Having not done it, I can only surmise what basic methods you could try. One is kite training and the other would be to put her into a soar and make sure "game" got up below her.JMHO
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion................ and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish."
Mine has soared on small feilds natuarly and I hate it when he does. Most of the edges around my feilds are extreamly thick and if he sees somthing in the next one over it can take me some time to get there. I can't tell you anything about getting them to soar except that there was an article about kiting small eastern feilds in the summer NAFA Hawk Chalk its worth a look.
I dont know anything about passage birds,as its illegal over here,but its relatively easy to hunt a Harris on the soar.The most important factors are breeze and the Hawk pairing with a good flushing dog.You dont get much better than a German Wirehaired,although the training of one almost drove me to despair. Theres a member of our club in Yorkshire who hunts a cast of Harrises on the moors up there whose birds stay up on the soar for hours hunting Hares over dogs.When I asked him how he managed to train them he said he trained them by flying them over the edges of cliffs. A bit awkward for me as we,ve got none down my way... Going back to what I was saying about breeze....Flying a Harris,now I havent got a hunting dog,in calm air is virtually hopless as the Hawk gets uninterested in everything and will just land by my side on the floor and follow me on foot ;D. In a decent breeze though she,ll follow the two miles home and eventually take stand in the trees by my house as I walk up the lane.... Good Luck... Allan.
I did this just yesterday. I had just finished going over my ussuale rabbit feild and was geting frustrated as the lack of game I have found yesterday was pathetic without one good slip at all and this feild is one the ones that allways have rabbit and Jacks in it. Anyways, I was headed home will practicaly all of Moja's food ration for the day and decided to go see if she would to a little slope soaring off of this giant hill with a cliff on the way there. I never had done this before an i had no clue on If Moja would even do anything. It was awsome, once I mangaed to drive my little two wheel drive truck up the steep incline (another story) after I got her out of the box she took right off the glove and hung in the up draft for a bit looking a little confused then landed, I picked her back up and threw her of the side again, this time she hung right over the top of my head and started going up around 50 ft, it was so cool! She then dived down in a perfect stoop at the bit of quail I tossed out for her and them had her do it again about five more times. I would have spent the rest of the day just watching her go up but the food ran out. She clearly loved doing this as when I was taking her back to the truck she started bate back toward the cliff. Next time I go out i'll try to have a baggie for her to slam in the stoop and hopfully I can get her to do it in the rabbit feilds as there are some nice open ones that would be perfect for this.
So my analisis from my sponser on how to get your bird soaring, ill add more to it once i really get Moja going up
Find a nice cliff on a brezzy day toss her off and enjoy the show. Don't give her any reward unless she is right over you and even better if she is climbing. After she has had some succsess from baggies in the stoop graduate to more gentle slopes or places with good thermals + game and get her slamming anything she can catch.
sorry for all the spelling errors but I suck at spelling
My soul is sick of chicken soup, it wants some chocolate!
Don't be surprised at it. Soaring is what nature built your hawk for. Im not sure if i will be able to get my bird taking game from the soar this season or not, but your story is entertaining
The process your sponsor described is pretty close to what i had in mind too. Although finding baggies is going to be difficult.
Also, attempting to get your bird to soar in "small fields" as FB asked is going to be a different story all together. Slope soaring and thermalling is one thing. In an open field with no updraft the bird is going to want to land.
I would fly Razor on a windy day walking around beating brush and occasionally calling him down for a tidbit every few 10 minutes or so. Watching him lock his wings and dive down from 100 feet was Awesome! I have some of his dives on film... If I ever figure out how to get it on the computer I'll share with you guys.
You know me... I shoot for the impossible and hit somewhere around average
I really dont know how im going to go about doing it. My sponser suggested that I find a wide open field with no tree's or fence's and teach him to lure fly. Once he gets the lure flying consept he'll naturally wait on waiting for me to bring it out. I can then kick up sparrows.
Post by Falcon (I) on Feb 13, 2005 20:58:59 GMT -5
From what Ive been reading is you should try and train kestrels like a long wing wich means they should be able to wait on as well. I was reading an article on training a falcon. It might be harder with a kestrel though since they like to perch and dive.
I have done a bit of this. My last bird was great at it her second season going up to nearly 400ft at times. I just started doing it today with my new bird.
Basicly I get them down to weight where they are following right on top of me. Then take them out on a windy day. I put them up on the edge of a large feild with nothing in it, just flat ground. Then i walk across to the rabbit cover on the other side which has no trees. I run across the feild and try and get somthing moving ASAP. As the bird follows she will usaly gain some height and hopfully by the time she is flying over you a bunny will bust out. I guess this could also be done with baggies, but I have never tried it.
I must stress though if you try this make sure the bird is well wed to the lure. She needs to come instantly to that thing as soon as it is shone from just about any distance. Today didn't work out to well for me. I put her up and soon got her into a soar around some little hills, but nothing moved and she just floated off down wind. She finaly put down in some trees 400yards away. The brush was way to thick for me to get to her so I pulled the lure and started swinging it and she pumped her way all the way back and I called it a day. It was just way to windy, gusting up to 35mph.
Scarlett will soar for a couple minutes at a time over one of the fields I hunt. It needs to be windy and the wind has to be coming out of the right direction. She's caught a couple that way so she'll probably keep trying. Normally she needs to be at the high end of her hunting weight or she'll perch. You're right about the lure though,I had to bring her down once when she caught a thermal from about 500 ft. That was as close to losing her as I've come this year. It's not for the faint hearted. Kurt
From what Ive been reading is you should try and train kestrels like a long wing wich means they should be able to wait on as well. I was reading an article on training a falcon. It might be harder with a kestrel though since they like to perch and dive.
To get Kestrels to "wait on," there are a number of different things you can do. The most successful way I've found, is to take her out on a brisk, windy day. Naturally, kestrels hover when the wind is against them. Find a field where trees are sparse and put her in one of those trees. Next, walk upwind of her and pop the lure out. She should immediately fly to try to get the food on the lure. Because it is windy, she will struggle through the wind. Just about when she is overhead, hide the lure. She should stay there for about 4-5 seconds. At the latest you think she'll stay hovering, throw the lure back out. Let her go down and eat. Do that same thing only while she is hovering,walk a few steps and see if she follows, while stretching out the time she has to stay up there. Again, throw the lure out. Do this many times so she get the idea of, "Hey, every time I 'wait on,' I get food." when that happens, your in good shape to pop the lure out, hide it, get her hovering, and flush some sparrows. Soon she will be slamming those suckers to the ground, even without the wind. There are many ways, but I described the one that works best for me. I'm not sure if this will work for buteos or not, but you can try!!