Here is a link to photos taken by myself and customers on hawk walks on Exmoor.
Some are also from falconry displays in the UK, while a few are from my visit some years ago to Biak, in New Guinea.
http://photobucket.com/HawkWalks
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Patience is a virtue
Definitely time that I posted something!
Orlando, the female Harris Hawk that I wrote about in the last post, continues to occupy a lot of my time. Because she wasn't touched at all for the the first 18 months of her life, she is a lot more difficult to train than birds that are bought at three months of age and then trained, which is the norm.
We've progressed to the stage where I can touch, stroke and generally fiddle about with her without losing a finger. This is important, because anyone who owns a bird of prey that is to be used in falconry needs to be able to check the bird for injuries, fit equipment etc.
It's always possible to "cast" a bird, that is getting someone to cover the bird with a towel while she is on your fist and thus immobilise her, but as you can imagine, the birds don't like this very much at all. Because the Harris Hawk is quite intelligent, for a bird of prey, they soon learn to be way of anyone sneaking up on them with a towel. If the casting always takes place in the same room, they can become unwilling to enter that room.
But as I say, I am now trusted enough to be able to handle her most of the time. Except for her feet. Her tolerance of being touched does not yet extend to her feet. She will allow me touch them a couple of times every two or three minutes, but no more than that. I've learned to watch for the tell-tale shift of balance as she takes the weight off one foot preparatory to striking me with it. But as with most things connected with falconry, time and patience will carry me through.
The sparrowhawk, Artemis, is taking a break now after a mid winter career of starling scaring. The winter has been generally mild down here in Devon so there are less starlings around. She did a good job of scaring them away from the farms where we were employed. When we were outside, I would point her at a tree full of starlings and she'd head straight for it at speed. She'd fly quite low and then pull up at the last moment into a steep climb which carried her up into the branches. Inside the cattle sheds, she flew low and fast, chasing the starlings around, through, over and under the various obstacles until either she needed a rest, or she caught one.
The tail feathers of a sparrowhawk are very brittle. They don't bend anything like as much as those of the Harris and are very prone to breaking. Artemis now has only a stump of a tail, a shadow of its former glory. It doesn't reduce her speed but it does make her less manouverable. The tail feathers will be renewed, along with all her other feathers, during the coming summer in the annual moult.
During the moult, the feathers drop out, in a regular pattern, over a period of months and new ones grow out to replace them. Because the feathers come out in a regular pattern, the bird is never "lop-sided" by having say two wing feathers missing on one side and none on the other. Over the years, I've noticed, that the Harris feathers drop out at two day intervals. So if there is a wing feather on the floor of the aviary this morning, then the corresponding feather from the other wing, will be on the floor in two days time.
Falconers tend to keep their birds moulted out feathers ( the big ones, that is), so that they can be used to repair any damaged or broken feathers on the bird. This is called "imping" and basically involves fitting an internal splint or brace made from bamboo or plastic within the hollow spine of the feather that is on the bird and gluing a section from a moulted feather onto the splint. If it's done well, you can't see the join ( as Eric Morecombe would say).
Anyone interested in flying hawks is welcome to get in touch with wwwNorthDevonHawkWalks.co.uk We fly around the North Molton/ Withypool area of Exmoor in Devon, all year round, any day of the week. I enclose a couple of photos, both taken by customers recently.
Orlando, the female Harris Hawk that I wrote about in the last post, continues to occupy a lot of my time. Because she wasn't touched at all for the the first 18 months of her life, she is a lot more difficult to train than birds that are bought at three months of age and then trained, which is the norm.
We've progressed to the stage where I can touch, stroke and generally fiddle about with her without losing a finger. This is important, because anyone who owns a bird of prey that is to be used in falconry needs to be able to check the bird for injuries, fit equipment etc.
It's always possible to "cast" a bird, that is getting someone to cover the bird with a towel while she is on your fist and thus immobilise her, but as you can imagine, the birds don't like this very much at all. Because the Harris Hawk is quite intelligent, for a bird of prey, they soon learn to be way of anyone sneaking up on them with a towel. If the casting always takes place in the same room, they can become unwilling to enter that room.
