Books and Photographs

Two books arrived today "The Red Tail Hawk" by Liam J. McGranaghan and the "A Falconry Manual" by Frank Beebe.

The Redtail hawk is the 4th Edition printed and 2007 and initial observations are that it is pretty comprehensive, lots of pictures and illustrations backed up with some detailed text. This book is also hard cover which i wasn't expecting as early versions had been soft cover.

A falconry manual on initial look seems to be a very cut down version of some of Franks other published works reprinted in 1999 so not to old .

Either way i have some good reading ahead of me. I also need some suggestions on what books next to read. so any ideas would be great fully welcome !

A friend of mine is a pilot and has an aerial photography business that he like me works at the casino to make ends meet. He is very encouraging when it comes to the projects i set myself up for. I have told him all about the falconry and where i want to hunt. Well today he came in with some pictures of two area's i had discussed with him. There are two spots on the south side of Lake Texoma that are public land. From google it seems very over grown but from these aerial photos it looks like idea territory for a Red-Tail Hawk. The ground seems to be a mixture of Hardwoods and Softwood tree's with open spaces between. I am reckoning on squirrels at the very least. Ill have to check it out over the next few weeks to see whats there and whats worth going after.

I was down in Paris on Monday so stopped by Dadant to save some shipping money got some medium supers and a few other bits. Today i made three of the mediums up and the frames, now to paint them. Cant wait to use them this year. Last year i didn't take any honey from the bee's I wanted them to ahve it all for the first year to give them the best chance. So far Ice Storm permitting that will have worked a treat

I will say this Dadant have changed the bottom bar opn there frames to 1/2 inch compared to previous years. I didnt get a metal strip like you normally do but thats ok because im going to get a 9 frame spacer anyway. 9 frames in honey supers normally yield more honey. This year i want to get some honey i have so many people wanting to buy it. The response has kind of shocked me because it was somthing i was not expecting in the least.

The Day Off

Schedules and time have gone out the window at the moment. We are doing pointless training on a product i have helped developed. It's pointless because everything we are talking about has been released for a couple of months now. I don't normally talk about work but its not really the work i want to be doing for 20 years i have been trying to get out of IT and work with my Passion Photography, For now it suits me (especially with the economy ) to stay with IT for a bit long.

I have done Photography as a profession now its something i do on the side, I love it , IT bores me i loath it when it starts to interfere in my personal and family life. for now im running around the state teaching people how to use a website we have developed.

So it's meant giving up a sunday for the next few weeks and replacing them with a day off durring the week. It sucks i hate it !

Well we have Ice Storms here so ther was no going out so i spent the day making Bee Boxs and hanging out with my daughter Katie. I've noticed a number of birds moving into my back yard. I used to know british birds and having to identify American ones is a whole new experiance

Today apart from the normal song birds we had a visit from a flock of Meadowlarks. I love the camouflage on the top side of the bird compared to the bright yellow on the underside. Anyway might thoughts where i wonder if i will see so many when my mews and weathering area are biult.

Bird Strikes

Due to events that have happened in New york has now opened door ways for many Falconer's in the USA. IT would seem that LaGuardia Airport was the only airport in New York that doesn't employ Falconers to Fly birds on there airfields to scare birds away.

Time Online Blomberg

Falconry in North American Airports

Halifax Airport Falconry Award

JFK Bird Hazard Prevention

Well the upside is i contact my local airport which is a community airport and has a number of private jets. I was expecting a flat NO to the idea of flying a hawk on the airfield. However i got the opposite response and they administrators would like to meet. This adds a hugh area to hunt and opens other avenues for me for when i get my Hawk.

New Year , New Season, New Bee's

Well it's time to think about more hives and more bee's so i duly placed my order for 2 x 3# packages. I'm very happy with my bee's that i got from this place last year. The NUC's where a disaster and i wont be doing that again in a hurry.

The Bee packages are more expensive this year. $85 for 3# and $75 for 2#. Last year the prices where $10 less but i feel for what i got last year i will be very happy with the results. I plan to buy at least 2 new packages every year and spit what i already have at least once building up my number of hives. I have had a few offers of people willing for me to locate the hives on their property so far i could keep up to 30 hives 8-10 hives per location.

I drove passed 4 bee yards in Hugo during the week there must have been at least 200 hives in each yard. Someone has got a very good bee yard operation down there. I would love to have an operation like that one day.

New Glove

I was in Academy last week and spotted some welder gloves for 7$ so duly bought some. Having spoken with my sponsor i put a D-Ring just below the the thumb. There is a re-enforced section so i cut a small slit and glued some leather with the D-Ring and then double stitched it . My step daughter then tried pulling it apart. It survived the Sara test so should be good to go !