This morning at hack

Here is Havik this morning at hack after on baggie and lots of food. Havik is Dutch for hawk...fitting?

Its been a busy spring!

Sorry for the extended absence. I have been busy with an eyas, job changes and life in general. But, lets get to the good stuff. Dubh is on to new adventures with a falconer in Colorado. Dads just about to pick Lucille up as she has just about finished all her feather dropping. I have recently pulled a little male coops and he is just starting the hack.

Coopers nest

I was all ready to see some downies this morning but I think they need to cook a bit more. By next weekend they should at least have a few hatched but I will keep everyone up to date.

Ballooning explinations

Ballooning is an exercise to get birds (falcons) to get high. Falcons will naturally have a tendency to want to get high and stoop on prey in the wild and learn quick that if they do they can have dinner, if not, well, survival of the fittest. But captive breed/raised falcons need a little help sometimes to get up high since they get fed no matter what they do at the end of the day. Height is the key to having lots of success with falcons, its here that they can have the advantage over their quarry by achieving phenomenal feats of speed.

So the idea in ballooning is to get a ~40'' balloon, fill it with helium and attach the lure you use in regular training sessions to it. We use 1500' of fishing line and let it go up. Then when the bird grabs the lure he rides it to the ground and get this tidbit if meat. Then you just keep raising it to as high as you can or like and then the bird will naturally just start going up, initially for the lure, eventually out of habit. Then when they have the pitch you like you can start giving them some bagged game (pigeons, pheasants, or whatever) and from that height they will finally understand that they have supreme advantage over their prey and will have lots of success and therefore should continue to go high. In addition to this they are getting lots of exercise, which is always a bonus.

Ballooning

Here's the first baloon outing, both birds flew high to have a look but never made in to the lure. We have feed them several times since under the baloon to ensure they are confident there is no danger. Next we are going to use a live lure and see if that wont bring 'em in.

Roosters beware!

Between school, work, and a new baby Dad has been helping out a ton! Dubh gets flow regularly and is still catching game. As shown by this picture with Dad here holding Dubh on this old timer of a rooster.

This was an old rooster, his long ragged tail, sharp long spurs and his tenacity said it all. After Dubh smacked him into the ground he rolled under a sage brush for cover. Sam made in and held point for a few second till Dubh rolled back in and grabbed him to finish the job.

He isn't getting as high as before the fence accident but we are going to start balooning him and Lucille soon.

He's back..

Dubh hit this little gal after his run in with the fence a month ago, its nice to have him back on the wing.

It wasn't a great flight but I'll take it... He was just starting to turn and get a little flight when Sam flushed a group of birds. He singled a hen out and overtook her, and well, here is the results.