International Falconer (Digital Sample Edition)

One world. One passion.

In Focus – falconry in Bahrain

Flying with the sparrowhawk in Tunisia

H2O

An end of season reflection - part two

Variations on training imprint accipiters

Goshawks revisited

The golden eagle as a UK falconry bird - part two

Export hawks, Josef Hiebeler and the UK Eagle Falconers’ Association

ISSUE 35 - 2009

4 Flying with the sparrowhawk in El Haouaria Javier Ceballos Aranda meets the austringers who are keeping alive the age-old tradition of trapping and training the migrating sparrowhawks that pass through Tunisia.

10 Export hawks, Josef Hiebeler and the UK Eagle Falconers’ Association – part one Ben Crane sets off on a lone 3-day pan-European journey to deliver his Harris’ hawk Cody and meet world eagle expert Josef Hiebeler at Castle Rosenburg in Austria.

18 In Focus – Falconry in the Kingdom of Bahrain A selection of images by Seth Anthony of falconry in the country often referred to as the “Gateway to the Gulf”

24 H2O Water can be put to all sorts of important uses when manning and training raptors as Joe Roy III explains.

28 The golden eagle as a UK falconry bird – part two David Glynne Fox continues his look at what’s involved in the day-to-day management of this most formidable of raptors including the neccessary equipment needed, and training techniques.

34 Variations on training accipiters Kenneth C. Tuttle looks beyond the popular “recipe” method of training imprint accipiters and explains his experiences with alternative training methods that reduce or eliminate imprint aggression while also encouraging bonding of hawk with austringer.

38 Goshawks revisited Following a less than pleasant experience four years earlier with his first goshawk, Lee Brindley decides it’s time to re-kindle his love affair with Accipiter gentilis.

44 An end of season reflection – part two Brian Morris continues his review of the good and bad times of 2008 with high flying falcons and big-running bird dogs.

Editor: Seth Anthony [email protected] & Terry AnthonyProduction: [email protected] & Subscriptions: Sarah Fogg (Europe & RoW) [email protected] Donna Vorce (N.America) [email protected] Tel: 402-364-2470

Subscription Rates: (4 issues inclusive of postage) UK - £24.60 Europe - £26.40* North America - £29.40* (when paying by credit card) $51 USD (when paying by US check) Rest of World - £29.40 GBP*Published by: International Falconer Ltd P.O. Box 91, Carmarthen SA33 5YF, Wales, UKTelephone/Fax: +44 (0)1267 232785 www.intfalconer.netISSN : 1477-5859

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IMPORTANT - NOTE FROM THE EDITORThe Editor wishes to point out that International Falconer features articles from across the world which inevitably include a variety of management, training and hunting methods. Some practices in one country/state may not be legal in another. It is the responsibility of the falconer to know and strictly adhere to the laws and regulations relevant to the area(s) he/she lives and hawks in. For the good of the sport NEVER do anything that you are not entirely sure is legal.

International Falconer welcomes contributions for articles both written and photographic. Please check our Submissions Guidelines at www.intfalconer.net before sending material.Though every care will be taken, the publishers will not be held liable for any manuscripts, photographs or other material lost or damaged whilst in their possession. The contents of this magazine are covered by international copyright laws and may not be reproduced, stored or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the publishers.The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publishers or Editor.

Cover photo: Sheikh Saoud bin Daij Al Khalifawith saker falcon in the Kingdom of Bahrain.by Seth Anthony

NOWHERE IN THE WORLD is the art of falconry more deeply rooted than

in the Middle East. The noble tradition has been passed on for many hundreds of years and continues to flourish to this modern day. Ever since reading such wonderful books as Falconry in Arabia in my earliest days as an aspiring falconer, I’ve longed to one day visit the region and spend time with people who view hunting with falcons as such a central part of their very culture. That opportunity finally arrived after all these years with the incredibly generous invitation from Sheikh Saoud bin Daij Al-Khalifa. It was an experience of a lifetime and our profound thanks go out to Sheikh Saoud, his family and friends for making our stay so enjoyable and memorable. We hope you enjoy the selection of images taken over an amazing ten days.

Until next time.... Seth

CONTENTS

International Falconer Issue 35 - 2009 3

4 International Falconer Issue 34 - 20094 International Falconer Issue 35 - 2009

FLYING WITH THE SPARROWHAWKIN EL HAOUARIA, TUNISIA.Words and photos by JAVIER CEBALLOS ARANDA

International Falconer Issue 34 - 2009 5 International Falconer Issue 35 - 2009 5

IN TUNISIA in the spring, thousands of quail on migration from Africa to Europe rest at Cap Bon before crossing the sea.

Since time immemorial, man has noticed that a small predatory bird, the sparrowhawk, makes the same journey two weeks earlier. The Tunisians use their ingenuity to capture, tame and train the sparrowhawk in that short space of time to hunt the quail as it passes through. Subsequently, in accordance with the age-old tradition, the hawks are set free. ▼

6 International Falconer Issue 35 - 2009

Hassan is restless. For days he has been scanning the heavens. He knows intuitively that the first sparrowhawks are about to make land. He knows that as they arrive, they will look for a treetop where they can rest unseen during their stopover. Looking out for the slightest indication of their presence, he realises that his waiting is now over.

A few have now arrived. Their plumage serves as effective camouflage amongst the foliage. Life follows its course in the fields of El Haouaria. While the farm workers carry on with their customary labour of seeding and planting, there is no outward sign that a man is about to realise the dream he has cherished all year.

Retrieving the basket from the shed, Hassan sets about preparing the trapping gear, then calls his grandson to join him. Unaware that the call is a summoning of centuries of popular tradition, Yissem answers his grandfather. The nets, still kept wrapped up tightly, will be the means employed to capture the blithe spirit of the forest. Several nets will be needed to cover all the gaps which enable the bird to enter the dense foliage of the treetops. Not forgetting to place the cord in the basket, grandfather and grandson set out for the chosen spot.

The location of the trap for the sparrowhawk is well-established beforehand. Indeed, each treetop has been reserved for the same family for generations. The ideal environment is a clearing, such as an area of farmland, in which there is a small copse. Their preference for wooded areas leads the sparrowhawk to venture in. The spot must be clearly observable from a distance. It is vital to watch with

great vigilance and without a rest in order to pounce immediately when a hawk falls into the net. With his grandson following close behind, Hassan gathers branches from the bushes all around. Yissem takes an active part in the search, excited by this adventure.

The cord that supports the net is concealed by a latticework of branches. Using rudimentary yet effective techniques, a measure of resourcefulness and the result of centuries of practice, the trap takes shape. Each movement of his nimble fingers shows that Hassan is not a novice at this. Once again it is proved that in-genuity makes use of simplicity to achieve the most difficult of tasks. In a few minutes what was before a plain and ordinary place is now the scene of dream about to come true; the meeting of man and feathered spirit of the forest.

The trapping of sparrowhawks has a long tradition in the region of Cap Bon. The Environmental Protection Agency is well aware that it is the custom of these falconers to release the birds in a

few weeks. Working jointly with the local Association of Falconry, they carry out a scientific ring-ing of the birds before they are released. If a sparrowhawk is captured later elsewhere, this will provide invaluable data about its migration route, age and the behaviour of the species.

Hassan continues suspending and extending the net. It must be tense enough so as not to be noticeable but at the same time ample enough to wrap itself around the sparrowhawk when it hits the net. Having finished setting it, he goes back to the hiding place, accompanied by his grandson. There is hardly a trace of their passing. From a disreet distance, they spend hours watching various birds of prey riding the warm air currents. With their many years of birdwatching, these falconers are highly experienced field ornithologists.

With an intuition honed by experience, Hassan stands up and approaches the net. A sparrowhawk lies entangled in its folds. It is essential to arrive in time so that the animal does

FLYING WITH THE SPARROWHAWKIN EL HAOUARIA, TUNISIA.

Hassan and his grandson preparing the trapping equipment.

A sparrowhawk lies entangled in one of the nets. It’s essential to remove her as quickly as possible to avoid any feather damage.

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not become anxious or damage its plumage. With the greatest of care, Hassan extricates his valuable catch. The sparrowhawk is quickly immobilised using a simple but effective tether, which makes it possible to carry it around without spoiling its plumage.

Pleased with the outcome of their long vigil, they set off home in fine spirits. On their arrival, Hassan immediately fits the jesses on the bird. Absorbed in his thoughts, Hassan recalls similar scenes of himself as a youngster and his father the falconer. Yissem is gradually drawn in to his grandfather’s annual ritual.

This form of falconry, as practised in Tunisia, has severel unique features that sets it apart. The taming process takes place in a very limited time. It has to be quick because barely a fortnight separates the capture of the sparrowhawk from the arrival of the quails. In addition, the hawk is kept only for the duration of the hunting season, and is then released.

As with any other Medit-erranean people, the inhabitants of El Haouaria like to be out of doors and in the streets and squares. The hubbub is a useful environment for the taming of the birds. By introducing them gradually to noisy places with a lot of movement, they become accustomed to human contact. A cafe is a good place to start. It is curious to note that no glove is used in this process. The falconers believe that the hawk’s talons are not dangerous enough to make a glove necessary and in any case they prefer to carry them around in the palm of their hand. When they are out hunting, they tie a brightly coloured lead of

wool, several metres long, to its leg. On its first flights this will help to locate the bird and to retrieve it if it takes fright. When launching the hawk in pursuit of a quail, they throw it skywards like an oversized dart.

Once the hawk is comfortable in the presence of the falconer, the moment has come to take it out into the countryside. Introduction to hunting is rapid. They are, after all, wild animals that can fend for themselves. The difficulty lies with ensuring in such a short time that they are tame enough to approach when

FLYING WITH THE SPARROWHAWKIN EL HAOUARIA, TUNISIA.

Hassan carefully but quickly extracts his catch from the net.

Once home Hassan immediately begins making jesses for the new arrival.


they have quarry in their talons while also preserving enough of the hawk’s independent spirit to enable it to return to the wild later on. Hassan heightens the hawk’s predatory instinct by throwing a piece of quarry at it over and over again. Little by little he gains the bird’s trust, allowing it to eat from his hand. These training sessions help him measure how willing the bird will later be to let him approach and retrieve the quarry.

The training period has run out and Hassan decides to begin real live hunting. Huge flocks of quails cross the Straits at night on their way to Europe. Many others remain for a day or so in the fields of Cap Bon waiting for conditions to improve for their journey. Hassan has been ready since daybreak. With the help of a long stick, he searches the fields carefully. The quails are

so numerous that he does not need a hunting dog. With only the sound of his footsteps, a bird is sure to emerge. Others wait stoically immobile, confident that their camouflage will protect them from the intruder, until finally he gets too close and they take flight. The action is short and intense. If the hawk has been successful, it will, like other birds of prey, carry the carcass some distance to hide

it from other predators. Hassan soon locates it with the aid of the red woolen leash. Having safely pocketed the valuable quail, he weaves the leash once again into a ball in the palm of his hand and, holding the sparrowhawk, prepares to catch another.

