Well its finally here.
For those of you not familiar with Ed Pitcher, he’s a bit of a legend from the US who has dedicated his life to flying falcons and Ricardo is one of the most respected bell and knife makers in the world and a true falconer in every sense. Ed gained his fame back in 1978 for a Prairie Falcon that he got to wait on at field meets at over 3000ft!!!

This book reflects the passion of a falconer, in a manner that has only been captured by very few authors about anything. I can’t help but smile, as I read a paragraph that reflects an obsession I can truly understand, though I have much to learn and still feel after 15 years like an apprentice. I can’t help but feel relieved in some way, that there are others with such an addiction and dedication to falconry that it almost becomes an introspective practice that teaches us so much about the world around us and our place within.

Indeed Ed rights, ” We are all entangled in this web of life. It is inescapable. Falconry is a link to our past and a guide to our future; and for some, it helps illuminate the mystery of a purpose on earth.” For me, falconry transcends us from our modern lives and modern way of thinking back into our past, as we must have existed long ago, not like the physical re-enacting of some past historical event or procedure, but our mental and spiritual past, all the things we learned over centuries that we have lost but some of us are still drawn toward through bushcraft and falconry.

The book seems to have its heart firmly in native American philosophy, which would be similar to our pagan pasts which celebrated hunting and was focused upon a connection with animals mentally, so you think, or after several servings of peyote cactus, become the animal.

Many cultures believe that not showing respect for your prey will cause you to fail as a hunter. Well here Ed shows us that having respect for your falcon and your quarry can make just as marked an effect. I met Ed and Ricardo when I visited Utah as the guest of Robert Bagley and Dave Marshall my new bosses as it was to turn out. Meeting Ed was one of the highlights of the trip so I’ll retrospectively re-visit that with you at some point as well. For now just know this; if you’re aware that this book exists, you should have it in your hands. Not on your shelf with the other books doing nothing but showing your enthusiasm for the sport, but in your hands, showing your willingness to learn, no matter how long you’ve pursued this thing that is falconry.
You don’t need to agree; that’s not what it’s about, but you might just learn a thing or two about yourself and your birds through your passion for falconry. Ed states, “This is not the only way or the right way, but just a different way.” Sometimes different is good, very good.

After another £800 on vet bills everything was now fine but in moving the Gyr around with feathers in blood, the inevitable happened and it looked very unlikly I would be flying him in the 09 season. So after trying to imp his feathers and failing another falcon was required. I travelled the perious journal into Yorkshire from Lancashire were the locals still fear us Lancastrians after getting there behinds kicked at the battle of Wakefield (that’s especially for Chris Southern and Anthony Rhodes who continuously try and re-write history only mentioning the Yorkshire victories anyway I digress) So I visited Armthorpe falcons owned by Brynn and Chris Southern. No tiercels were available anywhere but this single tiercel was supposed to have been picked up weeks ago and the customer had let them down. So After he was caught up and hooded he was returned to base and the sanctity of Lancashire.

That evening Simon Higham and Ryan from Astley came down to check him out and other than his most foul smelling mutes the tiercel was a dream. We watched Withnail and I the film and hooded and unhooded him all evening. He weighed in at 1ib 9oz with food in his crop. The following morning he was 1ib 7 and we thought he would fly at about 1ib 5 1/2 to end at 1ib 7oz by the end of the season. The first day he was placed in doors on a block at eye level and left unhooded for an hour at a time. Now this was a bit of an exception to the norm. He didn’t bait and would only show fear on being picked up but even then he didn’t bait off, he’d just hiss a little. He was offered food that evening, Quail, as that was his usual food and he hardy hesitated to tuck in. Only on finishing the breast meat off did he look up and notice my presence. He was then hooded back up and left outdoors until the following day.

After two days of this I introduced the lure by throwing a garnished lure to the floor which he promptly jumped down. A few days of that and then it was same lesson but on the local fields with the kite up a few hundred feet for kiting habituation which was to follow. After coming straight away to the lure from 30 meters with the lure elevated he was flown free. This was all going was to easy and I was just waiting for some hangover to hit. It did come but only after kite training which I’ll cover next time.

