North Shore Ridge Trapping

[GregMik]

I am starting this thread to chronicle my adventures trapping a Passage Goshawk.

I have gone up twice so far and have had one male and one female gos grab the pigeon. Both birds let the pigeon go as I was dragging them into the bow net...confusedd

I have caught a few birds and Tasha and I have gotten a few pics. I don't have time tonight to post many. I will be leaving at 4 am.

http://gregmikk.webs.com/10-11/Photo195.jpg

http://gregmikk.webs.com/10-11/Photo208.jpg

[Dirthawking]

Psssst.....

Hey Greg, that is not a gos! toungeout

Awesome catch though! Good luck man.

[GregMik]

Psssst.....

Hey Greg, that is not a gos! toungeout

Awesome catch though! Good luck man.

Really? LOL

It was an unbanded Peregrine. I took it to a bander that was up trapping also. He was released with a some nice jewelry.

The sharpie was a really light bird. Not the normal color.

Greg

[OATS]

Greg, beautiful peregrine! For juvenile goshawks, I have found it best to let them break in and eat for a while. They need to get really comfortable before dragging them into position. And then in baby steps. Hope this helps. Great pics. Good luck.

[Tasha55403]

We kinda want to keep the pigeon alive if we can:) They're SUPPOSED to hit the dho gazza nets, but if they come up the hill they can slip under without too much difficulty. I pulled Bijou into the bownet while I was standing 10 feet away in plain sight so we might have been a little spoiled:) Dang I miss that bird!

[Ross]

Cool stuff. Good luck.

[Goshawk65]

Good luck...thumbsupp

[Tasha55403]

Holy cr*p!!! That ain't a goshawk!!! check out what Greg came home with last nite!
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs795.snc4/67593_162087280476487_100000256472828_457980_24403 02_n.jpg

[sevristh]

haillhailljaww
Always nice when the falconry gods smile on ya!! Is he gonna start a thread on him/her(?)? I've only experienced one passage gyr in my falconry career, and it was two or three weeks after it had been trapped and it was amazing!

[sevristh]

Oh yeah, btw... We know there are TONS more pics!! Quit being stingy Tasha!! toungeout

[Tasha55403]

Pmsl...I suppose I haven't posted any pics on here, have I :) Here's a couple I took earlier this season...
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs625.snc4/58569_154657317886150_100000256472828_415567_80787 75_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs305.ash2/58569_154657324552816_100000256472828_415569_51361 14_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs313.ash2/59349_154657297886152_100000256472828_415566_19066 91_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs605.snc4/58569_154657321219483_100000256472828_415568_55507 41_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs625.snc4/58569_154657327886149_100000256472828_415570_63758 45_n.jpg

[sevristh]

Man... you DO know that many of us would part with major parts of our anatomy to be in places to trap like that, right?! Great pics!! Thanks! Now back to the gyr!! ;)

[Tasha55403]

Man... you DO know that many of us would part with major parts of our anatomy to be in places to trap like that, right?! Great pics!! Thanks! Now back to the gyr!! ;)
Yeah, I know:) Lol, this was one in a million though, NOT a normal occurence:) I think falconers have only caught a handful of gyrs in MN over the years. I know of 2 for sure, but the last one was over 15 years ago as far as I know. Greg would rather have a goshawk, but he's only seen a couple and hasn't managed to catch one yet, either. He's been up there most of September and October, too :P

[PeteJ]

Great pics as usual Tasha and thanks for sharing. And wow...very early for a Gyr. I'm not sure if that is a good sign or not. (omen) Should be interesting for him nonetheless...you got any of that itraconazole left from Bijou? It might be useful for that gyr right now.

[Tasha55403]

Thank you Pete:)
Hmmm...I'm not sure if we still have any itra or not...but he'll be getting some ASAP, one way or another:) In fact, Greg's bringing a passage male shin that got stuck in a warehouse to the Raptor Center right now. It came right down to the pigeon-pretty sharp little bird. Hopefully he'll pick some up.

[Dirthawking]

Psssst.....

Hey Greg, that is not a gos! toungeout

Awesome catch though! Good luck man.

Wow, my earlier post still applies!!!!!

