Spotlighting...

[primos]

just some pix from a few pigeon roundups..
ejhttp://img170.imageshack.us/img170/4720/img0692uf0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/638/img0691iq1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/img0691iq1.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img407/img0691iq1.jpg/1/)
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/img0692uf0.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img170/img0692uf0.jpg/1/)

[primos]

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/3947/img0748wy1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/img0748wy1.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img107/img0748wy1.jpg/1/)

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2161/img0736sr9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/img0736sr9.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img131/img0736sr9.jpg/1/)

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9093/img0741qs1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/img0741qs1.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img413/img0741qs1.jpg/1/)

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/3551/img0746ic3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/img0746ic3.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img107/img0746ic3.jpg/1/)

[Chris L.]

great night hawking spot. i wish i could find a barn like that

how many did you get that night

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[primos]

Chris,
i have a few barns, indoor riding rings, and turn-out sheds where you can find pigeons, starlings, and some sparrows...if you're looking to try it, when you're out driving around look for pigeons sitting on a wire or flying around and they have to be roosting somewhere near there....most of them in and around the city are under the overpasses which are really unhawkable on account of all the ambient light and well oncoming traffic :D

only took a couple times to get her going...she's great about trading off so if anyone wants any live pigeons let me know...

ej

i'd be curious if anyone else in the states is doing this

[borderhawk]

I know people that have done it in multilevel parking structures at malls. They have to get permision from the property management to do it though, but that's usually not a problem because the pigeons are pooping on customers cars.... since they're "city" pigeons they only feed the breast to the birds and throw away the rest.

[primos]

yeah i haven't got turned down yet either....not for pigeons anyway...neatest flight so far was a 30+ vertical flight up the inside of a silo and then right back down again w/ a pigeon....

[Ken S.]

i'd be curious if anyone else in the states is doing this

I've done it a handful of times with different hawks when it's raining, windy, or night time after work etc. or just to start a new hawk to see how they act in a somewhat controlled environment. I've done it with a passage female coop(she made it look easy), male HH, female HH, female gos. I've only flown in barns though, never tried the over passes or parking garages. Usually after a few nights in the same barn the pigeons find other places to go... I need to find more barns if I want to keep doing it.

I'm impressed with the silo... there isn't much room for a hawk to fly up in there so they have to be able to go straight up. My friend's farm has an old silo with pigeons at the top and I've climbed the ladder inside to catch pigeons for hawk trapping before but got crap all over me inside there and the air quality inside it was nasty.

I like the headlamp... that's a good idea.

[primos]

haven't had that much experience yet just this season and last w/ the gos...learning curve is pretty good right off the bat, opted for the headlamp since it doesn't produce a lot of light but just enough so she can sneak up closer on them...too much light and it get's a little more interesting but then again we're just trying to rack up some hawk food or stock up the coop.....

would like to try this w/ a hen coop though....have a lot of starling and sparrow places too....
ej

[Ken S.]

The coops I had was good at it but she scared me by flying around so fast in there with all the obstacles so I didn't fly her inside much. I flew her outside at night a handful of times at birds roosting in the pine trees around my house and that was a lot of fun but didn't have much success with that. I probably should have flown her for another season... she was a neat bird.

All this talk has me excited to go catch a few... I'll have to go check the barn this evening. My buddy's barn is perfect for flying in because it's got only a few large support beams and no rafters... but it only has pigeons in it occassionally. I've only taken 4 out of it this year but they learn pretty quickly and I have to let it rest. There's a big group of pigeons in town every day on top of the buildings but I haven't been able to figure out where they go at night yet.