New to the site

[SQLHAWKN]

Great website! Lots of great information and threads as well!

Matt

Central North Carolina
General Class Falconer

[Jimmy]

Welcome, Matt.
What part of NC are you from? I used to live in Winston-Salem a long time ago. Still have a few friends up that way.

[`Chris L.]

Great website! Lots of great information and threads as well!

Matt

Central North Carolina
General Class Falconer

Matt, Welcome aboard. Glad you decided to join. How has your falconry season been going.. what are you flying now? PLease dont hesitate to post. I look forward to it.

Thank you for the compliments on the forum, it is really starting out great and we have a ton of good people on here. I created the forums for its members, so if you have suggestions that may help it become a better place please dont hesitate to contact me.

again welcome

[everetkhorton]

Matt:
Welcome about [smilie=banana.gif] What are you flying?
I hope your season is going well. Almost 100% of my
hunting is at sqr. No rabbit in my area. We are having
snow again today. Let us know how you are doing.
There are always interesting post on this site.
Ev. Mi.
PS. the web master are a real help when having problem
Wes you were right it was my resalution (?).

[wesleyc6]

Matt,
Glad to have you. The site is coming along and we hope you will add to it too!

Ev, thanks for the kind words. Really Chris does 99.9% of the work here, I just hover around and enjoy the fruit of his labors.

Wes

[SQLHAWKN]

Thanks for the welcome!

I live just outside of Smithfield. I am not currently flying a bird b/c I am selling my house, moving to a rental home for about 90 days, then moving again into the house my wife and I are building. Not the best situation for having a bird.

My first two years I flew a tiercel RT. He was an awesome bird! Out flew and hunted a lot of other Falconers bigger RT's. He was very laid back, never attempted to foot me, and was a great squirrel hawk. He hunted at 32oz. Not a big bird by no means but did very, very well. His first free flight (not even trying to hunt him) ended up with a squirrel!! During his flight, he took off for about 50 yards to nail the squirrel. I let him go over the summer with the intentions of trapping a new bird. I trapped a small tiercel that hadn't been eating to well. Kept him for about 2 weeks and put weight on him to give him a better shot at survival. I cropped him up and let him go.

When I let him go, he flew up into a big oak tree. Then out of no where a 42oz hen dive bombed him. I had my BC with me and tossed it out and trapped her. She was a big bird! But her talons (about 3-4) looked like they had been filed down, infected, and 2 vets said they probably wouldn't grow back. The vets said it was probably due to her almost starving to death at one point in her earlier days. Cleaned up the infections, cropped her up, and got to creance her 1 time before I released her. She flew to the glove that day at about 100 ft out.

Its been eating me up to go hunting. I see kestrels all the time and think I will try one this coming season. More than likely I will get another RT as well. Also contemplating a tiercel HH as a possibility to hunt crows and anything else that gets in the way!

Sorry for the long post but now you all know a little of my history!

Matt-NC

[`Chris L.]

Ev, thanks for the kind words. Really Chris does 99.9% of the work here, I just hover around and enjoy the fruit of his labors.

Wes
WEs,
[smilie=icon_pidu.gif] thanks man, that was nice.

Matt, I know what you mean when you are busy. It is good you knew you would have to much going on in your life to properly train and manage a bird. There is plenty of time to do it. If you need a Harris there is some fine breeders on this board. I am sure you will be able to get you one.

It sounds like you had one hell of a RT. It would have killed me to let him go.

Keep this in mind for next year, there is a very nice place to trap on the NC/SC boarder.. it is right above Carowinds, its an industrial park.. always been good for me..

[everetkhorton]

Matt
Alway like to hearing from Sqr. hawkers. That is my game, and almost everyone has a different way of hunts them. Did you use chaps? There
has been a lot of postings on how to dispatch the sqr. after the bird catchs it.
Ev. Mi.

[SQLHAWKN]

I did use chaps. Some times they worked and then other times they didn't. Never had any serious bites but did get a few. Some of the guys around here don't use them. They say the bird needs to be able to see its foot for the best eye-foot coordination. This is a good thought/point but I would feel better if my bird wore them.

He would sit on his scales while I changed out his squirrel cuffs and he never would bate. Even with 2 big dogs and cat wandering around the house.

It was really tough letting him go. I went back to where I let him go for about a week just to see if he was still around. Never saw him again though.

What are K-birds? Kestrels?

Matt-NC

[everetkhorton]

Matt:
Yes, K-birds are Kestrels. Like you said, some people like chaps some don't. Do you have gray, black and fox sqr. in NC.?
Ev. Mi.

[SQLHAWKN]

We have tons of gray squirrels, some fox, and no black squirrels.