Scary stuff. Until about mid-September that first season both of my imprint gosses got squirrely around dusk, especially my tiercel. He would go nuts trying to find a place to roost. Natural owl avoidance instinct I'd guess.
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Scary stuff. Until about mid-September that first season both of my imprint gosses got squirrely around dusk, especially my tiercel. He would go nuts trying to find a place to roost. Natural owl avoidance instinct I'd guess.
Glad he is home safe. Something tells me he is about to spill some grackle blood anytime now.clappQuote:
Originally Posted by rocgwp
Spending the night out is not good...glad you recovered him...
More weight reduction and some flashlight recovery training are needful. ASAP.
Barry
47 days and 313 grams...
Bullet has come close to connecting, but not yet...I am taking his weight down and I have a feeling he will connect this weekend...
Here are some pictures I finally got downloaded from my camera...
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...p/IMG_6636.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...p/IMG_6629.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...p/IMG_6694.jpg
48 days...311 grams...First Kill...
I met a buddy at Wal-mart early this morning. Bullet refused several slips and didn't seem interested. As the sun came up however, the killer came out. We spotted some grackles feeding in front of us on a grass island. I pulled up and he launched out the window. I didn't think he had a chance because the birds saw him coming, but I was wrong. He scooped up a grackle and I helped him dispatch it quickly. He never really mantled and was really easy going on the kill. I leashed him up, let him get a good feeding and took some pictures. We are on are way!!!
I'll have to post pictues later...I can't do it from my phone...
Great news!!!!!!!
Awesome! Congrats! Sounds like he is doing perfectly.
Wooohoooclappclappclapp
Congrats Jeff! You will be filling up the freezer with this guy! I can assure you of that! clappclappclapp
That's great Jeff. It sounds like you have a fantastic little bird on your hands.
thumbsupp
Way to go! It's only going to get better now :) clapp
It's later. Where are the pics?
Congrats! The start of a great thread.clapp
306 grams...Kill #2
Bullet was more vocal this morning as he was hungrier. Slips were tougher as it was light rain this morning. He missed a couple slips on grackles and had an awesome flight on a sparrow. The sparrow bailed into a hedge and he looked like a missle as he disappeared after it. The bush exploded with sparrows going everywhere. He finally connected on a sparrow feeding near Target. He was hungrier than usual, but he only mantled for a couple of seconds. He was his same old sweet self. This is fun!
Just curious, but where are you keeping him? Is he still in the house? Really sounds like his transition to hunting bird is very smooth so far.
He is perched out in my yard if I'm at home or he stays on a pole perch in my office. In the evening he goes into the big box in my living room...
50 days...308 grams...
No kill today...I got a late start this morning. Bullet missed several slips on grackles and sparrows were hard to find this morning. He is hesitating a lot on grackles right now and they are seeing him leave the truck. I am going to drop his weight a little more. I think the main thing he needs is confidence. He is putting a lot of effort into sparrow chases, but not in to grackles. We'll be back at it again in the morning...
Here are pics of his first 2 kills...
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...wp/48days5.jpg
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...wp/49days3.jpg
He sure has made a nice looking bird Jeff! If you get a sec, I would love to see a few nice pics on the glove.
Any news on your dog?
Jeff,Quote:
Originally Posted by rocgwp
If I might suggest and I am by far no expert, but I would give Bullet really easy slips on the grackles to build his confidence. Try and only slip him on the ones where he is literally dropping out of the car onto them. You can slip on harder ones later on as he builds confidence. And surprisingly, you wouldn't believe how many easy slips like that you will find driving through subdivisions. If you can find an older subdivision with Leyland Cypress trees as the seperator between houses and the subdivision, you will find lots of grackles, they love to nest in them. I totally avoid sparrows now, just to easy to carry and about the only place I find them is in parking lots and talk about dulling their talons fast. That was pretty much all I hunted the first year and I wish I hadn't. Love reading this thread and the pictures.
Meant to add, you have done a great job with him, I love the way he is standing tall when he is eating on the kill. No mantling, that is a result of the great work you have done!
