The Chase the newsletter of the UK Falconry Club - april 2010
www.ukfalconryforum.com
Editor’s note Welcome to the first edition of The Chase. The UK Falconry Club's on-line newsletter. Over the coming months we will featuring articles on falconry and related countryside matters from the UK and around the world. The UKFC will be holding several field meets across the country throughout the coming season and further details will be posted within future monthly newsletters and online on the UK Falconry forum. So please enjoy reading the first edition and please support our trade members and advertisers.
Musings o & Observat Accipiter by ben crane
Good hawking. Neil Davies - Editor: neil_davies@ukfalconryforum.com
Like all falconers I have a huge admiration for all the intricate facets of falconry. I have been lucky enough to visit the far flung corners of the planet researching all manner of flight styles with all manner of falcons and hawks. But without question, the most memorable have had one fundamental filigree thread running through them. The best, most consistent falconry is not an accident. It comes by design. A design brought about by understanding and working with nature. Productive land is the basis of all good falconry. It’s our ground zero. The point of contact from the earth up that shows us the perfect balance between predator and prey. The fields and hedges tell us all we need to know about bio-diversity, quarry species and their relation to the correct predator. This alone will provide the opportunity for the best flights.
The Chase is the online newsletter of the UK Falconry Club. No article, photograph, or part of this publication maybe reproduced without written consent. The Editor and the UKFC Committee reserves the right to approve or refuse any advertisement or contribution for any reason.
Cover Photograph © Ben Crane 2010
Contributing writers Neil Davies Ben Crane George Duncalf Lee Featherstone
Contributing Photographers
I remember one summer sitting on a bench in my little back garden. Suddenly from the right a fit female Sparrowhawk crashed headlong into the ivy not 20 feet in front of me. Like a remote controlled plane attached to a short wire, she spun out, over and round. There followed the familiar chattering scream as a jet black tracer Blackbird launched full volume into the world. I had no knowledge of the ‘Unknown Author’, Jack Mavrogadato or Liam O’Brion. But by God a British Sparrowhawk was having a ball chasing a great British Blackbird! I have witnessed this many times since. Yet the flight between these two species still remains an awesome spectacle; a jaw dropping delineation of the triumvirate balance between land, predator and prey. At this moment in my life, the diminutive Sparrowhawk is without question the brightest and best of the true hawks the land has to offer in the UK. They are fast, unyielding, relentless, aggressive, small and most importantly indigenous.
Neil Davies Alex May Ben Crane George Duncalf Lee Featherstone
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on Problems tions of Nisus
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Lexi
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When fine tuned and a turned just right, they offer up arguably the best sport one man and his dog can muster. They are literally breath taking. There is no metaphor or allegory that does them justice. They stand alone in and of themselves. They are perfect. Of course, every falconer will argue the same for their chosen species, which is understandable. But a Spar’s ability to mesmerise and frustrate so relentlessly and in such quick succession has forced me to continuously build and re-build my falconry minute by minute out in the field. If ever there was a way to be enslaved by an animal, then Accipiter Nisus is that hawk. To date I have had the pleasure of owning five Sparrowhawks. One was a swap imprint, the second crèche reared and the last three imprinted by myself. The experiences and personalities were varied and surprising. So much so that it would be difficult to cover everything in one article. For the sake of honesty (and my own personal preference) I will cover the accidents, problems and frustrations. After all, the percentage of people who seem to never suffer ‘issues’ is exponential to those who perhaps sit in their armchairs and theorize. Daisy, my first Spar, was crèche reared. I picked her up just prior to hard penning and she weighed in at 300 plus grams. As the weight came off she reacted badly, was batey and noisy. As I had not imprinted her, I planned to carry out initial manning and training in exactly the same way as a parent reared hawk. By about day 7, her weight had come down well and she was stepping up smoothly, happy with her