Meet Bullet

[rocgwp]

This is "Bullet". He/She is a 6 day old Cooper's Hawk. I pulled it yesterday hoping that it was a male, but time will tell what gender it actually is. I am going to call him a male until he proves me otherwise. We checked 5 nests before we found one that hadn't failed and that was climable. I weighed him today and he weighed 131g. He is eating on his own already. I can't wait to get him catching grackles and starlings this summer and then to catch quail over my dogs this season.

I'm new at using photobucket, so I hope this works...

[rocgwp]

Here is a pick from today...

[KidK]

Awesome!

Bullet is a great Cooper's hawk name. Sounds like you have his/her season planned out! What breed of dog do you hunt quail behind?

Also, please introduce yourself and sign your posts. The easiest way is to go into your User CP (User Control Panel) and set how you want your posts to be signed.

If you send me a photo, I'll set it up as your avatar as well.

Please keep us posted to his/her progress!

ATB,

[wesleyc6]

My guess is this is..................lovesfreshwater..........nah just kidding, I am guessing this is Jeff Suggs???? If not, sorry, if so, congrats!

[rocgwp]

Yeah, it's me Wes...I've gone off the deep end and I'm flying a coops this year...I figured with all of the quail slips I had last year, this is the best bird for me. I guess we'll see...

[wesleyc6]

Man that is an ugly dog Guess their feet are all healed up from Abilene and are raring to go!

Congrats on the little coop. Let's chat this week.

[Bryant Tarr]

Nice! I look forward to reading about your adventures with Bullet!

[chris kimble]

Thats the first time I've seen a gun in an avatar on a hawking forum Welcome, and good luck with the coop!

[goshawks00]

Congrats Jeff on the new hunting partner, wow!!!
There will be lots of accips to follow here this year. Good hawking,
barry
btw Chris that's not a gun it's a Texas flushing stick.

[rocgwp]

Things are progessing right along with Bullet. He is getting some great socialization. I work for a camp and we had 350 of our summer staff show up yesterday. I placed Bullet on my check-in table with a couple of signs to fend off thousands of repetetive questions about him. He was in the middle of LOT of people all day. He showed no fear. He would sleep then wake up and eat, then go back to sleep. He paid no attention to all the people gawking at him and touching him. I'm hoping all of this socialization will pay off in the long run. Working at camp has it's benefits with falconry. I always have TONS of people to help socialize a bird, I can get access to all kinds of animals/situations to get him use to, the bird is able to go with me everywhere all day long...

I don't plan to hood train this bird. Reading McDermott's second book it would appear that alot of problems can be avoided by not hooding. I'd love to hear some feedback on this however.

Here is a picture of Bullet taken yesterday.

[goshawks00]

Very good start Jeff!!!! Most guys start off this way but it's how you finish the race... the time near the end where he is becoming a bit of a 'teenage hellion' just before and after penning that will make or break the relationship between the imprinter and the imprintee...
Good luck ,
Barry

[wesleyc6]

Sounds GREAT Jeff. I will give you a call here in a bit.

[musketdaft]

I am not convinced that you need to socialise an imprint with hundreds of hours of bombardment with new stimuli.
There has been on one or more occasions where the hawk that became rock steady had hardly any interaction with new people new places the last musket spar I bought from the breeder a week or so from hard pining had never seen the outside world until
I picket him up; he was raised in the home with a few other spars and was hand fed until he could take food from the dish but as far as socialising goes he seen very little.
Same hawk is the steadiest spar I have ever owned so steady he gave semen this year.
Personally I believe it the nature hawk that is going to determine more than anything else how things turn out. Alf.

Very good start Jeff!!!! Most guys start off this way but it's how you finish the race... the time near the end where he is becoming a bit of a 'teenage hellion' just before and after penning that will make or break the relationship between the imprinter and the imprintee...
Good luck ,
Barry

[goshawks00]

Alf this may all be true as far as what you were able to accomplish.... there is also plenty of antidotal evidence that exposure to what they will be subject to does condition them to accept those surroundings... James gets one chance to mold her into a hunting partner he should do all he can rather than take the minimalists approach (.02)
.
I have often wondered after years of captive breeding and almost daily interactions with the falconer , whether some sort of domestication may take place with some species... How many years/generations have most raptors in the UK been bred in captivity?

