Close up encounter with Hawk

[Hangtime]

..and some days the bird gets you.

[Suave]

Originally posted by Hangtime
I have a friend that has a couple of African Grey parrots.

They toejam all over her, her house, her furniture.. the place is always a stinky mess.

She's very proud of their vocabularys and docile nature.

I looked around her house again and decided she's just a lil brighter than the birds. But not much.

There's a reason the phrase "Bird Brain' is an insult.

Yeah they have no control over their bowels, thats why I don't have one .

[Saurdaukar]

Originally posted by Suave
Yeah they have no control over their bowels, thats why I don't have one .

My car would beg to differ.

[Eagler]

nice bird

once stopped and pick up a hawk that was clipped by a truck

he was so stunned he just perched on my arm, jacket on - though I would still feel his claws.

lowered him into my igloo water cooler (empty) and took it back to the shop. was gonna take to wildlife officer but by the time I got to the shop, it was feeling better.. banging around like crazy. Put linemans gloves on, pulled it out and let it go .. in front of half the office.. very cool.

I'm partial to birds of prey though, was never so happy as when the two finches froze to death when I "forgot " to bring them in from the porch one cold night  

[gatso]

Originally posted by Suave
Yeah they have no control over their bowels, thats why I don't have one .

Er. Regarding the larger parrots, Amazons, greys etc. thats not true. You can train em to crap on command or have a 'poop area' you just have to make it worth it's while It's all in the training, Ours is getting there.... slowly. Now we just have to work on stopping it trying to kill the cat.

It's a problem though when he's managed to mimic the 'Dinner' call for the cat. Poor Puss comes running and the birds sitting on the door waiting to swoop down and attack the poor thing.

RE Raptors, I'd absolutely adore one if I knew I could spare the time. I used to go hunting with a friend who owned a pair as well as ferrets and all sorts of other stuff. It really is amazing to watch them hunt for real. A few years ago as a birthday gift I was given a 1 day course at a Falconry centre in Leicestershire, They'd also organise 3 and 5 day couses as well as hunting trips with the hawks and the falcons. I'd strongly recomend finding somewhere that offers the same sort of thing, even if you don't decide to go ahead it's great fun. Have a look at the IBR site, you should be able to find somewhere through that if your in the UK.

http://www.ibr.org.uk/directory.htm

Gatso

(edit, if you can't be bothered to look, Centres offering falconry courses: http://www.ibr.org.uk/dirv3/page103.html )

[Ripsnort]

Its my belief that wild creatures should be left as that, wild, unless maimed or crippled to a point that would not allow them to survive in the wild.

[bounder]

I agree Rip.

It seems that in the US, falconry often involves a novice tracking and trapping a wild bird (at least that's what I gleaned from the few web sites that I visited.)

Due to our paucity of wild species in the UK all trapping is strictly illegal (and of course Harris Hawks are native to the US not the UK) so all Falconry is done with captive bred birds.

Thanks for the links Gatso. I think a proper 3-5 day course is in order to establish whether Hawks are right for me (and indeed whether I am right for Falcons).

But I'm going to leave it a month and see if I'm still interested!

Seems I'm going to need a dog and ferrets too. Better trade up from my little terraced house!

[Suave]

Can you train them to tow small gliders ?

[Hawklore]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Its my belief that wild creatures should be left as that, wild, unless maimed or crippled to a point that would not allow them to survive in the wild.

I agree to, but if the bird is uncapable of hunting itself, then its one reason to keep it, and for the bells I mentioned, just common knowledge, I actualy would leave them off for it to be able to sneak away from another bird if it was being chased, but if the hawk/falcon had short attention span, I would pitty the poor bird that picked on it .

[gatso]

Originally posted by bounder
Seems I'm going to need a dog and ferrets too. Better trade up from my little terraced house!

I'd skip the ferrets unless you've got no sense of smell. Lovely animals but they don't half whiff. Dogs are optional too although they seem to complement some of the hawks quite well if you can train them side by side.

Rip, Personally I have no problem with certain raptors being kept if they are going to be worked. Just like a few breeds of dog, they need to be kept active and interested. A hawk owned by a good owner will have a quality of life much better and longer than that of a wild bird, totally agree that it should never be a wild caught bird though. Lets face it if they didn't want to come back they'd just bugger off, The centre I did my course at had a Sparrowhawk that was semi-wild. It flew off one day and only comes back now if it's really hungry

Gatso