303 grams...Kill #3
I've been out of pocket for a couple of days with things at camp. I miscaculated his food one morning and his weight climbed up enough for him to refuse grackle slips. He was 303 this morning and he killed the first grackle I slipped him on. He mantled for just a second as the other grackles hovered above. Once i made in and helped him kill it, he settled down and ate as normal. I am camping tonight and am hoping to find some field hawking slips in the morning. Field hawking is tough right now. We don't have alot of birds in the fields.
A note for others imprinting right now. The other day I had a bunch of meetings. I put Bullet in his mew for the first time during the day. When I picked him up that afternoon he was VERY noisy. I have kept him with me since and he has quited back down except for the normal vocalizations. If you are tempted to put your bird alone in a mew be careful, he may get vocal on you. I can now see the importance of keeping the bird with you indoors.
Jeff right now the easiest slip for your bird is by far female grackles. Males would be easier in not for the size difference. Starlings are excellent at avoiding coops. They are very good fliers and very difficult for a just starting coop to catch. I would stick with female grackles. Doves are a whole nother ballgame. Sparrows are fun flights. Mocking birds are VERY slow and VERY easy to catch....from what I've heard. Stay away from any kind of dove slips right now. If you have no luck in the field carhawking keeps the confidence up.
As far as feeding on a kill. I let my bird pluck them (at the stage you are at) but never break in. The plucking extends the time they spend getting rewarded. I go out with the amount of food needed to feed her and have her ready to fly the next day. Let your bird pluck and as soon as he starts to break in than set the cut up food to the side and let him eat that instead and you can fly the next day.
Thanks for the advice Krys. That is ingenious and will really help me in getting him to weight the next day. It will also help me progress towards multiples once he is confident. It's for advice like this that I started this thread.
Bullet was 298 grams this morning. There were no birds in the fields (except for cattle egrets), so I fed him up before we came home. I will continue to carhawk him to build confidence.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while...Bullet is still doing great...He is killing daily now and still no major behavior changes...I have been flying him at ~300 grams. I may tweak him done a little bit, but he is building confidence. He's a really fun bird to fly...
Where's the pic?????boxingg
Sorry...I've been to busy killing things to take pictures toungeout...I'll take some tomorrow
Quote:
Originally Posted by rocgwp
Oh yeah.............................well mine almost caught a butterflybox2
Bullet is still doing AWESOME! I have been flying him 5 days a week since I promised my wife I'd take the weekend off. Today he took his first double. At the end of last week I noticed he seemed a little heavy even though it was the same weight he had been catching at. There were also the very early signs of possession. I took his weight down this morning and traded him off the first grackle with no problems. He caught a starling later and I traded him for his daily rations. He was his normal sweet self. Bullet has now taken 1 sparrow, 8 grackles, and 1 starling.
I didn't have the camera today...but I plan on taking his weight down a couple more grams. He gave me a scare today as he went after a crow and could have taken if he'd really wanted it. He got right up on it and decided he didn't want any part of a bird that big, yet.
]Quote:
Originally Posted by rocgwp
You da man!
Had a flight today that I thought I'd post...
We were in a parking lot this morning and spotted some grackles on a sidewalk under the awning of a strip mall. I pulled into position and Bullet launched himself at them. The grackle panicked. It got off the ground but had no where to go because of the building. It banked and barely missed Bullet's talons. The grackle was franticly looking for cover and the only thing in its sights was my truck. I was watching the grackle fly directly at my face with a coops quickly closing the distance. At the last possible second, the grackle spotted me in the driver's seat and clipped his wing on the edge of the windshield as he manuevered over the truck. Bullet pulled up as to not slam the truck and the grackle narrowly escaped. It was an AWESOME flight.
He ended the morning with a sparrow kill on a good flight.
