What kind of falcon did you hunt with Mt? Can you do it with hawks?
About once per month I see a Cooper's or sharp shinned blast through the flock of juncos at the feeder. That tells me they're probably at it daily. Just recently saw a pair of kestrals too.
Raptors are awesome, especially acipiters with the beak notch.
Most of my hunting is with hawks, to tell the truth. This season I hunted with a male goshawk, which I just recently transferred to a friend in Seattle who will fly him next year. I'm planning to fly a female goshawk this coming season.
I have flown female redtails more seasons than any other bird. They're fantastic birds; large enough to handle large quarry like jack rabbits, readily available, easy to train, robust and easy to keep healthy and fit.
If you skip ahead to the 19:15 mark in this video, you can see one of my redtails hunting squirrels. Some of the close-up shots are not my bird, they used a "stunt double" for some of those. The filming was done over 4-5 days, and my bird caught several squirrels while being filmed, but they had a script to follow, so edited those chases out... The squirrel that she shagged out of the nest was actually caught a few seconds after it left the nest...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwCiAaP0MGMI've also flown kestrels, prairie and peregrine falcons, and a prairie falcon / gyrfalcon hybrid. I've got gobs of coopers around, but have never flown one (although I've been mighty tempted). When I can drive a few hours north to find goshawks it's kind of tough to convince myself to fly a coopers instead... We also have a few sharpies and merlins around, so I can see myself trying them someday too. I generally prefer the larger birds though; I prefer to hunt rabbits, squirrels, crows, ducks, and pheasants instead of the sparrows and starlings that are suitable for the smaller birds.
