Long Way From Home

Duck season in our part of the state is now open and I had planned on holding off from starting my duck hawking til after Thanksgiving.   Things change however, and a friend of mine invited me along to go hawking and take out a land owner and his son.

I was reluctant at first but eventually gave in (got to at some point anyway).  Having only one flight under her belt without the kite and only being served twice, I was not expecting much.

We found a real nice small pond with 10 or so ducks on it, "here goes nothing," and she was on the wing.  The falcon made a small circle around the pond and me about 100' off the ground.  Her wing beat indicated that she was not really sure what was going on.  She kept on flying though, and eventually made a run out for the horizon.  After a few minutes her wing beat changed and she really started to climb.  Twice she started to come over and then turned and made another wide ring into the sky.  On the third time I decided to go ahead and flush with her wide.  A quick yell and the ducks were heading out.

The wide flush proved to be too much of an advantage for the ducks.  The falcon tried her hardest to close the gap and just as she did the ducks put into the next pond a 1/2 a mile or so down the way.  We could see her last minute stoop through our binoculars, then a pitch up, then off and away.  We followed her telemetry signal as she made her way north, then northwest, then west, then southwest, but she was out of binocular range.   Several times we thought about getting in the truck and heading her way.  Just as I was about to head toward the vehicle the signal started getting stronger and she was coming back.  Thirty seconds later I could see her humming along toward me ready to knock the lure out.  All in all, she was in there air for maybe 15 minutes before she came back.

This flight was not a loss in my book.  She learned to come over me if she wants a chance at catching a something, also to go even higher to have the angle, ducks do leave the water, and there is an easy way to still get fed if I just stay in the vicinity of that tall skinny guy.  Off to a good start, really too early in her training to expect anything more.

-RVZ

Big to Small

The opportunity arose for me to acquire a jack Merlin from a friend of a friend recently.  I've been interested in flying a one of these guys for the past couple of years, but never really interested enough to try very hard to trap one.  This year I decided was going to be the year; two days later I was offered this little guy.  Guess I won't have to trap one after all. 

He is an imprint from this year and arrived with the usual imprint vices, screaming and mantling, but in a the two weeks I've had him we've lessened both of those problems to tolerable levels.  I'm also using a table top set-up with the bird that is working really well, an idea I swiped from Eric Edwards of Florida. See his Merlin hawking website:  http://merlinfalconry.com/

Another issue came from the shipping.  In transit every tail feather was broken about an inch from the tips.  An unfortunate but fixable problem. 

After making some calls around the country, I ended up locating a Merlin tail right here in Oklahoma from another falconer.  After about 40 mins of imping he was nearly good as new.  

Transporting him was the next challenge.  I've flown large falcons almost exclusively for the past 7 or 8 years and the only small falcon I've had was a Kestrel.  The setup I used with the Kestrel was adequate but left much to be desired.  After staring at my falcon cadge off and on for several days, it finally hit me to add a small shelf perch in the corner one of the sides.  It is attached with furniture screw anchors in the shelf and with winged machine screws through the back and side of the cadge.  All I have to do is take out the screws by hand and its ready to go for two larger birds when the need arises.

I'm still pretty deeply involved in getting the new Hybrid ready for the hunting season.  She has been going great to the kite for nearly two months now and has gone nearly 2000' on several occasions.  Today was the first time I bagged her.  She was a little slow to commit at first but poured on a little speed toward the end and nabbed the first pigeon she's ever seen in her life.  A good start to what should be an interesting year.   

-RVZ

Kiting

Finally kiting.  Up to about 300' after 5 flights.  Now if the wind will just continue to cooperate.....

-RVZ

Baby Flaps

The new falcon is coming along.  We started out just lure flying for her to gain some confidence on the wing and put on a little muscle to get things rolling.

Lately, she has been giving between 20-30 stoops to the lure.  We took a little break this weekend while the temperature jumped back into the 100's.  That, coupled with the opening of dove season, and I felt it was best to take a couple of days off.  Planning on dusting off the kite tomorrow and its all up and away from here on out.

