BREEDING PROJECT

My newest falconry project is one that I've been wanting to start since the day I heard about breeding raptors in captivity. Raptor propagation is a big part of modern falconry here in the states, even though we dont rely as heavily on it as some other countries. I am a supporter of wild take, and I find that trapping a wild hawk for falconry is one of the finer joys in life.....but I've always wanted to produce my own birds as well.

The harris hawk, from what Im told, is relatively easy to breed in captivity. It also happens to be one of my favorite raptors! So when I found myself in possesion of two good harris hawks the temptation to finally apply for a propagation permit was simply more than I could bear. And now here I sit on what I hope is the verge of a succesful breeding season. Im still getting things lined out but the project is well on its way. Below you will find some photos of my new facilities, and hopefully as the summer goes along there will be pictures of eggs, and babies and all the things that proceed them!

I will keep you posted.

HAWKING 07-08 continued....

Its times like this that I wish I kept a more accurate Journal durring the hawking season. I recall the year in detail, but many of the little things that I'd like to add here are lost to my memory. This post is devoted to an outing that was very memorable and one that I enjoyed more than most.

I had several falconers visit from around Oklahoma on this particular morning. Rabbits were hard to find around the central parts of OK, but we had enough to go around out here and with a few phone calls and a little planning Rob, Mitch, Ryan, Walter, Jere, Eric and two others whos names excape me, came out to do a little rabbit hawking. We were accompanied by a friend of mine named David Cantrell who is an excellent photographer and he captured many of the great moments from that day on camera.

Among the birds flown were two goshawks (1 finnish, and 1 north american), a redtail, 3 harris hawks, and a kestrel. We took 3 rabbits, and a sparrow....wich may not seem like a lot, but the quality of the flights and the quality of the company makes them stand out above the quantity in my mind.

I could recall those flights in writing, but I will simply let the photos do the talking for me!

HAWKING 07-08

I might as well take this chance to catch up on last hawking season. I started the year out looking for a nice dark Harlans, or maybe even a Kriders. But when I was offered a chance to fly a tiercel harris hawk, I figured I better take it! I had flown a couple females, and I was anxious to compare the males performance to theirs.

Anyway, the season began with me re-manning and training a 12 year old harris who had not been flown for 2 years. I named him Master Chief, after the main character in the popular xbox game trilogy "Halo". Within a month we were taking rabbits and as soon as I felt we were becoming more comfortable as a team I started trying him on birds. He never caught any quail, but it was not for a lack of trying! The only quail we encountered were early in our season, when Chief was still out of shape......but even then he pulled feathers off one. He did excell at catching pigeons, sparrows and starlings, though not always in the traditional fasion! I flew him for only three short months and still managed to take a fair amount of game.

The last 2 weeks I flew Chief, I tried flying him in a cast with my newly acquired female harris "Tink". Tink is a big girl, flying around 35 ounces and compared to Chiefs little 24 ounces, I was sure if anyone would cause problems for the pair it would be Tink. I was quite wrong, and soon found that Chief simply would not allow her in the field. He was extremely aggresive toward her, and I ended up finishing the season flying them seperately. I contribute a lot of his behavior to the fact that he had been hunting those fields for several months and was probably just being territorial, because he will cooperate with a larger group of birds.

In any case, the two will hopefully prove themselves as a breeding pair this summer (more on that later) But until then, here are some photos from our hunting season!

Kicking things off!

Well, here I am again writing stuff down on the internet! Lots of things to report I guess you could say, and Im going to try to stay organized. I've been pretty much focusing on breeding my new harris hawks lately. The preperations for that project have been intense to say the least, and there will be pics of that coming soon, as well as some good "eye candy" from this past hawking season. Anyway, stay tuned and I will keep you posted......Chris