Imprinting Prairies

[HunterJen]

For any of those that have, what would you recommend doing and steering clear of?

What methods and techniques have you tried? What has worked and what hasn't worked so well?

ATB Jen

[HunterJen]

Anyone out there with experience of imprinting prairies?

[Tom Smith]

Anyone out there with experience of imprinting prairies?

I have imprinted one female taken as a large downy raised in the house on the kitchen table. She would climb up on my chest & kick back and watch TV with me. I let her find her own food dish I never fed her out of hand. I was hooding her all along and she was probably the most hood acclimated bird I have ever had.
She was flown the first time when she was first able to fly and offered game slips almost immediately, she took the first three partridge she ever seen in one day easily from a low pitch. She was tremendously aggressive with anything she thought could be a prey item. Rabbits, night hawks and motorcycle riders nothing surprised me. She was also tremendously aggressive territorially with any strange person or dog the entered into the proximity of our activity field. She was dangerous around children that she wasn't familiar with.
Would I raise another like her, no. But I would maybe a little differently with a mind to modify the birds behavior to a more positive outcome. She never mantled or hunger screamed and was largely silent and really had a pretty good demeanor other than her aggressive behaviors with strange dogs and people which were really frightening to me. She was a very strong flyer from the very beginning as soon as she was on wing. I seen her knock a motorcyclist off his bike with a blow to his helmet, I'm sure he never figured out how or why he was on the ground or had any idea at all what had hit him. I didn't offer an explanation.

[HunterJen]

I have imprinted one female taken as a large downy raised in the house on the kitchen table. She would climb up on my chest & kick back and watch TV with me. I let her find her own food dish I never fed her out of hand. I was hooding her all along and she was probably the most hood acclimated bird I have ever had.
She was flown the first time when she was first able to fly and offered game slips almost immediately, she took the first three partridge she ever seen in one day easily from a low pitch. She was tremendously aggressive with anything she thought could be a prey item. Rabbits, night hawks and motorcycle riders nothing surprised me. She was also tremendously aggressive territorially with any strange person or dog the entered into the proximity of our activity field. She was dangerous around children that she wasn't familiar with.
Would I raise another like her, no. But I would maybe a little differently with a mind to modify the birds behavior to a more positive outcome. She never mantled or hunger screamed and was largely silent and really had a pretty good demeanor other than her aggressive behaviors with strange dogs and people which were really frightening to me. She was a very strong flyer from the very beginning as soon as she was on wing. I seen her knock a motorcyclist off his bike with a blow to his helmet, I'm sure he never figured out how or why he was on the ground or had any idea at all what had hit him. I didn't offer an explanation.

Thanks for that Tom, so what would you do differently do you think to prevent the aggresiveness towards strangers, dogs and children? Would you encourage them seeing many during the imprinting stages?

[Tom Smith]

Thanks for that Tom, so what would you do differently do you think to prevent the aggresiveness towards strangers, dogs and children? Would you encourage them seeing many during the imprinting stages?

Perhaps I would be a little less of "the person" with my bird and let any body and every body relate to her as she grew up, like giving her rides in the vehicle where she could see out and maybe spending some time in a local park watching soccer games with people of all stage and ages. I have noticed that eyases taken from an eyrie where they can see cattle don't show any reaction to cattle later on but ones taken from eyries where there are no cattle spend some troubling moments getting used to them later. So with a pure imprint I would think that exposing them to everything that they may encounter later would be a good idea. There was a thing with my dog and this bird, she was kind of agressive with the dog she had been raised with, maybe a sibling type of realtionship and interaction. I can't be sure, I pretty much thought that given a choice there would be no reason to work with a prairie taken so young. I have worked with prairies, wild taken eyases that were taken beyond 35 days of age that offered no unusual difficulties. They would be my choice now or an older passage.
Also since this was the only prairie I have raised and trained from that young of an age It could be I wasn't really prepared to think of everything I should be doing and also maybe she wasn't typical of birds so raised, but I thought I would offer my comments anyway.

[HunterJen]

Perhaps I would be a little less of "the person" with my bird and let any body and every body relate to her as she grew up, like giving her rides in the vehicle where she could see out and maybe spending some time in a local park watching soccer games with people of all stage and ages. I have noticed that eyases taken from an eyrie where they can see cattle don't show any reaction to cattle later on but ones taken from eyries where there are no cattle spend some troubling moments getting used to them later. So with a pure imprint I would think that exposing them to everything that they may encounter later would be a good idea. There was a thing with my dog and this bird, she was kind of agressive with the dog she had been raised with, maybe a sibling type of realtionship and interaction. I can't be sure, I pretty much thought that given a choice there would be no reason to work with a prairie taken so young. I have worked with prairies, wild taken eyases that were taken beyond 35 days of age that offered no unusual difficulties. They would be my choice now or an older passage.
Also since this was the only prairie I have raised and trained from that young of an age It could be I wasn't really prepared to think of everything I should be doing and also maybe she wasn't typical of birds so raised, but I thought I would offer my comments anyway.

Brilliant, that's very helpful information. I have imprinted Tawny Owls in the past and a Spar last year and I think from what I learnt it is just vitally important they come into contact with absolutely everything that they will see when it comes to their later life, be it dogs, kids, adults, cars, bikes, other birds, the TV, whilst ensuring that they never look to anything as a food provider which should prevent aggression with anything but quarry.

Thank you ever so much for your comments and sparing me some time, if anyone else can add to it then I would be grateful.

ATB Jen

[Yeomanfalconer]

For any of those that have, what would you recommend doing and steering clear of?

What methods and techniques have you tried? What has worked and what hasn't worked so well?

ATB Jen

The nicest eyas prairie I have ever had was a falcon, taken from the eyrie at 10 days of age. She was food deprived(starving) at that time and I took her almost as a mission of mercy. Thought she was a tiercel then. Ate like a pathetic little pig from the moment I got her home(unlimited English Sparrows) and recovered amazingly well. She went everywhere with me while growing up, constant exposure. No food hiding, lots of hood, people and dogs. Was totally silent, ate with her wings up and tight and chased everything. I wrote about her in American Falconry a couple of years back. Lost her while doing some risky spring soaring. Turned up dead under a house, ten months later.