[PeteJ]

Thank you Pete:)
Hmmm...I'm not sure if we still have any itra or not...but he'll be getting some ASAP, one way or another:) In fact, Greg's bringing a passage male shin that got stuck in a warehouse to the Raptor Center right now. It came right down to the pigeon-pretty sharp little bird. Hopefully he'll pick some up.
Probably wise. Pat could probably give him some ideas of what he might be up against. But I know how passage gyrs can be almost anytime...don't look at them askance or they can suddenly belly up on you. But some preventative should help allay some of that fear and loathing.

[Tasha55403]

I doubt Pat is there, though. He's not in the clinic much anymore. As far as I know he mostly teaches now. But we'll definitely get him on the itra as soon as possible. And we'll definitely be keeping the pigeons as far away from him as possible. Luckily I think most of the mosquitos are finally gone-the last few nights have been a bit chilly (not that he won't be in the house all the time, anyways).

[YARAK191]

Awsome!!!!! U need to have trapping adventures for the rest of in the country that cant catch crap!!!!!

[Tasha55403]

Lol;) This bird is incredible! I held him for the first time and he ate right off the fist! Immediately! Greg's getting the Itra tomorrow morning:)

[sevristh]

Lol;) This bird is incredible! I held him for the first time and he ate right off the fist! Immediately! Greg's getting the Itra tomorrow morning:)

Like I said, the one I had the pleasure of being around for a week or so was simply amazing! It may be anthropomorphizing, but the intelligence they look at you with is incredible. She was VERY sweet as well. Hard to believe she was a passage only a couple weeks off the trap!

So give us some more specs on the Gyr Tasha, male/female, weight, etc! :P

[sevristh]

Nevermind, I just saw you referred to HIM as a HE! ;) What's he weigh? :)

[Tasha55403]

About an hour or two ago he weighed in at 1060g, last night he weighed in at 1090g:) Here's a couple more pics...
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs416.ash2/69450_162138630471352_100000256472828_458138_79911 14_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs834.snc4/69450_162138637138018_100000256472828_458140_22165 11_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs814.snc4/69450_162138633804685_100000256472828_458139_29390 75_n.jpg

[Zarafia]

Congrats to you guys!
God is a good guy. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair what He asks of you. But it all works out in the end IMHO.

[GregMik]

Congrats to you guys!
God is a good guy. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair what He asks of you. But it all works out in the end IMHO.


Huh? I want a Goshawk.... He is a cheeky bastard!

Greg

[Eagle Owl]

He is a gorgeous guy, Greg!!! Can't wait to see him at NAFA!!!!

[Saluqi]

Beautiful bird Greg, congrats!

[sevristh]

Huh? I want a Goshawk.... He is a cheeky bastard!

Greg

LMAO!!! clapp;)

[Chris L.]

Greg,

he is stunning. I hope you bring him to NAFA.

Congrats!

[Bryant Tarr]

Fantastic Greg! What an adventure! clapp

[Zarafia]

Huh? I want a Goshawk.... He is a cheeky bastard!

Greg



"You can't always get what ya want. Ya can't always get what ya want. Ya can't always get what ya want. But if you try sometimes, You just might find. You get whatcha need!"
LOL
Quit yer bitchin!

[Zarafia]

Maybe Brad Mitchell will pipe in here. He sure made manning his passage gyrkin look torturous while he was manning him. I get the feeling that Brad's had a few falcons over the years. He seems to have an idea of what he's doing LOL.

[FredFogg]

Just keep trapping Greg, I will take the next goshawk you trap since you now have a gyr! toungeout :D Or a female sharp shin or a 20 oz coopers hawk, any of those will do! LOL :D

[michaelberan]

Good luck Gregg I hope you get what you want

[Steve L.]

How has trapping been lately?

[Steve L.]

Any updates? Did you get a female gos Greg?

[GregMik]

No I did not...I am out of money to go up also. Work around here has been really slow.

Greg

[sevristh]

No I did not...I am out of money to go up also. Work around here has been really slow.

Greg

That sucks... Life's rough when you have to settle for a passage gyrkin! toungeout

[Gnikol1012]

Great pictures. What kind of camera and lense are you using?

[Tasha55403]

Thank you:) The trapping pics I posted were taken with a Canon 1DMkII and a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L IS lens.

[sharptail]

Congrats Greg!! He may not be what you were looking for but at least he is a cold weather bird! We should all be so lucky as to start longwinging with a passage Jerkin!