Here is a great film cooperatively made by the British Falconers Club and the GWCT formally known as the Game Conservancy Trust. There is some great camera work in the film and some excellent information for all those with an interest in one of the UK’s best falconry quarry. Now the season is all but over I shall spend some time putting up the video’s and pics taken over the hunting season and spend a little more time in front of the Imac rather than starring at the sky, well sometimes the sky, sometimes my feet.

Enjoy the film

Well I’ve been flying a sparrowhawk with Simon Higham for a few weeks now. The young bird is a captive bred imprint that belongs to another friend that doesn’t have time to fly so we stepped up. For two weeks now she has caught a magpie every day, some days even nailing two in succession.

Yesterday we spotted a magpie near the area we hunt Partridge, sitting on top of a thorn hedge. As we approached the magpie slipped off but as we looked around, we found what the magpie was after. A late brood of partridge huddled together no bigger than wrens, the magpie must have got a taste for them. No wonder our grey partridge is in such decline. We shall of course be doing all we can to try and protect our game. Sparrowhawks on magpies give classic falconry slips and you can appreciate why Jack Mavrogordato and many others before him rated this courageous little bird so highly.

The picture shows my son Aidan holding the two magpies we caught that day, wearing Simon’s jumper to keep out the cold. I think at least if he gets a realistic appreciation of nature in his early years he can make up his own mind about nature management when he’s older. So far the Sparrowhawk has killed well over fourteen magpies. She’s giving great long slips now as she gets stronger and fitter. I’ll keep up on the posts.

When you first start, anything will do… you want the easiest and the quickest to enter and you’re not to fussy about the looks or how many people have flown her before you. This is OK for a while but after seeing a friends bird go, you decide you want more…

Then you get a little more adventurous. You try something faster with beautiful plumage which has a fast temper, and is hot off the mark, exciting to watch and gets lots of stares from passers by. But many bad habits appear like sulking after a missed flight that had you satisfied but not her. She demands lots of manning and expensive equipment to keep her and then she starts self hunting and you move on to something else.

Next you try a bird that takes a while to get up! but when she comes down its worth the wait but it takes years to train and even then they never perform as well in a crowd. When you fly alone its amazing but you want someone else to acknowledge how good she is. You start taking her for granted and you stop putting as many hours in with her. Then like the other she starts wondering around and after chasing her about you move on.

Then you get really into one and find you can’t try others without getting into a huge amount of trouble because of the friends you’ve made whilst flying this bird and flying two at once is really difficult as you can never give one your full attention and you end up flying the best one and only flying the other when the she is fed up or injured. Eventually you decide that the best BOP is the one you’ve got and if it puts up with you, it has to be good. After all the ultimate BOP is the one your with.

I hope you enjoy this short BBC video of a eagle in flight with a camera attached. Be sure to click the HQ button if you have a good internet connection for high quality it works a treat. ]]> http://www.falconryworld.com/birds-eye-view.html/feed http://www.falconryworld.com/birds-eye-view.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FalconryWorld/~3/Pqt4pp1oB3M/jess-my-pointer-has-pups.html http://www.falconryworld.com/jess-my-pointer-has-pups.html#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 14:04:24 +0000 Ste http://www.falconryworld.com/?p=277

Jess one of my star english pointers is about to have pups. Not only that she was mated with Simon Highams dog which is as pure an Embercombe line as you can get. The famous Embercombe line was created by falconer Steve Franks who is famous for his longwings but even more so his pointers that have kept longwing falconers in game for some decades now. Jess amd Amber my other pointer work on Wemmergill moor counting grouse and this year I took Simon’s dog up with me. He was really good if not alittle over anxious but staedy as a rock on point with both of mine. The pups will be available in late July and will mean Zoe can’t come to the falconry festival due to puppy sitting duties. If anyone is intersted in a pup please let me know. Hope you enjoy the pictures of her at work.