But as I say, I am now trusted enough to be able to handle her most of the time. Except for her feet. Her tolerance of being touched does not yet extend to her feet. She will allow me touch them a couple of times every two or three minutes, but no more than that. I've learned to watch for the tell-tale shift of balance as she takes the weight off one foot preparatory to striking me with it. But as with most things connected with falconry, time and patience will carry me through.
The sparrowhawk, Artemis, is taking a break now after a mid winter career of starling scaring. The winter has been generally mild down here in Devon so there are less starlings around. She did a good job of scaring them away from the farms where we were employed. When we were outside, I would point her at a tree full of starlings and she'd head straight for it at speed. She'd fly quite low and then pull up at the last moment into a steep climb which carried her up into the branches. Inside the cattle sheds, she flew low and fast, chasing the starlings around, through, over and under the various obstacles until either she needed a rest, or she caught one.
The tail feathers of a sparrowhawk are very brittle. They don't bend anything like as much as those of the Harris and are very prone to breaking. Artemis now has only a stump of a tail, a shadow of its former glory. It doesn't reduce her speed but it does make her less manouverable. The tail feathers will be renewed, along with all her other feathers, during the coming summer in the annual moult.
During the moult, the feathers drop out, in a regular pattern, over a period of months and new ones grow out to replace them. Because the feathers come out in a regular pattern, the bird is never "lop-sided" by having say two wing feathers missing on one side and none on the other. Over the years, I've noticed, that the Harris feathers drop out at two day intervals. So if there is a wing feather on the floor of the aviary this morning, then the corresponding feather from the other wing, will be on the floor in two days time.
Falconers tend to keep their birds moulted out feathers ( the big ones, that is), so that they can be used to repair any damaged or broken feathers on the bird. This is called "imping" and basically involves fitting an internal splint or brace made from bamboo or plastic within the hollow spine of the feather that is on the bird and gluing a section from a moulted feather onto the splint. If it's done well, you can't see the join ( as Eric Morecombe would say).
Monday, 9 January 2012
Stroppy Harris and runaway Spar.
To be fair, my new Harris Hawk is not really stroppy, just intensely suspicious and quite aggressive. She has never been touched, flown or anything during her 18months, so it's not surprising that she is taking a long time to learn to trust me.
I started training her as one would a new young bird. So for the first couple of weeks, I just spent increasing periods of time sitting in her aviary, reading or talking to her. When she was able to bear this without trying to fly through the wall, I progressed to taking her from her perch and holding her on my fist, still in her aviary. Then it was a progression to taking her outside, on my fist and getting her to eat while there. Surprisingly, this bit of the training was achieved quite quickly and she soon tore into her food while clinging to my fist. Now we watch television together ( indoors, her aviary isn't that luxurious), and go for slow cautious strolls around the garden and house.
Over the past two or three weeks, I've started stroking her with a feather and as she gradually came to accept that, I now stroke or touch her with my finger. This is still at the early stages, and she is only just coming to accept it. I've been pecked dozens of times and "footed" ( grabbed by her claws) several times. Fortunately for me, her claws are blunt as she has a concrete floor in her aviary. Later on, I'll cover it with small gravel, and use a nail file to sharpen her claws, but that is several months away. The other day, due to my carelessness, she had three of my right hand fingers trapped in one foot while the other clung tight to the glove on my other hand, so tightly that I couldn't get my hand out. So I was effectively handcuffed until she relaxed her grip, after twenty or twenty-five minutes. The natural rachet mechanism within her foot means that once the grip goes on, it stays on until she makes a conscious decision to loosen it. If her claws had not been blunt it would have been a trip to the local hospital for me, for stitches.
Once she is on the fist she is pretty calm, although she will bate ( attempt to fly off) occasionally. However, she doesn't step up onto the fist like my other birds. Instead, she attacks it, grabbing it with one foot with all her power as though she were trying to kill it. Then she steps up onto it.
She's quite big, and I think her flying weight will be somewhere around 2lbs 6 or 7 ounces. But that is some time off. She's taking much longer to train than a young bird would, but as I'm in no hurry, that's not a problem.
The Spar ( Sparrowhawk) chose her time superbly and demonstrated just how the species gained a reputation for "sulking" and being difficult to train.
