https://www.facebook.com/crazimals/videos/1399684016743413/

is that Natasha??

No thankfully not, if she didn't just plow that rabbit I would be pissed. That was a harrier hawks, they really only eat small rodents. Looked like it was just messing with the jack rabbit, or was to close to the jacks nest.

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/20/eagles-trained-by-french-army-to-attack-destroy-dr/?preview

The French are teaching Golden Eagles to hunt drones.  Talk about bad ass.

So I went to a falconry meet in Tennessee this last weekend. Well the meet was kinda a bust for my bird. She was not a fan of the large groups of people. Took her out alone, but we got rained out. Didn't matter because I had a blast, and made some awesome friends. Saw a bunch of amazing squirrel flights, and got to go out and see four harris hawks flown in a pack on rabbits. Caught a bunny after a 300 yard chase, and I got to watch from top of a hill. I think each bird made two or three attempts before the rabbit made a mistake and was caught.

 My bird did much better the Monday I got back from Tennessee. She nailed the second rabbit we flushed, unfortunately it was pregnant. So between that and her raiding a squirrel nest of its pups has ended our season. I don't want to kill next year's game before it even has a chance. She's been up in her mews since Monday night, and mostly left alone. I went ahead and weighed her today, she hunts at 1100ish grams. Today she's at 1357. Gave her a supper fat squirrel, and tomorrow is the day. I plan to take her to the middle of nowhere and let her go. Definitely gonna miss her, but she's not a domestic animal. She was born wild, and that's where I want her to live her life out.

  So I think I've mentioned that I'm getting a harris hawk this summer, looks like it will be early August before it's old enough to take home. So that leaves me with 5 or so months to fill. Talking with a few folks down at the meet this last weekend has me wanting to fly a Kestrel at starlings. So I think I'm gonna go trap a young one in the next two weeks. It will be a whole new ball game, kestrels are tiny falcons. They are only 9" to 12" long, and weigh 80 to 130 grams with some being a bit smaller or larger. So weight control is down to the 1/10th of a gram. It's definitely gonna be a challenge. I think I may keep a simple video blog on training, and trapping it. Mostly for future enjoyment.

Well that's all for today, if I get video of tomorrow I'll post it.

Thanks Church for the update, Long Life and Good Hunting Natasha!

Can't take credit for any of these pictures, of the birds at least. Just took video on my gopro, and phone.
But here are a few from this weekend.
View from my hotel room.


Random ass doll head on a stick in the woods.



Juvenile red tail kicking ass



These are picture of a friend of Mines 3rd year red tail. She's wrapping up the season with 107 squirrels this year, and just under 300 killed in her time with this monster of a red. She will be setting her free next month.




Same bird just wanted to point out is eyes.


And the rest are harris hawks. These birds are social, and will hunt in pairs or groups.






Last picture I took as we left the woods. Hard to see, but the little male Harris on the scaffolding was my favorite bird there. His name is Pellet.

Interesting thread.
OP, what are the differences if any between the red tail and the harris hawk or goshawk other than red tails get a little bigger?

There are a ton of differences. Red tails tend to be the most physically strong, and robust. Red tails are also the most tolerant of weather, hot or cold. They can shake off most things that could put a harris or gos out for the season, or even permanently. They tame down pretty well, but with a wide range on what you can get away with. I've seen red that will let you pick up there feet and clean the bottom all day, where as mine will give you about 3 seconds to get it over with. They will also crash thick brush better, and more readily than a gos or harris. The down side is that they are considerably slower, and can be hard to consistently take anything other than mammals. But they are reliable, and many falconers come back to them. There like good old pickup truck, not flashy or fast, but they get the job done.

Harris hawks are the easiest going hawks bar none. During a long rabbit chase I saw one get tangled in a bush and lag behind. One of us just grabbed him and ran with him like a football to catch up. The bird didn't mind at all. This would put most birds off, this one got right back into the chase. They will also take birds with much more regularity than a red tail, and can be hunted with other harris hawks in groups of 2-7. They also follow in the woods exceptionally well. They can honestly make falconry look easy. In flight they are like a mix of the red tail and a gos. There's a reason they are the most popular falconry bird in the western world. To me their biggest down side is that they are dessert birds. So they get wet very easily, and can't take cold for very long.

