with lagomorphs. Looks like some transients have moved in to the field over the summer, left a lot of trash, and burned a substantial portion of this field, but still plenty of cover, food and both cottontails and jacks. The boys teamed up as usual and took down this fast mover while on the run:
IMG_5263.jpg
It looks like one bird in the pic, but Rick has his head down behind his brother.

My new girl is coming along nicely, but her weight is still a bit too high.
 

Tortobsessed

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This is so cool! I just heard about someone doing this a few days ago. I added this to my bucket list for someday. It sounds like such an amazing experience. I didn't know it was something anybody could do (with a lot of hard work).
 

Tom

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This is so cool! I just heard about someone doing this a few days ago. I added this to my bucket list for someday. It sounds like such an amazing experience. I didn't know it was something anybody could do (with a lot of hard work).
Its not for everyone. It literally takes over your whole life. Its either your thing in life or it isn't. Most falconers don't encourage other people to try it or do it. If someone is truly into it they will seek it out and make it happen on their own without encouragement. If they only have a casual interest, its best to just admire it from afar and watch YT videos about it. I invite people to come along all the time. Few ever do, and no one has ever wanted to do it on their own. Everyone whose been out hunting with me agrees that it is totally amazing. Almost unbelievable. They go home and tell the stories of what they saw, but they never want want to become a practitioner of the art for one reason or another. That's okay with me. More rabbits for me to find!

I suffer terribly from SAD. I get awful depression in winter and as a child I found it difficult to even enjoy the beautiful summer days knowing that winter would return. It was a terrible annual cycle. Falconry happens in winter. It has become my gym, my therapy, my church, and my return to nature all in one. Because of falconry, I now look forward to and enjoy the winter months. It has literally changed my whole life. When I am walking in the field with my birds following along, all the problems of the world melt away. We are there for one purpose. To catch food for them to eat. We work together as a team to make that happen and that is all any of us think about while we are out there. I get a tremendous work out in the cold morning air walking, jogging and running over miles of rough terrain, and finish with what I think must be a "runner's high". There is no lagging behind. We've got to find and catch a rabbit. The birds demand it! They call to me when they've got eyes on one but need my help to flush it. I can't imagine life without it, but I can also understand why anyone would not want to make such a commitment.
 

Jan A

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Thank you for sharing your adventure. I knew nothing about falconry before reading your thread. Your birds are so gorgeous. What a trip!!
 

Tom

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Thank you for sharing your adventure. I knew nothing about falconry before reading your thread. Your birds are so gorgeous. What a trip!!
Thank you. Here is the catch of the day. I finally got a picture showing two distinct birds instead of one confusing mass of brown and black feathers spread over a dead rabbit.

IMG_5273.jpg
 

Tortobsessed

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Its not for everyone. It literally takes over your whole life. Its either your thing in life or it isn't. Most falconers don't encourage other people to try it or do it. If someone is truly into it they will seek it out and make it happen on their own without encouragement. If they only have a casual interest, its best to just admire it from afar and watch YT videos about it. I invite people to come along all the time. Few ever do, and no one has ever wanted to do it on their own. Everyone whose been out hunting with me agrees that it is totally amazing. Almost unbelievable. They go home and tell the stories of what they saw, but they never want want to become a practitioner of the art for one reason or another. That's okay with me. More rabbits for me to find!

I suffer terribly from SAD. I get awful depression in winter and as a child I found it difficult to even enjoy the beautiful summer days knowing that winter would return. It was a terrible annual cycle. Falconry happens in winter. It has become my gym, my therapy, my church, and my return to nature all in one. Because of falconry, I now look forward to and enjoy the winter months. It has literally changed my whole life. When I am walking in the field with my birds following along, all the problems of the world melt away. We are there for one purpose. To catch food for them to eat. We work together as a team to make that happen and that is all any of us think about while we are out there. I get a tremendous work out in the cold morning air walking, jogging and running over miles of rough terrain, and finish with what I think must be a "runner's high". There is no lagging behind. We've got to find and catch a rabbit. The birds demand it! They call to me when they've got eyes on one but need my help to flush it. I can't imagine life without it, but I can also understand why anyone would not want to make such a commitment.
This makes perfect sense. Someday I really do think I want to do it. However it won't likely be soon due to their housing (I can't build in my backyard) and daily maintenance (I would like to take vacations or long weekends somewhere and these aren't an animal someone else can take care of). About how much time do you spend with them per day? I'd think it would be around 3 hours in addition to hunting days. I love that you are able to be part of one of the most amazing natural processes. Do you have multiple birds or are you with someone else?
 

