Partridge Hawking in the South of England

Here is a video of my chamber raised Tiercel in action. It was his third season. The fields where we fly are not enormous and he takes a pitch which matches the conditions, usually between 300 and 400 ft. The game is spotted through binoculars and he is cast off out of sight behind a barn or wood. He mounts in circles near to me and shadows me closely as I walk in. I do all my own flushing and I seem to need to see the game take wing before I allow myself to film. So I usually only get the ends of his stoops. One advantage of his relatively low pitch is that he catches up with his targets quite close to me which is good for filming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGDHuvi_9iI&t=7s

That is very tight quarters. Great video...beautiful tiercel.

Hello Paul

Excellent video.

You've done a grand job of Archie.

I did just try to post a picture of us hunting together but couldn't.

I'll try properly later.

Regards Terry

Thank you John. I envy you your big open spaces. Any tighter over here and I wouldn't fly a longwing at all. Taking video is a lot of fun. It reveals details the naked eye misses. This was too tight a corner in his first season. The pheasant does a barrel roll so quick you can hardly see it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spWqfx5KD2I

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Originally Posted by qball

That is very tight quarters. Great video...beautiful tiercel.

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Thanks Terry. With any luck you won't work out how to post that picture!

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Originally Posted by TerryS

Hello Paul

Excellent video.

You've done a grand job of Archie.

I did just try to post a picture of us hunting together but couldn't.

I'll try properly later.

Regards Terry

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Originally Posted by paulushilarius

Here is a video of my chamber raised Tiercel in action. It was his third season. The fields where we fly are not enormous and he takes a pitch which matches the conditions, usually between 300 and 400 ft. The game is spotted through binoculars and he is cast off out of sight behind a barn or wood. He mounts in circles near to me and shadows me closely as I walk in. I do all my own flushing and I seem to need to see the game take wing before I allow myself to film. So I usually only get the ends of his stoops. One advantage of his relatively low pitch is that he catches up with his targets quite close to me which is good for filming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGDHuvi_9iI&t=7s

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Great video Paul - with those tight set-ups it reminds me of my days of partridge hawking 20 years ago but that was on mostly greys.

Gerry x

Wonderful video Paul. Beautiful bird!

All my best,

Nice video. So many falconers put all their effort into monster pitch. They only fly perfect slips, in perfect conditions to maintain that mega pitch. They end up with a one-trick-pony, it mounts high, but that's about it. You on the other hand have a well rounded, smart gamehawk. It's obvious you aren't afraid to fly in the rain and wind. Challenging slips in tough conditions, and you're still successful, that's quality there!

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Originally Posted by Steve Jones

Nice video. So many falconers put all their effort into monster pitch. They only fly perfect slips, in perfect conditions to maintain that mega pitch. They end up with a one-trick-pony, it mounts high, but that's about it. You on the other hand have a well rounded, smart gamehawk. It's obvious you aren't afraid to fly in the rain and wind. Challenging slips in tough conditions, and you're still successful, that's quality there!

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Thank you Steve, kind words! I never set out to try to achieve any particular pitch. We can't toss pigeons or bagged game over here and Archie has never seen either. In his first season the plan was to just keep flushing game under him and let nature take its course. It was six weeks before he made his first kill, then two days later he made his second. The weather that first year was terrible..so much wind, week after week.. and this shaped his behaviour and mine. He would battle up to a working pitch and I would hurry to flush before he started to get tired. His pitch improved on the windless days but I continued to try for a prompt serve. If I took too long he'd drop down and ask me what the hell I was doing? This is still the pattern of our hunting! I'd like him to go a bit higher and fly for longer... which I might be able to achieve by changing my behaviour. But I find our current state of mutual understanding is like a pact , I'm reluctant to break it!

Thank you Dan. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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Originally Posted by wyodjm

Wonderful video Paul. Beautiful bird!

All my best,

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Thanks Gerry. There are not many greys ( Huns) here.

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Originally Posted by sugezwolf

Great video Paul - with those tight set-ups it reminds me of my days of partridge hawking 20 years ago but that was on mostly greys.

Gerry x

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Some video of Archie's first season:
https://youtu.be/mN4Ee2A__v4