A local TV journalist, Janine Jensen from BBC Devon's "Spotlight" programme, came along to film Artemis scaring away starlings from a farm in West Devon, near Bradford. I explained what was going to happen.
" Bird flies to tree where starlings are gathering, starlings fly off, sparrowhawk comes back to me for a morsel of food".
Janine asked a few intelligent questions to act as an introduction to the piece of film, and then I released Artemis, who totally ignored the starlings, flew to another tree and sat there for ten minutes, totally ignoring me.
Classic sparrowhawk behaviour, probably brought on by me flying her before she was ready to perform. She then lead us all over the surrounding countryside for the next half-hour, with me using the telemetry to find her in various woods, hedges etc. She eventually consented to me picking her up from a fence post about half a mile from where we had started.
Not a great film debut. Fortunately, Cassius was available to chivvy off the starlings and save the reputation of North Devon Hawk Walks.
It does demonstrate that falconry is very much a partnership, and the bird is the senior partner.
.
I started training her as one would a new young bird. So for the first couple of weeks, I just spent increasing periods of time sitting in her aviary, reading or talking to her. When she was able to bear this without trying to fly through the wall, I progressed to taking her from her perch and holding her on my fist, still in her aviary. Then it was a progression to taking her outside, on my fist and getting her to eat while there. Surprisingly, this bit of the training was achieved quite quickly and she soon tore into her food while clinging to my fist. Now we watch television together ( indoors, her aviary isn't that luxurious), and go for slow cautious strolls around the garden and house.
Over the past two or three weeks, I've started stroking her with a feather and as she gradually came to accept that, I now stroke or touch her with my finger. This is still at the early stages, and she is only just coming to accept it. I've been pecked dozens of times and "footed" ( grabbed by her claws) several times. Fortunately for me, her claws are blunt as she has a concrete floor in her aviary. Later on, I'll cover it with small gravel, and use a nail file to sharpen her claws, but that is several months away. The other day, due to my carelessness, she had three of my right hand fingers trapped in one foot while the other clung tight to the glove on my other hand, so tightly that I couldn't get my hand out. So I was effectively handcuffed until she relaxed her grip, after twenty or twenty-five minutes. The natural rachet mechanism within her foot means that once the grip goes on, it stays on until she makes a conscious decision to loosen it. If her claws had not been blunt it would have been a trip to the local hospital for me, for stitches.
Once she is on the fist she is pretty calm, although she will bate ( attempt to fly off) occasionally. However, she doesn't step up onto the fist like my other birds. Instead, she attacks it, grabbing it with one foot with all her power as though she were trying to kill it. Then she steps up onto it.
She's quite big, and I think her flying weight will be somewhere around 2lbs 6 or 7 ounces. But that is some time off. She's taking much longer to train than a young bird would, but as I'm in no hurry, that's not a problem.
The Spar ( Sparrowhawk) chose her time superbly and demonstrated just how the species gained a reputation for "sulking" and being difficult to train.
A local TV journalist, Janine Jensen from BBC Devon's "Spotlight" programme, came along to film Artemis scaring away starlings from a farm in West Devon, near Bradford. I explained what was going to happen.
" Bird flies to tree where starlings are gathering, starlings fly off, sparrowhawk comes back to me for a morsel of food".
Janine asked a few intelligent questions to act as an introduction to the piece of film, and then I released Artemis, who totally ignored the starlings, flew to another tree and sat there for ten minutes, totally ignoring me.
Classic sparrowhawk behaviour, probably brought on by me flying her before she was ready to perform. She then lead us all over the surrounding countryside for the next half-hour, with me using the telemetry to find her in various woods, hedges etc. She eventually consented to me picking her up from a fence post about half a mile from where we had started.
Not a great film debut. Fortunately, Cassius was available to chivvy off the starlings and save the reputation of North Devon Hawk Walks.
It does demonstrate that falconry is very much a partnership, and the bird is the senior partner.
.
Monday, 19 December 2011
Sparrowhawks and starlings.
It's been a long time since I posted here, sorry about that. A new business venture, using the Sparrowhawk, Artemis, to chase off starlings from local dairy farms has been taking up a lot of my time.
