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Been very busy today!


Saker Clive
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That is one very nice bird :yes: , I have only sene birds like that at game fairs at current, hope to see some more, I saw a hawk I think out shooting today, he scared off all my pigeons :lol: , what a fantastic creature, he is doing very well and your pictures are excellent :good:

 

Steve

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Thanks guys; what I need to do now is get her flying to me outside in the field on the line. Then we will have to get further and further away and once coming about 50 yards consistantly and immediately, then I can take a deep breath and set her free. I also have to get her used to coming out of trees aswell.

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Just been out to check on things, as the dogs were going mental and we heard a fox barking a short while ago. As I opened the back door, we could see the fox on top of the enclosures and Bobby was up on the wire near it. It fox was shreiking like a banshee and even the neighbors all came out.

I have an opening at the top of Bobby's enclosure of about 2 inches and about 30 inches long (just enough to get a fox or something to poke its snout in) and by the looks and sound Bobby had the nose of the fox in her talons, as I ran down to the enclosure, the fox managed to rip itself free and very quickly dissappeared up the gardens leaving a trail of blood in its wake. I will get the rifle out this evening incase it comes back but I don't think it will now. I hope for the foxes sake it isn't too badly damaged but on a 'hunters' point of view, I hope it dies swiftly.

I've checked all the avieries and there are prints all over them on the rooves and down on the ground inbetween them. To date they have not caused any harm or damage but I will be keeping a close eye on things especially as the colder weather will be making them more hungry. It's a shame Bobby didn't have a better hold on it; she seems all OK with no damage to her and at 3lb. 7 1/2oz. today she is a little more keener. She had already 'flown' for her rations today of 2 mice and 1 chick.

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3lb. 7 1/2oz. The last couple of days I haven't spent as much time with her as I've been busy shopping and running about trying to get the car sorted!!

 

Today she was very eager, as when I went down with the food pot to feed them all, she stood upright and watched me the whole time. I always feed her last and she has begun to jump across to watch me feed the Saker and Harris, then I go into the Bengals and feed them, usually making them fly to me for theirs.

As I opened her door, she began to shuffle her feet in anticipation, so i pulled the head off 1 chick and called to her................................another quick shuffle and she flew across to me and ate the head on the fist. I put her back towards her perch and she flew back ready for the next flight. I pulled the legs off and offfered her one but at this time she wasn't too interested in a little morsal but as soon as I placed the body on the glove she was on her way I pulled the head off the other chick and tried again but as she had now eaten 1 chick she slowed a little. I had to wiggle the head a few seconds before she came across and ate her reward. I gave her a little praise and then sent her back to her perch. I put the body on the glove but she took a good minute before she decided to fly over. i usually save the legs to the end so I can go to her and give them to her by hand along with a bit of face to face rubbing before locking her up again.

I do think not having the car will put our progress back a little but such is life.

 

A VERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

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They are the only owl EVER to kill a man!!! :good: Gonna take him up the ***** camp later :good:
i f<<<<KIN hate ******

 

 

The fox is a wonderfull animal. It can adapt to different suroundings esily.

 

The fox is stunning to look at and always keeps itself clean.

 

However, because of the damage they do they must be CONTROLLED.

Note i said CONTROLLED not MASSACARED/BLASTED/EXTERMINATED.

 

They are a really wonderfull animal and they should get the respect of other animals such as pheasnts, because theyre just as noble as ano other organism.

 

I am a Gamekeeper and do controll foxes however if i get the opertunity to watch/study them do as long as they are not on my beat!

 

 

BB

 

 

P.S. as ive sung the foxes praises about adaptibility, whats the betting of the fox shooting the rifle pic coming up?

 

 

To be fair I can say, yes I do hate foxes. Why?

 

Firstly when I was ~6-7 a fox got into my rabbits cage, killed it, tore it up and left it there all over the garden for me to find the next day, nice. Secondly, the urban foxes around my house are by far the biggest litterdroppers, every Tuesday morning the road is strewn with rubbish from torn up bags and tipped over bins that are left out for the early collection, and the noise they make is awful. My dog also contracted mange last year from a fox no doubt, costing us in excess of £100 treatment.

 

Do I even need to make a comment on the damage these ginger tossers cause to the meat/game industry?

 

I will conclude with saying, the only thing I would ever feed a fox is something laced with strychnine, but then each to their own I guess

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3lb. 7oz. today and another first. A minor thing but still a further advancement.

on feeding her today, I dropped a head on the floor and she jumped down quickly to claim her freebie so I thought I'd try to get her to jump from floor to glove, as in the past, she's always gone back up to her perch then flown over to me.

I showed her a chick body and without a second glance she jumped up and ate it on the fist. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I threw another head on the ground and again she went down after it and I offered her another body and like the last time, she came up. She took a bite from the body, then went back to her perch almost as if the routine of things was setting in! I called her back for the lower part of the body and back she came again. In all she had 3 chicks today, well it is Christmas and tomorrow I wont be spending very much time with any of the birds as we are eating at the mother-in-laws ho-hum!! :good:

From next week, I must start getting her back out and on the creance.

