Phoenix Falconry

New Blog (Boise Falconry)

2007-08-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

So not wanting to change this link I created a new blog Boise Falconry. I plan to blog on this site about falconry in the Boise area. I also plan to do something a little different with this blog, I will be inviting other falconers in the Boise area to contribute to this blog and help me add content. So don't be a stranger come check out my new blog at:

http://boisefalconry.blogspot.com/

Moved to Idaho

2007-08-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

So my wife and I up and moved to Idaho. It's beautiful here and there are rabbits everywhere I look! I'm so depressed at the idea of not having a bird this year, but it's for the best. I released Athena a short while ago and she was happy to get back to the wild. Any way I guess I'll have to think of a new name for my blog or perhaps start a new one.

Excellent Video

2007-07-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

Molt Continues

2007-07-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Well I took Athena up for a little routine maintenance and weighing the other day with the help of Dave and Missy Botcher. She hasn't had any equipment on her in 5 or so months and I haven't inspected her feet for condition recently so I was excited to see how she was doing. She weighed in at an astounding 1325 grams or 2.9 pounds, wow what a big bird. I only wish I could fly her this winter I bet she'd fly at 1100 or more grams. Once I got her equipment on her Dave coped her beak as I watched. She was in pretty bad shape in this department as her beak has gotten really long. Once we got that taken care of we set her on the glove. Boy was she pissed, and I was left with no doubt that she has good gripping strength in her right leg. So all in all things are going well. I am moving shortly so I'll have to change the name of the blog, and figure out what to do with Athena, I may release her but there is also the possibility that she will go to the Phoenix zoo and I am just not sure which option I will take.

Golden Eagle's

2007-05-31T22:41:00.001-07:00

It's always amazing to think that a golden eagle can kill animals as big as wolves.

The Dream

2007-05-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to fly a falcon on rabbits, I don't know why.

Athena Update

2007-05-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

So here's an update Athena is doing very well she is out in her mew and acting very feisty. She is freelofted and doing much better than Geronimo ever did in the mew. The other day she voluntarily steped up to the glove without food and I damn near cried. It has been so difficult seeing her go through this and to have her step up and basically say, "I understand you did what you had to and I don't hold it against you" was amazing.

Power Lines are Evil

2007-05-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here's why you don't hunt near transformers!!!!

Movement Restrictions

2007-05-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

So Athena had the pins removed on Thursday sadly though she's still under strict bed rest orders from the vet for another week so she hasn't had the chance to get back out into the mews. I'll keep everyone updated on her progress.

She began the molt a few weeks ago and so far has dropped 7 primaries.

Last Weight 1200 grams.

American Falconry

2007-04-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

So I have enjoyed American Falconry magazine moderately over the last year. I do wish that their website were a little better though. I did a little Google trickery and came up with the following list of articles though that are available on their site for your reading pleasure.

Imprint Accipiters And The Recipe by
Mike McDermott

Pure Passage Gyr by Hubert Quade

Makin' Hoods by Dave Perfetti

Zorro...Of The Skies Africa's Black Sparrowhawks
by Craig Golden

American Falconry's First Photo Contest
by Dave Perfetti

The First Year an Apprentice Perspective
by Larry Dickerson

The Year of the Mule by Harry McElroy

Art and History of Asborno Bell Making
by Dave Perfetti

Finding the Right Sponsor by
Jim Gwiazdzinski

Hawking Snowshoe Hares in Alaska by
Don Hunley

Flying a Cast of Longwings by Steve
Jones

Plight of the Urban Falconer by Alan
Malnar

Should Apprentice Falconers be Allowed
to Fly American Kestrels? by Matthew Mullenix & Brian A. Millsap

Hawking The West For Sage Grouse
by Dave Perfetti

Hawking The West For Sage Grouse Part II
by Dave Perfetti

Training Your First Longwing
by Steve Jones

Hawkin' Humor ~ Stuff About Things by
Keith Thompsen

Hawkin' Humor ~ Growing Gos' by Keith
Thompsen

Hawkin' Dogs ~ Scenting and Pointing
by Jack Oar

Hawkin' Dogs ~ Range by Jack Oar

Taking a Pitch A Book Review ~ The Hunting
Falcon by Bruce Haak by Eric Tabb and Steve Heying

Beginners Circle ~ In Praise of Apprenticeship
by Bill Oakes

Hawkin' Gear ~ Unbutton Your Bird And Fly
Her Naked! by Howard Brinkerhoff

Hawkin' Gear ~ A Streamlined Hawk Box
by Tom and Jennifer Coulson

Hawkin' Gear ~ The Best Harness Yet!

by Craig Nicol

I'm really just repeating this page but it's rather hard to find.

Update

2007-04-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted in a while. I guess it's because it's been a rough couple of weeks. The dislocation was in fact not a dislocation, Athena broke her leg 1/3 of the way down her Tibio-tarsus(not sure if that's spelled right?). I found out about the break a day or so after my last post so thankfully the injury didn't go untreated. I had a local Vet pin the leg and I'm glad to say that it's healing nicely. I'll try to post an update in a week and a half after the pins come out and she's in her mews.

Season Cut Short

2007-03-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well my season is over. Yesterday Athena must have gotten pretty worked up while I was at work because she dislocated her hip while tethered in her mews. I took her in for x-rays last night and discovered that it was a dislocated hip. At the time I thought this was good news but on talking more with a local veterinarian/falconer it is a lot worse than it sounds. They can't just pop the leg back into the socket, and even if they could it would likely just pop right out again without surgery.

Fun Video

2007-03-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

A nicely put together video that I saw today:

Training

2007-03-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

I took Athena out yesterday at 1000 grams to work on field control and to start working on getting her to follow on. I could just let her keep killing with reckless abandon but I want her to learn to work with me so that we can be more effective together in the field. Overall she did really well and after yesterday I feel totally comfortable upping her flight weight to 1000 grams which is nice because I'd like her to fly at as high a weight as possible so she can build muscle and have energy to burn when needed.

For field work we have a couple of things to work on:

She seems to prefer low perches for some reason, so I need to get her up higher.

I would like her to go out in front of me which ever direction I am traveling rather than sitting in a tree 100 yards behind me.

To work on this I spent yesterday just walking around in the desert rewarding her every time she landed on a tree in front of me. This wasn't terribly easy for her because I took her to a bad location for this exercise where there weren't many high perches. I did eventually find 2 trees with decent high perches about 50 feet apart and I proceeded to walk between them. Every time she left my glove for the tree out in front of me I would call her back to the glove for a tidbit the next time I take her out I'll see if I can find a better location with two trees further apart so I can make sure she really has the idea.

I finished our session with the lure as I plan to from now on. This was the first time that she took the lure in a way which made me think she knew what it was. Before I could get a full circle in with the lure she was in the air, and rather than just coming over at a nice slow pace she raced at me and tore the lure right out of the air.

It was excellent I throughly enjoyed the session the temperature was beautiful and the sun was just minutes away from setting.

3 for 3

2007-03-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I took Athena back out to her field where she caught her third rabbit on her third outing. I am very pleased and yesterday got to see a couple of great flights.

