falconry courses

[primrose 4]

i am a pest controller and i am looking to go on a falconry course in the south west hopefully using birds of prey as part of my business

[mick1212 389]

i think your best deciding what birds would suit your needs and find someone who flies them and get out with them for a while youll learn alot more good luck in what you decide

[primrose 4]

thanks mick the bird i would be using is a harris hawk

[CityHunter.uK 12]

I would think again there is not really enough work for flying birds of prey as there are loads of companies already doing it. You may get some work. However the bird is there all the time and actually interferes with your pest control work. Unlike our guns and poison etc. You cant leave the bird until there is work for it you have to house feed and keep it flying otherwise you will go to the job you have got the bird for and look like a right plank when it buggers off, or sits up while you call it. I would suggest you get some people in your area who already keep and fly birds and hire them for any bird work you manage to secure. Bird work is time consuming and most of the nationals that do have good bird work such as landfills have all pretty much gone to national companies.

 

When flying a bird for pest control work you need to assess all the things that can go wrong and still they do. You will also be flying your bird in situations that display and hobby falconers would never dream of. My first bird I had that I used for work I spent 6 months getting flying great took it on a job put him up he was caught by a gust of wind and disappeared. The wind picked up and when I tracked him down he had broken his leg I took him to the vets and they had to put him down as there was no sensation in his foot.

 

Job was worth £50 bird cost me £250 as it was a male harris plus 6 months of food training and bonding £600 on telemetry. The vet cost me about £30 to have him put down. Needless to say I was gutted not just by the loss of the bird that I saw more as a pet than a tool but at the cost and my own stupidity. With more experience and foresight I would have gone out from inside the court yard area and checked the weather conditions more thoroughly. Inside the court yard was a breeze but out of the court yard and on the roof where the bird went too it was a lot stronger and got stronger as the search went on.

 

No falconry course is going to teach you these things or the best way to use a bird for disposal it will give you a grounding in the basic care and needs of a BOP and in this its very valuable thing to do. Bird control is not as straight forward as I can fly a bird so I can control pest birds.

 

What you going to do if you cant fly due to weather conditions?

How long you going to fly for?

Are you going to hunt the pest species?

Are there non target species?

Are there people and dogs about?

Can you get access to all the area where you bird may go?

What are you going to do if the bird gets injured/killed?

Will your bird actually frighten the problem species?

Can you cancel the rest of the day to search for a missing bird?

Flying through the moult?

 

I know I am appearing negative here but I am merely trying to point out the things you may not have considered. I hope your planning on getting a bird because you want to fly bird as well as use it for work as I will be very surprised if you find enough work to fly the bird as much as it needs.

 

ATB