Eyas but not imprint?

[RyanVZ]

I didnt really do that with my current Coop, but I did something similar. I imprinted her last year (always had food never saw me bring it). Tame hacked her for a week, but she was bothering people, always trying to land on or near them, so that got stopped earlier than I would have liked. I dropped her weight a bit and trained her to the lure. Then put her in a mew, free lofted, and put live starlings,quail, and sparrows in the chute for the entire winter when I was flying my falcons, ya know, real falconry.

Anyhow, pulled her back out at the end of February, dropped her weight (slowly; she started out catching at 100g heavier than when I put her up for the winter) and went hawking. Up to nearly 100 head now and still having good behavior. I dont even need a tail saver with her anymore she just lightly touches the tips to the ground when mantling, although she does have a few Harris feathers now but those were broken in the mew just a couple of weeks before pulling her . She is trained to trade off kills to the lure, then jump to the fist for a tidbit. Only other little thing I did different is I only call her to an open flat hand with the tidbit behind my thumb. My thinking was/is that they can mistake the glove for prey if they are pulling meat out of the fist and that is where some of the sticky footedness comes from. So far few problems with that either. Most often I can catch, trade, jump to glove, go 30 feet and get another slip, catch, trade, jump, and so on. I do call her to the glove after a miss sometimes to the open hand with the tidbit sitting there. This is the first accipiter I've messed with and I just went in looking to correct problems before they even showed up. I've also split flying duties with a buddy of mine and she does well for him as well. So far so good. Quiet bird and no excess aggression unless you're black and covered in feathers. Knock on wood.

I am 100% an accipiter neophyte, maybe its just luck

[mainefalconer]

when I was flying my falcons, ya know, real falconry.

Apparently, spell check didn't catch Ryan's error. He didn't mean "real" he meant "easy." Just thought I'd clear that up.

Okay, so here's the nutshell version of the 2 times I've attempted pulling chicks without imprinting them;

In the mid-nineties, I climbed a tree here in Maine and pulled a 26 day old female gos from her nest. At that time, I had two very close hawking buddies, and we all trained our birds together and helped one another quite a bit. We decided that she was too old to be raised and treated as a full-blown imprint, so I stuck her in a chamber that I had that allowed no view of people, or anything other than a stream and some woods. We watched her through a one-way mirror, and fed her through a food chute, and after she was hard-penned, we pulled her from the chamber, seeled her, and waked her for 2 or 3 days, and progressed through training her normally, as though she was a passage gos. She did great! My buddy Pete flew her on ducks for a few seasons and eventually started having big behavioral problems with her, so he transferred her to me for a change of routine, and she really pulled herself together. I hawked her on woodcock and squirrels for a few years and really enjoyed her, but noticed that all of her behaviors were totally in line with what you would expect from an imprint. Every falconer who ever met her assumed that she was an imprint, and I passed her on to Jimmy G in Rhode Island. He flew her for a year or two and then donated her to a breeding project. She was definitely an interesting bird. We thought we'd done everything we could to avoid imprinting, but over time, discovered that she displayed pretty much all of the bad behaviors that you would expect from a poorly trained imprint. I really enjoyed her, and she hunted well, but she was very dangerous to handle.

Most recently, I pulled a pair of merlins from the same nest at 16 days of age, and a friend raised them together in a chamber that he has. Food chute, etc.. After they were hard-penned, we pulled them out, seeled them, (to make hood training a smooth process) and trained them as you would train any chamber-raised longwing. Both birds worked out great. My female is a lovely little bird. Still hoods well, flies strong, very reliable (I've never had to pull out the receiver) kills game, handles nicely with good manners, etc.. I would definitely do it again. Actually, the experience has me thinking that from now on, instead of pulling eyass birds from the nest, I would prefer to let nature raise them, and then go in to the nest area and trap them once they've become branchers. It seems that you'd get the proverbial "best of both worlds" from this approach.

[RyanVZ]

Apparently, spell check didn't catch Ryan's error. He didn't mean "real" he meant "easy." Just thought I'd clear that up.

lol.....I can't say that I disagree. A lot less walking anyhow, and no tidbits to get ready.....

[mainefalconer]

I'm just joking Ryan. (though, as they say, "a lot of truth is said in jest") What fun would it be if we didn't have a shortwing vs. longwing rivalry? Even though I think it's easier to train good longwings, you guys definitely seem to do a lot more driving around looking for the perfect slip, and in THAT regard, what you guys do is certainly more difficult!