Falcon Boy
10-28-2007, 11:11 PM
This past weekend i had the opportunity to go to ABQ for the weekend, and Paul was generous enough to open his doors to me [Huge thanks!] and let me stay at his place.
Anyways saturday was a great day of hawking. We started out by putting goose over a duck pond. He waited till the ducks got over land then put in a stoop, prolly 1/2-3/4 speed, you could tell he didn't really want them. We tried flushing again but he ignored them. I called him down and fed him a bit.
Then we went to fly Paul's immy female imprint gos on jacks. She was a bit overweight but still managed to take one in an amazing flight. She caught the jack ~20ft away but lost it before we got there, then chased it down, crashed, and chased again 3-4 times before holding it 100yrds away! Awesome flight and her 4th jack [i think]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707010.jpg
Then we went to go fly his male gos. He was a bit uneasy but we went to a spot loaded with CT's. Now never having seen a gos flown other than the hen a few min before, these little tiercels can fly fast as hell! He easily overtook a CT that was dumb enough to run into the open field.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707011.jpg
After that we put goose up at another pond. Goose waited till the ducks went over land then put in a good stoop, but lost them upwind.
Saturday night was great, Paul invited a lot of the local falconers over for a BBQ and i got to meet some great new friends and awesome falconers.
Sunday was also fun as hell [other than the drive home... more on that later]. We started off by meeting a few more falconers to fly longwings on jacks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707014.jpg
The first to fly was a female gyr/saker. We jumped a jack and the chase was on! It went ~a mile or so i reckon and ended with the dogs catching the jack after the bird grabbed it and the jack threw the bird off under a car.
Then i left with Paul and his wife and daughter to course their sighthounds. Let me tell ya something, these dogs are FAST. I was very impressed, having never seen coursing before the flight and seeing Paul's dogs run. It was loads of fun!
After that we tried goose on ducks again at one of the ponds from saturday. Sadly goose didn't even tip a wing at them.... He needs some confidence builders.
Now for the trip back. Paul tried to tell me a short cut, but since i'm a moron i decided to take the highway b/c i knew the way. Well.. 5miles off the on ramp i hit traffic... where i made 1.25miles in 1hr 20min. So in an hour and 30min.... i passed Paul's house, a whole 10miles from where i was hawking... real smart of me to not listen to the short cut.... on the way back i also stopped at my friends place to see the passage gos and get a perch back. The gos is doing great, sitting on a pole perch in the living room w/o bating and hopping to the fist and starting on lure training. All in all, it took 9hrs to make the 5hr drive. What a joy, but it was worth it!
A huge thanks go out to Paul for everything this weekend, from feeding and housing me to my birds gorgeous new hood. Thanks again, and hopefully i'll be able to make the hawk with y'all again soon.
Anyways saturday was a great day of hawking. We started out by putting goose over a duck pond. He waited till the ducks got over land then put in a stoop, prolly 1/2-3/4 speed, you could tell he didn't really want them. We tried flushing again but he ignored them. I called him down and fed him a bit.
Then we went to fly Paul's immy female imprint gos on jacks. She was a bit overweight but still managed to take one in an amazing flight. She caught the jack ~20ft away but lost it before we got there, then chased it down, crashed, and chased again 3-4 times before holding it 100yrds away! Awesome flight and her 4th jack [i think]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707010.jpg
Then we went to go fly his male gos. He was a bit uneasy but we went to a spot loaded with CT's. Now never having seen a gos flown other than the hen a few min before, these little tiercels can fly fast as hell! He easily overtook a CT that was dumb enough to run into the open field.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707011.jpg
After that we put goose up at another pond. Goose waited till the ducks went over land then put in a good stoop, but lost them upwind.
Saturday night was great, Paul invited a lot of the local falconers over for a BBQ and i got to meet some great new friends and awesome falconers.
Sunday was also fun as hell [other than the drive home... more on that later]. We started off by meeting a few more falconers to fly longwings on jacks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/apprenticefalconry/abq102707014.jpg
The first to fly was a female gyr/saker. We jumped a jack and the chase was on! It went ~a mile or so i reckon and ended with the dogs catching the jack after the bird grabbed it and the jack threw the bird off under a car.
Then i left with Paul and his wife and daughter to course their sighthounds. Let me tell ya something, these dogs are FAST. I was very impressed, having never seen coursing before the flight and seeing Paul's dogs run. It was loads of fun!
After that we tried goose on ducks again at one of the ponds from saturday. Sadly goose didn't even tip a wing at them.... He needs some confidence builders.
Now for the trip back. Paul tried to tell me a short cut, but since i'm a moron i decided to take the highway b/c i knew the way. Well.. 5miles off the on ramp i hit traffic... where i made 1.25miles in 1hr 20min. So in an hour and 30min.... i passed Paul's house, a whole 10miles from where i was hawking... real smart of me to not listen to the short cut.... on the way back i also stopped at my friends place to see the passage gos and get a perch back. The gos is doing great, sitting on a pole perch in the living room w/o bating and hopping to the fist and starting on lure training. All in all, it took 9hrs to make the 5hr drive. What a joy, but it was worth it!
A huge thanks go out to Paul for everything this weekend, from feeding and housing me to my birds gorgeous new hood. Thanks again, and hopefully i'll be able to make the hawk with y'all again soon.