[sevristh]

Thank you:) The trapping pics I posted were taken with a Canon 1DMkII and a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L IS lens.

And we should all be so lucky as to be able to take pics with that setup!! :D

[Tasha55403]

And we should all be so lucky as to be able to take pics with that setup!! :D
Lol, it IS pretty nice:) The camera's almost obsolete now, but that doesn't make it any less fantastic:D

[PeteJ]

Lol, it IS pretty nice:) The camera's almost obsolete now, but that doesn't make it any less fantastic:D
Tech Queen!! ;-)

[Tasha55403]

Tech Queen!! ;-)
Pmsl...not I! :)

[Roper]

Greg I want you to stay as far away from me as possible calling God A cheeky bastard . wait till he runs a lightning bolt on your ass. you just make me shake my head ..
go to work so you have some gas money to drive and fly that bird .
hows that song go again.. You cant always get what you want .......

[GregMik]

It has taken me a while to get over this. I am going to write this up so others will learn from my mistakes.

We got 2ft of snow a few weeks back and I plow in the winter. We were short a guy on the plowing crew so I took up the slack and worked 90hrs in 6 days.

The Gyr was living on the tall perch in the living room. I would come home and just feed her and go to bed.

When I was done plowing I called her from the tall perch to the fist in the livingroom. She could not make it the 15 ft to my fist. I put her on the scale and the bird was really low. I tried for two days to recover. The bird was eating and putting things over (clean quail with pedialyte). But it would just not put on weight. On Tuesday evening it regurgitated the food I had given it. I called Lori Aernt from the Raptor Center, but she would not go in so I had to wait until the next morning to bring the bird in.

They worked on the bird for two hrs that morning giving fluids and testing. She gained a little that day with crop tubing fluids. Wednesday she put on some weight also and for the last meal of the night they gave it some clean quail instead of crop tubing. The bird regurgitated the food and lost a bunch of weight. Down 60g's from the weight that I brought it in at.

They recovered and it put on weight all weekend and Sunday they told me I could probably pick her up on Tuesday. Monday she had a setback and died Tuesday morning. This was the Tuesday after Christmas.

They did a necropsy and found that the Gyrkin was a Falcon and that she had Airsack worms. I had no idea what Airsack worms were. One of the symptoms is regurgitation of food. The only thing I can figure on the massive weight loss is that she had been regurgitating food all week and the dogs had been cleaning it up.

If I would have put the bird on the scale I would have caught the weight loss and the bird would most likely be alive right now. Don't make the mistake I made and assume the bird is eating what you give. Always check.

Greg

[goshawks00]

Bummer Greg, sorry to hear this, I was so looking forward to hearing about him...her
Dang it....

[GregMik]

Bummer Greg, sorry to hear this, I was so looking forward to hearing about him...her
Dang it....


Was my own stupid idiotic fault...I am really pissed off at myself.frus)

Greg

[goshawks00]

Was my own stupid idiotic fault...I am really pissed off at myself.frus)

Greg

Yea I see that , you ought to slap your self silly;)

[AirAssault]

Greg really sorry about your bird.

[sevristh]

Sorry that happened Greg. Thank you for sharing the circumstances. There was some mention of ASW on one of the prairie falcon threads on here. I'd not really paid much attention to them before seeing that thread and now reading this. Thanks for the information.

[everetkhorton]

Greg, sorry to hear about your bird, thanks for posting so we all can learn from it. I know it was hard to do.

[Montucky]

Thanks for the post! Is there even a test for airsac worms? Is it in the tape worm family or other? Anyone know.

[sevristh]

Thanks for the post! Is there even a test for airsac worms? Is it in the tape worm family or other? Anyone know.


There's some discussion of them in this thread http://www.nafex.net/showthread.php?t=9162&page=3&highlight=worms starting around post #100.

[allredone]

Greg thanks for posting this info. I'm sorry to hear how that all happened. You get a good shot at work and you have to take it but then you loose a bird... That's a real bummer. Thank you for sharing this though. It might spare someone a similar loss.

[tony123abc]

Sorry to hear about the loss. It is a brave man who will step into the spotlight in bad circs. for others to see. Good on you for the courage.

[Saluqi]

Really sorry to hear this Greg, it was a real thrill to hold him on my fist for a while at the NAFA meet, beautiful bird.

[jfseaman]

Really sorry to hear it Greg.