First I'll go through some of the reinforcement that I did with Athena yesterday in the field. She was very quick to come to me every time I called her. There was a time that she took a short flight (150+ yards) ahead of me into the wind, and I wanted to reinforce this behavior so as soon as she got there I called her to the fist for a tidbit as a reward. Well she was rather tired from flying headfirst into the wind so she delayed a bit before coming to the fist. On three separate occasions she soared up 40 or so feet and circled us an act which I immediately reinforced by calling her to the glove for a jackpot. Next time I'll see if I can get her to make more full circles before calling her down for a tidbit thus shaping a soaring behavior which should be very helpful in my jackrabbit fields.

On to the details of the hunt!
Chase 1:
Athena was out of position on this chase because a block wall prevented the flushing rabbit from running any direction except into the wind. Well I flushed the rabbit and it only moved a little bit, so my father-in-law who was helping me got on the other side of it and we flushed it out for her. Athena gave a good 100 yard chase into the wind before she ran out of steam. A great chase though.

Chase 2:
Athena was in a great position for this slip, she was on a high perch and we were beating the brush straight toward her when the rabbit broke cover. It ran straight at her not seeing her until it was directly underneath her. Once it saw her it made a 90 degree turn into the wind and a nearby tumbleweed pile. This didn't even slow Athena down she tucked her wings in and crashed into that pile of tumble weeds like they weren't there. I thought for sure that she had the rabbit this time but as I ran up I saw the cottontail running upwind at a severe pace.

Chase 3:
This wasn't much of a chase. Athena saw a haggard red tail in the area and flew over to make her presence known. She perched on a short tree directly under the hag, which really had me worried (no less than 3 Arizona falconers have recently had their birds attacked and hurt rather badly by haggard red tails) so I was running at full speed toward her perch when I saw her do a wing over in place. When I approached her she was holding a cottontail by the head, I guess that's why the haggard red tail was interested in that part of the field.

Two for Two

2007-03-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

So our second trip out to the field and Athena scores another kill. This time the slip was over a hundred yards out and she took off of a low dirt mound and still made the catch.

Here are a few pics:

First Kill

2007-02-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today I took Athena to a field to enter her on cottontails. We got in a single quick call after I un-hooded her and her response was great. After that we started to walk toward this rock pile where we knew there were cottontails. Well Athena had a different idea and took off over to another side of the field. I think she was actually chasing a rabbit but she ended up just taking a high perch. We started walking toward her but then I changed my mind and decided we should start with the rock piles because they are further from the neighboring residential area. So I called her to me for a second time today and again her response was excellent. We walked toward the rock pile and Athena moved on out ahead of us just like a good bird should do. I immediately called her back to me for a reward. This practice will teach the bird to be out in front of me when we're walking though it does have the disadvantage of putting her out of position early on in her training. After she came back to me I set her on a nice perch just above the rock pile. Jason my hunting parter and 4th year falconer said he could see a cottontail in the rock pile and that the only way we were going to flush it is if he reached in and grabbed it. I said ok and Jason grabbed the rabbit and tossed it out in front of Athena. We screamed HO HO HO and the chase was on. She didn't hesitate at all and was on that rabbit before it could get 20 feet. I made in carefully and was happy to see that she had the rabbit by the head. I dispatched the rabbit and then cut off a back leg. I transfered her off onto the glove where I proceeded to feed her the back two legs of the rabbit and the heart and liver. She was fat and happy by the time we were done. I can't wait to get her out in the field again.

Free Flight

2007-02-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

Athena's first free flight was today. She did real well following on without being called. There was a couple of times where we were over a hundred yards ahead of her before she came but I made sure not to call her until she was in a good position so as not to train her to just sit and wait to be called.

Raptor Force

2007-02-20T10:55:00.000-08:00

I watched the video called Raptor Force on Sunday on PBS and thought I'd mention that I thought it was excellent and even ordered a copy.

Marshal Scout

2007-02-20T10:46:00.000-08:00

I ordered a Marshal Scout Transmitter last night so with a little luck it'll be around before Friday and Athena and I'll put it to good use this weekend (Wait scratch that I hope to not have to use that thing at all).

I'm sure some of you will say that telemetry is not needed with a red tail and I would agree with you, which is why my post only describes the purchase of a transmitter. I am not buying a receiver at this time because I don't intend to need to use one often. Having the transmitter on the bird though I should be able to barrow a receiver long enough to get my bird back in the event of a fly off and given that she's a late trapped passage red tail it'll probably happen at least once.

Been busy

2007-02-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

So this last week I worked out a deal with my company so that I could work from home more and that allowed me to fly Athena every day on the creance. I took her out to the east valley on Saturday so my sponsor could see her fly. After her first flight of over 80 feet on the creance was immediate my sponsor said she was ready to go. We then did one more flight on the creance and it became apparent that even though it looks like her response to my call is under stimulus control she doesn't appear to be watching me keenly enough. So we decided to try her again on Sunday at 10-15 grams lower and see how she responds at that weight. I flew her the next day at 15 grams lower and though she came really well she was not any better than on Saturday when I flew her at 1000, but I must point out she did come really well at 985 in 20 mph winds so that was encouraging.

Well with her not paying enough attention to me in the field my sponsor and I figured we'd just take this week to get her wed to the lure so that I'd have a plan B if she took off, or wouldn't respond, so I've been working on that.

She doesn't seem to understand the lure though it seams. I have been zip tying between 1 and 4 mice to the lure and gently tossing it out on the ground in front of her with no response, none. She will of course come IMMEDIATELY to the glove but the lure holds no interest for her. I've had 1 or 2 successful calls to the lure in the scenario I described, but there has yet to be a moment of understanding on her part where she shows she knows she'll get fed for hitting that lure. I'll keep pressing on and see how she does with the lure tonight.

Wow

2007-02-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

I am really enjoying this bird, I can't wait to get her into the field. Her response is instant. Geronimo never, even on his best days, came this fast. The light has really gone off and I should have her out and hunting soon.

One technique that I have used that my sponsor told me about was when I was trying to get her to hop the fist I would give her a five second count to hop and if she didn't I wouldn't try again for at least 20 minutes. Now I don't know if you need to wait the 20 minutes that was just what I did but it sure has made a difference with this bird.

Comming Along

2007-02-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

So Athena's been progressing well but last night for the second night in a row she didn't show progress so I brought her weight down a bit. Tonight she had instant response and tomorrow I'm sure we'll see even more progress outside tomorrow on the creance.

Desert Hawking Classic Aftermath

2007-01-31T19:54:00.000-08:00

So the classic was excellent this year. I won some cool swag in the raffle and remained mostly sober for the whole weekend. The best flight of the weekend was watching Ted's Peregrine falcon take a duck off a pond. The duck flew right toward the group and the peregrine caught up with the duck about 20 feet from the group which was really amazing. So here's a few pictures from the meet:

Desert Hawking Classic

2007-01-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

So I'm off tomorrow to Wilcox for the Desert Hawking classic. It should be a lot of fun and with any luck I'll win some good kit in the raffle. Athena wont be out flying yet but the exposure to people should be a good thing.

Moving Forward

2007-01-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

So Athena's moving forward. The night before last she stepped up to the fist and ate a bit of rabbit several times. I overfed her again so I only gave her about 5-6 grams of washed rabbit last night just to keep her metabolism from slowing down, and hoping to keep on track so I can get her out in the field ASAP.

Tonight I think we'll try hoping to the fist depending on what my sponsor says. I don't expect her to hop to the glove tonight, but thanks to the cold weather she should be in the mood to hop very soon.

