Meet Bullet

[frootdog]

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.

[rocgwp]

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.

[rocgwp]

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...

[wesleyc6]

Where's the pic?????

[rocgwp]

Sorry...I've been to busy killing things to take pictures ...I'll take some tomorrow

[wesleyc6]

Sorry...I've been to busy killing things to take pictures ...I'll take some tomorrow

Oh yeah.............................well mine almost caught a butterfly

[rocgwp]

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.

[wesleyc6]

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.

]

You da man!

[rocgwp]

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...

[wesleyc6]

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.

[rocgwp]

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...

[Takasho]

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uey_QOc8hVo

[FredFogg]

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...

Jeff,

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

[goshawks00]

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
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

[wesleyc6]

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
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!

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.

[goshawks00]

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

[wesleyc6]

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.

[John]

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.

[rocgwp]

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...

[Takasho]

Congrats on getting mall permission! 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!!

[rocgwp]

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd give an update. Bullet is cruising right along. He has exceeded 30 kills now and we could be well over 50 if I wanted to. Because of the heat (90's by 8am) and high humidity I am calling it quits after we catch one or two most days. I am flying only mornings right now because of my dog training schedule. He is flying at 275 grams. He is still dog tame and easy to handle. No carrying and he seems to be quieting down some (not that he was really loud to start with). I'm going out west this next week. It blows my mind how I can drive 7 hours due west and still be in Texas. I am hoping to get some field hawking in. I'm addicted to copper's hawking...

[Bodarc]

I'm addicted to copper's hawking...

Jeff

What is it about those stand-offish, independent, neurotic birds that makes them so addictive. You either love them or hate them, there's no in between.

[Lee Slikkers]

I won't speak for Jeff, but this is a new adventure for me and once you experience the flush of the sparrows in the field and feel (see the coops blurring past you) the push off the glove you'll be hooked...it's quite the rush!

[rocgwp]

Jeff

What is it about those stand-offish, independent, neurotic birds that makes them so addictive. You either love them or hate them, there's no in between.

For me it's been the fact that Bullet is not stand-offish, independent, nor neurotic. He has been easier to fly than my harris. Once you experience their speed and you watch them chase a sparrow twisting and turning for 50 yards and then fold like a missle and chase it into cover and finally catch it in the air after the bird reflushed, you become addicted.

[Lee Slikkers]

Jeff, how about an update on Bullet...just curious how things are still going with him.
Thanks

[rocgwp]

Bullet is still doing great. I am having a lot of fun flying him. He is catching multiples almost daily.

I'm flyin him at 277 grams, but it's time to take him down some more. I had some behavior issues today, which I expected. He has been cooped up the past 3 days because of Hurricane Gustav. He caught a sparrow this morning wanted to eat my shoe after the trade off (a fat hawk). I knew it was coming, but couldn't resist flying since I had a break in the weather. Each time I have started to see an inkling of behavior problems I have dropped his weight and things have ceased. He has been very easy to handle. The only time issues show up is when I fly him fat. I have been nervous about getting him too low, so I have held him at 277 for too long. I talked to McDermott tonight and realized that I still have a ways to go in weight reduction before I get to his true hunting weight this year. He is still losing between .4 and .5 grams an hour over night. McDermott sugessted that he be losing between .2 an .3 grams an hour. McDermott has an Eastern bird that topped out over 400 grams and will fly close to 275-280 grams. My little guy topped out at 330 grams so I am expecting to end up in the 250-260 range. I will be dropping him in slow increments though like I have been. I will drop him a couple grams and fly him there until I see an issue, then drop him a couple more.

Flying Bullet has made me a better falconer...and I haven't had this much fun in falconry ever...

[Lee Slikkers]

Jeff, thanks for the very details reply. I have been having some of the issue you spoke of as well with Genghis. He topped out at around 335 and I have been hunting him prett steadily at the 292g mark but I've noticed his behaviour rapidly deteriorating as of late. Sounds like I need to slowly drop him a bit...something I haven't really done since we started hunting. He has killed every day out so that has probably really clouded my reaction as to his weight.

Anyway, thanks for the info on Bullet and your thread, its been fun to follow. Flying Genghis has also taught me more than I care to admit, grin, but it's been well worth every bit of effort...these flights are to die for!

[Takasho]

Any updates on this bird??

[wesleyc6]

Jeff probably has hurt his back carrying all of Bullet's game home

[rocgwp]

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been really busy flying Bullet and training dogs.

Bullet has been a dream bird thus far. His hunting weight has leveled off at 260-274 grams. As long as he is in that range I can expect Harris Hawk like behaviour (nice, easy going, and easy to handle). I can fly him above 275 grams, but then the handling gets technical because he wants to be possessive and hop around with the kill. Bullet has only carried twice since I've been flying him and both of those times his weight was above 275 grams. In other words, as long as I don't fly him fat I can expect a great day. If I fly him fat, then I am asking for trouble. He is still feather perfect with his orginal tail. I am waiting for the day I'll have to imp, but it hasn't happened yet.

I have changed my trade off technique and I really like how it has worked out. Bullet always waits for me to get to him before he begins eating. I have begun showing him the lure as I approach and he drags his kill to the lure where he then eats off the lure as I put the catch in the bag. This has been really handy when he catches in heavy bushes or under a car. He pops out of the bush or from under the car looking for his reward. I was worried about losing game at first, but so far (30+ head of game) I haven't lost any due to this technique.

Most of the hawking we have been doing is urban hawking on private land. A lot of the slips are from the truck, but we also beat hedges for english sparrows. I've been running dogs in the fields and there are still no slips yet. The other guys tell me the birds will arrive in the fields about October or November. At that point I'll transition to field hawking and quail hawking over my pointing dogs.

I have some great picks of Bullet, but the photobucket option isn't showing up below. When I figure out how to post pics again I'll add them on...

[Eagle Owl]

I have some great picks of Bullet, but the photobucket option isn't showing up below. When I figure out how to post pics again I'll add them on...

Here ya go, Jeff. Look at #3 and the picture. http://www.nafex.net/showthread.php?t=1407

[rocgwp]

Bullet Chasing Under Car


Bullet taking #50


Bullet and Big Male Depredating Grackle


Bullet's Sneak Attack


Bullet and Starling


Bullet and the Final Approach


Bullet Taking a Depredating Grackle

[Takasho]

Awesome pics! Thanks Jeff!

[Bryant Tarr]

Very cool! Nice shots

[Hawkingcolorado]

Killer(literally) shots!!!