Start of a new Hawking Season
Well, here it is, October 2, 2004.
The summer went by and is gone. My hawk, Pente, slowed waaaaaaay down with her molt here at the end of the summer. She still has not dropped the last two primaries on each wing. I'm told by someone who should know that it is possible she may not molt those last two her first year. And I still find the occassional small feather or down in her weathering yard or mews. But, time moves on, and I really must take her back up and get ready to get into the fields. It truly is still too thick around here to try to hunt. But, the mornings are increasingly getting colder, and the first hard frost is days away. That will knock back a lot of the thick green stuff, and make moving through our fields a little easier. So, I'm told by another person who should know that it will not harm my bird to go ahead and take her back up, and begin to exercise her and drop her weight, and get her ready to hunt.
With the above in mind, on Thursday, September 30, I stopped in at the local butchery and purchased a beef heart. I began thawing it in the refrigerator. Last night I cut it up into small chunks, again froze most of it for future use, and further cut up a couple of the unfrozen chunks into tidbit size, and soaked them overnight, to create washed meat. For any of you non-falconry folks out there . . . this is a food we use when we want to reward our birds for training behavior (flying to us when we call) but it helps to cut their weight. It's like celery for a hawk. Fills up the stomach, but doesn't give them a whole lot of calories. Used wisely, it makes the hawk burn their fat that they built up during the molt, when they were allowed to be at a higher weight so they would grow in healthy feathers.
Fortunately, this bird has not forgotten her training. Even when she is at a high weight, I can still get her to respond to a call to my fist. Mind you, it is very slow, and she is prone to distraction, but at least I'm not starting from square one with her. She also has not become wild over the summer either. So, we should progress pretty quickly.
This evening I shall begin the whole training process in earnest. It is difficult to do creance flights (long ones) on my property, as I have too many trees to distract a hawk that is not at hunt weight. It is also a pain to pack everything up and go someplace where there is an open field to work. But I think I might rig up one of those leash systems that restricts the bird from flying high. This would be like using a run leash, as many people do with a dog. You can stretch it from point A to point B, and the hawk is attached to this leash on a ring. She is free to fly back and forth as you are training, but keeps her from being able to fly far from the leash, so she cannot rake away into a tree. I really need to give her some long creance flights, to get her wing muscles into shape again. We'll do lots of jump ups too . . . which is having her fly up from a ground perch onto your fist, held way high up . . . maybe even standing on a ladder. This is really good conditioning for your bird.
I myself have increased my physical activity this summer, in the hopes that I too could drop some weight, and be in better condition for hunt season. I've lost some, and feel pretty good. My stamina is better. Now it is time to get my bird ready as well.
NAFA is coming very quickly . . . so we two girls (Pente and I) need to get into shape and practice our hunting, so we'll be ready to make a good showing of ourselves down in Kansas.
cdb
The summer went by and is gone. My hawk, Pente, slowed waaaaaaay down with her molt here at the end of the summer. She still has not dropped the last two primaries on each wing. I'm told by someone who should know that it is possible she may not molt those last two her first year. And I still find the occassional small feather or down in her weathering yard or mews. But, time moves on, and I really must take her back up and get ready to get into the fields. It truly is still too thick around here to try to hunt. But, the mornings are increasingly getting colder, and the first hard frost is days away. That will knock back a lot of the thick green stuff, and make moving through our fields a little easier. So, I'm told by another person who should know that it will not harm my bird to go ahead and take her back up, and begin to exercise her and drop her weight, and get her ready to hunt.
With the above in mind, on Thursday, September 30, I stopped in at the local butchery and purchased a beef heart. I began thawing it in the refrigerator. Last night I cut it up into small chunks, again froze most of it for future use, and further cut up a couple of the unfrozen chunks into tidbit size, and soaked them overnight, to create washed meat. For any of you non-falconry folks out there . . . this is a food we use when we want to reward our birds for training behavior (flying to us when we call) but it helps to cut their weight. It's like celery for a hawk. Fills up the stomach, but doesn't give them a whole lot of calories. Used wisely, it makes the hawk burn their fat that they built up during the molt, when they were allowed to be at a higher weight so they would grow in healthy feathers.
Fortunately, this bird has not forgotten her training. Even when she is at a high weight, I can still get her to respond to a call to my fist. Mind you, it is very slow, and she is prone to distraction, but at least I'm not starting from square one with her. She also has not become wild over the summer either. So, we should progress pretty quickly.
This evening I shall begin the whole training process in earnest. It is difficult to do creance flights (long ones) on my property, as I have too many trees to distract a hawk that is not at hunt weight. It is also a pain to pack everything up and go someplace where there is an open field to work. But I think I might rig up one of those leash systems that restricts the bird from flying high. This would be like using a run leash, as many people do with a dog. You can stretch it from point A to point B, and the hawk is attached to this leash on a ring. She is free to fly back and forth as you are training, but keeps her from being able to fly far from the leash, so she cannot rake away into a tree. I really need to give her some long creance flights, to get her wing muscles into shape again. We'll do lots of jump ups too . . . which is having her fly up from a ground perch onto your fist, held way high up . . . maybe even standing on a ladder. This is really good conditioning for your bird.
I myself have increased my physical activity this summer, in the hopes that I too could drop some weight, and be in better condition for hunt season. I've lost some, and feel pretty good. My stamina is better. Now it is time to get my bird ready as well.
NAFA is coming very quickly . . . so we two girls (Pente and I) need to get into shape and practice our hunting, so we'll be ready to make a good showing of ourselves down in Kansas.
cdb
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