Step up

2007-01-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

So Athena is getting real used to life on the screen perch, and we tried stepping up yesterday. It was weird because she would tug at the meat and then eventually get one foot up on the glove and then suddenly realize what she was doing and fly off the fist to the other side of the perch. I think this just means that she is at the right place to be stepping up to the glove mentally but not at the right place weight wise. I'll consult my sponsor and see what he says.

Yesterday's Weight: 1090

P.S. Looking at my logs I just realized that she hasn't lost any weight in the last week. Damit I'm not doing my job properly.

Starting to get it

2007-01-15T07:23:00.001-08:00

Well she didn't eat on Saturday so she went hungry. It does look like she's slowed her metabolism down a bit because she only lost 10 grams after not being fed. I broke out a rabbit leg last night and waited for her to eat and she wasn't having any of it, so I switched to a quail leg. As soon as she got one bite of quail a light went off in her head and she started to attack the quail leg. I didn't want to feed her quail because I don't want her gaining weight so I switched to the rabbit leg which she didn't mind at all. I did end up feeding her more than I wanted to overall though so after that I decided to put her in the Giant Hood and put her out in the mews for the evening so she could burn some of that food off. Tonight we'll start getting her to step up and hopefully tomorrow she'll be hoping.

I Love This Bird

2007-01-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

She ate off the glove this evening!! I guess Athena's my reward for all the pain Geronimo put me through.

She's at 1090 and was readily taking tidbits off the glove moments ago. I had to take a break because my hand cramped up but I am going to continue in a couple of minutes. Maybe I will have her hoping to the glove by early next week!! ;D

P.S. Here's a picture of the screen perch I built. I copied my sponsors design, and no I never leave her on the perch unattended.

Progress

2007-01-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday:Things went well with Athena last night she is making huge progress. I'm not sure if it's just because she's a female or because I have a better idea of what to expect from her but by the end of last nights session she was tearing at the meat held in my bare hand and nearly eating off the glove. I have Friday - Sunday off so she's going to either live on my glove or the screen perch the whole time so she gets good and manned. My sponsor wants me to shoot for having her hopping to the fist by Sunday which would be awesome but given my experiences with Geronimo I wont get my hopes up.

The hardest part

2007-01-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

Summary: I've been bringing Athena down 15-18 grams per day and making some progress. She is still bates a bit on the glove but it's usually boredom or a overly quick movement on my part that caused the bate. She is making progress and I hope to have her eating off the fist in the next two days. I've also started putting her on the screen perch in the evenings when she's not on the glove so that she can observe us and get a little more used to her surroundings. This is, in my opinion, the hardest part of training because the bird is not only dangerous, but it's afraid and that feeling of fear always makes me feel bad for my bird.

Yesterday: I hung a quail leg out in front of her for her to bite in hopes of getting her to bring her head down toward the glove but I'm not sure if I'll continue this process. I have to talk to my sponsor to see if I should discontinue tidbiting until she eats off the glove or if I should keep trying to get her to take tidbits.

PS: I'll try to get pictures of the screen perch up for all to see, it was really easy to use and in about 4 hours of use she's only bated 5 times, and that fact alone speaks volumes to her comfort while on the perch.

Baby Steps

2007-01-06T20:58:00.000-08:00

Manning continued today. She will regain the fist when she bates and is bating much less in general however she still wont "take" tidbits from me. I can rub them on her mouth and she'll bite and swallow but she refuses to reach out for them at all. She didn't get much to eat today so perhaps she'll be a little more hungry tomorrow.

Getting to know Athena

2007-01-04T12:29:00.001-08:00

Well the manning begins in earnest tonight. I've held off on working with Athena until now because she was hog fat when I trapped her and had a full crop, not to mention that my sponsor told me to which is always a good reason. So tonight I'll get to see what kind of bird Athena is going to be, I'm so excited.

Yesterday's weight:
1225

Athena PFRT 2006

2007-01-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

I trapped a new female red tail yesterday. Her name is Athena and here are some photos:

Too Many Problems

2006-12-31T16:44:00.000-08:00

So as you all have noticed Geronimo has taken way too long to get out flying. The biggest problem I have encountered with him is the fact that he doesn't seem to respond to weight control as expected. He also has developed a negative association with coming to the glove because he hates to be hooded. He has shown this negative association by not coming to quickly really ever, and by fear chirping when I call him to the glove from a short range. I talked over my issues with my sponsor a 10 year + master falconer as well as 2 other master falconers and we all decided that the best thing would be to release Geronimo and get a new bird before the end of trapping season. So I went ahead and released Geronimo this last week, and started trapping.

Trapping paid off, today I trapped my new bird. I trapped a huge female red tail with a full crop. I'll get a weight sometime tomorrow and hopefully some pictures. She's absolutely huge! Any ideas for names will also be appreciated.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-25T20:32:00.000-08:00

My parents gave me a new Garmin eTrex Venture Cx for Christmas! Happy Hawking!

Way too long

2006-12-18T21:39:00.000-08:00

Well it's been way too long between posts, and thats mostly due to my frustration. I've had a very hard time finding Geronimo's weight because I brought him down to slowly in the first place. So after almost a month of creance work I'll probably be free flying him on Sunday or Monday. Also here are a quick photo to tide everyone over.

Creance

2006-11-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a few days since I've posted so I thought I'd report on Geronimo's progress. He's flying to the fist with less than a 1 second delay so tomorrow we'll be out on the creance for the first time. I had hoped to have him out on the creance over the weekend but things came up and we ended up just working in the garage as usual. I am really excited because he has really manned down nicely and with any luck he'll live up to his name and be a great warrior! I'm keeping him at his inital response weight for now just because he doesn't seem to be bothered by that weight and he's responding well. I hope to fly him a lot heavier so after we spend some time on the creance we'll sort out his high weight limit and then we should be good to go.

And We're Off

2006-11-16T19:14:00.000-08:00

So tonight is weight was up around 770 and I fed him 10 grams of quail, I probably could have lengthened the session but I ran out of quail and I don't want to push his weight up too far too fast. So at the end of tonights session he was flying to the glove over 8 feet. I am very excited to see his rapid progress. I hope that I'll have him out hunting by thanksgiving weekend. My sponsor may be coming out to hunt in the west valley tomorrow and with any luck we'll scare some cotton tails up for his new Harris hawk. And if that wasn't enough hawking for one weekend there is the Arizona falconers association meet this Saturday up north which should be a lot of fun. Well I'll try to keep everyone updated on Geronimo's progress. I feel like it took me too long to get to this point but we got here and now the real fun should begin!

He Did It

2006-11-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

So at 765g Geronimo finally jumped to the glove. We got several good jumps in before the session ended, mostly due to the fact that I was giving him huge pieces of quail for every jump. I'll have to work with some smaller pieces of quail tomorrow so we can have a nice long session.

Too Long

2006-11-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I posted, sorry. Well he'll step up to the fist pretty well now but I have to press against him with the glove. He'll even jump straight up to the glove again as long as I crowed him with the glove. He wont however jump out to the glove. I think before now he was too high to do this so I am hoping tonight to see some better results. He should be at around 780 tonight which is the lowest I've had him and hopefully he'll be real keen to jump to the fist, I'd love to feed him up and get him out on the creance this week so that I can take him up to Cortes Junction for the meet.

