2014/15 Season

[pointer 543]

I only got fifteen minutes after work and the hawk missed a few moorhens in thick cover around a stream. My mate had been out with his hawk a few fields away and had caught a rat. I took her back out with the lamp but two foxes were working the fields. One rabbit was making its way across to the hedge and although it was pretty far away I slipped the hawk. She wasn't able to close the distance fast enough and it made it to safety.

[pointer 543]

I couldn't fly my hawk on Friday due to having a works night out to attend.

Yesterday I went to a few places with her and took the pointer. The problem with her refusing rabbit and only flying game birds has had me wondering what to do about it. I thought she might just need a touch of weight reduction but before I did that I wanted to make absolutely sure that her behaviour wasn't down to her being silly about the dog again. She didn't get to catch anything yesterday and only one rabbit was found which got to ground a few feet away but she was keen on the pheasants and moorhens. After seeing her crash down into cover with the dog under her and definitely looking to the dog to find moorhens I'm sure she is ok with him. Twice she was waiting on above whilst the dog was on point so she knows what he does.

 

I then put the dog away and drove to the dales to try for a rabbit. We were facing strong winds and a dark rain cloud was minutes away but a rabbit was seen and the hawk flew after it. She looked to be going to catch it but it became clear she wasn't giving it 100%. I don't know why she isn't taking rabbits at a weight she has been doing well at for weeks but that's what's happening.

 

Today at a lower weight she seemed keen for rabbits and battled against the wind to catch one that sprang out from a patch of tall grass. I had planned to just catch one and feed up but as she had caught it so early on i thought I'd go for two but this was a mistake and we struggled to find rabbits, even the sets were empty and the couple that did bolt got away and the ferret killed another one possibly two. Whilst I was digging down my hawk went awol and I could hear her in a wooded area. I eventually got to her and when she wouldn't return to the glove ignoring food I went for a search about and spotted the pheasant she was looking for. It got away. We then ferreted an open set but the wind was really blowing now, luckily the rabbit was caught and she got a good feed from it. I had thought after rabbit number 1 that it was a weight issue with her and that it was sorted but I'm not sure. I'm thinking that if game birds are around she simply favours them and it might be something I have to live with. Going on rabbit only land ( almost impossible) or flying off the fist at rabbits is my next option.

 

Either way she got two rabbits today when they were hard to find and had to cope with strong gusts of wind.

[Accip74 7,112]

I think you will see a difference when the temps drop mate, don't know about there, but it was like a summers day here yesterday......a drop of 10+ degrees at the same weight will probably see her much more committed.....

....but you can't grumble too much mate, she is killing regularly!

[pointer 543]

Yeah it's warm, if it hadn't been windy it would have been like a summers day.

 

I'm enjoying this season and the hawk is seeing quarry regularly, something she didn't get to do for much of last season.

[pointer 543]

A couple of rats for her this week, the last one was a bit tricky at the bottom of a bush with a poor hold and as I ran over it looked to be biting the Hawks leg but it only chewed the anklet up. Still a lot of rats about this year, I could have done with them a few years back when I sometimes struggled to find rats for my team of dogs.

I only managed to get out for a few minutes after work yesterday but only wanted one flight. I got it but the pheasant took her away across the field and as I got to her it flushed again and they were gone out of sight. It was getting dark and started to rain so I was left trying to get a fix on her with the receiver whilst calling and whistling. Thankfully she came flying in from the opposite direction to where I thought she would be. A quick phone call had a mate pick us up and we got a lift back to the motor.

 

All good fun.

[pointer 543]

It was already nearly dark by the time we got onto the first field and with a fairly strong wind blowing I knew I was pushing my luck. My hawk was immediately soaring around over the waste ground and stream before flying down low and out of sight. This bit of land is difficult to cross with small but deep ponds and a stream to cross. This took time and I couldn't find my hawk when I got to where I had last seen her. As it was now dark I had to bring out the receiver and tracked her down to the edge of a stream having eaten a surprisingly large amount of Moorhen. This ground is bad enough to negotiate through in daylight so I had no choice but to go around it all and then walk back to the motor.

[pointer 543]

My hawk is still overweight from eating the moorhen two days ago. I took her out this morning but after a lazy flight at another moorhen she went into a tree and stayed there for ten minutes. It's a shame as the weather was perfect.

This afternoon I took my pointer out with the lurcher up the dales. She's too young to do anything but I like to have pups out and about and seeing sheep. Before going home we called to see a farmer to ask if we can fly the Hawks on his land and he gave us permission. It's a big bit of land on bracken and tall grass covered hills perfect for soaring.

