Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire falcon training day 10 - life is a contact sport! (pics)

WONDERFUL !

Kudos and all blessings on a successful effort, one clearly a labor of love.

GTC

Just awesome. Thanks so much for sharing. Question, please: can/do instances ever occur where a raptor mistakenly latches into the handler's flesh? Do the birds understand that clenching their talons into anything other than the leather will cause injury? Can a raptor land on, say, a forearm and balance without puncturing skin, as in loosely grabbing? Thanks for any insight, and thanks again. This is great stuff.

Leighton - those feet are more than capable of doing damage and most falconer's will get "footed" at some point.

those talons are almost an inch long!



The Harris has 2-3X the grip strength of a human (in PSI). Double that for a Red-Tail. Double again for a Ferugie. Double again for an Eagle.

Having said that though, you're not likely to get footed unless the bird is startled. Even walking around with one on the glove, they're pretty light footed and don't break the skin.

Most are comfortable picking up their own bird(s) with bare hand/arm for short periods or to adjust something, etc. as we already have with these guys.

here's another pic of her holding the bird with one foot riding up off the glove:

Thanks; appreciate the shared knowledge very much. So very cool, what you guys are doing. I'll have to remember not to offer to 'shake hands' with any eagles...

One other question (apologies if already asked and answered): what is the average life expectancy of captive birds, please?

You are a very lucky man, Lefty. She's beautiful! The bird looks good too.

most captive bred birds will live 25-30 years and can fly regularly for nearly all of it if they can avoid the many hazards (electrocution, eagles & owls).

Outstanding Matt!

Yes outstanding!

Thanks for sharing this.

So you have to keep them "hungry" in order for them to stick around?

Very interesting stuff.

Also, how do you go about catching a Harris hawk? (No, I don't intend to attempt to become a shade-tree falconer, I just find this very interesting.)

they're not native here (a Sonoran desert breed) but can be trapped in their range the traditional way other hawks are: a trap called a Bal Chatri, which is a hardware cloth cage with a mouse inside and fishing line loops all over the top. hawk drops to get the mouse and gets it's feet tangled.

you have to be within sight of the trap at all times and will have had the target bird spotted before dropping the trap. run up with a towel and ba-da-bing.

falcons are usually trapped with a net called a Dho-Gazza.


BTW, these two of ours are captive-bred out of Seattle.

and yes, there is a "magic weight" at which they are athletically at peak fitnes and aggressive. above that, they're lying couch potatoes and below that they're weak and in danger.

finding and maintaining that weight is an art...

Thanks for all the info, way too cool. I am envious.

This is a great. When can we expect the "range trip" post?

Matt, any good books out there for someone just interested in learning more about falconry? ive got a European hunting book that has a chapter on falconry but it just glances over the subject preferring instead to show dozens of pictures of the different style hoods....

Very cool

Snake

the goal is to have their weight down enough to be hunting before Sept 1.


Nick Fox's Understanding Birds of Prey is the gold standard -- but it will be out of print until the first of the year.

also really good is the Coulson's new book "Harris Hawk Revolution" if you're interested in Hawks specifically.

finally,

the website http://www.themodernapprentice.com/links.htm has a wealth of falconry info if you're just wanting to browse...

Sweet! I so much wanted to do this when i was your girls age, my buddie and I tried to catch some little great horned owls, didnt go so well, mom & pop owl didnt want to give them up, kinda guess the out come. always said some day, just keep us up to date on your progress! to cool!

Do you breed the birds?