297 grams...11 kills...I hope to fly him at the 290-295 range next week. His confidence is growing and he is still easier than my harris was to fly. I'm picking up some quail this weekend. I use a recall pen and anchor them in area for dog training. Bullet will be getting some practice on taking quail over a point pretty soon. They are definitely slower than wild quail, but these preerve type birds will suffice until the weather cools and the snakes start to hide.
Question? Has anyone regularly hunted woodcock with a coops over a pointing dog? I have woodcock that winter in my area and there are not many people that hunt woodcock in Texas. I hope to try it, but would welcome any tips...
Cool flight!
I caught a woodcock off a point with a RT once. Not much help, but I think a coop could do it well.
Bullet took another double this morning. The first one was an easy catch right out the window. The second flight was one I won't soon forget.
Bullet launched after a bird about 15 yards from the truck on a grassy area in big open parking lot. The bird flattened out as he went to bind and he barely missed. The bird was up in an instant with Bullet closing right behind. The bird was paniced and looking for cover, but there was none to be found. Last week Bullet flew a couple of birds directly back at the truck that were searchig for a place to hide and they pulled off at the last second...not this one. She came through the window (with me sitting in the driver seat buckled up) and hit the steering wheel. Bullet was right behind her and scooped her up in my lap. Now you can imagine this picture. I am sitting in my truck with a towel on my lap while a coops is fighting to gain control of this bird. I dispatched the kill and then traded Bullet off to the passenger seat so I could move. It was #13...go figure...
rockon Too cool! I hear of those types of flights surprisingly often when people are carhawking. I guess the sparrows are looking for any kind of cover they can, even if it's IN a car!
I had a similar thing happen to me field hawking once. My Harris caught a sparrow literally ON my feet! Here's the video, although you can't really see what happens since I was trying to get out of the way! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uey_QOc8hVo
Jeff,Quote:
Originally Posted by rocgwp
That is so funny! I have had the same thing happen with my female coops, except the sparrow flew in the window and then up under my dash. My coops was right on its tail and was footing up under the dash and finally pulled it out. When something like that happens, you think no one will ever believe you. But I guess with falconers, we know anything can and will happen! LOL
Several years ago just after 9/11, I was flying my sharpie Prozac near the small airport near Ann Arbor. On the far end of th airport were several rows of private hangers as this is a favorite airport for the Drs. of U of M.
Anyway 'Zac makes a classic slip on a group of starlings singles one out and proceeds to dog fight it over a couple of rows of hangers and disappears. Out comes the telemetry and I go hunting for him, finally tracking him down inside one of the hangers..,.
I see no one around so I quickly go into the hanger and track him down ...He's went in the open door of a small single engine Cennesa:eek:
Again looking for someone to help me and seeing no one inside I climb up the steps that were drawn next to the plane. Just as I'm getting ready to go in I hear HEY!!!
Turning around I come face to face with a guy carrying a huge pipe. I proceed to tell him what's going on...to which he doesn't believe me, as he stared at the electronic device I was about to "plant" in his plane. Evenetually I have him look in his plane and he is "attacked" by 'Zac as he made a bluff move because the guy was so close to him...
Falling out of the plane the guy tells me to get that G.D. bird out of his plane, which I did promptly. I offered to clean his plane and he was now settling down and said not to worry about it... Eventually after a bit of conversation, I left, we had got to know each other a little and he even went hawking with me a bit later in the season when I started flying the goshawks.
Barry
That is so funny Barry!Quote:
Originally Posted by goshawks00
I crawled into the city "roll off" landfill this week to get my gos. I just KNEW someone was going to stop me, but they didn't.
Crawled in the back of a huge grain box on a farm truck half full with treated winter wheat seed ...
You couldn't stand in it and had to belly crawl across it to get to the sharpie --Tick, who was busy plucking the sparrow she just hauled down.
This was mid summer and my hands were full of the ever present cuts scratches and punctures that accompany flying small hawks....
That treated seed just stuck and burned and burned the open wounds and I half expected Tic to be dead in the morning from the inevitable intake she consumed before I got to her.
