Co-mentor

[mgmenager 0]

Hi guys/girls

 

On the 20th of October I bought my first Harris hawk, I named her Malu, she was at the time 19 weeks old and was kept on a open aviary. Her weight was 2.445. At that time I had a mentor (that breeds Harris) far from were I live (I am in Maidstone) and I was following him for longer than a year. My relationship with him seems to have been deteriorating since we had a problem with one of the birds I was going to get from him ( on the day of pick up he let me unattended while he was doing other things for longer than an hour resulting in the bird talon been damaged). Since then I have been in touch with him but making my steps a little bit unsupported. Malu weights now 1.910, she is flying free, I have her free lofted and she seems very happy.

 

To the point:

I text him yesterday asking to go flying together with her fhh as he has told me numerously that the best way to start her hunting is with an experience bird (peer support i suppose) and he replied that he prefer me to fly with someone else first. I do not really understand and maybe I am too naive... I am also reading between lines that he does not want me around anymore.

 

Can anyone guide me in practice through this critical time please

 

Thanks all in advance for the support

 

Marcos

[grovsey 74]

first of id never buy a bird from an open fronted avery as u want a seclutioned bird ,how did the bird injure itself with you being on its own ?

[jasper65 6]

first of id never buy a bird from an open fronted avery as u want a seclutioned bird ,how did the bird injure itself with you being on its own ?

 

I'll second that, a lad in this area picked up a female Harris bred from a opend fronted enclosure! it now screams for England and has done virtually from the first manning stages. having said that I did three this year totaly enclosed with one that fired up calling, the other two and totaly silent, they're all out of the same aviary with two going on the same day. I think the one that fired up screaming picked it up when he was cut down on weight in full view of a mature female in a open front flight infront of him, it wasn't long before the pair of them started talking to each other........

[Hammerwoodfalconry 1]

well , i would just like to warn you not to be taken in by this mans story , it is a total fabrication , his mentor is a good friend of mine and he was trained 22 years ago by my father , who was his and my mentor at the same time , he has gone on to become a fantastic falconer , who is well known in the local falconry area , he breeds all his Harris hawks in open fronted aviaries , facing away from the house and people , i own 2 that came from his pair and neither scream and both are fantastic hunting hawks , taking well over 50 head a season , none ferreted .

this guy spent a year going out with my friend and gaining advice , he then ordered a male harris hawk from him , when he wanted to collect the bird at 15 weeks old , he was told to wait , as he ran the risk of getting a bird screaming if he took it at such a young age ,he was advised by him and me not to take it until 18 weeks at the very earliest , he refused to leave it a few weeks more and demanded we catch the bird and jess it up , this was done again against advice , he was then left to man the bird in the hood , for about an hour , he again however went against advice and removed the hawks hood , the bird then continued to bait ,with this Marcus decided to yo-yo the bird to get back on the fist , this again was done against all advice , after half an hour my friend went out and asked if he was ok , to which he replied YES .

after an hour we went and again made sure he was ok , on inspecting the hawk we saw that the bird had slight swelling to the foot and a sligt bruising , we cast the bird and took a closer look , at which point we decided that the bird needed to see the vet , it was at this point that Marcus , said , oh that ones damaged i don't want it then , not the response you want from a novice buying his first bird im sure you will agree , he then said oh you have another bird in there , i will have that one , this is when my friend refused to sell this man a further bird !!!

 

the hawk was taken to the vet and x-rays taken , the result was just bruising , he was put back in the aviary with the other youngsters and parents and stayed there for a futher 6 weeks , to give the foot chance to heel .

 

at no point did Marcus text,ring or even visit to ask how the bird was doing or what had happened to him .

 

he then again against advice went out and bought a second hand female harris hawk , that someone was selling , he phoned and was given advice on training and taken out by my friend on 2 seperate occasions through the birds training on the creance , he was told that thbe bird needed to be around the 1lb 15.5oz mark to get flying free and entered , he refused to listen to this and went om holiday for 2 weeks leaving the 14 year old boy next door to look after and by all accounts fly his bird , this resulted in his bird almost dieing as it was 1lb 6.5oz on his return , he tried to phone my friend but he was in italy on bussiness , so couldn't respond as quick as this guy would like , so he went on another froum and slated my friend to all who would listen , on my friends return he phoned marcus and he told him that he had flown the hawk at this weight and it was really bad , my friend told him to feed the bird up and rest it , never to do this again etc etc .

Marcus then went and visited my friend and asked why he was a little frosty with him , my friend explained , but Marcus couldn't see he had done anything wrong .

