new guy.

[mark collins]

Hi, my name is mark collins,hence my user name, i fly falcons mainly pursuit falcons these days ,although i do have a tiercel red shaheen/peregrine that i fly waiting on at magpies, excited to be here,cheers,mark.

[Big Foot]

aaaaahh we meet again.
Did you find out about this site from the the link I posted on your transmitter thread on IFF?

[PeteJ]

Welcome aboard Mark.

[mark collins]

aaaaahh we meet again.
Did you find out about this site from the the link I posted on your transmitter thread on IFF?
Hi Ricco, yes, also reccomended by a iff member tonight,cheers,mark.

[KidK]

Welcome to NAFEX Mark.

Flying pursuit falcons must be amazing to watch!

Please share often and post some photos!

[Chris L.]

Mark,

what type of falcons are you flying the pursuit style with?

Welcome to NAFEX. Good to have a few more Uk guys on here.

[thunderheartiii]

(welc)

[mark collins]

Mark,

what type of falcons are you flying the pursuit style with?

Welcome to NAFEX. Good to have a few more Uk guys on here.
Thanks guys, at the momment i am flying a peregrine/gyr/saker female, at gulls, i try to specialise ,but when gulls are scarce she will kill crows, tremendous fun ,especially in a breeze, the flights can travel good distances with lots of stoops in between, nearly all the kills are with the gulls being taken in the air, sometimes quite high up, i switched a good few years ago from gamehawking as i had a couple of run ins with the local gameshooters, now because i hunt crows/gulls i dont get any problems,cheers,mark.

[outhawkn]

Hello Mark

Its nice to hear from you .....

[mark collins]

Thanks guys, hi Bill,how you doing,cheers,mark.

[FredFogg]

Hey Mark, welcome to NAFEX! I am very interested in pursuit hawking of crows as it isn't done much here in the U.S. Any chance you could give us a brief rundown of how you train a bird for this? I would love to one day have a female pere/saker to fly on crows, but haven't found a breeder yet here in the U.S. I went out west last week to trap a prairie falcon to try, but was unsuccessful. So my pursuit hawking will have to wait another year, but I am still interested in the training.

[mark collins]

Hi Fred, quick run down it is, i look for a falcon that will hunt around 2 pound [sorry still on the old weights and measures] , flown lots of smaller birds some succesful,some not, so my train of thought is crows are gutsy and dont like being killed, the larger females are much stronger ,and are able to hold onto the crows,and not get injured, and put off so easily, as can happen if a smaller falcon gets a good hiding ,then thinks twice about hunting them. Anyway once a falcon is stooping to the lure , i start longluring, basicaly from an assistant back and forth, normaly about 3 times increasing the distance , i use a black lure ,and then go over to freshly shot crows, i look for a falcon thats ready to go straight out the hood at a dead crow ,thats being swung on a line by your assistant at a good distance , it should after 2/3 weeks pile straight into the carcase [if the trainings going well] , i give the falcon lots of time on the carcase , let her plume and then allow most of her ration on the dead crow,finishing up on the fist, i also at this stage do pole luring, i strip a crow carcase right out,so its just a shell and tie it on a short line which is attached to a fishing rod, you can do a lot more with a pole lure than you can with a conventinal one, however i still try to slip the falcon rather than cast her off then stoop her, it means her turning back into you which is going against the grain, slipped out the hood she should be looking out for crows and not be expected to turn as she gets going. I then look for close slips on crows, small flocks, singles,and pairs i avoid , as small groups are nearly always family groups and the parents can be very intimidating to a young falcon, confidence is everything, i reward generously on any kill, and rarely fly again if she has killed,after a good flight i feed up , trying to build up confidence,and aggression, if i can work out how to upload pictures i will post some,cheers,mark.

[FredFogg]

Thanks Mark! I will take your advice and might be getting back to you with more detailed questions after this weekend.