And all things come to an End

The last year has been a transitions to where we currently are at. i took Zander my Harris' Hawk down to Texas to be flown by a friend a little over a year ago. time commitments had basically meant i was flying him less than i was comfortable with him and being a foster parent meant that i wanted to help a number of children in our care more.

One of the things we have been looking at is retirement and what i plan was going to be. As i looked into more and more into it the journey we are about to take involved little if any falconry. Over the next 5 years the plan is to buy a boat and start getting ready for sailing around the world. Slowly i am selling all my falconry books and equipment. The mews went to a rehaber in Tulsa a few weeks ago and gloves and books and transmitters have been bought by local Oklahoma falconers.

So with that i would like to say thank you to those that helped me sorry to those i pissed off , i had fun but now is the time to move onto another great and amazing adventure

you can read about what we get up to over at https://redneckredcoat.com/

Time and Season for all things

3 Weeks a go my English pointer Bella was being her daft self, her excited happy self. she does this crazy dance when she gets over excited and spins round and round. She was muscular toned and wishing hunting season was here already. We had plans to go on vacation with her, scooping out new hunting locations for her and the hawk. even a new collar was being purchased as one of the foster kids had broken the last one

A lot can changes in 3 weeks.

2 weeks ago i noticed she had suddenly lost a lot of weight. I initially thought, we have seen this before with worms, i'll de worm her and feed her up on some rice and chicken and we will be good to go. week later still no improvement so i took her to the vet. The usual test where ran and some xrays taken. two areas of concern, maybe pneumonia and she was loaded with Hook and Roundworms, but on the safe side, antibiotics. another round of deworming and send the xrays to a radiologist. Radiologist suggested some ultrasonic scans of the areas of concern but to not rule out cancer but it was probably pneumonia and worms. I noticed she was limping on her left back leg and was still not eating right. I arranged to take her back to the vet yesterday to do the ultrasonic's.  A mass had formed in her abdomen about the size of softball which was not even notable to touch from the previous Friday it was interfering with her hips causing her pain and hence the limp. Vet was pretty confident it was cancer and the shading in her lung was probably secondary cancer, because of her weight, she wouldn't have survived the surgery. I took the decision to stop her suffering.

Amazing how in 4 short years she had grown from a  puppy to an adult dog that was a joy to be around. Goofy as heck.  I think i'm done with pointers, for a while at least.

and the season draws to an end

Been an interesting season, finding time to fly two birds, two jobs and the attention of 6 kids and the hunny do list as ever makes the winter a busy time.

Both Birds did well all things considering both caught game and caught game well. Mews is being extended , garden is being planted, pool is being cleaned, Telemetry is being serviced and repaired, Vacation is booked, plans are being made for next season and so the molt has started......One thing i can say about my life is its never dull and always busy .

Comparison's

I pulled Jez from the Mews yesterday. he weighed 680 grams.

Amazing how much he has changed in a year.

Here is a  side by side comparison taken by my wife.

Old and New

I had 2 transmitters lying around doing nothing. Both were the FMV 1/3N Transmitter nice transmitter but since moving over to Marshall Scouts i have not had the use for them. I also prefer the screw caps to secure the batteries.

With having the Kestrel these where way to big a friend lent me what i thought was a FMV mini but it turns out to be a MX Mini 377 which is even smaller. He needs it back to fly a merlin so i went on the hunt for a new transmitter and in the price range i could afford (which was about $100). the MX Mini 377 was out as that is around $170. with just moving house money is tight.

I first tried the FMV mini , this might be ok for the merlin’s or coopers but no good for a kestrel.

The specs for the mini are good and if i was flying something bigger i think i would come back and look at a mini again, the price isnt to bad either at $104 dollars but whilst it is light 4grams with battery it is has a large form factor.

So the other option was an LL electronics Merlin Special. They have two options available but i went with the great range and lighter weight 14 miles and 3 grams with battery. the price was $129 which was right at the limit of what i wanted to spend.

 

So once it arrived i dully tested it and made sure it worked. I plan to use it on a neck mount which from what i have read from other falconers shouldn’t be an issue.

 

AK Training

She’s flying to the fist quite happily but that’s all she wants to do. So from today we are not flying to the fist she either has to fly to game or a lure, she has started to fly to a lure (10 feet) but doesn’t really chase it, she will pounce on it if it’s like a foot away. The same goes for a sparrow. she won’t chase it but will pounce if its right at her feet. I let her have an English sparrow and make in. I don’t think she has ever caught a sparrow so right now it is getting her weight dialed in just right and presenting lots of sparrows for her. right now she is a 96.6 so i have reduced the one gram decreasing to 1/2 gram decreases.



 

AK well feed on sparrow.

(incedently i wouldnt normally let her crop up on this as there is a risk of sour crop but to get her switched onto sparrows i let her eat what she wanted)

 

My wife has been doing some amazing photography during training.

 

 

 

 

Harris Training

 

I'm in no hurry to get started and want to bring his weight down more slowly. currently he is at 700grams , im aiming for 640grams. We should be there by the end of the month . i want to try and solve the screaming that he was prown to last season in the mews (but not in the field)

The season is slowly starting

We moved house and we are still unpacking, i'm racing against time to get all the hunny do list completed. Jez is weight is starting to come down.

A short while ago i took on an imprint kestrel. some family had taken it in, they panicked when they found out it had to be licensed and tried to get rid of it, it flew back..... being an imprint that's really no suprise but they didn't know that.

 

The idea being to get her flying and hunting and then release her. Apart from the imprint screaming i'm pretty pleased with her progress. Almost got her ready for Lure flying and then onto catch some sparrows and starlings. So far she is at 101.6 grams ( was 110grams) when i got her.

 

I have finally had some success at sparrow trapping thanks to another friends pointers on funnel traps. I've been using elevator and V traps with little success , so i turned the V trap on its side, instered a funnel and closed the rest of the opening and success.

 



Changes

Lots of changes going on not just with hawk but with the hunter too.The molt is progresing painfully slow , dog training has started in ernest. Pigeons have been breeding like crazy. 4 months left  to get ready for the season and we start again. New goals, new objectives.