In a single day they may perform scores of flights, not all of which end successfully, as falconers all over the world know only too well! ■

The preferred method is to carry the hawk in the hand ready to be thrown like a dart at quarry.

The author (second from right) sits with friends on a trapping excursion.


The drive from the border up to Vienna and then onto Castle Rosenburg

was a patchwork of dappled sun, slate grey and cascading white lead mountains. As Austrian project leader, Christian talked openly and with passion about the ongoing work carried out under the leadership of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Dr Nick Fox, of securing

JOSEF HIEBELER and the UK Eagle Falconers’ Association.

CHANGING HAWKS is a tough but necessary problem to be understood

and overcome. But it takes guts to progress from one species to another and walk away without guilt. Even for those who do it regularly, the residual trace of each hawk is left on every falconer’s heart. The time and the dedication, the fear and the profound realisation that you’re breaking ties with something that gave its all in the field is not for the fainthearted.

Cody was an exceptional Harris’ hawk. He taught me much about my land and the quarry it contains. He taught me a tremendous amount about the basics of falconry, as well as showing me the more complex flight styles typical of his species. He hooded easily, wore hand made bells and worked with dogs. He even convinced me to travel to the USA and watch his wild cousins hunting in their correct natural context.

But unlike all the other carefully considered decisions regarding Cody’s health and welfare, this final one was without question, the most important. He was not and never will be, just another unit to be shifted. So I had to make sure the home he had for the remainder of his days was equal, if not better, than the one experienced over preceding years.

Unlike the UK, mainland Europe and beyond are still in the throws of admiration and respect for the Harris’ hawk. Certainly the numbers of Harris’ hawks in Croatia are in the low

twenties. With an abundance of quarry and landscape to match, this seemed the perfect place. After a few phone calls, Cody was to be delivered into the hands of Viktor Segrt and his gamekeeper apprentice Heorve.

It was therefore agreed Cody should be driven through Europe and dropped at the border with Austria’s International Association for Falconry (IAF) representative Christian Habich.

It was through this meeting with Christian that my understanding of contemporary eagle falconry became fully realised. Thanks to Christian, I was able to meet with Josef Hiebeler and by extension come into contact with Roy Lupton and the newly formed UK Eagle Falconers’ Association (UKEFA).

Apart from blowing the car up in Germany and having to sit with a hawk on the side of an autobahn at sunset, the lone 3-day, pan-European journey was relatively uneventful. The last remaining image was of a fairly handsome Harris’ hawk sitting in the dappled morning sun of an Austrian garden.

He roused and began scanning the hedges and apple trees for something to catch. He looked neither concerned nor perplexed, or even remotely bothered. Cody’s perfectly designed lizard mind freed him from such trivial human emotions. I took a few pictures, wished him luck and left knowing I had, after three years and a one-thousand-mile journey, done the best job possible.

Words and photos by BEN CRANE

EXPORT HAWKS,PART ONE: UK to Austria

Dramatic Castle Rosenburg sits high up on a granite cliff in the Kamp river valley of Lower Austria.


international recognition of fal-conry as an intangible cultural heritage.

The United Nations Edu-cational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have created a framework through which cultural activities in all their varied forms can be safeguarded. What constitutes an intangible cultural heritage is clearly outlined by UNESCO;

essentially it is any activity that is both traditional and living at the same time, or one which has been inherited from our ancestors and which lives on through current cultural practice. Significantly it places the responsibility of any specific cultural pastime at an individual level.

Put in its most dynamic, crucial and perhaps simplest terms; all falconers will

represent the collective heritage of our sport. This provides each bearer with the knowledge that as an individual, they are legally allowed to continue the tradition and recreate its basic form and purpose through continued practice.

If successful, the connotations are wide reaching and as far as I am concerned, represent one of the most significant

JOSEF HIEBELER and the UK Eagle Falconers’ Association.

Dramatic Castle Rosenburg sits high up on a granite cliff in the Kamp river valley of Lower Austria.

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turning points in the history of falconry. Therefore the weight of responsibility on individual falconers worldwide to maintain and practise their sport in the absolute unwavering context of their culture, is paramount.

Throughout the conversation we slowly tore free of the industrialised centre of Austria and pushed out onto the common land and agriculture landscape of Europe.

We drove through a tiny village alongside a crystal clear river and small railway. A picture postcard view of immaculate pastel-coloured houses, dotted against a clear sky nestled between an ancient wood of larch, various pines and birch.

We turned right, past the hotel and bar, before a steep bank left brought us to the crest of the first plateau. Across to the left the castle rose up through and onto a granite base. A volcanic spew made solid over many centuries. The pale yellow majestic modulated structure of Castle Rosenburg hung in the ethereal space between the organic and inorganic. Walking through the courtyard, the walls heaved and breathed with the memories and witnessed histories of falconry and of lives lived in tune with the natural world.

As an eagle falconer Josef Hiebeler needs no real int-roduction in mainland Europe. But his reach and interest in Aquila chrysaetos stretches far beyond these narrow boundaries. His passion and knowledge find their roots in the eagle falconry of Kazakhstan and beyond. He has visited these ancient falconers, living and studying them over many years. The ability to transcend such huge cultural boundaries and be welcomed into their lives and

return with intricate knowledge of their methods and means, has had a profound effect on how Eagle falconry has been shaped in mainland Europe and now the UK.

Strangely, Hiebeler and his contribution to the history of eagle falconry seems absent from some English texts on the subject. But his ‘translated’, intuitive and improvised understanding of the thousand-year-old processes the Kazakh berkutchi use, have had no less effect on the collective history of twenty-first century falconry. A simple example would be the use of the high swing perch. Now an accepted method for serious eagle falconers, its usage prior to its inception 25 years ago was frowned upon. But the true depth of its potential and the correct usage carried out by the Kazakhs had been, to all intents and purposes, misunderstood.

Crucially, Hiebeler’s work on the propagation and imprinting of eagles for falconry is, and will continue to be, hugely important. Currently, he is actively working on an Aquila chrysaetos sub-species project together with the University of Almaty (Kazakhstan), The

Zoological Institute Bischtek (Kyrgyzstan) and The University of Heidelberg (Germany).

Fundamentally however, Josef is first and foremost a falconer who flies eagles to hunt. The requirements and knowledge of what makes a golden eagle ‘tick’ is something hard to fathom and grasped over an extended lifetime filled with observation and adventure. It was therefore no surprise to find that the details of specific methods of imprinting and the processes of rearing as a whole, were well guarded secrets available only to those who wished to fly them seriously.

What was clear, and which is crucial to understanding the ideas surrounding contemporary imprinting, is that his methods are directly descended from the eagle falconers of Kazakhstan; for the Kazakhs, passage eagles struggled to take down fully grown, healthy, totally wild wolves. To rectify this they took eyas eagles and developed unique imprinting methods which Josef imported back to Austria. His development of these techniques have resulted in arguably, some of the finest imprint eagles in the world. In

Josef Hiebeler is an eagle falconer who needs no introduction in mainland Europe.


fact the imprint eagles from Josef’s bloodlines, flown by some members of the newly-formed United Kingdom Eagle Falconers’ Association (UKEFA) produced the most devastating, text book, poetical pursuits of flat land hare I have ever seen.

So after our initial meeting and some four months later, I arrived to a pitch black Austria around midnight. Castle Rosen-burg was bathed in a sweet orange glow of winter spotlights. I was led through winding, pale cave corridors into my room. On the wall to the right was the last broken flecked image of what seemed like a horse; an alabaster image painted centuries ago, an

echo of Lascaux, the animal was fading in and out of the flickering candlelight. Eagles ‘chirruped’ at the invasion of their sleep, the setting perfect, the atmosphere humming with expectation and a soft bed for the night.

The next morning I woke before the rest of the castle and walked down through the wood. This Castle Rosenburg was now smothered in a deep morning mist. At the hotel I drank a coffee then walked back to the castle and to breakfast with Moniker and Josef.

Prior to my arrival Hiebeler had suffered at a field meet. In the bag were 22 hares, a missed fox and one deer. But a lifetime

of fun and frolics had twisted his knee to ruin. So the first morning was given over to a show of the fitness regime that the Hiebeler’s use. It was also a way of ‘tweaking’ the mindset of an immature eagle, ready for hunting later the next day.

Like most things of an intense nature, actions happen suddenly. I was sat flicking through a magazine on the steps of the kitchen. A few movements to my left indicated we were ready. The eagles were taken from their high perches; one to an apprentice the other to Hiebeler. We turned right through the gates, and then right through the massive forecourt. The eagles moved

Export hawks, JOSEF HIEBELER and the UK Eagle Falconry Association

Golden eagles at Castle Rosenburg sit on high swing perches, now an accepted method for serious eagle falconers.

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through sublime architectural history, under an arch and past a dead and defunct winter garden. On through the museum, the whitewashed alabaster surface throwing shadows as the hollow echo and ‘chirruping’ of the eagles bounced off the walls. There was no translation, just movement, no one explaining or telling anything. The pace, intensity and circumstance of the unfolding session spoke volumes in itself.

On the left, facing away from the village is a balcony that presides over the whole valley. Down on the field where I had walked in the morning, sat a small cube of green, a van parked and ready; a distance of a mile, maybe more. Josef and his apprentice moved back and forth across the balcony, as a pure white speck of Lipizzaner horse emerged from under the copper canopy of the wood, dragging a

deer skin lure.Josef made a cursory phone

call and the horse galloped right out along the boundary of the field. The mature female was quickly un-hooded and cast out across the valley, followed momentarily by the younger female. Both eagles powered down and out across the valley, the youngster gaining slowly, but the older eagle clearly knew how the operation worked. She folded her wings and dropped like a boulder as her counterpart opened her wings and leisurely circled around and down. The descent over this vast distance was momentary and defied the bulk and sheer size of the eagles.

Ten minutes later all the eagles were secured and our positions swapped. From down in the valley, the tiny movement of Josef’s apprentice was just visible against the wall of the

balcony. The ‘chirruping’ and calling of the immature eagle resonating across the valley. The Lipizzaner began a healthy gallop along the same route.

As before, the eagles were released, this time however the immature eagle was perceptibly faster and the speed of collision immense; the sound of a plank of wood smacked against a wet carpet. Split seconds later the older female touched down and sat at the tail end of the lure. There was no crabbing, aggression or tension between the two eagles. They didn’t want to give up the lure either, but with a bit of tender manipulation and hooding, they were both safely back on the glove within minutes.