Goshawks are the super cars of the hawk world. They are extremely fast, and maneuverable. Nothing can touch a fit gos. They can take quail all the way up to jack rabbits and sometimes Canada geese. The down side is they won't crash cover, they are extremely temperamental (imprinting can fix a lot of this), they don't take hot or humid weather well, and are prone to injury and illness. Hand raising them can take a good bit of the edge off some of their behavioral quirks, but this is extremely time consuming as you need to be with the bird sun up to sun down. However if they are raised wrong it can make them crazy, like attacking the falconer after missing crazy. Plus poorly raised birds scream constantly. They are amazing birds, but they are also one of the hardest to do right by. If you can do it they are more than worth it. I've seen one kill 7 rabbits in under 15 minutes. They are utterly lethal.

Thanks, for what to me, has been one of the best threads here.
It's been a fascinating 15 months. Best of luck to Natasha.

Thanks church, and Natasha it's been great following  you and her. I don't think I could be a falconer because I would never let her go.
I look forward to the next chapter

Thanks for the info OP.  Interesting.
I have always liked birds and birds of prey in particular.  Since I was about 5 or 6 YO I would pay lots of attention to them and I could identify just about everything I saw in my area.  I always liked the look of a goshawk but I have only seen one once in my lifetime.  It flew in front of my car when I was driving a back road in New Hampshire.  It went just over the top of my car and I thought I may have hit it.  I got out of the car and checked but it looked like it just escaped just over the top of the car.  I could see it's wing feathers had swept the dirt of the roof during a downward flap of the wing, leaving two patterns of the ends of the wings but I think that is all.  It was on a dive towards the other side of the road and probably was so focused that it never even saw me until the last second.
Red tails are everywhere here.  When I went to college in Illinois we went to a raptor rehabilitation center near St Louis.  They had a red tail that was healthy but supposedly had been brought up by some one since it was a chick.  Eventually they let it go but it had no fear of humans and became a "nuisance" bird in the St Louis area.  It went after someone's BBQ when they were grilling  a steak and latched on to the guy.  Then onto the guys German shepherd.  They kept it at the center because they felt it could not go back the the wild successfully.
We have a lot of Sharp shinned haws that chase smaller birds at the feeder.  I remember looking out at our feeder one early spring and noticed the first pheobe of the season sitting there.  Then all of a sudden a flash and no more first pheoebe of the season.  
Lots of Ospreys here on the coast of Maine in the warmer months.  Anyone ever tried to fish with one of them?  

Back in the 50s some folks had ospreys. Problem is they are very hard to keep alive. And they carry everything they catch. That leads to them eating in a tree, and since they are full they have no reason to come down to you.

Church, BAD ASS! Too cool man!

Planning this as my retirement hobby.

Well Natasha is free. Feed her up this morning, and gave her one more meal before I let her go. Most bittersweet thing I've ever done.

Second pic down

"You sure about this?"

Bittersweet indeed.  Safe travels Natascha, and I am looking forward to your next bird!

Just curious if you went back to the release location do you think she would come back to you? If so, how long do you think before you couldn't get her back?

If I saw here I could probably get her down with the lure, but I highly doubt shed come to the fist at the weight she's at.

Thanks! Amazing sport! Wish I had the time and location to get involved in it.

I look forward to your stories with your Harris's Hawk.

I've been to falconry meets and seen them in action; from my observation they seem to be the tamest/most "domesticated" of the falconry raptors, obviously due to the fact that most are imprinted but I'm sure their gregarious nature has a lot to do with it as well.

They are pretty easy going. Don't know anyone who flies an imprinted one. Their social nature helps a lot, since the tend to eat as a group it helps a lot with food aggression.  Your defiantly right about them being slightly domesticated. They've been selectively breed for personality, and hunting ability for 20+ generations now.

CHURCH, any progress on a new bird?

Still without a bird for the time being. Working on trapping a Kestrel this week before they pair up for breeding. So far no luck.

Managed to get off work early yesterday and get some trapping time in. Trapped 3 birds, the first two had mates show up so they where released. The third I followed for a mile or so after seeing another pair chase it off. He hit the trap pretty quickly, and no females showed up to back him up in his previous fight, or when he called out after being snared on the trap. So I decided to keep him.