I scooped her up and just tossed her over the side, when I finally got back out of the truck there she was next to the grain box wheels just finishing her meal as one of the farm tomcats sat crouched 6 foot away.
Barry
I caught a pigeon in a barn once and my bird landed in a fertilizer pile and I was terrified trying to get to him.
The gos has scared me bad twice. Once he went over a fence after a bird and I could here him calling softly. I looked through the knothole and there he was on the ground with 3 dogs around him sniffing him. I fished him out with the lure. The other time he just landed right next to a big dog and that scared me too.
When I was training an eyas coops in a field near a school, the bag quail turned and flew back behind me about 200 yards and over the school where the coops caught up and snagged it on the roof. I had to go in and find a teacher and explain what happened. They let me go through the girl's bathroom and out the window where I found the coops nearly cropped up and the quail about half gone.
Another time I was flying a peregrine on a farm near a pond. The falcon decided to chase some pigeons to the farm's old silo. I saw her sit on top of the silo, ignoring me and the lure, looking down and watching all the pigeons flying around in there. Finally she decided to go right in after them. The ladder on the outside of the barn was old and rusty and not safe. The door on the inside had been drywalled over years ago by the owner's father as part of a bathroom wall. After several hours I was sure she couldn't or wouldn't fly out the top, the guy was nice enough to cut a hole in the drywall so I could crawl in. Sure enough, there was the peregrine with a partial crop and a dead pigeon. I'm surprised we both didn't get sick with the cloud of crap from all the pigeon crap floating around in there.
Another crazy flight today...luckily I had a buddy to bail me out...#15
Bullet weighed 288 grams and was serious about killing anything and everything today. He took a slip on a big male grackle near the mall. He usually pulls off the males, but not this time. He flew the grackle towards the mall and in an effort to avoid death, the grackle tried to climb vertically. That was a big mistake. As the grackle got even with the edge of the roof, Bullet snatched him up and his momentum carried him over the edge onto the roof and out of sight. I could hear the fight and Bullet was getting mobbed as well.
I ran to find a security guard (this is at 6:45am). I talked to them and they wouldn't give me roof access. I figured I'd wait a little while, let Bullet eat and then call him down to the lure. I waited an hour. I knew he was still there bescause of the mockingbirds going nuts still. I was getting really worried, so I called a friend and fellow falconer. He showed up at ~8am with a ladder. We backed my truck up to the edge of the mall, set the ladder in the back, and I climbed up to the top step which was still a considerable distance from the top of the roof. I was able to grab the edge of the roof and shimmy over. As soon as Bullet saw me, I got the "Where have you been...I've been waiting for over an hour look". He was standing on the grackle plucked clean except for the head and the tail. He hadn't broke in and ate the bird as I fully expected. I traded him off and then sent him down to the ground to eat his rations. I then shimmyed over back to the ladder and down. The mall manager showed up shortly thereafter and I fully expected to get the "talk" I deserved. By the time the conversation was over, I now have permission to hawk at the mall and his phone number to get roof access if I need it.
What a week...
Congrats on getting mall permission! :D Our birds can certainly put us in some *ahem* "delicate" situations!
The first time I removed the creance from a Harris I was training in Japan a burst of wind caught the bird just as he took off. He disappeared from sight (not difficult in highly urbanized Japan!) and after a bit of searching I found him on top of a train storage building in the middle of a busy train station! He wasn't paying attention to me whistling from outside the gate but all the noise I made got someone from the neighborhood to let me in the back. Being a foreigner I stood out like a sore thumb just being in the restricted area of a busy train station and waving a bloddy piece of meat around didn't help! Still not wanting to come down a couple of station employees finally rounded up a ladder and I had to crawl out on to the roof to get the stubborn bird with all the train station customers looking on. I honestly thought there would be a news crew to document the crazy foreigner and his loony bird when I got back down but luckily I made my escape before one arrived.
A couple of falconer buddies had heard what had happened and when I left the train station they were waiting for me. I asked why they hadn't come in to help and they said, "We weren't going to associate ourselves with the crazy foreigner!" Some friends!!