[pointer 543]

The hawk was still overweight this morning but I tried to get her to do something. Unfortunately she was worse than yesterday and hardly moved for an hour before refusing to come out of a tree. After waiting ten minutes I had the pointer hunt through the cover thinking that if he flushed something she might move. He soon found a pheasant and she did fly after it but with no real attempt to catch. Luckily she landed on a small bush and I was able to grab her jesses and take her home. I hadn't wanted to stay out so long and quickly had to drive home, get washed and changed before getting to the Cenotaph a few minutes before the Remembrance Day Service started.

 

Some things are more important than hunting..................

[pointer 543]

I didn't want to just starve the hawk back to its hunting weight so I fed her a small amount of rabbit yesterday expecting her to be lower today but she wasn't. I wasn't too bothered as I didn't expect to do anything with her but I'd seen a rabbit in a field whilst walking the dogs by torchlight so went back with the hawk and a lamp and it was still there. A young rabbit that was sitting tight far enough from home to ensure it would be caught easily. It sprang up and the hawk was off after it, she closed the distance but then pulled away and sat in the field while the rabbit ran to the hedge, it didn't go into the hedge just stopped and sat there. Maybe I should have given her nothing to eat yesterday. After a good start to the season things are going badly wrong lately.

I need to get back on track as we have been getting good weather, I have access to great land and there's enough quarry to hunt so I have no excuses.........apart from that bloody moorhen lol.

[pointer 543]

I do like to see a pointer on point lol.

[pointer 543]

She was still a bit overweight but I'm desperate to get some hunting done. She ignored a few rabbits at the end of the beam and flew half-heartedly at two others but eventually a young rabbit was spotted at the side of a dry stone wall and she caught it. It wasn't sporting just a pure mugging but I felt she needed a kill and I let her feed from it. Not too much as I need her on weight for the weekend. We then ran a few rabbits with a mates young lurcher.

[pointer 543]

She had another two rats yesterday which would normally be fine but she dragged one into a bush and had broke into it by the time I got to her. This put her overweight today and it showed as two rabbits that the pointer found escaped. Not much was sat out so we went ferreting. We ended the day having bagged seven rabbits between the two Hawks and witnessed plenty of entertaining flights where rabbits escaped.

It's the first time I've taken my hawk here and it's certainly a place worth visiting again.

[pointer 543]

She was an ounce over weight this afternoon and I thought she might still hunt ok but I was wrong. I should know better she has always had to be bang on or you might as well take a budgie hunting. She was slow to follow and only came to life when my pointer put up pheasants but even then she wasn't trying hard. She eventually caught a moorhen.

[pointer 543]

After a good start the last few weeks have been terrible with my hawk refusing quarry or just not being properly on form. I had let her weight go up and then slowly brought it down until I got her going well again. The problems I've had are my doing as sometimes the hawk has been somewhere near her hunting weight must has lacked the appetite to kill.

Anyway after going back to basics she nailed three rabbits on Saturday and tried hard for others. I let her have a big feed from her last bunny which meant she was too heavy to fly yesterday but I'm not bothered about that. My mates hawk caught two as well.

 

I'm still making mistakes but learning all the time. She should have a higher kill count after so much stuff has got away but I'll get it right in the end. It's basically the whole weight control thing but not just what the scales read at a given time. I knew that but couldn't seem to get it right sometimes. Anyway if it was easy it wouldn't be such a fascinating sport.

 

Currently on 62 kills which isn't too bad seeing as I keep messing up.

[pointer 543]

It's been too foggy or raining on our good areas for lamping but my hawk got to fly at a couple locally but didn't manage to catch anything. What rabbits are left around here know what a beam of light means and no longer sit still waiting to be crept up on. Even so the flights were good to watch.

Today the thick fog made things difficult and there was only one place that we felt we would get anything done. Rabbits were hard to find with most of the holes covered in cob webs, we also came across dead rabbits. I'm thinking VHD is back as the population has dropped. Anyway after a while both Hawks had got a rabbit each but the fog was getting worse. We headed to some open sets on grass fields but as we got near we heard voices in the valley not far away and then a lot of shooting started, there was no way I was going to let my hawk fly through fog towards that even if it's unlikely a rabbit would make it that far. So we tried a couple of sets on the way back to the car but they were empty, my hawk flew after a vole but it got into the rushes, she stamped about a bit and flushed it out before catching it. My hawk was wet by now as the ground is sodden after this weeks downpours. Once home I tried to find a pheasant for her but she didn't get near to the two that got up. She then flew up into a tall tree before taking off and flying out of sight. After a bit of searching I found her with a moorhen. Luckily she had it in a thick hedge and hadn't been able to start eating it.

 

Not a very good day but in a week of bad weather and a few misses I'm not complaining..........not much anyway lol.