For the next hour or so the training evolved into an extended dragged lure session. The eagles were flown from the fist individually and in tandem,

A selection of hoods at the ready in one of the falconers’ rooms.

the youngster always slightly behind, having to work that little bit harder than the big female. Often the eagles were on the deer skin at the same time and the process once again repeated to cement behaviour and manners, as well as build muscle and stamina. The lessons learnt throughout these few hours came into their own the following day when, intentionally both eagles were released at fleeing quarry without repercussion.

The following afternoon the eagles were boxed up and we tucked ourselves into the back of the van. With the late afternoon sliding toward darkness we arrived at Josef’s land and fanned out in a line. We covered six fields of arable farmland, each roughly a half-mile long and 400 yards wide. It was the usual European agricultural land. A mixture of strips divided between pumpkin and grape vines, the vines supported by small wire fences. There were also strips of grass and small shrubs, turnip greens and bushes about chest height. All of which was set in dark, fertile soil. This area was packed full of various quarry. In the space of the 45 minutes before sunset, we flushed at least a dozen hares, 3 deer and a huge covey of grey partridge.

Monika took the first slip. We were walking along a low run of grass when 15 feet from the left a huge hare set off running at top speed. The hood struck, Moniker’s immature eagle was off in an intense and deliberate pursuit. The size and weight of an eagle is immense. They are brutal creatures, but ironically do not lack finesse. Their size may be on a scale that overwhelms and inspires, but that size should in no way be confused with either slowness or stupidity. They have often, rather confusingly

been compared to oversized Harris’ hawks. The more I have watched them in the UK and on the continent, I see now how disingenuous this can be. The bond alone is utterly unique and the tenacity at killing alongside their partners is a special quality to behold.

I can clearly see the appeal of eagles in this environment; they hatch out a direct, violent plan the instant the hood is removed. They give the feel of slowed, stretched, detached time. Their flight may visually be a methodical wing beat, but the distances covered are huge and closed down quicker than one would think. In this instance the hare and eagle came together at about 300 yards. The hare let out an eerie, disturbing childlike scream, but in the split-second tussle, she managed to slip through the inexperienced grip of a young eagle.

In a testament to the fitness regime that the Hiebelers carry

out, the eagle lifted back up in pursuit of the accelerating hare. The eagle began to climb and gain a height advantage, the distance now 700 to 1,000 yards. Behind us at about 150 feet, Josef let slip his charge. It was a phenomenal distance, but his older Eagle began to really turn on the power. Monika’s Eagle turned out of frustration and stooped Josef’s eagle, which rose slightly, flashed her feet, swung back down and began her flight in earnest. The hare was still running at top speed, but the eagle swallowed up the ground and struck its rear with tremendous force. This hare was either very lucky or very experienced. A quick shuffle and twist, and it once again broke free running back in the same direction it had come.

The next flight of worth, gives an extreme example of the dangers that face all falconers flying their hawks, falcons and eagles hard. Josef was at the far

Export hawks, JOSEF HIEBELER and the UK Eagle Falconry Association

Typical European agricultural land in the surrounding area holds abundant quarry.

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left edge of the line, when right at my feet a large hare skipped up and out to the right. Shouting, Josef let his eagle go. The hare passed right in front of Monika, whose hooded eagle remained calm. The hare had crossed the green strip of old pumpkin plants and was halfway across a black, lightly ploughed field. The firmness of the soil allowed the hare to accelerate to top speed and the distance between each footfall was impressive. Thankfully the eagle had other ideas and sliced through the darkening sky with ease. The determined, powerful surges of her wings once again making distance and time concertina.

As the eagle closed down the hare, both arrived at the perimeter of a huge strip of grape vines. The dusk light clearly hid the danger of the thin wires supporting the knarled grape trees. The hare slowed and just hopped under the lowest wire as the Eagle hit the fence at full power. It flipped round and crashed right side first into the ground. Thankfully, by the time we arrived at the grounded eagle, she had shaken off most of the impact and regrouped her self. It could well have been a different result. But the distance from where the slip initially took place, to where we now stood was colossal. To pre-empt such a dangerous accident in this context would be impossible.

We finished up with a couple more slips, but the conditions and quickening sky made it difficult to spot the hare, or for the eagles to keep a lock on them. With the violent fence incident still fresh in Josef’s mind, we boxed the eagles and headed back to the castle.

Early the next morning we woke to a perfectly clear sky, sunshine and a strong cross wind. We had a bit of fun with some dragged lures as well as launching the eagles off a slope and watching them soar over our heads and nail the lure. We also walked a few of the fields local to the castle, but Josef explained that they would not hold as much quarry as yesterday.

In a heavily growing pea field, one that sloped down into a small wooded valley, we flushed both hare, and what at a distance appeared to be a muntjac deer. The most impressive slip was from Josef’s long-serving employee Pan, who let his young eagle take on the slip into the wind.

The fleeing hare initially got tangled up and flipped head-over-heels, but quickly righted itself and carried on. As the hare continued to struggle with the cover, the eagle used the wind, gained height and held fast in a low, soaring position. The hare eventually escaped from the tightly-woven cover and broke right over some winter wheat. As it did so the eagle folded its wings and flipped, smashing into the ground with a rushing thud. It was a spectacular manoeuvre and a stunning way to end the session. But as with a lot of falconry I have seen, the quarry outsmarted us. The hare lived to

tell another tale and this young and exuberant eagle had some very hard and very fast lessons to mull over.

But these near misses are all part and parcel of falconry, and they certainly did not detract from the quality of the eagles. The flights and the training techniques I witnessed were beyond first class. But as with everything falconry related, fi-nite results in nature are always complex and subtle. Adverse conditions and a supremely powerful adversary had pipped the eagles at the post.

It was not until my return to the UK that the scales would tip in favour of the eagles. On the Revesby estate, the United Kingdom Eagle Falconers’ Association (UKEFA) would be having the last meet of their hugely productive and very special first year as a club. It was on this land, that the complete devastating power and predation of imprint eagles was fully illustrated to me. The day I spent hunting with the UKEFA was a textbook display of the full potential of these majestic birds of prey. It was also an outstanding representation of how falconers need to conduct themselves if we are, as a collective, to secure the future of falconry as an intangible cultural heritage. ■

Export hawks,

JOSEF HIEBELER and the UK Eagle Falconry Association

Monika Hiebeler makes in to her eagle.


213 ACRE FALCONRY ESTATE FOR SALE IN MONTANA

Montana, often called the last best place, where there are still excellent gamebird populations. The property has been managed

for gamebirds. Sharptail grouse, partridge, pheasant and ducks all breed on the ranch. Thousands of bushes have been planted for food and cover and there are also ponds. The ranch is only

five miles from the town of Laurel and fifteen from Billings, yet is still very private. It is surrounded by large working ranches and

wheat farms that allow hunting. My best sage grouse area is only fifteen miles away and the hunting season is seven months long. The mountains and red lodge ski area are only fourty miles away, where there is also trout fishing and elk hunting. I will share over twentyfive years of experience successfully finding and hawking

grouse, with the buyer. The property includes, a four bedroom, two and a half bath home, garage, with dog kennels, barns for horses,

enclosures for fifteen falcons, six breeding chambers, two natural productive breeding pairs of peales and a hack tower.

For a part time resident, a caretaker is available.

The ranch would make a good long term investment. Take advantage of the weak dollar. $795.000.00

Please, only serious buyers. 406-628-6323. [email protected]

Falconrycelebrating a living heritage

A lavish new book that looks at the passion that is falconry.Seen through the eyes of falconers from around the world, it travels from central Asia to the Far East, back to Arabia, through Europe and then across to the New Worlds. A unique collection of photographs that capture the very essence of what it means to be a falconer.

www.booksarabia.comPublished by Motivate PublishingDubai, United Arab Emirates.

Format: 32cm x 27cm306 pages with over 400 photographs in full colour.

By Dr. Javier CEBALLOS

FALCONRY IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAINPhotos by SETH ANTHONY

Above and right: Early training takes place in the cooler evenings. Here a blond saker, recently taken up from the moulting chamber, is called a short distance to a pigeon.


IN FOCUS WITH INTERNATIONAL FALCONER

INTERNATIONAL FALCONER recently visited Bahrain a few weeks before the hunting season

and spent several days there at the kind invitation of passionate falconer Sh. Saoud bin Daij Al-Khalifa.

Bahrain, meaning “two seas” in Arabic, is an archipelago consisting of 36 islands lying between Saudi Arabia’s east coast and the peninsula of Qatar. It has a long and rich history of falconry dating back hundreds of years. Bahrain’s rulers have always held a special passion for the traditional sport of hunting with falcons and this has ensured that falconry continues to flourish to this present day.

Sh. Saoud bin Daij Al-Khalifa with a highly-prized saker falcon.


FALCONRY IN THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN




Above: A selection of newly imported sakers and peregrines are viewed at one of the falcon dealers. Prices will vary enormously dependant on size, conformation and colour.

As in other Middle Eastern countries the houbara bustard is the most sought after quarry for Bahraini falconers followed by the stone curlew or kairowan. The deserts of Bahrain themselves attract both migrating species but most falconers find themselves having to venture much further afield into the vast open spaces of Saudi Arabia and beyond to find sufficient numbers for extended hunting trips.

The falcons traditionally preferred in Bahrain are the saker falcon and peregrine falcon although the gyrfalcon

does also have its followers. Wild-trapped sakers and peregrines come into the country with the falcon dealers from September onwards and once the cooler evenings arrive, training begins in earnest with the newly acquired passagers. Falcons from previous years are often moulted out in air-conditioned chambers and these will be taken up for re-training a little later.


Below: All falcons arriving in the country have to go through a health check-up at the Al Areen Falcon Hospital. Once given the all clear they are allowed to be offered for sale.




Above top: Once off the creance, the falcons are called across larger distances and given a few passes to a lure or pigeon.

Above bottom: With a training session completed, the falcons are hooded up and taken home for some quality socialisation.


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Above: With the falcons nicely settled, it’s time to kick back and enjoy some DVDs of houbara hunting trips.

Left: A line-up of peregrines are proudly displayed at the entrance to this sheikh’s villa.


H2OPhoto: Seth Anthony


Words by JOE ROY IIIH2OI LIKE TO WALK through

the woods on my property in Northern California, espec-

ially after autumn rains have rejuvenated the small seasonal creek. You can hear the water splashing as it cascades down the steep gully before leveling out at the meadow below, where it slows and trickles into small pools taking on a quieter, meditative ambiance.