 No name yet, but he's a very nice looking male kestrel. He weighed in at 121.4 grams with equipment on. Spent the first few hours just trying to get him to stand on the fist, after about 9pm he started to. Still shows a lot of fear, but I did get him to take on bite of meat offered from my fingers. Hopefully today he will eat off the fist. He weighed in this morning at 115.1 grams, and I'll weigh him again on my lunch.

Here's a few quick pictures

What a cool little bird, with a bird as fast as him...bullet would be a cool name!

Mighty fine looking mini raptor you have
Hope he fills the void left by natasha

What about the name
Boris?

Just for you, Church since you're now flying a falcon

(I'm sure you've seen it by now but I saw it in GD and thought I'd cross post it)

Lol, thankfully he's not that heavy.

church hows the new bird? did he fly away? haven't heard from you

He's doing well, just coming along at snail speed. Hopefully I'll have him flying on a line out doors soon. His response inside just isn't fast enough yet to even attempt taking him outdoors. Way to many distractions.

You come up with a name yet?

No name yet, waiting until he really let's his personality  show. His training is coming along pretty well, just slow. He's ready to train out side, but we've had nothing but rain or high winds. I'm optimistic we will be hunting late this month, early May.



Tossed a dead sparrow at his feet, he wasted no time.

I found this thread last night and read through every post.  What an adventure.  Falconry has always been an interest of mine, but I know I don't have the time to do it properly.  There are TONS of raptors where I live.  Hawks just line the fence posts on the roads.  I saw a kestrel munching on a small bird in one of my trees not too long ago.  I was wondering why I kept seeing what looked like ash falling from the sky.  I looked around and saw the bird high up in the tree, plucking feathers of its kill.  

I was up in Leavenworth WA during Bird Days several years ago.  In the town pavilion, there were a bunch of people, each holding a different bird.  I asked if they were a falconry club and they got all offended.  LOL.  Apparently, they were a conservation group of some sort.  I don't remember, I only remember standing about 2 feet away from the lady holding a golden eagle.  HOLY SHIT THAT IS A BIG BIRD!  It was cool seeing the different hawks up close too.  

If I can retire early enough, I'm definitely going to get into this.  What a cool way to hunt.

Good looking little guy! Can't wait to see how he works out.

I had a hawk bro for about 20 minutes. He needed to vacate the area I was working in, so he got a picture or two and moved to a safer area.

Lol, that's a female kestrel. She looks like she just left the nest. For reference against the pictures of mine, a male kestrel, here's a picture of a buddies female.

church, hows the new bird doing? still have him or did he fly away/ wring his neck because he is not as good as Natasha?
I miss your posts

He's coming along, just VERY slowly. Hopefully we will be free flying soon.
He comes as far as I need him to now, he just does it to slowly. We're also still trying to get him hooked on starlings. They're a little bird for most wild kestrels, so he's got to learn that I'm gonna help him with them.

church, hows it going with the new mini raptor??

I actually released him a few weeks back. He was just to stubborn, and his flight weight was just to low for my comfort. I may try another if I have the time, but until then I'm just waiting on my Harris hawk to be born.

Oh man, that's a bummer.  Right thing to do, of course, but still sucks I bet.

Excited to see what happens with the Harris!

I just read all of 5 pages,sadly ,due to Photobucket beeing a shit,I did not see any of the pictures.But supercool to just read all of it.Did you get you baby bird yet?
What an amazing hobby.

Well I didn't get a Harris hawk. The breeder didn't have enough hatch this year. So most likely I'll fly a red tail again this year, or maybe a Merlin. Gonna hold out for a extra large red, and if I don't trap one before Merlins start migrating I'll try and trap one of them.

Right now I have a 3ish month old female kestrel. I got her from a rehaber a couple weeks ago. She was caught by a cat, and lost all her tail feathers. So until she molt, or adapts a bit better she can't hunt. Without a tail sharp turns and breaking are difficult. She's pretty well gone as far with training as I can take her, so now we wait.

And yeah photobucket sucks.

Link for my photobucket.
http://s1351.photobucket.com/user/smith0350/library/?sort=3&postlogin=true&page=1

church glad  you are back damn it I miss your posts and I miss Natasha.
I couldn't get your pics to load but I am old and tech stupid.
cant wait to se pics of you hunting a raptor again. hope all is well with you