It's proved very succesful, and we've operated on three farms so far with another three booked in for the future. Timing is everything, as I need to get there with the hawk as soon as the starling flocks turn up, so that they get the idea that there is a resident predator around the farm, and that they would be better off elsewhere. It's been mild this winter so far, so although there were a few early flocks of starlings, the huge flocks from Russian and Finland have not yet turned up. When they do, I'll get the phone call from the farms and it will be another week of very early starts, getting to the farm at dawn so as to be ready to let loose Artemis as soon as the starlings turn up. They tend to be quite regular and at one of the farms I've been visiting they would always turn up within five minutes of 08.10 .
AS I think I mentioned in an earlier post, Artemis doesn't actually have to catch any starlings to have an effect. She just flies at the flock as it comes into roost in a tree and they immediately beat a retreat. If we can keep doing that, they push off completely.
An article about our adventures so far appears in the most recent edition of Countrymans Weekly, a newspaper dealing with all sorts of country sports.
A local BBC reporter for BBC Spotllight is also interested in making a short film about the sparrowhawk versus the starlings , so Artemis may be appearing on the small screen.
Sparrowhawks are famous for having very brittle tail feathers, which snap easily. Artemis is no exception and her tail is a disgrace, only about half the length it should be. It doesn't slow her down, but it does make her less manoueverable. However, this isn't as bad as it could be, as I don't want her catching small birds, her natural prey. ( They have enough problems in the UK as it is, given the large number of cats).
It is possible to repair a broken feather, by "imping" it. That is, using an internal splint to fix a replacement feather to the shaft of the old, broken one. Trouble is, you can't get sparrowhawk feathers for love nor money ( I've tried), so if I do it, I'll have to use feathers from the tail of a pigeon, which are the closest in size and shape. That should confuse any amateur bird-watchers in the vicinity.
To add to my self-imposed workload, I've also got a new female Harris Hawk. She was given to me and is proving a real handful as she is over a year old and has never been touched. More anon.
It's proved very succesful, and we've operated on three farms so far with another three booked in for the future. Timing is everything, as I need to get there with the hawk as soon as the starling flocks turn up, so that they get the idea that there is a resident predator around the farm, and that they would be better off elsewhere. It's been mild this winter so far, so although there were a few early flocks of starlings, the huge flocks from Russian and Finland have not yet turned up. When they do, I'll get the phone call from the farms and it will be another week of very early starts, getting to the farm at dawn so as to be ready to let loose Artemis as soon as the starlings turn up. They tend to be quite regular and at one of the farms I've been visiting they would always turn up within five minutes of 08.10 .
AS I think I mentioned in an earlier post, Artemis doesn't actually have to catch any starlings to have an effect. She just flies at the flock as it comes into roost in a tree and they immediately beat a retreat. If we can keep doing that, they push off completely.
An article about our adventures so far appears in the most recent edition of Countrymans Weekly, a newspaper dealing with all sorts of country sports.
A local BBC reporter for BBC Spotllight is also interested in making a short film about the sparrowhawk versus the starlings , so Artemis may be appearing on the small screen.
Sparrowhawks are famous for having very brittle tail feathers, which snap easily. Artemis is no exception and her tail is a disgrace, only about half the length it should be. It doesn't slow her down, but it does make her less manoueverable. However, this isn't as bad as it could be, as I don't want her catching small birds, her natural prey. ( They have enough problems in the UK as it is, given the large number of cats).
It is possible to repair a broken feather, by "imping" it. That is, using an internal splint to fix a replacement feather to the shaft of the old, broken one. Trouble is, you can't get sparrowhawk feathers for love nor money ( I've tried), so if I do it, I'll have to use feathers from the tail of a pigeon, which are the closest in size and shape. That should confuse any amateur bird-watchers in the vicinity.
To add to my self-imposed workload, I've also got a new female Harris Hawk. She was given to me and is proving a real handful as she is over a year old and has never been touched. More anon.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Hunting with hawks
Well,here at North Devon Hawk Walks, the hunting season is with us and Lady Macbeth has already accounted for two pheasants. Not particularly spectacular flights, both ended up in deep undergrowth and were a result of her stalking the pheasants while they were on the ground and she was circling overhead. She's had seven years practice and is quite good at it. She gets a reward of fresh meat while she is sitting on her kill, then I ( diplomatically and carefully) trade the dead pheasant for a lump of meat, without feathers, that she can eat immediately. As soon as she's given me the pheasant, she loses interest in it. Yet two minutes later, we're off hunting again and she's as keen as ever.