One day I happened upon a hawk bathing in one of these cold, clear pools. Rather than flying off when it saw me, the little sharp-shinned hawk merely shuffled out of the water and stood motionless on the bank. I decided to ease in a little closer in order to get a better look. The sharpy didn’t bolt; he merely stared back at me. Hoping he would let me get a little closer still, I took a few more steps,

then a few more, and so on – all the while expecting the hawk to fly away. He didn’t budge. Eventually I was able to slowly reach down, put my hand around the little guy, and pick him up. He didn’t struggle or panic when I eased his slender toes onto my bare fist...or when I let go. He just stood there looking up at me, a bit mesmerised perhaps, eyes bugged out the way only a sharpy’s can.

I remember thinking “Ok, this is really cool, but now what?” For lack of a better idea, I decided to take my new pal back to the house with me; that is, if he decided he wanted to come. He did not. On the way back up the hill our close encounter ended abruptly when the little fella snapped out of it and rocketed off my hand without so much as a goodbye.

This encounter was odd, I’ll give you that, nonetheless, parallels can be drawn regarding this hawk’s behaviour and that of the hawks we train (think passage hawks fresh out of the trap exhibiting pseudo-paralysis). Sometimes falconers intentionally induce a similar, if less extreme, kind of stupor or placidity by using planet Earth’s most abundant resource; water.

As a kid, I found that my still nervous, semi-manned passage red-tails would spread their wings, fan their tails and relax out on the lawn after being soaked with the garden hose. Once they were good and wet, there was no bating or even nervousness, only blessed calm...such can be the benefits of this magical elixir; two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen.

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I thought I‘d trained a lot of hawks, and then I met Dan Konkel and Dale Mutch of Sage Country Falcons. These guys have trained birds, mainly gyrs, literally by the hundreds. Working with them (and some of the most gorgeous/fit falcons imaginable) has been quite an education. One of the things that becomes readily apparent when training lots of birds is that they are all different, each with a unique disposition and personality. Yes, there are generalisations to be made regarding species, gender, age and even lineage. Nonetheless, individual personas do come shining through and these have a big impact on the pace with which a particular hawk may progress through a training regimen. Some birds zip through training exercises with an uncanny ease. Most of them fall into a more predictable, steady norm. Then there are those individuals who, for one reason or another, require more attention, and/or alternative techniques. Time is always of the essence and never more so than when a guy is working a dozen or more new hawks at a time. A few years ago one of Dan’s friends, mentioned a time saving water technique he’d been using to aid and speed the training of multiple birds simultaneously. We began using a version of this on some of our more time consuming pupils and enjoyed good results. Even the most recalcitrant of hawks became very malleable, allowing more progress to be made from a single “water session” than was achieved over the course of several days of more conventional techniques. In some cases one treatment proved sufficient, while other, more demanding cases needed multiple sessions. Either way,

water reduced stress levels markedly allowing for more progress in less time than would have been otherwise possible. The next time you find yourself manning a new hawk you might want to consider giving this technique a try; here’s how.

IMMERSIONThink of it as a baptism if you

like, as in a mythical gateway to transformation. Or, if you prefer, you can think of it as more of a dunking: either way, same sim-ple methodology, same results. Fill a tub deep enough to all but submerge a hawk and wide enough to accommodate your arm. If possible, have a helper gently cast the hooded hawk to keep it from flailing as you carefully lower it into the tub (be sure to wear an old/expendable glove so as not to ruin your fine gauntlet). This baptism won’t be a total immersion, only to the top of the shoulders, taking care to keep the hawk’s head safely out of the water. While immersed, the helper can gently articulate the

wings, opening and closing them in order to ensure that the hawk becomes thoroughly saturated (this takes seconds to perform). Once baptised, hawks are primed to learn, and though there may be a couple of bates when the hood first comes off, once hawks realise how thoroughly saturated they are, they generally calm down very quickly. Provided the falconer exhibits some finesse, the now biddable hawk can begin to mentally acclimatise to its new circumstances rather than exhaust itself in a relentless effort to escape.

With the hawk calm, virtually spellbound, this is an ideal time to get in some valuable hood training. Depending upon a myriad of factors, hood training can be simple, or simply hell. One constant is the need to avoid mental trauma as much as possible. An upset hawk can learn to loathe the hood in very short order. Left uncorrected, severe difficulties can ensue any time hooding is called for. When dripping wet, hawks quickly

H2O

Semi-manned young falcons sitting under a sprinkler. Once soaked they’ll be much more approachable.Photo: Joe Roy III


accept being hooded with no resistance or other signs of emotional stress (if you have ever had the misfortune of dealing with a hood shy hawk you will really appreciate the foundation benefits of this method). When working with the hood, be gentle, methodical, stroke the breast with the hood, then ease the hood part way on, then back off. After several incremental repetitions the hood can go completely on and then be quickly removed without having cinched the braces. From here it is more of the same; on off, on off, and as the hawk becomes accustomed to this activity the hood may be left on a little longer at a time before subsequently being removed. No need to tighten the braces at first, the main thrust is to get the bird used to the hood coming up, going on and coming back off, without causing fear. If the hawk is far enough along in its manning to accept tidbits, you can infuse reward with hooding. Each time (or intermittently) when the hood is removed a

tidbit can be offered, thus the hawk is not just enduring the hood, it is also beginning to associate being hooded with an enjoyable activity (eating), thus pre-empting resentment.

Eventually, as your hawk’s feathers dry, co-operation may begin to wane; watch for a shift in attitude and plan to put the hood on for keeps, or, extend the session with a follow up water treatment before things can unwind. The session can also be elongated by wetting the bird with a spray bottle. As long as the hawk stays wet, it will continue to co-operate.

Besides use as a manning/hood training tool, water is also useful when hawks are first learning to weather on outdoor perches. In this case you can use a more orthodox approach which is better suited for semi-manned hawks. After tying the hawk to an outdoor perch, shower it with a garden hose or a sprinkler device. Soak the hawk for several minutes for maximum saturation. Be sure to remove the hood before showering, otherwise the hood dyes may run and stain your hawks plumage...not good! Even a non-dyed hood will suffer if soaked and if the braces are leather they may seize, possibly causing you to pull a button off when you try to pull them open.

After the soaking, you could just relax and enjoy watching your hawk preen, or you could do some productive manning by walking in slow circles, approaching now and then with a small tidbit before resuming circles. The diameter of your circles should reflect the level of tolerance projected by the hawk, with the intent to incrementally lessen the size. Be subtle, even tame hawks do not like to be

towered over by an inconsiderate oaf. Pick up nervous birds before their feathers have completely dried lest they panic and bate at your final approach, undoing some of the progress you have just made. Of course, you can always turn the sprinkler back on and indeed may need to give more nervous hawks a good soaking just prior to picking up. Plan to spend adequate time afterwards with the bird on your fist so that it may at least partially dry before the final hooding, if there is to be one.

As a bi-product, showering hawks helps maintain feather quality. Some trained hawks will bathe with regularity, others, particularly nervous individuals, may rarely or never voluntarily take a dip. Hawks who bathe tend to have better plumage than the ones which don’t. It is probable that water itself plays a role in this phenomenon, however, and perhaps more importantly, after a nice bath hawks love to preen, and preening is vital to healthy plumage.

As with all aspects of hawk management, common sense need be applied when utilising water as a training aid. This technique is not suitable for all circumstances and is primarily an outside activity, typically coinciding with warmer weat-her. It is not recommended that you soak your hawk to the bone and expose it to frigid weather as its ability to regulate its core temperature will be compromised. That said; consider splashing a little H2O on your falconry endeavours when applicable. After all, some things are better when wet! ■

Semi-manned young falcons sitting under a sprinkler. Once soaked they’ll be much more approachable.


OBVIOUSLY, BEING much larger and more powerful than most other raptors

likely to be flown in the UK, the equipment required for golden eagles needs to be substantially stronger. I am very careful when choosing leather for jesses. I always try to rip a portion of it as hard as I can and if it tears in any way, it is rejected. This often causes raised eyebrows from dealers, but leather is expensive and I see little point paying sums of money for unsuitable material. I also use strong leather for the Aylmeri anklets too and I line these with a softer leather to prevent chafing and wear of the leg feathers. I prefer these to traditional jesses because I can change them for slit-less flying jesses, for even a bird as large and powerful as a golden eagle can easily become caught up on projections from branches etc. I tried braided nylon jesses on my current male golden eagle, but he is a jess picker and he soon reduced them to a bird’s nest within hours, so it was back to the leather. They cost me £23.00 for the pair too! Nylon is well worth trying though, for it is unbelievably strong and rot-proof. The swivel also needs to be substantial, I prefer the figure- of-eight type where both sections

are of equal dimensions, but this is only my personal choice.

Continuing with furniture, I have often heard falconers state, “The bigger the bird, then the bigger the bell.” I fail to understand the logic behind this, because I always strive to have my birds carry as light a load as possible. If a peregrine-sized bell can be heard sufficiently on a high-flying peregrine, why should it sound any less on a golden eagle? I use peregrine-sized bells on all my eagles. Size of bell only matters when thinking of small birds such as the merlin. Obviously, a large bell here is going to hamper such a small bird, so a bit of common sense is called for.

I always use nylon leashes and have forsaken the time-honoured button leash for the loop leash. With large eagles, the latter is, in my view, the safest option and I always use a double falconer’s knot for extra security. Gloves too should be well constructed

The GOLDEN EAGLE as a UK falconry bird

PART TWO

Words by DAVID GLYNNE FOX Photos by ALEX HYDE

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The GOLDEN EAGLE as a UK falconry bird

PART TWO

Words by DAVID GLYNNE FOX Photos by ALEX HYDE

International Falconer Issue 35 - 2009 3130 International Falconer Issue 35 - 2009

and reach to the bend in the arm. Both of my eagles have the habit of shooting out a foot and grabbing me in the upper arm, which again, is not much fun. A leather upper arm protector is now available and well worth the investment. Where eagles are concerned I only use good quality stainless steel rubber- topped bow perches, for I have seen too many eagles straddle blocks and such-like and with using long jesses, bow perches are the only safe option, apart of course from free-lofting.

I personally believe the hood is paramount in the training of any bird, including the Harris’ hawk, and especially where field meets are concerned or when one is hawking with a group. I cannot imagine a more frustrating scenario for the bird that is constantly bating at quarry that is the prerogative of another bird and has to be continually held back because the quarry in question is not in the pre-agreed line of flight for that particular hawk. Hooding prevents this from the start. Hooding has many other uses too, such as fitting new anklets, jesses, telemetry mounts, coping beaks and talons etc., all possible with the use of the hood and usually by one person without the need for casting and the stress that accompanies forced restraint. Admittedly, it is not too easy obtaining a hood to properly fit a particular eagle, but they are available and becoming more so as eagle flying continues to rise in popularity.