Here are two fantastic pictures taken of a merlin in mid stoop wearing a Marshall radio Micro transmitter. The pictures really allow you to freeze the moment and examine the bird in detail whilst you can clearly see the falcon is at speed, but also how well the micro just seems to fit and un-hinder the bird in flight. How you like them

The other day I was asked a question regarding the best batteries to use in Marshall transmitters. There’s a few points to remember when buying and using battery transmitters, and I thought it might be useful to post my reply here.

When using a battery for a falconry transmitter, always take the old battery out and leave it a minute before putting in a new one. Alternatively, place a battery in the wrong way around to reset the falconry transmitter memory. This procedure causes no harm, and has to be done on all Marhsall Radio Powermax transmitters as a matter of course due to the nature that some power is still present in the transmitter after a battery has been taken out.

If you check the voltage on a RT+ battery, from many manufactures you’ll find that if you put a meter over them they are 3.0v dead on. However, higher end batteries such as Duracell will be 3.35v or more. This does no harm to a transmitter and these higher grade batteries also give power for longer at any voltage. The Marshall transmitter has three warning systems.

1) First is a timer “The Apollo 13″ mode which will make the length of the pulse shorter and the time between each pulse you hear longer after a transmitter has been left on for over 24hrs. The transmitter presumes that if it’s not been turned off the bird is lost and so will save energy to maximise battery life.

2)The double bleep is set to trigger at a certain voltage when the transmitter is under load and drops below a certain voltage. A battery may show on a meter as being 3v however under load i.e. giving out a radio wave the battery will drop to below 2.5v which will cause the transmitter to give a double bleep to warn you to change the transmitter. The Marshall transmitters do not lose strength of signal like most transmitters as the voltage goes down due to some rather clever jiggery pokery that Dave Marshall worked out. Most transmitters will give a weaker and weaker signal like a dimming torch as the battery drains. Marshall transmitters do not do that.

3)The magnet takes no more power up to use. However, a safety feature is that your transmitter won’t turn on or off using the magnet if the battery is low, and the battery should be changed.

Marshall sell all batteries as near cost as possible, the best transmitters in the world is no use if its engine (the battery) is ****. So all batteries on the Marshall web site are well below rrp.

I know in the past falconers had to pay a lot for batteries from certain retailers and it was a real gripe of mine as well. However, Marshall now give away a battery with every transmitter sold and sell them as cheap as possible to encourage falconers to use quality batteries.

One more thing because I’ve done myself in the past, keep all batteries in a protective container individually. If two batteries come into contact with another they will short out and kill the battery. And don’t keep them in with other metal objects like one fella who wondered why his batteries were dead after he took them out of the plastic pack and put them altogether with his spent rim fire cases.

One for micro transmitter users, the battery they should use is the 1225 and not the 1220. The 1220 fits but doesn’t last as long and is the same price as the slightly larger 1225.

I came across a story yesterday on the World Hum travel blog about falconry being used at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the only commercial airport in the US to use falconry as a way to control wild bird population as a means to reduce bird strike on planes.

With so much in the news lately about bird strikes and aeroplanes, I wondered why this airport is seemingly the only one to use falconry as a way to prevent bird strikes. Is it due to native raptors not being able to be used for commercial purposes? Which seems crazy since it can help save lives. Or maybe it’s down to the location; Kennedy Airport is right beside Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, nearly 10,000 acres in size and home to oystercatchers, plovers, whimbrels, ibises, willets and more. All which could mean disaster for the aeroplanes that are about to launch so an exception is made.

The report states that using falconry for this kind of problem works wonders, “It’s an effective way to deal with the bird issue, for the simple reason that while birds can get used to noise, they never habituate to having a natural predator in the area.”

The falcons they use are all bred and raised in captivity and are trained not to hunt or kill any of the pest birds, just to scare them away. The company also use a CD recording. Read the full report on the World Hum site.