My current work intern and friend is trying his hand at longwinging this season by flying a Cassini Peregrine that I picked up over the summer.  The bird came in with a mild case of bumble foot, a overgrown beak, and horrible feather condition.  It was a chamber bird that was never sold and never flown.  I don't know much more about the bird aside from what I saw when it first arrived.  

Better perching cured the bumble foot, a coping, and stellar imping work (if I do say so myself) and the bird is ready to go.  As with many adult birds that were not flown in their first season, he lacks confidence and is slow to gain it in the flying department.  However, he continues to make progress and I'm sure he'll work out just fine in the end.  

Finally, who doesn't love a picture of a Pointer doing what every fiber of her being tells her to do?

-RVZ

Falcons in a Box

It's that time of year.  105 degrees out and not so much as a little bit interested in training falcons.  But the time is here and so is my new bird.....

I decided to start anew this year and picked up a female GyrxPeregrine the other day (the black one in the picture above, the other is a Gyr that I imprinted this year for a buddy).  I've never hunted with a female hybrid, although, I have trained a few to the kite before they were sold.  I really don't pay much attention to size in falcons, they all seem to be able to get the job done with the right set up in life and good training, but this bird is an absolute monster to me.  I've never had a bird this big, aside from eagles.  Even the biggest Red-tail I've ever flown was an ounce lighter than this bird at it's heaviest weight.  This girl weighed in a 1413g (49.8oz) out of the chamber!  I'll be honest though, a lot of that was food in her crop and she has slimmed down a fit and trim 1250g (44oz) today.  If this one doesn't fly high then the ducks are gonna be glued to the surface of the water.

-RVZ

Just like Dad...

Might just get one of my kids into falconry.  We were BBQing at Daniel's new house the other day and while the adults where hanging out inside, the kids where playing outside.  I turned my head check on them and I see my 2 year old son pick up Daniel's glove, put it on (albeit upside down), walk into the weathering yard (not quite finished as it was just moved to this property), and reach out to pick up the hawk.  The little hawk wanted nothing to do with him, but it was pretty dang cute that he tired.  I wasn't too worried about him as this hawk is used to little kids running around.  I wish I had my real camera but the wife's phone had to do.

Trying to be like Dad....

-RVZ

Loose Ends....

I feel that I should tie up the loose end of flying the Harris' Hawks.  I flew them for several weeks and all was going well.  Both birds where putting on muscle and getting closer and closer to their first catch under my tutelage (not including the cat they grabbed and scared real good).  Then came January 25......

I was packing up for the day at work and getting the hawks ready to hit the field when my lovely wife started lighting up my cell phone.  My hands were full so I didn't get to answer the first time....or two, but I called her back when I was all packed up.  She was extremely excited on the other line as she exclaimed "It's a boy!"

Long ago, before we got even got married, we had decided that we wanted to have 2 kids to "replace ourselves in the world" and then adopt a third through DHS.  Well the time of "replacing ourselves" came and went with the birth of our second daughter in 2009.  So in the fall of 2010, we went through the long process of  getting approved through the state to adopt.  Long boring story short we were approved in the summer of 2011, but really had no realistic chance of adopting anywhere in the near future, or so we were led to believe.

Back to January 25th....

We got the call that they had a 2 year old boy for us and that we were chosen from over 200 families to be the parents of this great little kid.  Just a few weeks after that he moved in with us and has been here ever since.  Needless to say the rest of my falconry season was laid to rest.  I gave the Harris' Hawks back to my buddy who was glad to finish out the year flying them.

Since then I've mainly been spending as much time with my family as possible and working my butt off.  This time of year it's always something.  For instance, last week we got the report that an eagle nest had fallen down and the babies were still alive but on the ground.  We had already worked a full day, but duty called, and we made the hour and a half trek to the nest to build a nest platform and get the birds back in the tree.  All in a day's work I suppose.

On the falconry front I'm most likely going to start anew next year but I just haven't quite decided on what yet.  I'm sure time will tell this summer....

-RVZ