surroundings and feeding on the fist. At day 10 she went the whole length of the creance. A cut in rations and by day 12 we got our first determined flights at wild quarry. By day 14 we were entered and on our way. Over the course of the season she took a fair head of Partridge along with a mixture of other wild quarry. Some from over the dog, lots from surprise flushes and a few from less than sporting set ups. As she was my first Spar, weight control was my biggest fear. However this proved to be the easiest factor to overcome. I found weight loss (and for that matter controlled weight gain), relative to the size of the hawk. What seems like a small margin of error, 6 or 10 grams say, is not that easily lost if the mews is well built and a close eye is kept on the food intake/energy expenditure dichotomy. What was more complex and in some cases had no relationship to weight was the fine tuning of ‘psychological’ condition in the field. Weight in this sense has very little to do with
Lexi on Blackbird her desire to fly with vigour. This fluctuation in ‘attitude’ was above all else the thing that threw me on many occasions. Like everything else in falconry, it’s simple in demonstration and books, but totally different with your own hawk. The only factors I could pinpoint revolved around killing regularly, hydration and a full feed up once or twice a week. Even so these contained caveats. Being overly enthusiastic, I had ordered a huge amount of Partridge. At the start of the season this was fine, we killed a lot, we killed everyday, the step up was perfect and carrying nonexistent. However this was at the expense of a lot of wild slips. Most of which she pulled off after a short while or just had not got the mental capacity to put together how and why they evaded her. Don’t get me wrong we caught enough wild quarry and some were in deep mid winter. But Turdus Merula was not amongst them; as such Daisy was absolutely hindered by my own incompetence. I ran up against my own limitations and even though we had fun, I am ashamed to say I did not understand the degree to which she had wedded to Partridge and how it therefore affected her performance. On top of not truly extending her mental capabilities, killing Partridge and feeding up on the ground also smashed her train to pieces. Imping kept her in full feather as much as possible, but in retrospect, I should have let her plume then picked up and fed off the glove. This may or may not have caused aggression but in retrospect it would have been preferable to ending the season early. In all honesty I can live with a little bit of aggression, but a hawk is not at its best with a set of second hand feathers.
We had some outstanding flights at Blackbirds and everything I needed was being laid out as she taught me how to approach them. Unfortunately the momentum we had built up was cut short by a trip I took to Austria covering a story about Josef Hiebeler. Worse still was that on my return it transpired that Mia had died while in the care of a friend and fellow Sparviter.
Lexi bathing Blackthorn was also something which caused me problems. Daisy had being flying well and really putting in effort and had been crashing into hedges all week long. In one such sojourn, she must has footed a Blackthorn is frustration. The tip of the Blackthorn had broken off and being right on the ball of her foot, it was fairly undetectable. That was until the swelling began in earnest. The upshot of this was a trip to the vet and a small rice sized piece of waxy discharge was cut out. At a cost of about £600 I was glad of full insurance. We ended the season well, Daisy was set up with a handed down musket. This was also a steep learning curve; suffice to say she went on to her new owner fully moulted out, free and happy. He went back to his owner with only a slight dent in his ego. By the time the moult had passed, I had been given another Spar by a friend Rob Cowen, who had been bred by Den Lucey from Essex. Within the first week Mia had got her clogs on in fine style and we had taken wild quarry on very quickly. She was a monumentally beautiful Spar. Her moult had released her into that grey great blue sheen bloom. She had glowing cheeks and she killed nearly everyday. In that first two weeks she decimated released Partridge, a plethora of LBJs, a young pigeon over a huge distance. She continued in this vein for the majority of her time in the field. Obviously not every flight was spectacular, but her strike rate was the best I had ever experienced in terms of walked up quarry without beaters or adjusting the field in any way. She had spent the previous year on wild quarry and it had shown. Her manners were perfect and she had the contented, tight focus of a hawk on top of her game.