 

he has since Slatted my friend to anyone who'd listen and wonders why my friend will no longer be his mentor ? there has been alot more than what i have said , but i think thats enough for now and hopefully enough for you all to realise that this man should not have a bird of prey and is bad news if you get involved with him in any way , he also refuses to buy equipment that is made for falconry and instead chooses to fashion something himself , this will result in the bird getting injured or worse , he is also planning on going on holiday for a futher 2 weeks , leaving the boy in charge , again against advice , so beware of this man, he is bad news and will use your advice as a stick to beat you with and probably won't listen anyway !!!

Edited February 2, 2012 by Hammerwoodfalconry

[BEARINATOR 2,868]

Leaving a bird in the care of a kid

[reddawn 2,173]

no offence mate, but if somebody come to my house for pup or a ferret was treating the pup against the advice i just gave him, i think id a fooked the person off there an then, with there money

 

i have always admired the way yous falconry folks use mentors, i think the ferreting game an dog game could both benefit from suche schemes, i have also heard a lot of good things said about the way yous do things, both from folk who have been mentoring folk an the newbies themseves, shame it dont always work out...

 

 

 

[reddawn 2,173]

Leaving a bird in the care of a kid

 

is that any worse than leaving the bird in the care of a newbie, knowing he is doing things wrong an yet not saying anything seems a lot of mistakes where made, on both parts imo

[BEARINATOR 2,868]

Leaving a bird in the care of a kid

 

is that any worse than leaving the bird in the care of a newbie, knowing he is doing things wrong an yet not saying anything seems a lot of mistakes where made, on both parts imo

 

Spot on and you are right about the dog and ferreting game as well, it would be a better game if people helped newbies out rather than slagging them off when they mess up . I know my boss off here would mentor me when I get my red tail and he has 12 birds or something himself.

 

I'll admit I posted with out reading the full post properly but I for one wouldn't leave a bird in the care of a kid who obviously hasn't got any knowledge of them

[Hammerwoodfalconry 1]

well maybe read it again , this guy has had over a years tuition , thats a years tuition , he has been out week in week out with trained falconers , he has handled hawks , flown them , read about them ,watched DVD's on them , so he wasn't a total newbie , he was left in the care of the hawk for a while , he damaged that hawk , end off .

in all honesty you are right on the fact that he shouldn't have been alowed to have that bird at that time and made to wait for a few more weeks , but after more than a year in this guys tuition , he had become a friend of my mates , so then to say no , seemed a little mean , he was made aware of the facts a couple of times , so new what he should of done .

so when you sale a ferret or pup to someone with limited experience , you have them move in with you for the next 6 weeks , until they have trained that animal , of course not it isn't practical to do that .

the guy mentoring , has been flying birds for 22 years , has flown all manner of long,short and broad wings , he has also bread many birds and sold many birds , you don't have people driving from Scotland to the south coast to buy a £300 Harris hawk , because you don't know what your doing , you also don't offer to mentor someone , for them to ignore your advice and then Slate you off for it , i am just trying to defend a good guy , from a bad mouthing from some twit who hasn't got what he wants , read it again about , the fact the bloke busted a birds foot , then threw it to one side , without a care in the world , then left his new bird in the care of a 14 year old boy , who had never seen a hawk until a few weeks before , then dropped its weight till it almost died , then came on here and has the cheek to slate a guy that has taken over a year of his time , free of charge to take him out and teach him the rights and wrongs ,only for him to ignore , the fact is this guy also neglected to tell anyone that he had done all of this and said there was a problem with the birds talon , not he had damaged the hawks foot , anyway just thought you should all know what a load of rubbish he is talking thats all .

[Hammerwoodfalconry 1]

just wanted to add the fact that this guy has also gone on all the free forums where he can remain nameless and faceless and slate my mate off , instead of going on the paid for forums where me mate is well known , as he knows he would of been told to do one , because this guy is well respected and a Very good falconer , i agree that some mistakes have been made on both points to some extent , the biggest being that my mate has wasted over a year trying to help someone who stabs him in the back as soon as he gets a chance oh and by the way he also took some equipment that he never paid for , when asked if he had it , he denied he had it or took it and even acused another falconer of taking it , a really nice bloke ah ?

[wayne225tt 2]

Sounds to me that ur friend did all he could in trying to prep a newbie before selling him a bird , which in a lot of ways shows good character of your friend anyway as he's obviously not money hungry and just selling a bird on a wim.

 

Also it sounds like this bloke was inpatient and one of these people that as soon as they get something the think there the expert now and not willing to listen. It's just such a shame that a bird has ended up in the middle of all this