With another bluebird day (60*F for the turkey day hunt) we've started thinking about how many more days to hunt the HH this year.

As you'll recall, they're a desert breed and not suited to temps below 20*F for very long. They do okay for a couple hours in the teens, but get soaked through fast in the snow and wouldn't survive an overnight stay if they got lost for some reason.

making hay while the sun shines:

utah lake:



eagle mtn:



my wing man:



our camera man:



on kill #2:





[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...14/20141127_103405_zps0aabbdfe.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...14/20141127_104932_zps1edbdf7a.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...ks%202014/DSC09107_zpsf46d49ec.jpg[/img]

you also start thinking about injuries this time of year -- they've accumulated lots of bumps and scrapes, but one tries to balance playing time versus dumb injuries during "garbage time".

I'm sure we'll still get out 5-6 more times, depending on the weather, but we did sign a rookie QB this week so maybe we'll let him run the offense for this last bit and see what's what.....

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al.../20141123_182258-2_zps65b39382.jpg[/img]

It's a long winter; hunt them while you can! How many rabbits are in the freezer?

Thanks for posting.

RS

Keep posting as long as you keep them out this season, a lot of us really enjoy your pics.

47 rabbits in the freezer as of yesterday. more than a year's supply. I do think I could squeeze in another 6-7 but after that we'll truly be giving them away...



current tally on from our logbook

Total Jacks 40
Total Cottontail 7
Total mice/vole 12
Total Other 1
Overall Total 60

Great pics and thanks for sharing UL! Quite the crew you have there as well! Always enjoy your posts and pictures, definitely captivating!

Thanks again for the beautiful pictures and the continuing education. I go to a Friday men's group at church Friday mornings and the first thing I look for when I come home is your posts.

yw Scott! I have high hopes for the new kestrel. He's coming along about 30% faster than any of the females we've trained!

What will be the kestrel's main prey?

RS

mice/voles and sparrows

and during the summer, dragonflies and giant grasshoppers.

we've had great fun releasing dragonflies in the house for the kestrel(s) to hunt!

We had one living in our neighbourhood years ago that would grab sparrows out of the bushed right in front of us. I loved to watch is dive down and hit the camellia bush and scare a sparrow out only to dart over the bush and grab the sparrow.

Kestrels are often though of as "Apprentice birds" , in that most states force apprentices to chose between a kestrel and a red tail for those first 2 years.

Once that period is served / endured, most peeps "move up" to "sexier" birds like peregrines or prairies or goshawks (unwisely IMO)

I'm somewhat of an outlier there, as I've had at least one kestrel every year -- and probably always will.

they've got a super attitude and you can hunt successfully **literally** in a suburban back yard

Do the hawks get the whole rabbit, guts and all.?

I guess I'm wondering if you clean all those rabbits before freezing...

they eat everything but the GI tract.

an adult jackrabbit will last them a week, a cottontail about 4 days.

in the field: they each get a pulled off front limb (including scapula) and the GI tract is removed, leaving the other organs intact.

at home: cottontails frozen whole, the jacks are split into 5 parts: 2 back legs, loinn section, chest section, and head (organs and skin stay with their section).

these pars are then placed into quart ziplocs and the whole rabbit into a gallon zip loc.

this makes it easy to grab a rabbit from the garage freezer and put it in the house freezer for that week, as well as pulling out a piece at a time for the fridge.

the back legs will last a day, day and a half, the loin 3 days (sometimes 4), the chest 2-3 days, and they get a head once a week (for beak conditioning)

for the kestrels, a rat pup (50g) will last two days

what a 15' chest freezer with 47 rabbits in it looks like:

I go through about 3-4 sets of kitchen shears a season.....

Awesome-pics.
Thanks

Awesome thread as well.

twofish

Awesome indeed.

twofish

GREAT THREAD!

I wanted a falcon since I was a kid but had no teachers or knowledge, and parents who weren't exactly enthusiastic.

I think it time to do it now.

I surprising (or maybe not) number of new Apprentices are adults. I'd guesstimate the average age of new apprentices to be mid 30s, at least....

I was out with Cookie a week or ago on one of her mule deer photo runs. One of her stops was a juniper/cottonwood setting with tons of juniper berries about. Saw kestrals, coopers, and sharp shins after robins, solitaires, and starlings. I witnessed several hits, but the victims escaped in all instances.

We did see a redtail blindside a flicker mid-flight but did not have enough notice to get the cameras up and going. I did not think they were much for birding.

they're actually pretty good in ambush situations. The RTs on the Cornell cam caught a bunch of pigeons and even a gull last season!

Utahlefty,

first, a big thank you for the excellent Friday threads and photos. I enjoy them immensely and have learned a lot. Your post above answered one of my questions about how much they eat and what you do with their kills. I do have another question...

A week or so back your thread mentioned the paper your daughter was doing on the learning curve of raptors vis-�-vis their mortality rates. You also mentioned how often they had to eat in order to survive. I never would've guessed that.

Anyway, I mentioned your threads to my buddy including the fact that you hunt with Harris Hawks and how they 'team up'. He brought up a good question...in nature how do the HH divvy up the kills? Does the 'killer' eat the entire animal if it is a small one or is everything shared? Does the familial relationship make a difference in food distribution at all? Also, do the 'take turns' with the actual killing or is it more targets of opportunity?

Thanks for sharing your expertise and hobby with us.

Amen Hawk_Driver

Mojo, only the Sonoran / Central American Harris Hawks hunt in family groups. the South American subspecies are solo hunters.

Anyhow, the typical Central American family group will consist of a dominant (breeding) female, 1-2 adult males, and the sub adults from last season's brood. So 4-5 individuals.

in general, the males do most of the bird-dogging / flushing and the females do most of the actual killing.

feeding will progress from dominant female >> juvenile females >> males.

they will continue hunting until all are sufficiently fed

(this is the primary reason HH are good for multiple kills per outing -- as opposed to most other falconry raptors who are one-and-done)


that said, none of them are above horking down a vole or mouse or lizard on the sly when the opportunity arises....

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=251_1416939120