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3lb. 6 1/2oz. Although feeling pretty sick (swine-flu), I forced myself to weigh and feed the birds as usual. She is very much more aware of my presence now her weight is at an altime low for her. When I open the back door, she is alert and watching me intently; looking at the food pot as I approach the enclosures. When feeding the Saker and Harris, she now jumps to the other ide of the enclosure to see what I'm doing, so I definately think that as weight goes we are near as dammit there!

Today I only offered her the food in peices, the heads, legs and bodies. She came almost immediately when I called her and ate the head on the glove before going back to her perch. I then threw a leg onto the ground for her to get; this phased her a little and she looked at it, then at me as if to say, "why do that?", then jumped down for it. I then offered her a body which she jumped from floor to fist. she took a bite from it and ate that and I slipped the other half back into the palm out of site. She went back to the perch and awaited her next call. In all, we did this for the 2 chicks for today, so in all I got 10 'flights'. Yesterday, she had 2 chicks and a medium weaner rat.

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thank you but we haven't really started the real training yet; so far all I've done is gained her trust to fly to me for her food and be with me in the surroundings that she is now used to. When I try her out in the field with all the other distractions is when the real work starts and the fun begins :good:

 

I have to admit, this has been one of my favourite reads of this year.

Well done Clive, you are doing a great job! :good:

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3lb. 6oz. Although still feeling like death, I weighed the birds and today the sun is shining, with clear blue skies and I though it was time to get Bobby out on the line; so I jessed her up and opened up the line the length of the garden area with from fence to me was just over 16 feet. Without any warm up or close quarter jumps, I placed her on the fence panel and went back to the 'patio' hard stand.

As expected her eyes were everywhere BUT what did suprise me more than anything is that she didn't once try to fly over the fences or the roof etc. I called her and offered her the whole chick and she looked and had a little foot shuffle, then a woodpigeon flew over which she took an interest in, then I called her again but this time she looked up to the sky and watched an airline jet 35000 feet up fly over. I pulled the head of the chick and threw it on the ground beneath her which she quickly jumped down to get. From there, I called her to the fist again and a few seconds later she made her first official outside flight of 15 feet. She took a chunk off the body, then flew back down to the ground and ate it. I still had the yolk sack and legs in my fingers and called her again. now that she has had a little taster she knew what was expected and came up to the fist once more. I gave her a lot of praise and a kiss on the head and took her back and placed her on the fence again. From here, she is able to see to the end of the road through all the other gardens as well as the enclosures behind her and the houses that back on to us etc. I called to her again with another chick but a neighbour 2 doors up came out to see!!! Again she decided to take in the sites a little longer so like the first time, I threw a head on the ground beneath her. Like the first time, she jumped down to it, then looked up at me almost waiting for me to call her...................I wiggled the body over the glove and she was soon on her way again. This perked me up no end, and although I still had 2 chicks in the pot I didn't want to over do it as her weight would probably creep up a little. We went through pretty much the same for her third chick then I put her away. The last chick I had left, I pulled off the head and legs and gave the Harris the body as an extra treatto his daily rations and went back in with Bobby. I hand fed her the head and legs telling her how good she was. Hopefully tomorrow, if the weather is the same, I'll charge up the video

As you say George probably another 2oz off before she is ready to go free but I'm in no rush to get that far just yet; the uicker I can get her out over the feilds the better, then we can really get under way with her training. I'm really pleased with todays effort.

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3lb. 6oz. again so at the moment 3 chicks will hold her steady; tonight and for the next week IF the forecast is to be beleived it is going to drop down to about -5 over night!!

 

I did the same today as yesterday but with not as much enthusiasm from Bobby; she seemed to be looking about considerably more than yesterday which seemed a little strange. I did video about 20 minutes after setting the camera up and managed to crop it down to about 4.

One new little quirk I've found out about her is when she's on the ground, and I approach her she does like my work shoes and trundles after me trying to 'peck' at them!!!!!!

 

not sure what this will look like as on the camera it looks quite bright but on my pc. (old monitor) it looks quite dark!!

 

th_Bobbyoncreance.jpg

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We took her out on the line in the snow again, the boy took his camera but she wasn't too interested in flying much....................................................

 

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He does have a lot to learn about taking his pics...........but he's only 13; one day he might be as good as me :good:

 

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Went and helped a freind fit new equipment on his female Harris hawk and as he hadn't seen Booby before I took her along and tried to get her to fly in his garden.

Well, he also has chickens................................and when I offered her a little piddly day old chick, she looked at me in disgust and carried on gazing at the chickens in the coop!!! Needless to say she didn't fly to me; she did fly down towards the coop and marched up and down in front of it!!

 

This is her staring at the chickens...............................

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This seat IS taken....................

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Bloody paparrazi!

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3lb. 3 1/2oz. the more we seem to do the more responsive she is getting which has been the plan.