I also am having a problem with sores. He has a sore on each leg just above the anklets. This is interesting because he doesn't bate at all during the day, and if he does he's a miracle bird because he's regaining the perch in complete darkness. I think he's just constantly pulling at them, and that's causing these sores. I put a little Neats Foot oil on the anklets and some Vaseline on the sores themselves on Saturday and I did notice a small improvement. I am going to try Preparation H as my sponsor says that can work really well for sores.

Anyway I have some fun pictures from the cabin I'll try and post sometime tonight if I have time.

Step Up

2006-11-03T22:02:00.000-08:00

Geronimo weighed in tonight at a fat 849grams and I wasn't sure how he'd do. We worked for an hour in the kitchen and by the end of our 1 hour session he stepped up to the glove for a tidbit. I gave him 20 grams of quickly washed quail so hopefully he'll lose a little weight tonight so we can continue training while things are going ok.

Mellow evening in!

2006-11-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

So tonight we had a mellow evening in with Geronimo being a perfect guest, and hanging out while we watched tv for about 2 hours. He's now eating off the glove like a champ and things are going well. Here's a photo of him with his hood off:

Trust, it's earned not given

2006-11-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

So last night he weighed in at 834 grams before feeding. He sat on the glove for like 10 minutes before he started to get bored. At that point I brought out bits of quail, and he started eating off the glove almost immediately. I had a quail leg to use as a tiring but he ripped through that really quick as well. Tonight I'm going to get a rabbit leg going so he can really work on it for a while, and so we can actually have a decent manning session. I can't believe it took this long to get him eating off the glove, but he was just so stubborn. In general though I think he's going to be a great bird, he's yet to show me any aggression when he's un-hooded and has never bated out of fear. When he gets bored he'll bate trying to get to a higher perch but I usually only allow him 2 or 3 of those before we quit for the evening. I can't wait to get him flying.

Falling Behind

2006-10-30T15:39:00.000-08:00

So last night was fun with Geronimo. I got him out at around 6:30PM and walked him downstairs. We sat and watched TV with my wife for a while, before he started bating looking for a better perch. What is getting frustrating is his
persistence not to eat off of the glove. If I weren't hooding him I'd consider using a bloody half mouse which I've heard can work really well and just let him go nuts, but he'll have to cast after that and with the hood on that bothers me. We'll try again tonight and I expect him to be around 860 grams so hopefully I'll have his attention.

On another note after I set him down on his perch hooded last night he footed my gloved hand (I never let got of the jesses until he's tied). I know what you're thinking, "You were wearing a glove, who cares", but the interesting part is that he gripped so hard that his back talon went through 2 layers of my cowhide glove into my index finger. It was only a small puncture so no biggie, but things like that remind me every day how much respect these birds deserve.

Stubborn

2006-10-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

Wow so he's down to 865 and he still wont eat off the glove. He went to bed last night with only a 3 gram tidbit because he wouldn't eat, so perhaps we'll see him do better tonight.

Also I hooded him last night without much of a problem thanks to my sponsors instructions. The hood is fantastic and came from Western Sporting and it's a Darted Dutch Hood.. It fits perfectly in spite of his efforts to throw it off immediately after hooding.

Manning Continues

2006-10-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

So every night at 7:00 Geronimo and I work on this whole getting to know one another issue. I go into his room with about 20 grams of quail and we spend the next hour in a battle of wills. He spends the whole time trying not to do anything that will in his eyes get him killed by the big human predator in the room, and I generally spend my time contemplating the pain that radiates in my arm due to the fact that I have a 2 pound bird perched on my fist and if I move my arm even the smallest amount I may lose 10-20 minutes of progress.

He has been losing weight as planned in very small amounts and I do anticipate that he'll be eating off of the glove tonight. He will readily take tidbits from my hand (which is mildly painful for me by the way), but he refuses to make that leap to taking food off of the glove. I attribute this more to him being pretty fat when we trapped him. My sponsor and I expect a normal drop of 10% off of his trapped weight before I'll see a real good response. After we get there we will proceed to raise him back up until we can identify the highest weight that I can fly him at and still maintain instant response.

Also I've noticed that he hasn't yet tried to foot me with the hood off (this may change as he grows to fear me less) where as with the hood on in the past he has made some very astute attempts to foot me.

On another note his new hood arrives today, it's a center deck hood sold through western sporting, and don't worry I'll be sure to post photos. I bought this hood after talking with my sponsor and Jim Dawson about what hoods work best and they both agreed that these were some of the best fitting hoods money could buy, so we'll give it a try and see. Right now I have 4 hoods and not a single one will fit, but at $80 I really expect this one to fit like a hood should.

Well back to work. I wish I didn't have to work today, I still need to make a Giant Hood.

Trapping Story

2006-10-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

So it's only been a couple of days but it feels like it's been forever since I posted. Well I never really posted Geronimo's trapping story so I'll get to it. My sponsor and I had been out trapping since sun up and had driven all over south east phoenix (Gilbert, Chandler, Florence) looking for a bird. Just like the previous weekend though we weren't seeing any juvenile birds. So around 11:00 AM we had given up and were headed back to my sponsors house, where I would at least get to see his new Harris hawk which would be exciting in and of itself. On the way back at signal butes road and baseline, I think, we saw a red tail perched on a very tall telephone pole right next to the very busy 4 lane road we were on. Neither of us were very happy with the location as it posed many risks to the bird and ourselves with traffic being so heavy. Not to mention that there was no where close to the bird where we could easily toss the trap. So I suggested that since this was likely the last bird of the day and we had both traps loaded with gerbils why not throw a trap out in the dirt area next to a neighboring SRP canal across the street from the bird and then circle around and drop one out in this guys yard where the telephone pole was located. Dillon thinking this sounded ok agreed. We tossed the first trap out in the lot and then circled around to drop the second trap in some guys yard. We were discussing the placement of this second trap when Geronimo launched off his pole at our trap next to the canal. We took off racing in and across traffic. When we got across the street, Geronimo was pitching a fit on the trap and making quite a scene. My sponsor said, "I'm just going to grab him" and jumped out of the still moving car to go and subdue the bird before we had a circus on our hands thanks to this busy road. My sponsor grabbed the bird and trap, without gloves on, and returned to the car before I could fully get out of the car myself.

Well that's how we trapped Geronimo, we are currently 5 days out and he's eating readily from my hand and behaving himself very well. I will be sure to keep the pictures coming!

In fact here's another one to keep everyone interested.

Geronimo

2006-10-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

I trapped Geronimo today at 942 grams after equipping!

Other News

2006-10-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the offer letter that arrived in the mail today I will soon be an employee of The Boeing Company. HOOORAY, 4-10's and work from home 2 day's a week!

That's the way it's done!

2006-10-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

I just came across this link to some pictures from a fellow falconer's recent camping trip.

Man o man am I jealous of his setup! That is exactly how I have pictured my hawking trips in the future...I just need to figure out where I can store a pop-up trailer....

Congrats to my Sponsor

2006-10-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Congrats to my sponser who drove thousands of miles over the past 2 weeks to find a Male Harris Hawk 10 miles from home.

A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
George Moore

First Trapping Weekend

2006-10-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

So I went trapping this last weekend, every day and here's what happened.

