goldie pics

[Pheasantplucker]

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Heres a couple of photos of my imprint male Goldie.

Not all photos have come up?,ill try again later!,i have another 6 photos that wont post = sorry.

PP.

[`Chris L.]

Great pictures [smilie=icon_thumright.gif] . Thank you for posting them..

[falconer_39]

hey Pheasantplucker
that a very nice looking golden you have there. what all have you hunted with him??
I wish the feds and state would let us use them for hunting in bama
I think it would be pretty cool to hunt deer and coyote with one

[Pheasantplucker]

Hi Falconer_39,

My Golden is an imprinted male that was hatched in june 06,i hand reared him from four weeks old,his true hunting weight is around 7lb 2-3oz but will fly/hunt much higher (same as Harris Hawks really).My main serious quarry are our large Fenland brown Hares (he cought around a dozen this is first season) plus Rabbits two easy cock pheasants and one feral cat oops!!!
So far ive hes not been aggresive with me at all and now that the seasons over ive fed him right up but still train fly ie hes on full length of a long creance and i hide either a dead rabbit cock pheasant in young wheat and propped up to look "alive" and i slip him out of the hood at them and he makes a "kill" as normal and i let him crop out on the rabbit etc.
This keeps him active and satisfied and not just shut away in the mews untill next season,plus it makes him still look and work for his food and not see me as the sole food provider.

Regards R.

[kimmerar]

Way to go. Thanks for that info. I'm new at this and I don't feel right just leaving them in the mew. I plan on still letting her catch her food. In a controlled situation.

Thanks again
Kim

[areal]

Kim, would you post details of how your bird behaves with being presented with live food on a regular basis.
Its not something we can try here in the UK.

Pheasantplucker, that's a nice looking male you got there. You thought about taking him to the gathering of eagles next year?

Cant say much, but very promising things going on in the AI pens at present. Could be flying some Yorkshire bred goldies this coming season ;-)

[Pheasantplucker]

Kim, would you post details of how your bird behaves with being presented with live food on a regular basis.
Its not something we can try here in the UK.

Pheasantplucker, that's a nice looking male you got there. You thought about taking him to the gathering of eagles next year?

Cant say much, but very promising things going on in the AI pens at present. Could be flying some Yorkshire bred goldies this coming season ;-)

Areal,there is a gathering of eagles?.Is it BFC related or independent?
Havent spent any time with UK eaglers so would be nice to meet people with the same interest as myself.

R...

[kimmerar]

Kim, would you post details of how your bird behaves with being presented with live food on a regular basis.
Its not something we can try here in the UK.


Not sure how to do the quote thing. Chris - I'll work on that.

Evan - my bird - even though its an American Kestrel has the instinct to kill. I think I've had such success with my bird due to confidence. She will take large cattournick quail - I know that is spelled wrong. I watched my husband with his first RT and he didn't use baggies - the bird seemed to give up. He introduced a for sure kill and you could see her start hunting again. My bird after 2 or 3 misses (only happened once) will get on my fist and start her screaming - like darn it - I missed. Let's me know I'm making it too difficult for her - I have a habit of that because I like to see a flight - give her an easy slip and bam she's back on track. She'll quit pacing all over the place. She will still go to the fist to hunt but not all the pacing.

I don't want to put her up for the molt. I don't want to have to restart everything. I want her to continue what we've done. But I want it simple so we don't damage her new feathers. I want her to still have to work for her food and give her some freedom to be a falcon and keep her confidence up.

I previously posted how I trained my bird (missed a few things but the main things are there) in the long wing section. Early on I was with my bird all day. We started going out into the field and all she would do is stay on my head or go to the ground (waiting for me to feed her). No hunting was going on. To me she was getting a little too tame. I quit being with her so much. Gave her a little freedom - made her eat only on the lure or a live quail baggie (so she felt like she got something) and she was back to hunting again. I haven't raised an eyass yet but my husband just got 2 captive bred Harris Hawks and it is very different. I think I like the wild in them a little bit but my opinion on that could change. Haven't seen them hunt but they have no interest in live food yet. Could be too early.

My new thing is I want her to go into a bush. Plan on trying to get her to do that. Also I want her to take birds in the air. Never seen her do that. So now I'm throwing previously killed starlings into the air and she has to get them in the air - not wait until it gets to the ground. We'll see if it works.

I'm sorry you can't us baggie there. What you are doing is almost the same. You make it look real.

Is this what you wanted to know? Did I answer your question? I bet flying a golden is amazing to watch. Sorry so long - I have a habit of that.

My ideas here. Not sure about everyone else.

Happy Hawking and post some pics of your quarry if possible. Will give us a better idea of what your hunting with a 7lb bird. WOW

[areal]

The Gathering of Eagles is privately organised by Barry of Extreme Falconry in Perth www.extremefalconry.co.uk at the end of January.
Its very hard going on the body though, excelent country for waiting on flights, but very hard work with our pursuit eagles!! (carrying a goldie up and chasing it down Munro's!!)

On feeding baggies, I'm grateful that its not allowed. We have enough problems with teenagers doing the wrong things without allowing them to live feed.
As far as my birds go, if I feel the Harris needs a confidence boost I let her fly to a tree and find her own prey.
The ferrug is an imprint and tends to have attitude problems rather than confidence issues. He needs to be in the right country or he wouldnt hit something even if it was tied by its leg to the ground. He'll come down from 300 ft and take a rabbit that's stuck just its nose out of a hole on the side of a hill, but he wouldnt even go for a rabbit sat out in the open under a tree.

With the goldies we just fly them on a lamp to build confidence. People only say hunting rabbits with a lamp in the dark is easy until they try it.
Foxes are fun on the lamp. Saw an amazing up close kill with the female this season. She landed short of the fox and it started stalking up to her thinking she couldnt see it (it had a great big spotlight shone on it from 20 yards away but seemed determined to go for the bird.)
As it pounced at her, she took it, both feed by the head. It was noisy at 1am in the morning, but over very quick!!

[Pheasantplucker]

Are these your Golden's then?,if so how many do you have then?
Link doesnt work.

Regards R

[areal]

I have a male and female, both imprints which are specifically for AI breeding.
I cant call myself anything but a novice when it comes to Eagles. I've handled a few, hunted with imprint males, and a beautiful imprint female (Yosuf Hiebler bird) and one really nasty parent reared male.
I wouldnt attempt to do it on my own just yet, but the idea is to hopefully help with imprinting a youngster this year (if we manage to breed any :-)) and then as soon as my daughter is old enough to understand how dangerous Eagles can be to little people, I'll look at getting a young male.

The breeding project at present consits of two males, one imprint and one dual imprint and two females again one social imprint and a really stunning dual imprint that's on loan.

So far things are looking good, both males are donating vulantarily and the loan bird is standing for insemination. Sadly my girl is just being moody and hormonal but this is her first season where she could lay so we are still optimistic.
At the end of the day we dont need results from her this year, she stands on the glove at hunting weight, so when she's old enough and ready she will lay and we have a good chance of getting results with the amount of semen available.

Oh one other thing, I got barry's web address wrong (doh!!!) its www.elitefalconry.co.uk by all means have a look at the site (Chris please feel free to remove the link if its against site policy.)