The basic training of eagles is very similar to that of training any other hawk, the difference here of course, as already stated, is the sheer size and power involved. Manning is carried out by daily carriage as normal

and whereas most hawks can be walked whilst being fed on the fist, this is nigh on impossible with eagles. An eagle can swallow a whole rabbit hind leg in one attempt, so feeding on the fist is a rather rapid affair. I tend to walk my eagles on the flying ground for a while before starting the flying sequence, to give them time to take in the situation and again, once flown, I give them time to calm down, for eagles become very excited, if not downright aggressive when food is, or has been in the offing. I also make them fly into a head wind and often uphill to maximise the effort involved, so that they become fitter as time goes by. Eagles, like many other hawks, seem to have an aversion to flying up sloping ground, so this has to be done gradually, in stages, otherwise the bird will end up walking towards the falconer, or the latter will have to walk towards the bird. This must be avoided because many eagles are highly intelligent and will soon realise that there is no point flying uphill when they know that the falconer will come back and feed them anyway. Speaking of food, it is absolutely vital that the bird is not visibly robbed of food. Remember, a golden eagle is more than capable of flying straight off with a rabbit, so to instil food robbing into the brain of an eagle is not good practice. I always give the bird everything that is in the glove. If I have to use a larger piece of food when calling in the bird from a distance, I very carefully draw it along my arm, out of sight, across my chest which faces away from the incoming bird and then pop it into my hawking bag, all surreptitiously, so that the bird is only aware of the meat actually in the glove and has not observed

the switch. Wrenching food from an eagle is going to cause huge problems and must be avoided at all costs. Some eagle falconers of the past regularly tore food from their bird, small wonder the aggression increased. The same applies when removing the bird from the ground lure or quarry. I repeat, do NOT allow the bird to observe you removing her quarry. I usually use a tempting, larger than average piece of meat, such as a rabbit hind leg to accomplish this manoeuvre. The reward must be seen to be tempting enough, otherwise, the

THE GOLDEN EAGLE AS A UK FALCONRY BIRD


bird will refuse to relinquish its hold on the quarry and a battle of wills will ensue, which can be very detrimental to you and the relationship you share with your eagle. Cover the quarry with the glove and also with the hawking bag or vest. Once the bird is on the fist, if possible, move the quarry into the bag without it being seen. If this is not possible, screen the quarry with your body, allow the bird to feed on the pick-up piece for a while then use the hood. Allow the bird to calm down and then remove the quarry. The bird can then be un-

hooded for another flight. This is all common sense, but it does take a bit of skill and forethought. Some eagle austringers advocate flying to the fist for some rewards, others the opposite. It really depends perhaps on the individual eagle and personal preference, but some birds will cover amazing distances just for a chick leg with either method. I tend to use small pieces for the first few training flights because this benefits me later when I may have to call the bird in from a failed flight and feeding large food items constantly soon

reduces keenness and curtails the day’s hawking prematurely. I also call the eagle in without food quite frequently as I wish to have the bird return to the glove, with or without food.

To fly to the fist or to the lure? I do both, but I know there are some eagle austringers who are not happy at all with fist flights, especially those with aggressive eagles, and this is understand-able. However, both my birds can be aggressive enough but I still prefer the control that fist flying gives me. I have had eagles leave the ground lure and try to

The hood is an invaluable tool for all birds and designs specifically for eagles are becoming more available.

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grab me in the legs. Likewise, I have also had eagles try to lunge at my upper arm after landing on the fist, hence the leather upper arm protector, but at least I have hold of the jesses in the latter scenario. Also, if the grass is rain-soaked, the plumage may become waterlogged with too many ground landings. When flying to the fist, I always raise my gloved hand high in the air,

which puts all my anatomical regions well out of reach of those menacing feet.

If possible, once the eagle is well on its way towards being fully trained, it is a good idea to get the bird used to a ground lure which is dragged at some speed, to simulate the speed that wild quarry would achieve. This is accomplished by the use of a vehicle and three people, one to handle the eagle, one to drive the vehicle and one to control the lure. Speeds in excess of 30 mph should be avoided because of the risk of injury to the bird. The lure man here is the most important because it is he who has to judge the moment of impact correctly. The lure needs to appear to be alive and to be tugged about a bit from side to side because few quarry species give up once it is caught, but equally, it should not be dragged all over the field. A wild hare is more than capable of giving a golden eagle a rough ride if not held properly and tugging on the lure for a short period merely simulates a living quarry.

To get the bird to this wonder-ful stage however can be a little alarming. I remember when I first attempted to fly a golden eagle in the 1960s; I followed the 10 per cent principle. This is a guide to finding the approximate flying weight, but it is only a rough guide because raptors of any species vary enormously in size ratios. Basically it means that if a sparrowhawk at its top weight scales 10 ounces, then 1 ounce needs to be reduced before any hope of flying can be attempted. Usually more reduction than this is found to be necessary, but it is a good starting point.

With my first golden eagle, the 10 per cent rule did not work at all. In fact, I found that I had to reduce her weight by a quarter of her total body weight in order to get a response. This is why it took me so long to get her going. I was literally terrified of taking too much weight off her, because I knew from experience that it is far easier to strip weight off than put it back on again and in no way was I prepared to starve her. I didn’t know then, as I do now, for I was operating entirely alone with nothing to guide me, that eagles generally do require a greater weight reduction than most other raptors.

Once the bird gets the idea, the weight can gradually be increased, so long as control is still maintained, but back then I was reluctant to take more than a couple of pounds or so off her. Nothing was happening and I could feel her prominent breastbone protruding and this is why I at first refused to reduce her weight even more. I should state here that flying a bird too low in weight can appear to have the same effect as flying too high, i.e. the bird will not respond because it is physically almost

incapable of doing so. If this scenario is suspected, my advice is to play safe and take the weight back up again. All you will lose is time; the alternative is a dead hawk. But I digress.

Eventually I realised that if any progress was to be achieved, more weight would have to come off, and this proved to be a success. I also realised that this process would have killed a lesser hawk. In fact, careful feeling of her breast muscle revealed more flesh in evidence than I had first thought and with time and exercise, this soon built up and she made a wonderful flying companion. I have never before seen this scenario in any of the eagle literature, so I hope it may help a newcomer to this species. Don’t over do it for the bird should never be starved into submission. Apart from the fact that it won’t work, it is also totally unnecessary. One does need to be aware however that perhaps a bit more weight than normal may need to be reduced to initially get the training under way. Use the scales! These will give you the details required far more than any other method and one can log the weight reduction, or increase with confidence.

Talking of scales, my current male golden eagle, also a berkut, has developed the habit of refusing to step willingly onto them. He just refuses to relinquish his hold on the gauntlet. I have to hood him and let him calm down before I can ease him onto the scales. Likewise, I then have trouble getting him off them again. I have never had this problem with any other bird in nearly fifty years as a practising falconer. One is never too old to learn. However, keeping a daily check on his weight is paramount, so I have

THE GOLDEN EAGLE AS A UK FALCONRY BIRD

To fly to the fist or to the lure? I do both, but I know

there are some eagle austringers who are not

happy at all with fist flights


to go through this bizarre routine every single day. It drives me nuts, but I will never relinquish the importance of weight control, it is the absolute key to falconry. It is a very clever, or stupid person who believes they can accurately tell a bird’s weight by behaviour alone. I certainly find this difficult and this is why, in my view, the weighing scales are the most important item in the falconer’s arsenal. One continues without scales at one’s peril. Yes, I am aware of the falconers of long past who never had the luxury of scales, but history also does

not reveal how many birds died or were otherwise lost through the lack of this fine instrument. Weigh your bird and hood your bird from the start and you will save yourself a heap of trouble.

I also use the recent invention of the travelling box, or “giant hood” as some term it. At first I was a bit sceptical, as I always carried my birds hooded on a cadge in the car with few problems, but I admit there were times when one bird removed a hood and with a six-foot spread of wing slapping me in the face whilst travelling along

the motorway caused a bit of concern. So I embraced the new system and found it to be so revolutionary and safe that both my current golden eagles now travel in their own boxes. It is a matter of personal preference whether one has a horizontal perch in the box or whether the bird stands flat on the box floor. I believe both have their merits, but for the moment, mine both have perches for the simple reason that these prevent the tail from becoming soiled with mutes, as can happen on long journeys. ■



MOST FALCONERS are familiar with the training methods de-

veloped by Mike McDermott, sometimes referred to as the “recipe” method. Some of the basic tenants of this system include: taking the hawk very young from the nest prior to being able to reliably sex the bird, never calling to the fist or feeding on the fist, feeding on the quarry on the ground in the field and extensive use of bagged quarry (sparrows). The theory is that flying to the fist and feeding on the fist encour-ages aggression. The method has proven successful with goshawks, Cooper’s hawks and male (musket) sharp-shinned hawks. However, regarding female sharp-shinned hawks, Mike has said, “Only about 10 per cent of the females harvested really work out. Perhaps I should define ‘work out’ as meaning: the hawk takes several hundred head of game in the first season, does not carry and is not aggressive. The remaining 90 per cent of females are failures – how else can one put it?” (McDermott 2004)

McDermott’s position on female sharpies puzzled me until I tried his recipe method. I have flown and taken quarry with ten

sharp-shinned hawks since 1970. One was a musket and nine were females, and none except for my last female trained in 2005 had enduring negative traits of aggression and carrying! All of my sharpies were capable of capturing difficult quarries that sharpies hunt, but their bag size was limited not by their speed or ability but by the frequency of our hawking expeditions. I was able to go hawking four to six times a week in the autumn but only two or three times a week during the winter months, so my number of quarry taken never exceeded 100 head in a year. However, I only flew two of these birds through the winter, as I have had a preference for flying large falcons and merlins during our cold winters in Utah.

The female sharpie that I flew during the 2005-2006 hawking season initially had terrible problems with carrying and she had quite a bit of aggression. Ironically, she is the only sharpie that I ever trained with the “recipe” method of training. I followed the method to the letter. She was a captive- bred bird, taken from the nest upon hatching. There was no association allowed with feeding and me or anyone else, no fist training, no feeding on the fist,

and I used baggies at an early age as encouraged by McDermott. Well, she did not take quarry any sooner than my other sharpies and she was no better but no worse in capturing quarry on difficult flights. Her aggression was the worst that I have seen in any of my sharpies. The big problem was with carrying her quarry and she began carrying in a really bad way. As soon as she saw me coming she was off, flying away for up to 300 yards before putting down again. My other sharpies only carried on occasion and particularly if their weight was too high. So I tried all of my old techniques of breaking the problem: 1) lowering the weight, 2) making-in very quickly, 3) throwing down a garnished lure, 4) approaching with a sparrow or starling in hand, and 5) throwing a dead bird on a string out to her. The movement of “throwing” anything would trigger an immediate flight away from me.

