Improve accuracy in the air

[profalconer]

I am flying a male harris hawk and will be really working on quail with him soon. I decided to try something to help him learn to strike in the air with accuracy. What I started doing was tossing chunks of food in the air. He would blast off the fist and try and catch it in the air. At first he missed a lot, then he got better at it. Now I am tossing a quail head about 15ft out and 10ft up and he catches it before it even starts to fall. I have noticed a speed increase of the fist as well, hitting top speed pretty quickly. A 15ft slip on a jack and he is on its butt in short order. I think that any hawk that hunts from the fist especially young birds that don't have very good footing in the air could benefit from this with a side effect of speed. I will be starting to fly quail next week, he has flown quail before but hasn't caught yet. I will let you know if I think it has actually helped for hawking quail. I only see one real downside to this if you make it too difficult at first the bird will probably learn that it can wait until the food hits the ground. Let me know what you guys think!

[ikcus]

I do something similar without the flight from the fist. I toss chunks of meat above the head of my RT while she sits on her bow perch. She has learned to catch the chunks in the air and then lands back on the bow perch or the ground. The falconer that taught me this had a RT that ended up catching an annoying dive bombing mocking bird from it's bow perch, and a few crabby crows while perched in the field. I also know some gos hawkers that will do quail baggies inside the house....but it does piss off the wife......and the carpet.

[Bob Dale]

I'm wouldn't go along with in the house for the same reeasons, but i served quail, too. If you can find some one who pen raises cortunix quail, they work great. Their flight pattern is a little different than a bob white's. They tend to fly hard straight and low. Just perfect for entering a new bird especially if you have a nice open field to use.