hello all

[jack sparrow]

hello everyone my name is George and i am from Greece .

a friend of mine showed me your forum ( sorry aboyt my english )

soon i'll have my first bird European kestrel .

i think is very good for beginners.

also i'll like to know some things about hobby falcon . a friend of mine asked me to ask u :-) coz he doesn't speak english

thanks a lot

[PeteJ]

Yasoo George and welcome to NAFEX.
Yes a kestrel can be pretty good bird for a beginner. It does need a pretty good diet of mice and small birds though. Your native European Kestrel is not quite the hunter that our smaller Kestrel is, but you can still learn a lot about handling it and proper weight control. As for the Hobby, that bird is much more interested in flying insects (dragonflies, butterflies) and also small birds such as Swallows. Might be fun to fly in the warmer months when there is more bird life around before it all migrates away for the winter. The problem with them might be that when they catch something they tend to eat it in the top of a tree or something high up and you might have a lot of trouble getting it to come back down again after it eats a bird or a couple of dragonflies. There is no easy solution to this sort of problem. Fly in very open areas is your best chance of handling this potential problem.
Where do you live over there? I lived in Ekali for several years back in the early 1970s, and did vacation around the country. The northern part looked better for hawking than the southern part to my memory of the place.

[jack sparrow]

yassou Pete

Thanks so much for replying to me, im living in corfu, but my friend who is interested in the hobby falcon is living in crete. We have heard that there is a problem with getting them back after they have eaten, it would be good to find out if there are any other techniques other people have tried etc. If you find out any other info please let me know, many thanks to you.
Ps Do you speak any greek?
George

[PeteJ]

yassou Pete

Thanks so much for replying to me, im living in corfu, but my friend who is interested in the hobby falcon is living in crete. We have heard that there is a problem with getting them back after they have eaten, it would be good to find out if there are any other techniques other people have tried etc. If you find out any other info please let me know, many thanks to you.
Ps Do you speak any greek?
George
Do I speak Greek? Well, about all I remember now is the swear words and some of the insulting hand gestures!LOL
I don't know much more about Hobbies as they aren't utilized that much because of the difficulty that I mentioned. It might be useful though for learning about small falcons and then perhaps later you could acquire a Merlin which would likely be more useful for your purposes or perhaps look into Sparrowhawks as I do remember seeing them hunting in the wild there from time to time. I remember seeing lots of small birds in wooded areas and rarely some birds in open fields such as cut grain fields in the Fall. I never got all the way to Crete, although I did go to Hydra, Myconos and Santorini. There didn't seem to be a lot of bird life on the islands. But maybe it is seasonal with more being around during the migratory times?

[everetkhorton]

(welc) to NAFEX George!

[falcon-mil]

Do I speak Greek? Well, about all I remember now is the swear words and some of the insulting hand gestures!LOL
I don't know much more about Hobbies as they aren't utilized that much because of the difficulty that I mentioned. It might be useful though for learning about small falcons and then perhaps later you could acquire a Merlin which would likely be more useful for your purposes or perhaps look into Sparrowhawks as I do remember seeing them hunting in the wild there from time to time. I remember seeing lots of small birds in wooded areas and rarely some birds in open fields such as cut grain fields in the Fall. I never got all the way to Crete, although I did go to Hydra, Myconos and Santorini. There didn't seem to be a lot of bird life on the islands. But maybe it is seasonal with more being around during the migratory times?
Thank you very much for your information

Christos from Creta