Finally, I decided to train her to fly to my fist, what could it hurt? I actually found that as soon as I had her well trained to the fist the carrying diminished in frequency and intensity. I also began making-in to her with a skinned starling att-ached to the end of a ten-foot long telescopic fishing rod

Words and photos by KENNETH C. TUTTLE

Imprint Accipiters

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Tasha, a female sharp-shinned hawk at 35 days old.

(Wonderpole by Shakespeare). After using this method for twelve days of hawking and twelve head of quarry, I was able to make-in without using the rod, and without having her carry. She never carried anymore, and I was able to resume going for multiple catches. When she would catch a sparrow I would stand near by waiting for her to kill and begin plucking the bird. Then I reached down with my fist garnished with a bird carcass. She would fly to my fist, sometimes carrying her quarry and sometimes leaving it on the ground. I let her eat the brains, and then I would either go for another flight or put her in the transport box to finish her meal.

I hawked with this captive- raised sharpie from the middle of September (2005) until February (2006). By the end of the season she was not showing signs of aggression in the field or in the mews where she was fed daily and free-lofted. I even called her to the fist for exercise on a regular basis in the mews. The only time she was territorial in the mews was when her weight was too low. She ate all of her catches in the transport box on the way home from hawking rather than on the ground in the field.

All who attended Steve Layman’s demonstration at the 2005 NAFA Meet in Vernal saw first hand that you can train an imprint to the fist and not have any problems. Steve demonstrated his “yo-yo” exer-cises with his imprint tiercel goshawk. The hawk would fly out away from him and then like a yo-yo, turn and come back to his fist. He could control how far the hawk would fly out away from him before turning and coming

back to the fist. Steve has begun writing a paper concerning his operant training methods used with imprint accipiters and I will be very pleased when it is published. His imprints are sweet tempered, effective game hawks that are heavily muscled from their extensive exercise, including training to the fist.

I only have one case using the McDermott methods of training to compare birds with but other falconers have told me that their experiences have been similar with female sharpies, and that training them with traditional methods actually helped to correct the problems encountered with the recipe method. I believe that with this one bird the recipe method did nothing to reduce aggression, and it did not allow the same level of bonding that I have seen in other female sharpies that I have trained. I am not saying that there is no value in the recipe method of training imprints, but I believe that the method might be related to the high failure rate observed by those who have trained imprint female sharp-shinned hawks using the recipe method of training. I would like to briefly describe the typical training process that has worked for me in training one female Cooper’s hawk, one musket sharp-shinned hawk and nine female sharp-shinned hawks.

I take my sharpies from the nest between eight to tens days of age. They can reliably be sexed at this age. I raise my birds in a large cardboard box. The dimensions should be about two-feet-square. The top does not need to be covered until the hawk gets old enough to fly out of the box. The floor of the box should be covered with newspaper. Then there needs

to be a “nest box” constructed for the bird to sleep and eat on and it should not have a smooth floor since this makes it difficult for the hawk to stand and walk. It may also lead to leg strain or unhealthy development. The nest box can be a small cardboard box filled with rocks, turned up-side down and covered with Astroturf. I feed the young hawk by dropping meat when she is not looking at me.

Young hawks feel uncomfor-table being moved about before they can stand and fly. However, they should be petted or stroked with the hand and exposed to as much human activity as possible. Placing a clear Plexiglas front on the nest box can facilitate this. The window is taped or bolted to the inside of the box, allowing the hawk to see everything while keeping mutes off the carpet. The nest box is, of course, port-able and can be moved about, keeping the young hawk where she can be right in the middle of human activity.

At the age of one week, female sharpies will weigh about two ounces and males about one-and-a-half ounces. The sheathed primaries can just barely be seen breaking through the skin on the wings. When the female is twelve to fourteen days old, she will stand for the first time. She will consume one to one-and-a-half ounces of sparrow per day. When the hawk can stand and tear meat I give her dead sparrows. The hawk can be introduced to the lure, and baggies as soon as she shows an interest by pretending to pounce on things. This happens at around 28 days old. As the hawk begins to become hard-penned at about 35 days old, her appetite will often decrease as the body reabsorbs the blood in

VARIATIONS ON TRAINING IMPRINT ACCIPITERS


her feathers. At this point, the hawk will probably weigh about 170 grams. This is when weight reduction should begin but only reduce weight as needed to get desired results from training.

When she can fly out of the box I move her to a mews where she is free lofted. I start out with Plexiglas covering the bars on the windows. After a couple of months this can be removed. I give her sparrows to catch in the mews. I feed her on the fist as soon as she begins catching these. However, I do not call her to the fist until she has begun catching wild quarry. All training to the fist is not by calling her long distances flying in a horizontal plane. Calling to the fist is by using what I call vertical exercise and what Steve Layman calls jump-ups. The hawk is placed on a perch close to the ground and flies to the fist of the falconer, held high above the head.

I do not spend a lot of time in training before I begin hawking. I just want to know that I can get a response from her if needed but the focus is on training her to hunt; this principle has been explained in my previous writing and by Jack Mavrogordato in A Hawk for the Bush. Extensive training often produces a fist bound, aggressive hawk that is useless for hawking; however, a well entered hawk can be exercised extensively later in her career, as demonstrated by the work of Steve Layman. The hawk should be trained to come twenty feet to the lure and then be entered on game. Lure training is especially necessary if the hawk is to be flown near trees. This early training occurs with the hawk on a creance and should be completed in about one week.

The young hawk can actually be hunting as much as a week before hard-penning. Most newly trained sharpies come quickly to the lure or fist on the home training grounds. Often, however, they show little interest when initially introduced to wild game in the field. At this point in training it is sometimes necessary to reduce the hawk’s weight, but the weight is in-creased as the hawk becomes more proficient and as the season progresses. In the early stages of training some aggression may be present and screaming will be present but as soon as the hawk has taken about a dozen head of quarry, aggression and screaming begin to subside.

These training methods reduce or eliminate imprint aggression while encouraging bonding of the hawk with the austringer. These methods are not necessarily better than the popular methods developed by Mc-Dermott they are just different and may offer advantages to those who want success in flying female sharpies, and would like to be able to feed their hawks on the fist and have a deeper bond with their birds. Falconers like Richard Brunotte, Harry McElroy and Steve Layman have found that these “traditional” methods of training also work well with the other accipiters. As Harry said, “just try hawking a Cooper’s hawk on horseback that is not trained to the fist!” One interesting aspect of falconry is that different falconers, using different and sometimes disparate methods of training can have remarkably well trained and successful hawks. ■

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THE DEATH OF a trained hawk is a terrible thing that almost all falconers

must deal with at some point in their career. It is never easy, but seldom harder than the tragic loss of that one special hawk that has been your companion from the very first season. When Thorn, my first Harris’ hawk was killed by electrocution on overhead power lines, my world was shattered. I was left with a great feeling of emptiness that could only be filled with the acquisition of a new hawk.

Since my fascination with falconry began, I had been captivated by the mighty goshawk. I decided that it was time to take the plunge and although I had no austringer to help me, and had never even seen a trained goshawk in the flesh, I purchased a ten-day-old ball of fluff from a breeder in Wales.

Bishop was a tiercel goshawk of German descent, and was to be my first attempt at social

imprinting. My rearing method was to be loosely based on Mike McDermott’s recipe from The Imprint Accipiter which was, at the time, the only method of which I had any knowledge. Being in the UK I had to ignore the extensive advice on the use of bagged quarry, which I substituted for lure work. With a distinct lack of time, land and quarry, and with no dog nor ferrets, I was destined for failure. I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my falconry career, which could have so easily put me off goshawks for life. Bishop was kept in an enduringly fat state, in an effort to reduce his perpetual screaming. Trapped in a cycle of incessant vocalisation and hunting failure, he was ultimately lost due to telemetry failure just one week before I had planned to finish the season. By this time, his feathers were a tatty mess and my game book had but few entries. I never saw any sign of Bishop again. I would like to think that he is still alive and adding to the established wild goshawk population in the forest that surrounds the land where he was lost.

My experience with Bishop had not put me off goshawks.

Goshawks revisited

Words by LEE BRINDLEY Photos by BEN CRANE

▼



There were rare occasions when I saw a glimmer of what this amazing raptor was truly capable of. I clearly remember one particular flight at a wood pigeon feeding under a line of oak trees that surrounded a small pond. At a distance of thirty yards, the pigeon was alerted to my presence, and flew. Bishop exploded off the fist and caught up to the pigeon in no time. He bound to his victim as it flew over the pond. As the two birds fell together, Bishop must have realised that he was about to fall into the water. He released the pigeon just before they hit the pond, and immediately resumed the chase. In fifty yards he had once again out flown his target, and with the style of a peregrine, he struck the pigeon with incredible force. It was dead when it hit the floor! I had made a vow to one day return to goshawks, but not until I was truly ready.

Over the next four years, my skills and knowledge of falconry had developed at warp speed. Falconry had gone from being a hobby to an all consuming passion, and even a profession. For over three years, I worked with an array of raptors at a local falconry centre. When I wasn’t working, I could usually be found in the field, hunting magpies with an imprint sparrowhawk. As well as learning from my own experience, I was also able to glean a great deal of know-ledge from the ever growing falconry community that had now developed on the Internet through various forums. A wea-lth of knowledge was now at my fingertips. If only this resource had been available before I acquired my first goshawk, things may have been very different.

In 2008, four years after

training Bishop, I decided it was time to rekindle my love affair with Accipiter gentilis. This time I purchased a parent-reared Finnish tiercel which I named Lupo. He was one of the most calm, mild-mannered hawks that I had ever had the pleasure of training. On the day of his arrival, he sat peacefully on the fist while friends, family and dogs mooched around us. On the rare occasion that he would bate, he would instantly regain the fist of his own accord. I now had a new job, and had booked all of the holidays I had earned to coincide with Lupo’s arrival. Unfortunately that was only twelve days, but how much could be done with a wild young goshawk in such a short time?

I had decided to take the advice of Mavrogordato, who among others had recommended that the hawk be manned in short intervals with the use of tirings. Most days I would divide my manning into two sessions of around one-hour duration, always with one of my two dogs by my side. Lupo came on in leaps and bounds. There was no need for any drastic weight reduction, and eleven days after collection from the breeder, he made his first free flight. On the twelfth day he took his first head of wild game (a moorhen). This training period was quicker than I had ever expected, and the ensuing days were equally infallible, with Lupo taking young quarry with consummate ease. I had sailed through what I had expected would be the most difficult part of training a parent-reared goshawk, but my problems were yet to come.

