Cooper's Hawk pics

[KidK]

Gang,

Here are a few photos from years past. My first attempt at sharing photos here.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/BURRRRR.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/MollyonquailpointPhyllisinappletree.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/Flynnsunset.jpg

[KidK]

More Cooper's photos

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/DSCN2826.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/DSCN2841.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/DSCN2862.jpg

[KidK]

Last ones for tonight..

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/PhyllisandPheasant.jpg


http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/Snowhawking.jpg

[`Chris L.]

Kory,
Great pictures... it is always nice to put a face with the name. I loved flying my coops last year. Great bird and taught me a lot. Thank you for taking the time to post the pictures

[gabboon]

k

[everetkhorton]

OK, you guy's lets watch it. who old here? I could send in some younger picture but they are in black and white and are all faded. [smilie=banana.gif]

[gabboon]

k

[everetkhorton]

Steve:
No, glass.

[everetkhorton]

Steve:

I also have two on stone>

[`Chris L.]

I'll agree! I always thought Kory was an old man and pictured him looking more like Ev!

LOL.. [smilie=icon_pidu.gif]

[KidK]

Steve,

LOL.. Old man eh? I bet you have underwear older than me! Actually, I am 35 and feel twice as old somedays. Egads, you pictured me looking like Ev? Cut me to the quick!

Chris,

Yeah, if I lived in SC, Coopers would be all that I would fly. They are tough to get through the winters here (Michigan) with very little size appropriate wild game to fly. It usually results in carhawking to get them lots of slips. My best season from November to March with a tercil Cooper's was 70+ head, 60 some of them taken carhawking.

I want to try flying eyas birds though the summer and do a forced molt (like Fredrick Fogg did last year) through the winter, then pick back up flying in the spring. Had some bad luck this year with nests, so I will have to wait until next year.

I am really enjoying your forum Chris. Well put together format and excellent posts from the members here.

[`Chris L.]

Chris,

Yeah, if I lived in SC, Coopers would be all that I would fly. They are tough to get through the winters here (Michigan) with very little size appropriate wild game to fly. It usually results in carhawking to get them lots of slips. My best season from November to March with a tercil Cooper's was 70+ head, 60 some of them taken carhawking.

I want to try flying eyas birds though the summer and do a forced molt (like Fredrick Fogg did last year) through the winter, then pick back up flying in the spring. Had some bad luck this year with nests, so I will have to wait until next year.

I am really enjoying your forum Chris. Well put together format and excellent posts from the members here.

Kory,

I was going to ask you about the winters with the coops. I bet it can be tough. . How did the forced molt turn out for Frederick? YOu had a great head count with that coops you car hawked . Nice work. Was he imprint or passage? I bet it was devastating for what ever was at the receiving end of those flights!!

Thank you for the kind words about the forum. It is growing and we have a great group of people on here. It takes members such as yourself to keep it afloat and make it worth having. I really appreciate you being active and taking the time to post..

please keep the pictures coming and don't hesitate to post.

[gabboon]

k

[KidK]

Chris,

I have flown a couple passage females through the winter and tried not to car hawk too much. I really enjoy field hawking behind the Brittney (that is why I fly goshawks, the next best choice for me). Hawking in the fall and early winter, through the first few snows is great, but come late December and January (in my experience) Cooper's tend to shut down with the cold. That being said, I flew all of these while a bachelor and just kept the birds in the house 24/7

Take a look at this video. It looks like Fredericks Coops Inya did great with the molt! This is a great vid clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCVYIXRQMiw

The tercil I car hawked was a passage. He was great to fly sparrows with, but did catch a few starlings and pigeons.

I made 5 trips (5 years in a row) to Superior Wisconsin trying to trap a passage goshawk. I came home empty 5 years (not for lack of effort mind you!) in a row and would trap the first Cooper's I could get my hand on. This was usually mid to late October. I would fly them a season then turn them loose. I was a big time trout bumb at the time and fished like mad so I never kept a Cooper's through the molt.

My first Cooper's was an imprint tercil that was killed by a redtail at 56 days. I had only taken 18 head with him. From that point on, I swore that I would be a "passage man". The last two years I have raised eyas tercil Goshawks for friends and had plans to raise an eyas Cooper's for another friend to fly this summer. It didn't work out this year though, but I do like getting them started!

Unless I am overwhelmed with eyas goshawks next year, I plan on pulling a Cooper's to raise and we will see from there. I want to try hacking and not being "Goshawk rich", I think starting with birds I haven't paid for may be easier to do.

Steve,

I guess I do recall that you were only a few years older than me from photos and stories of your redtails. I remember you way back when the RR list first started and a tercil redtail that you flew. You often posted about him. I enjoyed your accounts of hawking.

Steve, do you know Jason Caldwell from MD? I think he is in VA now.

[gabboon]

k

[KidK]

Steve,

Jason's inlaws live about 45 minute from me here in Michigan. He used to come for a week either at Thanksgiving or Christmas and we would always go hawking together a few times. He is a super guy and his "Maj" (Majesty) is the most amazing redtail.

I haven't heard from him for a couple years (since he moved) and would really like to get back in touch with him.

If you do see him, let him know I said hello.

[KidK]

Steve wrote:

thanks for the kind words. I liked that list and miss it. I was kind of a jerk on it, too, but I've grown up a bit.

I do miss that hawk. He was good, but I let him go after my daughter was born. I was worried I wouldn't give him enough attention through the molt.[/quote]

Steve, LOL... I think in the early stages of conversing with other falconers via forums and the net, it was not always easy to express oneself well. There was a bit of a learning curve for sure. I am sure I was a bit of a jerk myself and, as you, feel that I have grown up too. LOL.

I have recollections of you squirrel hawking that tercil redtail and there being some difficult geography ( I remember significant hills from your stories) that you hawked? Is that correct? I may have to go back to the RR archives and do some digging.

I also do remember you having a baby and ending up with a Harris hawk.
My second daughter should be here in less than a month and we are all eager to meet her. My wife is as big as a hous... er.. maybe not the best thing to say. She is good at growing big babies, lets just say that!

Here is my daughter Emma and our first eyas tercil goshawk. She is great at socializing imprints with me!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z303/korykoch/DSCN1983.jpg