Friday my Sponsor, his fiance, my father-in-law and myself started our hunt in Eloy, AZ at 6:30 AM. We drove about a mile when we spotted a very large, by Arizona standards, red tail sitting on top of a power pole. We threw the trap and continued on a hundred yards or so. We sat and watched the trap for about 3 minutes before this bird came down to the trap. She was caught and I was lost in excitement. We drove up and and I ran out to subdue the bird so to prevent her from injuring herself when I heard my sponsor say, "She's a haggard" in a disappointed tone of voice. After inspecting those beautiful red tail feathers I too had to concur that she was in fact an adult bird. It was a shame to let her go but I really enjoyed tossing her to her freedom. About an hour later we came across another large female in a similar situation, only this time she was certainly a passage bird! We tossed out the trap and continued driving out to at least 200 yards and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally after about 15 minutes this bird left her pole and came down to the trap, however she did not land on it like most birds do. She checked off and hovered above it for a moment and then returned to her perch. To say I was disappointed would be the understatement of 2006. My sponsor did however have one more trick up his sleeve. He pulled out his pigeon harness and fit it on the homing pigeon that we had brought with us. We drove past the bird and tossed out the pigeon. Now most times, according to my sponsor, the pigeon will fly frantically and flap his wings wild and this is irresistible to almost any type of bird. This was not to be the case with this bird on this day. This pigeon just sat still in the middle of the road. Even with the lack of movement the red tail was interested and it only took a couple of flaps of the pigeon's wings to get the red tail to leave her perch and land on the bait pigeon. Now the red tail did something that only a fat, fat, red tail would do. It just sat there. It didn't start to break into the pigeon it didn't foot the bird, it just sat there. After about 3 minutes of just sitting there the red tail attempted to fly and we could see that she was having difficulty due to the drag weight attached to the pigeon. So my sponsor gunned the engine of his truck and we moved to secure my new bird. At the last minute as we approached this red tail escaped and flew backup to her perch as if to laugh at us from a distance. We left the pigeon in the road and drove past quite a ways to watch and hope this bird would come back to finish what she started with our pigeon, but after several minutes this red tail flew away. At this point I was feeling like I would never get a bird. During that Friday we saw over 35 red tails only 1 of which was certainly a passage bird.

Saturday my father-in-law and I went out to see what we could find out in Buckeye, AZ and after a full day of trapping and spotting over 20 red tails we didn't even have a good story to tell.

I went out alone on Sunday and was rewarded with more of the same. This was especially memorable, there was just something about being alone in the car with my windows down watching the sun come up over the Estrella Mountains that was really wonderful.

As much as I loved the experiences of this last weekend it's safe to say that I don't hope they are repeated this coming weekend. With any luck I'll get myself a passage female RT that weighs in at 1400 grams (I wish).

Well I'm off to make my own pigeon harness, wish me luck for this next hunt!

Note to apprentices about weight

2006-10-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

I read this on a forum the other day, what does every one think about it:

You need to find the point where he is fat enough that he will set on the perch, but is slow to respond. That may be 29 oz. who knows. The point being is, you don't want him to get too low in weight. That can be bad for his health and even kill him. You want to find the perfect weight where he responds instantly, or with very little hesitation. You don't want him so hungry he's getting weak.

We find that perfect weight where they are ready to hunt and try not to go below that. Here is an example. Say you put your hawk on the scale and he is at a weight of 30 oz. You set him on the perch with the creance attached and walk back 50 yards. You blow your whistle and call him to the glove and nothing happens. He sets there and looks around and then lifts a foot up like he's going to take a nap. You know he's too fat.

OK, so you only give him a couple of tidbits on the glove and call it a day. The next day he weighs 29.5 oz. and say he responds slowly. He may look around and hesitate for 30 seconds or more, but then comes to the glove. That is an important weight to remember. You know he is close, but still a tad too heavy.

Alright, say the next morning he is at 29.0 oz. You set him on the perch with the creance attached to his jesses and walk back 50-60 yards. You notice his eyes are on you. He seems focused, and alert. You raise your glove and whistle and he leaves the perch almost instantly or with very little hesitation. That is the weight you want. The one just below where he is slow to respond. You also have to remember that weight will change a little with the weather. When it gets real cold he will respond at a higher weight because his matabolism is burning calories like crazy just to keep him warm.

Of all the things I want you to learn, knowing the proper weight is most important. Find that point where he goes from slow to real good response. You want to just break over that fine line and don't go any lower in his weight unless we find a real good reason for it.

Dave

New Perch & Red Tail Sighting

2006-10-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because work has been crazy 50 hours a week for the last 3 weeks. In what little spare time I have I have been building a portable perch for my bird. I am very excited about the design and I think most people will like it once I'm done. It's basically a ring perch, but I used wood for the "ring" portion and a steel base to weigh it down. I did the math and it will have cost me $45 after it's all finished and $30 of that was for the scrap steel that I bought, so all in all much more reasonable in price than the one found on Northwoods.

In other news I saw a very beautiful Passage Red Tail today coming back to work from lunch. She was sitting on the fence looking in on the tall grass that surrounds the falcon field airport! How exciting, I figure that since this is the first bird I've seen this fall that means the migration has probably begun just in time for my trapping trip on the 13th!! I guess I should also mention that I've been making a B.C. trap as well but I don't really take credit on that because I'm just copying JD's design. This post was very rushed and I'm sorry if it's a bit incoherent but like I said I'm crazy busy, got to get back to work!

Federal License

2006-09-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

I got a copy of my federal license today! I have to send a thanks out to Kamile McKeever who processed my federal application with such expediency and who was so helpful in this process.

Got My State License

2006-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Great News I got my State Sport Falconry license today. A big thanks goes out to Arizona Game and Fish employees Tom Hildebrant, Bill Burger and Mark Stewart for helping me expedite the paperwork portion of this process.

So on to the Federal license!

Dutch Hoods

2006-09-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

So I got a Dutch hood a week or so ago from someone online for $20. I figured that for that price it would be worth it no matter what the quality so I snagged one. I figured that I would need one if I ended up getting a male Red Tail so why not have one on hand for each sex of bird. Well the hood came in the mail today and I was blown away! This hood is beautiful! I mean it makes the one I bought from Mike's falconry supplies (a Gary Brewer hood) look like a cheap imitation. Have a look. Oh by the way I'm not knocking the Gary Brewer hood's functionality but when you compare it with this hood it is no where near the same level of craftsmanship, not to mention beauty.

I Passed

2006-09-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Sweet I passed my inspection!

Inspection

2006-09-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

So my game and fish inspection is Friday evening! So excited!!

The tally is in!

2006-09-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

So the wife and I got curious and totaled up the costs of falconry related purchases over the last couple of months including the mews and all startup equipment and the total is a whopping $2126.15. The mews was $1103.04 and that means I "may" have spent a little too much on equipment, and not made enough stuff myself. Not to mention that for all that I didn't get any telemetry equipment.

Equipment Pre-Inspection

2006-09-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

So here's a bunch of pics of my equipment pre-inspection:

The Saker

2006-09-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

So here's another photo from the time I've spent in the tutelage of www.WildEdge.org:

I have to say that the broadwings hold my attention more firmly than the falcons for entertainment reasons, but any falcon will win every beauty contest that I judge over almost any broadwing. So based on that am I to be a falconer or an austringer?