It was my intention to produce a versatile goshawk that would be equally proficient on fur and feather. For a male

goshawk, it is said that fur is the more challenging prospect, and so I had planned to start Lupo on rabbits before progressing to the more tantalising pheasants. This is where our problems began. The challenge for Lupo was not in catching rabbits, but in holding them. My springer spaniel Cassie and my team of ferrets were pressed into action and were producing rabbits by the bucket load. There was still a lot of cover around, and a number of rabbits did not show themselves for long before disappearing into the undergrowth. Those which did run across open ground were almost always footed by Lupo, who was clearly aiming for the rump every time. Often he would bind to the backside of a rabbit and jockey around the field, with one frantic austringer running along behind. Often I witnessed him clinging to a rabbit’s behind with one foot while the other foot snatched forward for the head grip. Unfortunately Lupo was simply too small to reach the head while holding the rump. His leg span was just not big enough, and he was usually dislodged while attempting to adjust his grip. At least he knew that he needed to take hold of the head, but why could he not go straight for it?

Lupo did bring the occasional rabbit to bag when luck was on his side, but I was starting to think that he may never really get the hang of them. The game season was now getting well under way, so I decided to alternate rabbit hawking with game hawking. In early October I accepted a kind invitation from Ben Crane to hawk the French partridge that he was releasing around his home in Shropshire. The weather was mild and breezy, and scenting conditions seemed

Goshawks revisited


to be good for Ben’s vizsla which soon came onto a good staunch point. I positioned myself to give Lupo a fair chance, but also far enough to give the partridge enough lead, as they had only been released a week previously. A single bird was flushed, and Lupo was quickly gaining ground on it until we lost sight of the flight that continued over a small hill. When we found Lupo he was sat on the ground, looking around curiously. I tried to call him to the fist, but he did not respond. We were surprised and amused when we realised that Lupo actually had the dainty little bird neatly tucked into one foot!

Although he was enjoying success at feather, Lupo was still showing dogged determination

at fur. There are some who believe rabbits to be too easy and unsporting for goshawks, but watching him out fly a bunny two or three times in a row, only to be kicked off and try again was incredibly exciting, and to begin with they were more challenging than pheasants. Of course, as the season progressed, game birds grew increasingly challenging. Lupo would often chase strong pheasants with a half-hearted manner, then take stand in a tree above them once they had put in. Until now, his recall had been fantastic, but I was finding that he was becoming increasingly stubborn after a failed flight at game. When you are stood directly under a hawk, waving half a dead rabbit, and being completely ignored, one

tends to believe that a hawk is overweight.

I reduced Lupo’s weight, and for a week or so, he was fantastic. He flew like his life depended on it, and was also better on the recall. Despite this, he was strangely failing to take quarry. Rabbits, pheasants and ducks were all chased in earnest, but either missed by a hair’s breadth or else lost in a struggle. At first I put this down to misfortune, but as days grew to weeks without a single head of quarry, I suspected something to be wrong. I was becoming increasingly agitated and Lupo seemed lacklustre. I decided to try increasing his weight. The first day that I tried Lupo back up at his original weight, he took a rabbit. I decided to keep pushing the ▼


weight up and see what would happened. This was the turning point of the season and saw Lupo grow from strength to strength. His flight was getting faster and stronger, and in mid November he caught his first teal, taking his second in the same week! I was now much happier with the way that Lupo was chasing game, and his recall to the glove was not bad either. I had come to realise that whenever he had chased a game bird to cover, he would mark its position and be stubborn to leave it. Who could blame him for being reluctant to return to the fist when there was a pheasant sitting tight beneath him? He was actually slightly better on the recall at a higher, rather than lower weight.

I was now rather happy with the way that Lupo was flying, but I still had two main objectives that I would endeavour to achieve before the end of the season. Firstly, Lupo was still yet to master his rabbit catching technique. Secondly, although he had now taken around a dozen pheasants, I had still not witnessed a mid-air bind. Thank-fully the rabbit problem correct-ed itself. In late November, Lupo caught a ferreted rabbit with a fine head strike. I gave him a good feed from the head, and a few minutes later he gave a repeat performance. For the remainder of the season he would ball rabbits up like a seasoned pro. It was like watching a different bird.

Lupo’s flights at pheasant were getting increasingly stronger, so optimistically I booked us on our first official field meet for 21st December at Caerwys, North Wales. This was not only Lupo’s first proper field meet, but it was mine also, and the nerves were high. I was hoping

to impress. The slipping order was announced, and I was to fly fourth, after three experienced females. Incredibly all three females failed to take quarry on their first flights, and now the pressure was on me. I stood with Lupo on my fist, halfway up a thickly-wooded hillside. Most of the other falconers and the rest of the field waited below. As the beaters and spaniels worked through the cover below me, my adrenaline began to pump. As I stood precariously on the steep bank, focusing on the impending flush, my legs began to shake with nerves, worrying that I may slip my gos at a blackbird or pigeon by mistake. Suddenly a cock pheasant rocketed from the undergrowth and Lupo was off in hot pursuit. He was quickly gaining on his target as they weaved through the woods, but before long I lost sight of them. I climbed down the hill to be greeted by the spectators who had the best view of the flight as it continued across the valley below. When they had lost sight of Lupo, he was almost within striking distance of his pheasant. I was pointed in the right direction and quickly found him drowning his rooster in a brook. Upon my return with one soggy looking goshawk, I was congratulated by my peers, and this was one of the proud-est moments of my season. It appeared that this pheasant had probably been pulled from the air, but I still wanted to see the bind for myself before putting Lupo to moult.

Due to work commitments, I had decided that Tuesday 20th January would have to be the last day of my season. Lupo’s flight still seemed to be growing stronger by the day and I was ever hopeful of seeing that all

important bind, especially as a friend had kindly lent me his excellent pointer, Alfie. On the Tuesday morning I headed out to the field bright and early, and it was not long before Alfie started finding game. We had many flights at pheasants throughout the morning. Lupo was putting in a sterling effort and had a number of near misses. In the afternoon, things started to slow down and we were struggling to find any game at all. With only an hour or so of daylight left, I was faced with the depressing prospect of ending the season with an empty bag, and had all but lost hope of pulling a good strong pheasant from the air. Just then I spotted a cock pheasant running into a strip of cover along the edge of the field. I directed Alfie to where the pheasant had run in, and he immediately picked up the scent. Alfie tracked the pheasant for a good fifty yards or so, and then I started to think that he had lost it. Suddenly he pointed! I moved into position and commanded Alfie to flush. The pheasant flushed from right under his nose and headed out across the field with Lupo hot on his heels. Before they had covered half the field, Lupo came underneath his target, flicked up and secured the cock bird by the head!

As Lupo gorged himself on warm pheasant flesh, Alfie nestled down in a patch of long dead grass, and I lay on my back upon the dry hay that covered the ground. I gazed into the clear blue winter sky, and with a grin of a Cheshire cat, I reminisced on what a fine season this had turned out to be. ■

Goshawks revisited


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WHILE THE Martin Mere episode proved to be a wonderful

experience for Meisha (where else could I have obtained slips on every species of resident and migratory wildfowl!), it had meant that Myleen lost out on flying. As a result we headed to the grouse moor on our next outing to remedy that situation.

With Marty on point in a perfect location, the overall situation was perfect for a great flight. Myleen did not disappoint in quickly mounting on the 10mph north-eastly wind. At 750 feet and still climbing I moved in to instruct Marty to produce the grouse. After a lengthy walk-in a single, adult cock grouse was produced. Looking skyward I noted Myleen on my left hand side pumping in her stoop. She soon intersected with a ‘thump’ (and not the more commonly heard ‘thwack’) and the two appeared to fall into the heather. With that, I allowed Marty to work out his ground before leading him up and heading over to where Myleen was roughly located. In doing so I became concerned, as I could not detect movement and certainly could not see feathers blowing in the wind as I would have expected. Nearing the scene I saw Myleen lying on her left hand side, while her right foot clung to the dead grouse that lay off to her right. She did not look good and as I knelt down beside her, her eye dimmed and with

that her eyelid shut. I remained still for a moment and closed my eyes. A tear ran down my face as I recalled Myleen’s survivor scenarios of the previous season, my impressionable eyas of 2007. Her life had just been cut short in what can only be described as a one-in-a-million situation. In all my twenty-plus years of hawking game with peregrines, only one peregrine had suffered a bruised foot and that was a small Italian brookei tiercel.

As a result of the accident I withdrew from my big-game strategy and cancelled black grouse hawking days I had pre-booked, exchanging them for some ptarmigan hawking days. That said, my field enthusiasm did dip and it was a couple of weeks before it returned back to normal levels.

NOVEMBERI continued to fly Meisha at

ptarmigan, though the young falcon was continually beaten by the manoeuvrability of the quar-ry on the high-tops landscape. On one particular day in late November, while Meisha was mounting overhead, the keeper asked me if I ever had problems with other raptors. I replied that gamehawking demands that the falcon climb high into the sky and while wild raptors do come in to have a look and see what was flying in their territory, by and large they departed, as my trained falcons fly without

jesses (trailing jesses can cause unwarranted attention) and simply continue to climb. Just then an eyas white-tailed sea eagle appeared from nowhere to stoop past the falcon. At that point the eagle turned to fly down the falcon; it was intent on catching breakfast. Using its enormous size, the eagle dwarfed and so dominated the falcon, pressurising her into flying down the mountainside. Given the gradient, the eagle just about matched the falcon for speed. However the young falcon elected to fly away from the hillside and with that manoeuvre she managed to open up a gap. The falcon realised the eagle could not keep up in level flight and so broke away to make height and return to us. A lucky escape, but flying over for the day as the falcon had used up all of her energy.

I ran Marty one more time, though he pulled up after just a couple of minutes. Thinking the frozen ground was to blame I leaded him up and took him back to the vehicle to run him on lower ground with the pups at red grouse. All went well, so at least the trip was worthwhile.

For the next few days Marty was not his usual bouncy, full-of-life self and I became concerned. By Thursday he did not come out of his kennel to go for a morning walk and as such I elected to take him to the vets that evening after work. By that time Marty

An End of Year Reflection PART TWOWords by BRIAN MORRIS

2008


appeared listless and his eyes had lost all their sparkle. Having lost several falcons through the years I believed I was looking at a dying dog.

The diagnosis was not good as it revealed a rising temperature, a white blood cell count of 51 and a 30 per cent weight loss over 5 days. However while the vets could not understand his condition, they advised they needed to do an exploratory to assess his inner organs. Given his weight loss and present poor health condition, Marty was not a good candidate for anaesthesia. However the dog was dying and would die within the next 24 hours should an operation not be undertaken.

