Quote Originally Posted by Dillon View Post
• Minimize bating and rehearsal of escape-avoidance behavior through the use of the hood, especially early on. When I first unhood a new passager, it is in a dim, quiet room with no commotion. Unfortunately, this tried and true advice of the masters of old has fallen to the wayside, and an increasing number of falconers are attempting to man their birds outside or with commotion right away.
The goal is to get the bird eating as soon as possible. The sooner it is eating, the quicker the counterconditioning process can occur. Distractions won’t help here. If the bird is repeatedly bating or shows no interest in eating, it is re-hooded. Feeding can be attempted again in a few hours with smaller birds or those trapped in thinner condition, or the next day with large, robust hawks.
My question is, why did this simple approach to manning fall out of favor here in the US? Is it because most folks start with redtails, and even if you man handle them you can still end up with an acceptable hunting partner? Or is because sponsors are ignorant, or don't give a crap? Or maybe because in order to do this, you need a proper fitting hood from the get go and most people wouldn't know a good fitting hood from bad? Look through the stacks of posts here on NAFEX of people with freshly trapped redtails, all unhooded leaning back, hackles up, mouths open and wings spread, it's almost too bad redtails are so forgiving, if they were a little more intolerant then I think people would be better falconers overall. My sponsor started out over 50 years ago with a Cooper's hawk, he's never flown a redtail, and he always starts a new bird in the dark. I'm not picking on anyone, if NAFEX were around when I started you would have seen my first redtail doing all of the things that I just described above. Live and learn...