Note: I had to remove the google advertising due to the fact that in the next month or so I should be getting my bird. I am pretty sure that if I made any revenue as a result of advertising on this site it may get my licenses revoked so the advertising had to come down. As always us falconers are just trying to stay between the gray blurry lines that are the laws!

Rabbit Field Alpha

2006-09-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

So here's my main rabbit field I spooked a jack just getting out of my car on the side of the road!!

Female Bird Names

2006-09-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

So just to put the cart before the horse slightly here's a list of possible names for my bird when I get it, please feel free to comment on your favorites or offers suggestions of your own.

Artemis was the virgin goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, moon, and childbirth.

Nike (Greek Νίκη, pronounced /'nike/ "NEE-keh", meaning "Victory") , was a goddess who personified triumph and victory. She was capable of running and flying at great speeds

Aether (Greek: ᾿Αιθήρ; English: aether, æther or ether), in Greek mythology, is one of the Protogenos (first-born). He is the personification of the "upper sky", space and heaven, and the elemental god of the "Bright, Glowing, Upper Air." He is the pure upper air that the gods breathe, as opposed to regular air (᾿Αήρ, aer), the gloomy lower air of the Earth, which mortals breathe

Athena (Greek: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, or Ἀθήνη, Athénē; Doric: Ἀσάνα, Asána) was the goddess of wisdom, weaving, crafts, and war. Athena's wisdom encompasses the technical knowledge employed in weaving, metal-working, and war, but also includes the cunning intelligence (metis) of such trickster figures as Odysseus.

Mews

2006-09-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'll never be done! Tons of rain last night and the night before may slow down construction considerably...

WildEdge.org

2006-08-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

So recently the guys over at Wild Edge have taken pity on me and my current situation (my situation is not that bad, it just consists of a life devoid of anyone interested in falconry), and they have graciously been giving me falconry tutorials and handling experience with their exotic birds. Here's a picture of me holding their Augur buzzard. With any luck I'll soon have photos of me with their Saker Falcon soon enough!

Mews construction continues!

2006-08-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Falconry images so far

2006-08-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Click Here to see my falconry photo's

Rodent Pro

2006-08-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

So after much consultation here's my rodent pro order:

Food	Quantity
Medium Rabbit	6
10 Week Quail	50
Mice - Large Adult	200

All this for only $247.00!!

Cabellas Birthday Trip 1 of 3

2006-08-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

So today I bought a camelbak at Cabella's with some of the money that my family gave me for my birthday. This is the one I got.

The mews has begun

2006-08-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures from this weeks effort!

This first photo you can see I haven't added the top frame in the back or the front yet. The front frame will be the window you can see this post for example pics of how the mews will look when it's almost finished.
This photo is a close up of the plastic covered wiring I am using for the sides. Note the bird will never come into contact with this wiring, the inner sides will be covered with shade cloth.

Red-Tail X Ferrugenous (Redugenous Hawk?

2006-08-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Has this ever been done before?

Quick Video

2006-08-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick video put together by Falcon Boy over at the Apprentice Falconry Forums that walks through some basics of lure training/manning a passage red-tailed hawk.

Barbary Falcon

2006-08-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

So I recently had the pleasure of going out with some falconers in my area. They were flying a beautiful juvenile Barbary Falcon. Seeing this bird up close only served to remind me that I have been in love with long-wings namely the Peregrine Falcon since I was eight years old.
This bird was well behaved and after a couple of fast stoops at the lure was done for the night. We all hung out and talked for quite some time which was great because I don't get to talk to falconers enough and as a result my thoughts get bottled up much like water in a hose that's been crimped off too long. This usually has the result of me saying something I'll informed or sticking my foot right in my mouth. Who knows, I did have a great time and if anyone in the party is reading this I just want to say thanks again for a very nice evening!

Google comes to Phoenix Falconry

2006-08-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I took a little time and added google advertising to the site. It blends in pretty well so I don't mind it too much.

With a Freezer Comes Rodent Pro

2006-08-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

So I am getting the freezer for my bird tomorrow, and as a result of that I have been thinking about my rodent pro order. I am trying to figure out what would be the best combination of foods that will allow me to feed the bird easily but also train and easily tidbit. A Master Falconer in my area last week suggested that I just snag 50 or so large quail from rodent pro and that would be a good start, but I want to vary the birds diet a little more than that and I keep hearing that rats are the single best food for red tails so I have started to assemble my orders accordingly. Here's some options not sure what I'll end up doing but just some ideas:

Food	Quantity
Medium Rabbit	8
10 Week Quail	60

Food	Quantity
Medium Rabbit	6
10 Week Quail	50
XL Rats	15

Food	Quantity
Medium Rabbit	4
Large Rabbit	1
10 Week Quail	50
Small Rats	80

Start with the dogs

2006-08-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

So I am going to have to get back into working with the dogs every night with the clicker. These articals got me really excited about using OC with my bird.

MA Clicker Basics
MA Clicker Games

Falconery and Modern Operant Conditioning
Come Back, but Don't Come Down

Summary

2006-08-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

I figured I'd take a second and give everyone a summary of my current pursuit and the trials and tribulations so far. Ever since I was about 10 years old I have been fascinated with Birds of Prey (BOP), specifically the peregrine Falcon. This interest/obsession was due in a large part to my reading of a book called "My Side of the Mountain" when I was in third grade. It's a great kids book and while mildly inaccurate regarding falconry the story was the main thing that started me on this quest. After reading the book I wanted to pursue falconry but when I asked my parents I think they told me that people weren't allowed to be falconer where we lived; they gave me this answer without really looking into what it would take for me to pursue it. Either way I forgot about this ambition and merely continued with my BOP fascination.

Not much changed until recently, in January of this year I read an article that asked the reader to identify what they wanted to be doing with their life. I happened to be reading Shogun at the time which does have some mentions of falconry in it so that may have influenced me in saying that I wanted to be a falconer. I didn't really know what it would take or what I was getting into. Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessive when it comes to my hobbies, I will research, read, and study anything and everything, and falconry hasn't been an exception. I read everything that I could find online and contacted several local falconers for information. After talking to people and reading about what was required and realizing that this was an immense undertaking I was far from discouraged. I wanted something in my life that would help me live more fully and allow me to take advantage of my proximity to the Estrella mountain range, and this seemed a perfect fit.

So here I am almost 9 months later still on the path to becoming a falconer. I passed the required Game and Fish test in March, and I have acquired all my required equipment and then some, thanks to the help and guidance of many online falconers. I have yet to acquire a sponsor but that will come with time; for those of you that don't know for the first 2 years a falconer must be sponsored by a general level falconer to make sure that nothing adverse happens to either falconer or bird. I am currently in the process of building my mews and hope to have that finished by the end of this weekend, but that seems unlikely given my current progress. The main goal for my timeline is to get everything done so that I get all my paperwork back from the Government in time to trap in early October.

Trapping Hood

2006-08-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

Here's my trapping hood!

Mews Construction and Equipment

2006-08-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

So I started the construction of my mews this last weekend. I got 4 out of 10 4'x8' panels finished in 112 degree heat in my garage.

