Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: bounder on February 09, 2003, 12:01:06 PM
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Went out walking in the woods today with my boy (18 mths), and met a nice couple who were out with their Harris Hawk:cool:
I've visited lots of Hawk Conservancies and Falconry Centres before, but never just met someone walking along and flying a hawk with them...
Anyone else out there keep falcons or hawks. I'd really love to explore this aspect of animal ownership further, since I have always loved raptors but always thought it must crave a very special dedication and a lot of time.
The couple who owned this hawk were more realistic about it. Less bother than a dog, more than a cat.
They live in an urban area (like me) and said there were no real obstacles as such, just the short journey to somewhere they could fly her (the hawk's name is Gwendolyn I think).
I am so tempted.....
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Neat looking bird there. In an urban setting it would be a fine quiet way of pigeon control!
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How do hawks taste when ya cook'em?
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Tastes like chicken.
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Less bother than a dog, more than a cat.
And about as 'smart' as a rock.
Birds are one large collection of genetic insticts. You better hope your donut don't look like a field mouse when yah walk past his perch on the way to the shower.
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Kerrist Hangtime, I thought I knew nothing about falconry, but then I read your post and now I am an expert in comparison.
A harris hawk would easily be able to tell the difference between your donut and a rabbit. Your donut wouldn't even raise any interest (but you're probably used to that by now, mind:D).
I'd like a Harris Hawk to hunt with, they are great for rabbits.
Of the hawks the harris is an intelligent bird. They hunt in packs in the wild. Of course it is a very tightly focussed intelligence, so not a petting animal.
Does anyone out there fly Hawks or Falcons?
In the UK (it's a long shot).
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What does Hangtime know..
Harris Hawks are some of the smartest of the falcon species. They do a tag team kind of thing while hunting. 1st one jumps in while the other pulls out, then squacks, the 1st one jumps in again.
Harris Hawks are cool I'd love to own a pair.
I have an Amazon yellow nap parriot I take down to fly at the beach.. he loves it.
Like any falcon, you need some special equipment to hold him.. When you pull out their traveling cage, they perk up like a dog when you get out his leash.
These are not dumb animals at all.
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Yep, hawks are way smart.
I've heard tell they got such sharp eyes that as soon as the window opens even a sliver on a stopped pickup, they fly of their perch and fly fast. And far.
;)
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ROFL Toad!
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Bounder,
Another thing, these birds are a bit expensive.. remember they are meat eaters.. You can supplyment their diet for a few days w/ fruit, regular bird food and some of those 50 cent white mice from the pet store... But they gotta be flown and hunt for real food or you'll hear some complaining... So will your whole neighborhood.
I know the real reason Hangtime don't like em'... cause if they can't find no critters they zero in on the nearest [SIZE=10]cat![/SIZE]
I wonder if you could be sued for that heheh... "hey yer frikin bird just ate my cat!!!"
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quote
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How do hawks taste when ya cook'em?
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so this guy is hungry. he goes hunting for some food and finds nothing. at the end of his day he sees a hawk, shoots, & kills it.
so he starts a fire and roasts it on a spit. he's about 1/2 through eating it when a game warden comes up. checks out whats left of the hawk, & the stack of feathers and arrests the guy.
next morning the guy goes up before the judge. So he explains the whole thing to the judge. how he was starving and found nothing else and how he really had no choice.
so the judge feels generous that day and decides to cut the guy a break. he agreed that you'd have to be fairly desperate to eat a hawk.
as the guy is leaving the judge can't resist and asks him "whats a hawk taste like anyway?"
"A lot like an eagle"
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(http://www.petnet.co.il/pardo/images/cat_bird.jpg)
Bird: "Polly wants a cracker"
Cat: "Piss off, flyboy"
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Cat's are dumb, parrots are smart .
Parrots can put together puzzles and learn a vocabulary of thousands of words, and even form sentences.
Cat's can learn to toejam in a box in your house, actually they don't learn it, they're just tricked into toejamting there because the box is full of dirt .
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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.
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Thats a nice looking hawk.
Gotta be careful with them, if you mistreat them "Or any other animal" they will retaliate, and if you do get one don't forget to put bells on its ankels, so it can't catch food, that way it always comes back.
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(http://www.sillygirl.com/images/sillypictures/cat_in_cage.jpg)
..and some days the bird gets you.
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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 .
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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.
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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 :)
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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 )
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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.
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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!
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Can you train them to tow small gliders ?
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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 :D.
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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