Ok, Ill try again having typed out a huge post it went walk about!
Firstly a brief introduction, I am a practising falconer based in Cheshire, we fly both longwings (Falcons), Broadwings(Hawks) and Owls.
Having read this thread with interest, I have noticed several inaccuracies, but instead of challenging individuals directly about these I though I would just do a post explain about falconry in general and my views on the subjects raised.
Hopefully it will give you food for thought at least.
The word falconry itself means : Hunting of game with falcons. The art of training falcons for hunting. (It is derived from the french word for falcon)
As has been previously mentioned on this thread the most common BoP (Bird of Prey) being used for falconry in this country is the Harris Hawk, a bird from the Southern States of the USA, in the wild these birds often hunt in family groups and this can also be replicated in captivity, with HH (Harris Hawks) being flown as a "Cast" (A group) Almost without exception now, these birds are all bred in captivity in the UK (Very few, if any birds are imported from America any longer)
A young HH would be taken from its parents (Most HH are parent reared) at about 15/18 weeks of age, to start its life as a Falconers bird (Although those who fly hawks are more correctly known as Austringers) This would then involve "Manning" the bird, which means making it steady on the fist and introducing it all the sights and sounds of the big bad world, much as you would socialise a puppy. From there you would get the bird jumping from its perch to the first for food (Still on its leash) once it is doing this constantly you would then move on getting the bird to "fly" to the fist whilst attached using a line called a creance, once you have the bird flying about 50m to the fist with an instant response, it is time to fly it free! You can usually achieve this with a HH in about 10/14 days. All our birds are flown wearing "telemetry" or radio tracking devices, it is foolish to fly a bird without, as even the best trained HH could decide to go wandering after anything at anytime, when flying free.
Although we aim to hunt, rabbits and pheasant with our HH, and they are very good at it, at the end of the day it is the bird itself that decides what it will chase and on occasions, when the dog has flushed something for the hawk, it is not unusual to see the hawk vanish after a butterfly or a frog! BoP do NOT hunt for fun, they hunt for food, this is the same for them returning to the falconer, they do not do so out of "affection" but do so for food. Successful BoP management is all about weight control.
I did raise a smile with one of the posts, when someone mentioned watching a falconry display and it involved all "foreign" birds EXCEPT the Peregrine x Gyr Hybrid, whilst we all know the Peregrine is native to the UK, the Gyr is not, so technically speaking this is not a British bird and would not occur naturally in the wild, which brings me on to the next point that has been raised in this thread several times - Hybrids!
Well, unlike dogs where you put two breeds together and what comes out is pot luck (I am a professional Gundog Trainer by trade, so know a thing or two about dogs
) You may end up with the worse of both breeds or nothing that resembles either!! In falconry it is totally different. Almost all of the hybrids are produced using AI (Artificial insemination) although depending on what you want, they chicks are still either parent reared or imprinted - imprinting means that you raise them yourself from day one as part of the family, they go everywhere with you 24/7. I will use the Gyr x Pere hybrid as an example as it has already been mentioned by someone on this thread. We fly a male (Tiercel) Gyr x Per hybrid, he flies at 1lb 11oz, he is a big powerful bird and is used to hunt Grouse, Partridge and Ducks. In the wild a Peregrine Tiercel would struggle to consistently take quarry of this size, he would weigh in the region of 1lb 4oz - 1lb 7oz, we all know how fast the wild peregrine is and how agile! add to this combination the Gyr Falcon which is a big and powerful bird and you have the best of both worlds, a large powerful falcon with a tremendous turn of speed, that can either "wait on" which means climb to a great height and stoop down on its prey or can be flown out of the hood from the fist as a pursuit falcon.
There are lots of other hybrids out there, all with their reasons for being produced, but for me to write about each would take an age!
Someone on here voiced their concerns about the risks to native BoP in the UK form all these "foreign" birds, I am a little confused as to what they mean by this, so would be very interested in hearing their concerns.
Whilst I would in no way wish to change someones views on a subject, I would be happy if they would sit and think through what I have written and the reasons behind it, I am happy to expand on anything I have covered and time permitting I would during the coming season offer to anyone who wanted to see a BoP in the field, then they would be more than welcome to accompany me (But be warned my birds do hunt and kill)
Apart from HH, we also fly the Gyr x Per, a kestrel and owls.
Here are a few pics of some of our birds, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them and hopefully I can answer them (Sorry this post is not as long as the one I lost - but it was quite annoying to lose it!!)
Regards
Mike
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