The last few days she has changed a little but I can't quite figure out why!! All the time she is flying for her food, she is fine; when I bring her indoors, she's fine but as i start to take her back to her enclosure............................she gives me the 'Great Horned Death grip' and will not let go!!! It is like she wants to either stay indoors or with me!!

The other day, after we'd completed our session on the line, we were going back to the enclosure and on went the 'GHDG' and unfortunately for me she got her rear talon on my little finger a couple of mm's below the nail.........................the pain was not very pleasant I can say, and every time I tried to place her on a perch or fence, she gripped even tighter. I was begining to feel a tad queezy after 5 minutes so brought her back indoors. After a couple of minutes, she'd settled again and relinquished her grip; I let her jump down onto the rug, then I went and run my hand under a cold tap; might have to look into a thicker glove as I have no doubt that she could go through the standard falconry gloves without any real hardship!!!

I'm hoping that this weekend she'll start flying over the field on the line as today I only gave her 2 chicks.

I put Millie (Bengal) on the line first, and Bobby was flying to the front of the enclosure wanting the food, so again, this is a great sign as she is hungry enough to want to fly. I want to take my daughter with me to help in her training, but I'm worried about her grip should she decide to hold on to Dani.

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3lb. 3 1/4oz. Today she was very aggressive towards the Saker and Harris!! On taking them through the pathway to weigh them, Bobby flew at the front and sides with both feet coming through the mesh!!! She did this both on leaving their enclosure and returning. After weighing all the other birds, I was a little tentative on entering her space just incase she wanted to do the same to me but she was daft gentle self.

 

I fed the others, then took her over the field on the line. Yet again, there was so much going on she would come the the glove even though she would look and 'taste' the air! Then something really suprised me; she stood bolt upright bobbing her head and I turned to my left to see a young or smallish fox about 30 yards behind me along the bushes. As I turned around, it froze, then went down almost like a cat about to stalk a bird or something.............................the next thing I knew was Bobby was on her way towards it and the fox jumping back into the bushes. The line is 60 foot so I gently pulled her up as I knew she wouldn't have got the fox (and I didn't want to start off in that way or possibly get injured). I made into her and got her up on the glove before sending her off to the gate, where she was perched. Then we were joined by 2 crows on the other side of the gate in the corral; she took a keen interest in them also, so I walked down to her which meant she had the line to make it to tem if she wanted. I gave her a leg as a tid-bit, then just stood next to her watching the crows. She did make a move but they were watching her so intently that as soon as she began to push off the gate, they were gone. I had to gently pull her up again as I let the line run through my gloved hand, so I was able to tighten up on the line making her land nicely on the ground.

after this, I knew she wasn't going to do any thing, so I got her to jump up to the glove for a chick body, then we made our way home. I put her away, then gave her another chick which she flew for in her enclosure. After today, I have no doubt that as and when I do get her flying free, she will definately kill BUT my biggest concerns are going to be what and will I be able to make in and assist or even remove the quarry!!!

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Being 12 years old, I still maintain that her very early training was well done; then as she got passed on she was then more of a 'cuddly pet', then passed on again and was then left and untouched.............................................................now that I'm doing things with her every day, she is getting into a regular routine and possibly remembering (if they do ) from way back.

I am worried about how she will be when I do eventually get her to fly free; especially as she has shown me that she is looking at dogs 300 yards away!!!

This bird has the power and strength to pick up and carry off 15-20lbs. with ease. That is a Jack Russel or Yorkie......or any number of the 'dinky' dogs. How do I explain that when someone says, 'What a gorgous bird..............................' then she plucks a dog running about and flies off with it or even worse a big dog and rips its face apart!!!! :yes:

Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits, and if anything like this ever did happen, it would break my heart as I know I'd have to have her put to sleep or I'd have to shoot her myself. The publicity would be really damming and bad for 'falconry', and I don't want that on my concience.

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Being 12 years old, I still maintain that her very early training was well done; then as she got passed on she was then more of a 'cuddly pet', then passed on again and was then left and untouched.............................................................now that I'm doing things with her every day, she is getting into a regular routine and possibly remembering (if they do ) from way back.

I am worried about how she will be when I do eventually get her to fly free; especially as she has shown me that she is looking at dogs 300 yards away!!!

This bird has the power and strength to pick up and carry off 15-20lbs. with ease. That is a Jack Russel or Yorkie......or any number of the 'dinky' dogs. How do I explain that when someone says, 'What a gorgous bird..............................' then she plucks a dog running about and flies off with it or even worse a big dog and rips its face apart!!!! :yes:

Don't get me wrong, I love her to bits, and if anything like this ever did happen, it would break my heart as I know I'd have to have her put to sleep or I'd have to shoot her myself. The publicity would be really damming and bad for 'falconry', and I don't want that on my concience.

 

 

IF you can get me a picture with her 20 feet up with a yelping rugrat between her talons, that will make my year worth while.

 

But keep the thread up!, it's always a great read!

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