New Falconry Block Perch

A friend of mine has started making Block Perches for falconry. Mine arrived yesterday. Its made out of Red Oak and comes with  spike. You can check his Page out at Dirthawking Wood Blocks All Blocks are hand made to your specification.

I am really pleased with it and love the colour and the way the grain pops out .

Prepping for Turkey Season

Turkey Season is just 6 days away. For a whole month in the surrounding counties we get to take one tom per county to a total limit of 3 toms. With that i have been buying up Turkey Calls and Camo as well as practicing shooting my shot gun from 40 and 50 yards.

 

I have been using the Primos tight wad Turkey Choke but it still seems to spread the pattern at the 40 - 50 yard mark. The Havi-Shot seem to do this even even more than some other rounds i tried. I've also been practicing my calls with a Box Call and a Slate Call.

End of Falconry Season

Season ended abruptly with Daisy contracting Asper. We where selling the house in south Oklahoma and i had to take her with me to finish some repairs on the house, Came back and she didn't handle the traveling very well. I took her to 3 different vets and consulted with a forth. Needles to say i probably will only consult with two of them in the future.

I finally took her to Perry White, She died on the way and we did an autopsy. He confirmed Asper. It sucked all round. I probably learnt the most form this one bird than any of the others. She was amazing and frustrating all at the same time.

I caught more game with her than any other bird. I tried Car Hawking but to me unless your with someone else driving a car and handling a mid size bird is to much for me. Maybe next season I'll have someone else to hawk with. I pretty much stayed to myself this year, too much politics with different groups and I'll probably do the same next season. I have been acquiring more property to hunt rabbits on. Probably close to 300 acres now on the east side of bartlesville. One field in particular is brilliant for rabbit hawking and is where we caught the most.

I decided not to fly another Coopers Hawk for a few season at least. Mainly due to the amount of effort and level of detail you have to put into them. I tend to find i read the books and they all say that then when you actually get into it you realise just how much so. I still wanted a bird that can take fur and feather. The last trip down to see my sponsor Steve Armstong proved that with his Male HH Smash. He just grabbed his HH and went hunting even after having had a break (because of Steve being sick) and still caught game. So with that in mind i bit the bullet.

I have ordered a Coulson Male Harris Hawk for next season which should be hear around mid August. I have also been digesting their book. Harris Hawks Revolution. It's probably the best book i have ever read on training and looking after Hunting Hawks.

I choose a Coulson because every one i spoke to, either has one or wants one. The price wasn't to bad either.

I have also been offered the loan of a passage female Harris to complete the socializing of my male so he will hunt with other hawks. Right now the eggs are hatching and the Coulsons are working with the chicks. So next season is going to be an interesting time.

I also bought my first shot gun. I got a Remington 870 Mag Express. I am planning on going Turkey Hunting this spring with a next door neighbour. I'll be posting more about the equipment i intend to use and hopefully we will bag a turkey.

Been a while

Well its been a while. I've dropped her weight to 400grams and this has made an improvment in how she responds. for a while she got turned off rabbits but now seems to be back onto them. Recently we have had some amazing flights on birds as well.

She loves catching Wood Rats. I think it wont be too long before we are catching rabbits with her.

And the lights turn dim.....

So far we are 2 Pack Rats, 3 Mice and one Sparrow. She seems intimidated by rabbits to the point of completely refusing to chase after them so i am now trying to catch a baggy rabbit that we can see if she will get going on them. A good friend suggested a technique for turning them on to rabbits. The idea is you place the rabbit in a hole with a board on top, place dirt and brush over the top. Get your hawk walk toward the board, move the board rabbit pops out shes chases it , then blow her out on rabbit so she gets the idea.

 I have (with the advise of a friend) found a couple of other fields , one was completely mowed . I flushed two rabbits. One headed for a garden and the other used the tree's for cover. The second field is quite large and we had 3 flushes on rabbits.

I took her car hawking with and Ryan Christensen. The only thing i didn't like about it is she is in your face as you drive and breaking a feather due to a bate is an easy thing to do. The rest of this week we are going to work on doing it so i'm more comfortable with it. She did have one good chase on a starling and sparrow narrowly missing either one.

Tonight because of daylight savings we had less time in the field and really didn't see anythings.  It is dark by 5.30 pm now unit mid January. Mid December it will be dark at 5.17. Feb back to 6 pm. So my plan is to field hawk at the weekends and car hawk during the week.

I tossed her a quail tonight. The quail flew 20 feet before she caught it mid air and then carried on flying to the nearest tree. By this point it was quite dark. It was the first time she didn't weight for it to put in, Not happy about the carrying but was happy with the flight and the mid air catch. It was the first time she has ever carried anything. I will use a pigeon the next time and see if she manages to carry that in the future.

My original plan was to also have a falcon off some kind. So when this time hit i would put her up for 3 months and lure fly the falcon during the week and duck hunt at the weekends. Next year that will defiantly be the plan. I still say this is the best plan because of work schedules and family. The plan will be to get fields and ponds that i can hunt on even if it means going into Kansas to hunt.

I have a couple of other projects on the go, One is a new GH. Chloroplast is ok but the one i have lets to much light in so i am making a new one out of wood. I am also experimenting with a keyfob cam. I'm looking to strip it down and add a tail mount on it to put on a back pack. SO far i have got it down in weight to 10 grams. I'm looking at changing the lipo battery out for one that weighs less and and using either liquid rubber to waterproof it or use electrical tape and ditch the case.

2 for 3

Took her to a different field today. We had 2 chases on bunnies. I found she didn't like anyone else being in the field. So a friend had to leave. We where walking near a drainage pond and all of a sudden a small bird flew up and was away with her on its tail. She caught it on the ground 150 yards for where we were. When i got there she flew back across the pond with it and in a tree. i walked back and through the lure out which she came down to. I picked her up. She wasn't going to let the sparrow go so fed her on the fist and let her feed on her catch. I couldn't be more pleased both fur and feather.

Free Flights and First Catch

Took her for a free flight yesterday , she chased a medium sized bird. followed nicely and i couldn't have been more pleased. Today we had 3 slips on 3 cotton tail rabbits and two slips on something else that she crashed on. I found she will crash brush to get to a rabbit. As we where starting to head home i kicked up a brush pile and the biggest rat i have ever seen came running out. She was on it. She carried it to some low brush and i climbed in with her as we dispatched it and let her settle down. Great day of hawking....