Above are some photos of Puzzle, my Brittany. She is a hunter, pointer,retriever, but I use her only for pointing. Macbeth has learned to pay attention to what the dog is doing and if the hawk goes off after something the dog will dash to keep up with her. They're a very good partnership, but it's taken seven years to get to this happy state of affairs. Cassius, my one year old male hawk is still a bit wary of the dog and she tends to put him off hunting. The top and bottom photos above show Puzzle pointing. It's a very distinctive bit of body language. It's as though the dog has hit an invisible wall and frozen solid. The smell of the pheasant, or rabbit, stops her dead in her tracks. It's got so that now I can tell how far ahead of her the pheasant/rabbit is, by noting how low to the ground her head is. The lower her head, the closer it is. The middle photo, I've included purely because it reminds me that dogs are descended from wolves.
At North Devon Hawk Walks, I'm lucky to have access to great hunting grounds, for pheasants, and so far this season I've taken out two customers, who both had a great time. Several more customers are booked in for our three hour hunts and I hope to get some photos of birds and dogs in action.
Take a look at www.NorthDevonHawkWalks.co.uk to get an idea of what we do.
Sunday, 4 September 2011
More hawk pictures.
It's been a very busy time at North Devon Hawk Walks. This last August has been the busiest since I started up business three years ago. The hawks and I have been out every day, often twice a day. There seems to be an increasing demand by people to get close to birds of prey. I suppose every county show now has a falconry display of some sort, which excites people's interest, and makes them want to learn a bit more about falconry.
I've been pleasantly surprised at the amount of repeat business, that is people who've been on one hawk-walk coming back for another. Also surprising is the number of local residents who have become customers. I had assumed that most of the customers would be visiting tourists, but I suppose about seventy percent are locals, or people visiting relatives who are locals.
We were out the other day at the Mid Devon Natural History Society and I attach a couple of photos that one of the members took. Looking at the picture of the Sparrowhawk, you can see why they are among the birds referred to as " broadwings" in falconry. Their deep wings help make them very manouverable. Somebody said that they reminded them of the wings of the Spitfire fighter plane, which was also very nimble. This, coupled with their long tails which act as very efficient rudders, mean that the hawks can slalom their way through a forest in pursuit of their prey.
In addition to the hawks, I took along a selection of creepy-crawlies, courtesy of Joe De Witt Vine who runs Reptobug. He specialises in kids parties and educational visits where his giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects, snakes etc always go down a storm. Kides love them. ( The adults, of course, are horrified). I often take along a selection of his bugs as an interesting aside to the hawks. I've got used to people assuming that the cockroaches are there as examples of what the hawks eat!
I've been pleasantly surprised at the amount of repeat business, that is people who've been on one hawk-walk coming back for another. Also surprising is the number of local residents who have become customers. I had assumed that most of the customers would be visiting tourists, but I suppose about seventy percent are locals, or people visiting relatives who are locals.
In addition to the hawks, I took along a selection of creepy-crawlies, courtesy of Joe De Witt Vine who runs Reptobug. He specialises in kids parties and educational visits where his giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects, snakes etc always go down a storm. Kides love them. ( The adults, of course, are horrified). I often take along a selection of his bugs as an interesting aside to the hawks. I've got used to people assuming that the cockroaches are there as examples of what the hawks eat!
Friday, 19 August 2011
Sparrowhawk pictures
She's now 2 months old and looks almost fully grown-up. An amazing change from only a few weeks ago. She's come out with me on all the hawk-walks for the past few weeks, and although she doesn't fly, she gets lots of experience meeting new people and seeing new sights. When I leave her in the car, she perches on the steering wheel, much to the amusement of passers-by. Tomorrow, we're off to visit a care home in Taunton to show the residents the birds, then off to the Mid Devon Natural History Society meeting near Tiverton.
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