Just curious and sorting out some thoughts.
Barry

[Bodarc]

This is "Bullet". He/She is a 6 day old Cooper's Hawk. I pulled it yesterday hoping that it was a male, but time will tell what gender it actually is. I am going to call him a male until he proves me otherwise. We checked 5 nests before we found one that hadn't failed and that was climable. I weighed him today and he weighed 131g.

Jeff

My male coop's last year weighed 210 grams at approx 11 days. I think you have a male.

[musketdaft]

Barry I don’t disagree and pound to a penny I will be imprinting the next hawk with as much stimuli as possible this is what I have always done.
It a fickle thing the mind of a accipiter you can condition a hawk to so many things but take the hawk away from the environment its used to and all the stimuli its been bombarded with now seems completely strange and alien.
I had a mate once who imprinted a female spar he took it work with him he worked in a tyre yard everyday the hawk was subject to the hustle and bustle of cars pulling in and out hundreds of people car jack hammers taking nuts off wheels tyres popping
The hawk was bombproof.
Once the hawk was taken away from this environment it became a nervous wreck fearful of cars and people.
Me personally if I could I would love to have 5 or 6 females already imprinted from the breeder to some extent through feeding doesn’t matter if they have been socialised with sitting on bows a week away from hard pinning, I could go along the line and pick the best hawk that would do me fine. Alf.

Alf this may all be true as far as what you were able to accomplish.... there is also plenty of antidotal evidence that exposure to what they will be subject to does condition them to accept those surroundings... James gets one chance to mold her into a hunting partner he should do all he can rather than take the minimalists approach (.02)
.
I have often wondered after years of captive breeding and almost daily interactions with the falconer , whether some sort of domestication may take place with some species... How many years/generations have most raptors in the UK been bred in captivity?

Just curious and sorting out some thoughts.
Barry

[rocgwp]

Here are some pictures of Bullet at 10 days. He weighd 196 grams and you can see from the picture how far his tail feathers are pushing out. Right now it's pretty much the same...eat, sleep, poop...He doesn't seem to pay a lot of attention to anything and I haven't seen him show fear of anything yet.

Any other thoughts on if it is a male or female?

It's good to get some feedback on the socialization. Since I am imprinting him at work with me where there are lots of people, his environment won't change later on. He is growing up in the environment he will be hawking and living in later. He will have a perch in my office and hunting nearby.

I am curious about the tame hack of coops. I saw a little discussion about it on James thread, but it never got anywhere. I have read McDermott's article in American falconry where he talks about it producing 2 of the best birds he's ever seen. I also listened to him talk about it at our field meet acouple years ago. Has anyone else tried it? If so, what were the results? The article makes it really enticing to try it, so I'd love to hear other thoughts on the subject.

[BestBeagler]

Here are some pictures of Bullet at 10 days. He weighd 196 grams and you can see from the picture how far his tail feathers are pushing out. Right now it's pretty much the same...eat, sleep, poop...He doesn't seem to pay a lot of attention to anything and I haven't seen him show fear of anything yet.

Any other thoughts on if it is a male or female?

It's good to get some feedback on the socialization. Since I am imprinting him at work with me where there are lots of people, his environment won't change later on. He is growing up in the environment he will be hawking and living in later. He will have a perch in my office and hunting nearby.

I am curious about the tame hack of coops. I saw a little discussion about it on James thread, but it never got anywhere. I have read McDermott's article in American falconry where he talks about it producing 2 of the best birds he's ever seen. I also listened to him talk about it at our field meet acouple years ago. Has anyone else tried it? If so, what were the results? The article makes it really enticing to try it, so I'd love to hear other thoughts on the subject.

Well if the nests I have my eye on do indeed turn out to be coopers hawk nests then I will pull one and tame hack it. I see no reason not to. I talked to another falconer that has hacked a lot of eyas coopers and he says that it is the only way he would go when it comes to eyas coopers. Isaac

[jfneumann57]

I'm doing a pseudo tame hack.