I also finally recieved my most recent order from Northwoods. In this order I got the following:

6 Kangaroo hide jess blanks

4 Kangaroo strips for bell bewits

1 Tail Bell

2 Anklet bells

4 pair of removable anklets Kangaroo hide

I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago I got a hood for trapping. I'll try to get pictures up as soon as I get home tonight.

Regulation Changes

2006-08-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

So in a year or so some regulations are going to be changed which may make more species of raptor available to apprentices. This is a very hotly debated subject and I recently took part in one such discussion so I thought I'd include it here because it's been very interesting.

colohen said:
I know this is a little off the subject but sense you brought up the apprentice , harris hawk thing , ::)I am against a apprentice having any raptor other then a RT ! Sorry Guys and Dolls ! but this is my opinion and it is based on consideration for the raptor .
A RT is a pretty hardy bird and even if the apprentice (God forbid ) starves it to death , there are plenty enough so as not to harm the population and if it does not work out there first two years the RT can be released back to the wild !
The AK is to small for an apprentice to be starting out with . With very little flex in weight control along with the fact they can disappear in a sec. is really not a good bird for a apprentice .
And a Harris hawk for a apprentice NO WAY ! What is he/she going to do if they find out they cant hack it, in falconry or there sponsor drops them cause there not suited for falconry ? You can't just release it to the wild , except in a few states , and you can't give it to just any one ether !! Not to mention the money for the hawk , nobody is going to want to give that up when the Fish and Wild life service says " Sorry buddy ,we have to take your bird cause your sponsor said your not up to it and F&WS agrees ! "
I know it is rear this happens but it does happen ! I know of three accounts where sponsor's has dropped there apprentice and two of them , no one else would sponsor cause of the reason for them being dropped to start with .
I do not intend to offend any one but for the better interest of Raptor's, which I treasure above all else, this is how I feel !! ;)

WildEd said:
I agree. An apprentice should have to man and train a red tailed hawk before ever getting a Harris...Some Harris hawks man so easy the apprentice would learn nothing about manning and training and end up being trained by the Harris. Then they go on to a falcon or Gos and are not prepared at all.

Tiercel78
I think it will be Captive bred Harris for apprentice. Unless they let only people in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico take wild juvs. I just really don't see the Feds/State allowing take of wild population birds for apprentices. The Harris population in general is pretty small in the U.S.
[[Note this was taken slightly out of context]]

My Thoughts
I do think that if it weren't for the small population it would be fine for apprentices in my state to get HH's though. I'm in AZ so obviously it's a special situation, if I needed to I could just let it go. But I can totally understand not taking from a small population. Also I don't think you could get an agreement from most falconers about which bird is more hearty, (I've heard a good debate on this already) so I don't feel that this should be used as a reason to keep HH's away from apprentices. Also keep in mind that back in the day, they used to start falconers off with imprint goshawks....Of course we know better now and we have regulations to prevent such lunacy, but a HH is a good beginner bird and the Brits have proven that.

Also the idea that the bird is too easy a bird is not a good supporting argument. You don't teach kids how to swim by punting them into the ocean, you take them to a shallow pool and then graduate them to bigger bodies of water.

The idea that you have to make it hard so that people learn is ridiculous. The people that want to learn will learn the people that don't want to learn wont and will probably quit long before getting a gos or a falcon.

The idea that you could go through 2 years as an apprentice with a mellow easy to man HH and then think that your ready for a gos is insane, and I highly doubt that giving that person an RT would make them better falconers. The only thing that would help these people is better teachers and better leadership. But that is just my opinion as a new pre-apprentice so please understand that I think it should be taken lightly and I know that I may even change my mind about this given more time and experience.

Cheers

G&F

2006-07-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

So game and fish put the kibash on my plans to have Harry McElroy sponsor me. They said that even though he offered to sponsor me the distance between our two homes was too great. Now I won't disagree with them, but at the same time it's not like it's been easy to find a sponsor as of yet so having them tell me the one super qualified candidate that I got wasn't going to work was to say the least frustrating. I will put my thanks out to Harry who did offer to sponsor me. I really appreciate it and I know I would have learned lots from him. You never know if I can't get a sponsor maybe they will let Harry sponsor me after all.

The Glove

2006-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

So my wife bought me an early birthday present the other day check it out.

Got My Scale!

2006-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

My scale came in the mail today check it out:

GRAMS: 2500 g capacity...... 0.5 g increments
POUNDS/OUNCES: 5 lb, 8 oz capacity...... 0.02 oz increments
POUNDS: 5.5 lb capacity...... 0.001 lb increments

I probably won't be using the T-Perch that comes with this scale, I'll probably just use the base of the perch to build a slightly better one.

Banner Day

2006-07-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

So I had a great day! I got my sponsor after more than 6-7 months of searching. He has been flying birds since 1948 so I think he's qualified ;D

I also got the plans for a semi-portable hot weather mews that I can build ;D . It has apparently been inspected by the feds and passed a number of times. So here's what I'll be building:

Got to love AZ, I imagine the material cost on this will be next to nothing!

Oh and by the way these pictures show an unfinished mews. A shade cloth will be added to the inside to tauntly cover the wire so that the bird can not come in contact with anything other than the conduit. If I remember correctly raptrlvr has a hook up for that screen mesh I'll have to talk to him and find out what he's using for his eagle!

Anyway it's been a very exciting day!

Red Kite

2006-07-09T01:51:00.000-07:00

Saw this bird in a flicker album earlier today and I thought I'd share the photo.

Red Kite

New Look

2006-07-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

So what do you guys think about the new look !!!
This Template was free thanks to (Blogger-templates)

The Equipment gathering continues

2006-07-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

So here's what I have so far:

The glove is a simple welders glove supplied at home depot. The Jesses are Roo leather provided by Oldguy along with the leather for the anklets, 2 of the leashes and all the grommets.

The perch I built myself after seeing a few like it at the Payson meet back in February. The lure is in the pic but I'm not sure if I'm going to be using that with my bird or my dogs or both. I don't know why the radios are there but the could be useful. The thick white rope is my creance line and the thin blue rope is for leashes and safety lines and such (I just went to Home Depot and matched what oldguy sent me). On the right you can see on of old guys leashes with 2 French snaps attached, I think these will come in real handy since I plan on flying my bird without jesses, this should help keep the bird under control after she gets on a kill.

Here's a closeup of the snaps:

I also of course have the vest which will be very useful. I found a bait container at sportsman's that is plastic and fits perfectly in the right front pocket so that I can carry tidbits around and not totally destroy the inside of that pocket.

Equipment

2006-06-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

So I made the following list to take stock in what I have and what I'll need and I thought it was kind of interesting (This is all required equipment):

Glove

Leash of at least 60" in length (I can combine 2 of the short leashes I have)

Swivel (apparently you only need 1 I have like 5)

Jesses (I have 2 pair made from roo hide thanks "oldguy")

Anklets (I have the leather and the grommets to make one pair)

Bells

Name Tag (Death of a Raptor)

Bath Pan

Scale (I'm buying this one)

Outdoor Perch (Built one from PVC)

Indoor Perch

Mews

The optional equipment follows:

Lure

Hood

Vest (got one)

Freezer (got one)

Portable Perch (built one)

Giant Hood

Not much happening

2006-05-13T00:57:00.000-07:00

So not much has been happening recently. I am still working on getting a sponser, but I hear that there will be a workshop in august that will help me get setup with a sponser so that should be good. I also have started working on an application that will allow me to track the birds weight and manage her feeding and hunting in general. It should be a fun project, and with any luck it could become lucrative in the long term. If any of you guys/gals that have birds want to comment on what you would want a software package to do that would make your lives easier when it comes to raptor mangement then speak up and I'll do the best I can to build something that helps us all be better falconers.