That Friday evening, after surgery hours, the vets operated

on Marty. News of the opera-tion outcome eventually came through at 10.15pm. All was very much in order apart from his spleen that was significantly enlarged (three times normal size) with an outer skin that was badly ulcerated. As such it had been removed and sent away for a biopsy.

Given Marty’s condition, one of the vets took Marty home to keep and eye on him and to administer painkilling drugs and hydrating fluids during the night. By Sunday evening (48 hours after surgery) Marty was back walking again and a few days later he was allowed to return home.

The biopsy report indicated that Marty had a healthy spleen, though at some time it had been

punctured, perhaps by a thorn that had resulted in the external ulcerations. Marty’s temperature and white blood cell count were all manifestations of his body trying, though failing, to fight the inner infection.

DECEMBER

With Marty in recuperation, the pups, Morse (Bownard Boffin) and Miller (Bownard Benny), were brought to the front line. Both had shown tremendous potential so far, but now it was time to test them more fully. However, being puppies I had to be selective with regard quarry and the locations to be hunted. While both could point game and be trusted to hold point, game hawking is a demanding past-time as the dog must not

Myleen on a winter red-legged partridge.

▼

Photo: Brian Morris


disappoint and so must produce game. There are no tolerances here for non-productives. A point on game has to be a certainty. To do otherwise dilutes the trust bond with a high flying falcon. As such I elected to use the boys for previously spotted (with binoculars) set-ups on partridge and pheasant. It would have been good to include duck as an option, but the recent zero temperatures meant that all ponds were frozen and so held no ducks.

While Meisha had been flying honestly, she had also been experiencing a long dry run. Key issue was that she was stooping at point of flush, and as a result, her strikes lost a lot of their po-wer when eventually delivered. From experience, the futility of vertical stooping is eventually recognised by the falcon and I knew it would only be a matter of time before this was rectified. That time eventually arrived on an early December hunting trip to Angus when I joined Sandy Rollo, a fellow falconer with whom I had shared some pretty spectacular falconry moments with over the past twenty-plus years. Sandy’s hunting ground is a large landscape, very similar to Lincolnshire in terms of quarry, acreage and agricultural land usage and is a haven for lowland game such as grey partridge and pheasant.

We drove around to note three quality set-ups on pheasants and I elected to take the last one; a single cock pheasant feeding 100 yards from the entrance of an extremely large oil see rape field that was bound by a stone wall. While an excellent set-up, this was most definitely one that required two people for it to be executed successfully. Sandy obliged in acting as the

block at the east-facing field entrance, while I manoeuvred myself to the north boundary to release Meisha. She climbed on the damp, still, morning air as I advanced towards the pheasant. As I approached the pheasant, Sandy made his move so that we could force the pheasant to fly in a southerly direction, across the open field and in the direction of the far-off farmhouse. However the pheasant knew all about Meisha circling above and was only too aware of the pincer tact being deployed. As such it launched itself from its clamped position to fly past Sandy, he-ading in an easterly direction. In doing so the long-tail climbed to cross the stone wall and fly across the tree-lined country road. I despaired at the flush, but Sandy was ever enthusiastic and ran to follow the flight.

To Meisha’s credit, she had commenced her stoop, though had noted the pheasant flying through the trees and so angled the last part of her stoop so that she could intersect with the bird upon exit from the trees. Sandy was in view to see Meisha “banjo” (a modern and more graphical word replacing the more traditional falconry term strike and as originating from the Northeast of Scotland) the pheasant, throw up and then hotly pursue a wobbling bird as the gamebird raced for the wood’s edge.

I arrived to see nothing of the tail chase. I removed the telemetry from my backpack, jumped onto the side-step of Sandy’s vehicle, while he drove up the country road. When the signal was strongest, I asked him to stop to allow me to disembark and continue on foot. It did not take me long before I found Meisha on top of her pheasant

that was a massive 60 ounces in weight. Hopefully this would give her the confidence she much required.

I called Phil Myers to relay the news of this significant event. The two of us have teased one another over the years when recounting and analysing failed field situations. Recently it had been a one-sided affair with me doing all the talking of failed situations, while Phil would gleefully relate successful situation after successful situation where Ginty (his int-ermewed peregrinus falcon) had again melted into blue skies to record fantastic pitches. While pitch is easy to gain (in the immortal words of Ray Turner) it is ultra hard to maintain on a season by season basis. Ginty, now in her sixth season was fly-ing supremely well, accounting for numerous and significant four-figure pitches and a varied game bag. This is testament to Phil’s dedication to the art, as well as his skill as a premier gamehawker.

News arrived a week before Christmas of the passing of Molly O’Rourke. This was yet another sad day for the pointer and setter world as Molly had tirelessly supported her son Declan’s breeding of Irish and Gordon setters over the years. Indeed the past decade has seen the Lusca kennels produce many Irish setter Field Trial Champions.

Everyone who met Molly lov-ed her wit, hospitality, positive outlook and charming character as well as acknowledging her contributions in assisting Declan with the Lusca kennel and especially with the rearing of the Lusca puppies. She shall be sadly missed by many, yet the white lily plant (given to my wife when we collected Marty

2008 AN END OF YEAR REFLECTION


(Lusca Celtic Boy)) in December 2005 shall forever be a perennial reminder of her memory, her love of life, her green-fingered prowess and her devotion to the Irish setter.

More sad news came through just before Christmas that Sandy Rollo’s Gossy had died. This goshawk had lived a full life, providing Sandy with endless amount of sport over the years on fur and feather. However at 25 years of age her life ended. She had to be the last survivor of the 1983 British Falconers’ Club Czech goshawk import programme.

While Meisha continued to be an honest and consistent performer in the field, I was beginning to get concerned as she seemed to be plateauing at

600-700 feet. This was slightly frustrating given the idyllic flying conditions the UK was experiencing, being wrapped in a cold, high pressure weather system. As it was she did not start to break the glass ceiling until late December when she put in a good number of intelligent and wonderful field performances. The best and most memorable day was Wednesday 31st December, the last day of 2008.

Conditions on the day were perfect with no wind (not even a breeze) and a chilly minus-3 degree temperature as recorded at 9am. A small group of three pheasants were spotted, located a country mile from any sort of worthwhile cover. Meisha was released to the sky, though

she had to work hard to cut through the cold still air. In doing so she displayed seasoned awareness and field intelligence, initially taking a particularly long outrun before mounting tightly thereafter. In doing so she was able to climb the skyward stairway as I started to approach the pheasants.

With Morse (one of the young setters) at my side, Meisha followed our route as if attached by a thread. The pheasants, as expected, had crept away to take refuge in a nearby small clump of reeds and as we approached, the young setter was released to locate and hold the game birds. As we neared the reeds I removed the altimeter from my pocket and took a measurement of Meisha’s pitch. Looking at the measurement reading I smiled as she had once again broken the glass ceiling and was still climbing.

The setter soon found the pheasants and pointed at the edge of the reeds. I left Meisha another minute or so as she continued to climb ever higher. I made my final approach to stand beside the setter when I elected to take a further altitude reading. In doing so I must have made some form of noise as I heard the frozen vegetation rustle. Morse, the young setter, had moved off point. Then, the clatter of wings announced that Morse had followed through and flushed the pheasants. In spite of these distractions I kept my eyes on the open sky above, confident that the young setter, while excitable, would drop and honour the flush.

Meisha fell vertically through the first 400-plus feet of ice-cold air, before angling her flight path towards the pheasants for the remaining 500-plus feet.


▼

Myleen Remembered (2007) oil on canvas by Sarah Morris.


The descent took longer in comparison to her other flights and this was marvellous to ex-perience as this was as close as she had been to a 4-figure pitch. Soon she moved in on the group of pheasants to strike the rear cock pheasant squarely in the left-hand side (a later meas-urement revealed this intersect to occur some 280 yards from the point of flush). However the strong winter pheasant merely wobbled and kept flying. Meanwhile Meisha threw up to about 200 feet, barrel-rolled over and started pumping her wings to commence a tail chase.

120 yards further on she caught up with the fleeing phe-asant to bind and fall into the upland grasses. Upon my arrival all was calm, with Meisha having broken into her breakfast. I sat down beside her to take a number of photographs and reflect upon what I had just witnessed. I began to replay and run comparisons against other eyas falcon flights I’d seen and was fast coming to the conclusion that this was probably the finest. Considering the number of replays I ran through in my mind, this was

quite a conclusion to make.I further reflected on the

progress made and the events that had unfolded during this falconry season. Furthermore, quality set-ups, especially on the lowland ground, were getting harder and harder to find. Additionally while the weather was idyllic, it would only be a matter of time before heavy winter snow falls occurred to further complicate field outings. As a result I decided to end the season in a few days time and so bring an end to Meisha’s six month field diet.

That same day at the end of December also brought more good news as I ran Marty for the first time since his late November operation. In all I still believed this to be slightly premature, but I sensed the dog was becoming frustrated at all the lead walking and light jogging he was being subjected to. However all went well with his quick 3-minute burst bringing about a super point on woodcock.

Additionally, both the boys also pulled off points on woodcock, an event of particular significance as this meant that

they had now pointed all UK species of game bird. This allowed the year to end on an ultra-high note and so feeding the enthusiasm for 2009.

LOOKING FORWARD2008 was a year of mixed

emotion given the loss of personable characters as Eppie Buist and Molly O’Rourke. They both lived and breathed pointers and setters, with Eppie still making it to the field to spectate at both spring and summer trials in her last year. Their presence, memory recollections of dogs and past situations, as well as their boundless enthusiasm, shall be missed by many.

On a personal front, the loss of Myleen was a tragedy. It si-mply was not a loss that should have happened given the field situation. But life is fickle and has ways of testing your inner self. My desire and goal for the past 16 years has been to have two high flying falcons on the cadge at the same time. That goal still eludes me and I shall need to wait and see whether the 2009 Langley Mews falcon (Fern x Pete breeding) shall allow this to finally become a reality. This line of peregrines as being produced by Seth is ideal for what I seek. These falcons are small, of dark colouration, have good sized feet, are easy to manage, have a field attitude, love height, are comfortable with high pitch vertical stooping and have a courage, appetite and desire to tackle all UK game species. In line with this the new falcon is named Meira, a slight change of spelling from the latin word Mira. And in so christening I have no doubt that the eyas shall be able to live up to her name. ■


Author with Meisha and her whopping 60-ounce cock pheasant.

Photo: courtesy of Brian Morris


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Falcon09UK 6/19/09 1:39 PM