Tom

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This makes perfect sense. Someday I really do think I want to do it. However it won't likely be soon due to their housing (I can't build in my backyard) and daily maintenance (I would like to take vacations or long weekends somewhere and these aren't an animal someone else can take care of). About how much time do you spend with them per day? I'd think it would be around 3 hours in addition to hunting days. I love that you are able to be part of one of the most amazing natural processes. Do you have multiple birds or are you with someone else?
Every day is a long weekend and a vacation when I'm out hunting with my birds. I take "vacations" with falconry buddies to far off places several times a year, with our birds of course.

In the off season, you literally toss them some food daily, and clean and refill the water tubs as necessary. I hose off the mess once or twice a week, and that's about it. Just a few minutes per day, if that.

When getting them ready for hunting season and flying them on a creance (long leash), I spend about 10 minutes per bird if you count food prep and clean up. Also at the start of each hunting season, as a one time thing, I put new bracelets on each bird and that takes about an hour total.

During hunting season I try to hunt every day. Job, family, and life sometimes interferes with that goal, so I actually end up hunting 5-6 days a week with them most of the time. Sometimes we will get a stretch of 12-15 days in a row, and some weeks I'm only able to get them out 3-4 times. It varies a lot, and the birds don't seem to mind. When they are in the hunting season and at weight, I never feed them in the mews. I box them up in their travel boxes, walk down the ranch set some food out, and then come back and turn them loose. They will ride the fist or the T-perch with me until they "discover" their food, and then they fly over and eat it while I walk back up to the mew and wait for them to finish eating. When they are done, they look around until they find me, fly back to me, and I put them away. Then I do the other one. Takes about 15-20 minutes a day total.

Hunting days take the most time. Drive time to most of my usual fields is anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour each way. Then its anywhere from 1 minute to 3 or 4 hours of me marching around in the bushes trying to get rabbits to jump up and run for them. Today was a fairly normal day. Woke up about 10 minutes to 6, did my chores and ate breakfast, weighed the birds, loaded them up and hit the road by about 7 am. Arrived at the field about 7:40, grabbed the T perch, attached jesses and telemetry transmitters, put on my special hunting shoes, hat, and falconry vest, and started our hunt about 7:48. Walked a whole field and didn't catch anything, so we crossed a street (carefully) and hunted a big new field on the other side. At 8:34 am, they caught the jack rabbit seen in the picture. He evaded them several times and we had to pursue this one the length of the 20-30 acre field. It was very exciting and I thought we'd lost him in heavy cover several times. I traded the boys off, stashed the prize, and then we walked back to the car. when they were done eating. On the way back to the car, a cottontail jumped up right in front of us and they chased him on a long straight run straight away from me, but he just barely made it to his hole in time. Gotta be super fast to catch cottontails. Cottontails are very difficult to catch but easy to hold on to. Jacks are easier to catch, but very tough to hold on to. We made it back to the car, took all of our equipment off, put the boys in their hawk boxes, and started the 40 minute drive home at about 9am. I got back to the ranch, put the birds back in their mews, organized my falconry stuff for the next day, and butchered the rabbit. Takes about 5 minutes to butcher a cottontail and 10 minutes for a jack. I cut them into meal size pieces for the hawks and stack the gallon size baggies in the chest freezer. I then started my day in a great mood still riding high on my endorphin and adrenaline rush. It would really be much easier to just drink some coffee, but I don't like coffee, and my way seems much more fun. A short hunting day at a close field might only be an hour or two. A distant field where they don't catch one for a while might take 4-5 hours.

I have two male Harris hawks. They are chamber raised brothers. I got them in August of 2019 at about 4 months old. They fly and hunt together and this is our third hunting season working as a team. I've now acquired a third Harris hawk. Female, one year older than the boys, and she previously flew with two other male Harris hawks. Its taking a long time to get her weight down where it needs to be, so I haven't been able to hunt with her yet, but the plan is to get the three of them all working together with me. If I succeed, it will be epic. You can see pics of her farther back in the tread, and there is a video of the boys hunting in their first year a few pages back too.
 

Tortobsessed

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Every day is a long weekend and a vacation when I'm out hunting with my birds. I take "vacations" with falconry buddies to far off places several times a year, with our birds of course.

In the off season, you literally toss them some food daily, and clean and refill the water tubs as necessary. I hose off the mess once or twice a week, and that's about it. Just a few minutes per day, if that.

When getting them ready for hunting season and flying them on a creance (long leash), I spend about 10 minutes per bird if you count food prep and clean up. Also at the start of each hunting season, as a one time thing, I put new bracelets on each bird and that takes about an hour total.