[BestBeagler]

I'm doing a pseudo tame hack.

Could you explain? Isaac

[rocgwp]

Can you explain a little of the details of tame hacking? I've never seen it done nor I have I seen any details on how to do it. Particularly the recall at the end of the day...

By the way...that is a good loking Female Coops you have James...

[jfneumann57]

I'm in the unique situation of basically not doing anything but working with my bird through the summer. So once she's mobile and has jesses on we're going out to a bunch of the locations that I have access to let her run and fly around for a few hours then call her to lure and take her home. That's the simple version.

[jfneumann57]

Jeff did you read MCdermott's article in American falconry?

[rocgwp]

I ordered the issue and it came in yesterday. The comments he made about tame hacking is what really intrigued me. What you are doing is more what I had in mind.

[BestBeagler]

Can you explain a little of the details of tame hacking? I've never seen it done nor I have I seen any details on how to do it. Particularly the recall at the end of the day...

By the way...that is a good loking Female Coops you have James...

Barry, has described how he does tame hacking somewhere on here. I am not the guy to ask really as I have never hacked one before. Maybe someone on here can attatch a link to Barry's post regarding tame hack. James does have a nice coopers and I am envious of its size. Isaac

[jfneumann57]

I'm just waiting for her to get steadier on her feet.
And thanks for the compliments on my bird.

[KidK]

I ordered the issue and it came in yesterday. The comments he made about tame hacking is what really intrigued me. What you are doing is more what I had in mind.

Jeff,

What volume was this AF mag?

[jfneumann57]

it's volume 43

[jfneumann57]

Jeff I was just wondering how many eyas' were in the nest?

[musketdaft]

Isaac tame hack is basically taking your hawk out to the field at top weight just as its starting to fly, let it go about its pleasure until its time to call it in and then bring it down to the falconer this happens every day until the falconer thinks it’s the right time to start weight reduction.
My gos at tame hack. Alf

[URL=http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/nn222/goshawk4/?action=view&current=CH089_0411_1732.flv][IMG]

Barry, has described how he does tame hacking somewhere on here. I am not the guy to ask really as I have never hacked one before. Maybe someone on here can attatch a link to Barry's post regarding tame hack. James does have a nice coopers and I am envious of its size. Isaac

[rocgwp]

11 days...209 grams...I'm still thinking it's a male so far...He's trying to stand more...I haven't seen anything phase him yet...Today he went with me all over camp as I inspected challenge course training. He was in a lot of different settings with a lot of different people...I can't wait to start flying him!!!

[FredFogg]

Jeff, I would say male too! I have a really small female, flys at 375 g, but her fat weight is around 510 g. A friend pulled a male from the same nest and its fat weight was 350 g. I will try and look at my records and see what she weighed at 11 days (Is this 11 days since you pulled him or is it 11 days that you are guessing is his age?). It is all fun and games with a coops until you start reducing the weight, then you have to get real serious. But they are a blast, not sure I can go without having one.

[Bodarc]

Jeff

I'm going to make a prediction. We'll see how close I am soon. I think your birds top weight will be between 315 and 320 grams. We'll know in a couple of weeks.

[goshawks00]

He's so cute ... but beneath that fuzzy exterior is 'the devil with the blue on'.

Barry

[Saluqi]

11 days...209 grams...I'm still thinking it's a male so far...He's trying to stand more...I haven't seen anything phase him yet...Today he went with me all over camp as I inspected challenge course training. He was in a lot of different settings with a lot of different people...I can't wait to start flying him!!!

Nice looking Coops Jeff! I'm envious, sure wish I had an eyass to raise this summer. Nothing will phase an imprint until they are well feathered out, when they are downies the only really big no-no is picking them up. Picking them up without a nest bowl will traumatize them, but other than that they have no fear until they have grown all their feathers. That's the critical period in handling them, because by then you have grown pretty confident that nothing will phase your bird and then that fateful day arrives and something freaks them out. Something that never had any effect before will suddenly cause a meltdown. Always be prepared for it...