jon b

No contest... A Hawk for the Bush by Jack Mavrogordato

The birds probley gone from hunting and being handled weighed and transported every day to being stuck in a free loft situation....Hes bored and lonely,... of course hes calling. This is the major fault with free lofting, if your not carfull he may even become agresive as hes a first year bird. I dont recomend freelofting for juvies, If they are well manned then there should be no problem moulting him out on a bow. You can continue to handle him dayly and keep him active with jump ups and amused with carriage.Its harder work for you but..honestly youll have a better bird to start the season wi

Are they both entered?

R.I.P. "The Wicked Witch of the East"

Thanks for all the good wishes chaps, Ive been very impressed by all your replys.!!! Ill start another thread and keep you updated with the little guys progress. At the moment hes just sitting on the glove hateing me...this will pass Im sure..hes only just out of the breeding loft.Ive a pal flying a cast of males so as soon as hes had a few on his own the plan is to get him up with them as make hawks. Then "The skys the limit"

Thankyou for that reply Jasper. Ive taken a bit of flak for my action, but still belive I was right!! She was developing into quite a bird, taking partridge off the glove and off the soar not to mention pheasant on the rise out of the suagarbeet The really good news is that a VERY VERY good friend has just presented me with a 12week old male because he to has been there and done that. At least I sharnt be compareing him to the female I lost or indeed trying him at a "Sarah".....but its definatly gonna be fun!!!!

I didnt decide to put the bird down lightly....she was not a bird to have been bred from for other reasons and a life in a loft is NOT agood one for a Harris whos used to hunt four or five days a week!!!! It was abad break on a joint with bone through the muscule and skin. I dont think that Ill ever know exatly what happened that day but feel that the sinariow suggested is the best I can hope for under the curcumstances. Possibly it dose prove my point in that if hawks/dogs arnt tested to the limit then we wont improve them. Maybe there was a weakness in that blood line, maybe it was just bad

Recently I posted a reply to Hagrids question "Are female harris good on hares"....Well at the time I had a intermewed female who had taken two brown hares. AS a postscript to my story I have to tell you that I flew her at hares again on Friday before leaving her for the weekend with a very experienced mate, only to return on Monday to find that she had a badly shattered leg....she was put down the same night!! The only explaination we could come upwith is that on the Friday she sustained a hairline fracture in a tussle with "puss" and over the weekend in strange surroundings she had bated an

Giving advice is a dangerous thing to do....but heres a thought for you keep him at the wieght he was on when he was behaving himself but fly him later in the day than normal. They will be a little more desperate to eat if they know the daylight is going and they havent fed....same applys to entering to quarry. Dont let the bird train you!!! Harris are smart birds and dont miss a trick