During hunting season I try to hunt every day. Job, family, and life sometimes interferes with that goal, so I actually end up hunting 5-6 days a week with them most of the time. Sometimes we will get a stretch of 12-15 days in a row, and some weeks I'm only able to get them out 3-4 times. It varies a lot, and the birds don't seem to mind. When they are in the hunting season and at weight, I never feed them in the mews. I box them up in their travel boxes, walk down the ranch set some food out, and then come back and turn them loose. They will ride the fist or the T-perch with me until they "discover" their food, and then they fly over and eat it while I walk back up to the mew and wait for them to finish eating. When they are done, they look around until they find me, fly back to me, and I put them away. Then I do the other one. Takes about 15-20 minutes a day total.

Hunting days take the most time. Drive time to most of my usual fields is anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour each way. Then its anywhere from 1 minute to 3 or 4 hours of me marching around in the bushes trying to get rabbits to jump up and run for them. Today was a fairly normal day. Woke up about 10 minutes to 6, did my chores and ate breakfast, weighed the birds, loaded them up and hit the road by about 7 am. Arrived at the field about 7:40, grabbed the T perch, attached jesses and telemetry transmitters, put on my special hunting shoes, hat, and falconry vest, and started our hunt about 7:48. Walked a whole field and didn't catch anything, so we crossed a street (carefully) and hunted a big new field on the other side. At 8:34 am, they caught the jack rabbit seen in the picture. He evaded them several times and we had to pursue this one the length of the 20-30 acre field. It was very exciting and I thought we'd lost him in heavy cover several times. I traded the boys off, stashed the prize, and then we walked back to the car. when they were done eating. On the way back to the car, a cottontail jumped up right in front of us and they chased him on a long straight run straight away from me, but he just barely made it to his hole in time. Gotta be super fast to catch cottontails. Cottontails are very difficult to catch but easy to hold on to. Jacks are easier to catch, but very tough to hold on to. We made it back to the car, took all of our equipment off, put the boys in their hawk boxes, and started the 40 minute drive home at about 9am. I got back to the ranch, put the birds back in their mews, organized my falconry stuff for the next day, and butchered the rabbit. Takes about 5 minutes to butcher a cottontail and 10 minutes for a jack. I cut them into meal size pieces for the hawks and stack the gallon size baggies in the chest freezer. I then started my day in a great mood still riding high on my endorphin and adrenaline rush. It would really be much easier to just drink some coffee, but I don't like coffee, and my way seems much more fun. A short hunting day at a close field might only be an hour or two. A distant field where they don't catch one for a while might take 4-5 hours.

I have two male Harris hawks. They are chamber raised brothers. I got them in August of 2019 at about 4 months old. They fly and hunt together and this is our third hunting season working as a team. I've now acquired a third Harris hawk. Female, one year older than the boys, and she previously flew with two other male Harris hawks. Its taking a long time to get her weight down where it needs to be, so I haven't been able to hunt with her yet, but the plan is to get the three of them all working together with me. If I succeed, it will be epic. You can see pics of her farther back in the tread, and there is a video of the boys hunting in their first year a few pages back too.
That's absolutely amazing! It doesn't sound like that could ever get old or boring.
 

Tortobsessed

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I've joined a forum and bookmarked tons of websites so I'll have plenty of reading to do to decide if I want to try this someday.
 

Tom

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Know what this is?
IMG_5354.jpg

That is three Harris' Hawks airborne and coming to their trainer all at the same time. It could also be called beautiful, awesome, fantastic. poetry in motion, amazing, wonderful, terrific, excellent, etc...
 

Jan A

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Know what this is?
View attachment 334705

That is three Harris' Hawks airborne and coming to their trainer all at the same time. It could also be called beautiful, awesome, fantastic. poetry in motion, amazing, wonderful, terrific, excellent, etc...
How'd she do with the boys? How'd you manage to get that picture? That is just spectacular!! You do have a special talent!! Congrats!!
 

Tom

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How'd she do with the boys? How'd you manage to get that picture? That is just spectacular!! You do have a special talent!! Congrats!!
She's doing great with the boys. No aggression or problems from any of them at all. She's not sure yet why she should ride around on that T perch and spends a fair amount of time on the ground, but she does keep up with the group and follow along nicely. I can get her up on the perch for a tid bit, but she jumps off if one of the boys joins her up there. I thought they would be afraid of her, but she seems a little intimidated by them. She chases rabbits if one jumps up at the right time, but she hasn't caught one on her own yet. She assisted the boys on a jack today. When I arrived on the scene, all three birds were on the jack, but she let go before I could get my phone out and get a pic. No problems on the kill and everybody behaves with unexpected, but fantastic, civility.
IMG_5356.jpg
 

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