Falconer Knot

2006-04-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Well I just broke down and put the video on putfile so everyone have at it, and let me know if it helps at all. Also note that my left hand is holding the rope that would normally be tied to your bird so anything you see me do with my left hand could be just as easily simulated with a weight of some kind. Also for all you falconer's out there that know better please critique me, this was only the first time I'd ever tied the Knot and I am not yet a seasoned falconer so I would hate to put this out on the net if it was wrong.

Anyway here's the video

Also, like I said before I would read through the instructions found on the Modern Apprentice before watching this short video or it may not be that helpful.

Falconry Knot

2006-04-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

So I spent some time tonight learning the falconry knot. The best resource I've found is on the Modern Apprentice. It's a really usefull knot and I can see why it's been used for so long by falconers. I put together a video to post but I am currently running low on web based storage, so I'll get it on the web when I can.

Equipment

2006-03-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

Hey All I just scored the first of my equipment for this new venture. The best part is that this vest will come with the following equipment:
2 x Jesses 1/2'' x 10''
2 Loop Leashes
2 Double D Swivels
and enough extra Roo Leather to make anklets!

I Passed

2006-03-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well I passed the test! It was a horrible test filled with old information, not to mention questions that many falconers wouldn't be able to agree on. But who cares I passed. Now I have to get a sponsor and get my equipment.

Been Busy

2006-03-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

So I never did go over my trip up north! I went to Payson, AZ for a mini-meet that commemorated the joining of the Arizona Falconers' Association and the Arizona Hawking Club. Overall I had a great time. I arrived early because I was told that things started at 7:00, turns out most people wouldn't be showing up until at least 9:00AM.

At about 10:00am Forest, 2 falconers in from out of state, and myself took their birds out to hunt before lunch. We first hunted Donnie the Harris hawk in some private land off of the beeline highway. As of right now I don't have very much experience working with hawks but I'll have to say that hunting with Donnie was a real treat. As we would walk along his owner would holler out "Common Donnie" and he would take off and take up a position in front of us so we could flush game to him. I was very impressed with his casual demeanor. Not to mention the fact that after hunting with him for only about 30 minutes he caught a cottontail. His owner transferred him off of the rabbit with ease. Mike (Fly's Goshawks) commented that if he tried to transfer his birds off of their kills in such a casual way his birds would tear into him.

Later that day we hunted with Forest's red tail and Mike's gos. Mike's gos caught a rabbit but it was very nearly dusk and some of us had missed it due to pure exhaustion.

(Forest & Lucky)

(Mike & Ricky)

The next day we hunted with an ornate hawk eagle, one of only 5 in the US right now, which was very cool. I didn't get to see very much because his owner is amazingly fit and kept up a walking pace that no one could really keep up with. Later after that we flew Forest's red tail again, who might I add seemed much more into today's hunt than she was yesterday. She was awesome, she gave great flights over and over again. She had at least 10 slips but because of the thick underbrush she didn't manage to catch any. She was a lot of fun that second day.

Overall it was a lot of fun.

Thanks much to Forest who took a lot of time out of his day to hang out with me and talk to me about the sport.

Well I have my test on Friday so with any luck I'll pass with flying colors and then I'll just need to get that sponsor problem handled.

Test

2006-02-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

So I set up my test today with game and fish. It's tenativly scheduled for March 17th, so that gives me a couple more weeks to prepare. I feel like I am ready now and I could probably ace it but I really don't want to waste G&F's time if by some off change I don't pass it. So tonight I spent making notecards off of the California Hawking clubs study guide. I got a bout one quarter of the way through the guide and ended up with like 50 cards.

Lure vs. HO

2006-02-20T21:16:00.000-08:00

This is a quote from AWBAE (wanna be apprentice in England):

Clarification:

You probably figured all this out but I had the thought that when I reference 'HO' in my postings it is different from what the US training references.

guaranteed return training: 'HO' vs. lure.

This is a clarification on when I reference 'HO' in my postings.

In discussions with my sponsor and the watching of flying demonstrations the topic of a guaranteed return and how the 'HO' command is used is ever present.

In the CHC App. Manual, there is a section on lure training. It says the lure will have two purposes, guaranteed return and quarry training. From what little animal training I had done previously, I found this confusing. I was taught not to use any command or article for two purposes when training animals. There is a exception to this with falcons and kestrals.

My sponsor doesn't want me to use the lure for two purposes. The lure is strictly for quarry training and for guaranteed return he has me using the toss of a morsel to medium sized piece of food where the bird can see and get to it and the shout of 'HO'. The bird is guaranteed to have the food on the floor and more on the glove if he comes. So when I reference 'HO' in my postings it may be different from what the US guys may be used to. It is throw food where the hawk can see it, shout 'HO', let the bird have the food on the ground and more on the glove.

My obsevation is that by having a wider range if you need to call the bird down you have more options. These are call to the glove, there is supposed to be food there, catch the lure, not guaranteed but if you do there will be food there, call to 'HO' command guaranteed to have food on the ground and more on the glove, catch quarry, we hope.

Falcons and Kestrals are an excetion to the above from what I've been taught so far. Because the intention is for them to catch quarry in flight the lure has to be multipurpose, the lure is used for exercise, to simulate tail chasing and as a guarantee. In practice it works and has for hundreds of years.

This is very interesting and I was wondering if any American falconers use this method? It makes sense and yet at the same time I can see some issues. I will add to this post later now I have to hit the hay

The Manning Process

2006-02-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

I read the following journals today and found them useful to get a good idea how others progressed manning their Red Tails.
Jon's Log
Deegan's Log
A wanna be apprentice in England
FB's Log

Beginning

2006-02-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

I have been looking into this sport since I was about 9. I recently started building a new home with a considerably larger backyard. With the addition in real estate I feel that it is now realistic to pursue this sport. I have been reading everything that I can get my hands on and I thought I'd put a few book critiques up on the site so that everyone else that is starting out can benefit. These are really only critiques of the books themselves, as I have yet to own a bird I have no practical experience to evaluate the correctness of any facts in these publications, just the readability and usefulness of the books themselves to a pre-apprentice.

The Falconer's Apprentice
By: William C. Oakes

This is by far my favorite so far. This book is awesome for the beginner. It is a very easy read and it takes you step by step through trapping, manning, training, and hunting your red tail hawk. This may not be seen as a bible of falconry, but I feel it is perfect for beginners.

California Hawking Club Apprentice Study Guide

Editor: Frederick W. Holderman

This is a must have! I will be taking my test here in a few weeks and I couldn't imagine facing that test without the help that this study guide provides.

Falconry Basics
By: Tony Hall

This is a great book, that is very modern and easy to read. It is written by a British falconer so there is a lot of attention paid to imprints and raising eyass but I'm sure that I'll find that useful when I get my general.

A Falconry Manual
By: Frank L. Beebe

This book was great for it's instruction in equipment. The drawing and details are excellent. Plus I'd have to say that most everything else is quite excellent as well. This is also a must have.