The only thing which I have isolated and which may or may not have affected her was that the journey to drop her off was long and troubled. I had kept her quite close to her hunting weight and although she had fed and survived several nights the stress of the new surroundings was perhaps too much. I find it quite difficult to describe how this feels, but any falconer who has lost what potentially could have been the hawk of their life will understand. No words can really do it justice and it is quite simply, devastating. Between the loss of Mia and the new season, I determinedly read and consumed as many books as I could on imprinting small accipiters. There was continuity between the varied sources, some more complex than others, but all of it valuable. From my very limited standpoint a lot of imprinting or even other methods of rearing is incumbent on both the sex of the hawk and certainly its provenance. I used exactly the same imprinting methods on two unrelated Spars and an unrelated Musket; all three threw up different types of behaviour to myself and to various stimuli. How these little hawks ‘perceived’ my rigid and ‘exacting’ approach is open to debate. I guess nature knows best, genetic one degree variations in approach over time will throw up the most flexible and most beneficial characteristics in any given situation. The bottom line is that any ‘rules’ need to be taken as common sense and any approach needs to be as flexible as the hawks flown. As long as the final results make you happy then you can accept or reject wisdom as and when it doesn’t fit. I staggered the age of my chicks by about a week. I went to two separate breeders and spoke to them in depth about their hawks and their approach. I took two unrelated eyasses off Nigel King in Kent and my hunting hawk from Den Lucey in Essex. All were hand fed, then swapped onto a bowl, then carcass fed and tit bitted. Their diet was varied, unfortunately at about 20 days ‘Polly’ and ‘Bob’ came down with a dose of frounce. I am assuming it came from a wild kill that I had fed them a week previously. I had them in a large imprint
Lexi
tank in my classroom when one of the pupils noticed Polly flicking her food and regurgitating her meal. On closer examination she had a white growth the size of a grain of rice on her windpipe. Bob on the other hand had smooth cream cheese type areas all in his mouth. His looked more pronounced, but because of its position he was still able to consume his food.
Keeping a close eye on her legs, she was fed in a different location most days and at varied times. Her diet was vitamin enriched quail with the odd chick and vitamin supplement added. In the week up towards hard penning she was making small hops from a bow in and around our hunting permission. Some days she was vocal, and mantled a little bit.
Thankfully I had been keeping Lexi away from them as her imprinting method was slightly different and I also did not want her to be another crèche reared Spar. The vet weighed them and took swabs, they had not dropped weight and within four days they were cleared up, fighting fit and growing ever more lively
As soon as she was hard penned I basically trained and manned her as a ‘normal’ hawk, a relatively quick weight reduction and then out hunting. In my limited experience and through conversations with many experienced sparviters logic dictated that many of the issues surrounding the worst of imprint behaviour could be circumvented by killing quickly. Noise, aggression and manners could reduced quickly in direct proportion to the speed with which the kills on wild quarry could be achieved.
Lexi was taken a lot earlier, in fact she was still in her first set of down. She was from the start a totally different character. She was very aggressive and confident, feeding and cropping up quickly. By the time she was three bars down she was roughly at the top end of the 200 gram mark. Her behaviour was perfect around most things, except for red vehicles. This included the post van, a large red digger on the estate site and my landlady’s red Nova.
So before the season started in earnest I would be hunting Magpies and vermin, then switching to a mixed bag as the months became colder, the cover dropped and the Blackbirds were fit.
Being a full imprint I was thrown completely by her initial reaction and need for weight loss. So much so she spent a couple of days at ‘hack’ due to showing she was ready, but in fact being at least an ounce over her hunting weight. The only major issue I had with Lexi was a serious bout of carrying early on in her hunting. I am not talking about her hitting quarry mid-air and flying to a bush, but actually catching quarry and then on my approach flying off or dragging it to cover. Her first dozen kills were very small things, as such I had made in with little or no offering and just scooped her up onto the glove. I was more concerned about feather damaged (a lesson from the previous seasons) rather than how she may feel about this. As a result she quite rightly began to resent me and tried to fly off to a place of safety. I dropped her weight but this did not have the desired effect (I hate dropping weight and avoid it at all cost if I can) so it was a case of going back to basics. I raised her weight right up for 36 hours, then brought her back down and made a quick kill on quarry she was unable to carry. I repeated this and simply took my time with making in and getting her to step up. I also was given a few tips from abroad and on the occasions she caught something a lot smaller I used a whole Partridge or quail
Lexi
carcass as a lure. This deflected her focus and over the following weeks she got more and more used to my approach. So much so that she is now happy to have me sat next to her while pluming, and will step up for a chick on even the smallest kill. As I write this, it is the 8th of February 2010. It is the second day of her moult. Yesterday she was calling all morning and then took a wild Musket for a big flirt around my permission. She was calling from the top of a huge Larch tree near the lake at the back of my cottage. It took a swung lure to bring her back down, even though she was on hunting weight. Nature knows best, so it was time to end the best season I have ever had. In total Lexi took 16 Blackbirds, on two occasions she took two back to back over two days. On more than one occasion I took a Blackbird on the first second or third slip, off the fist using a dog. She also flew down and killed Magpies, Crows, a Jackdaw, Partridge, Pheasant, Coot, and Moorhen, a wide list of various and one rabbit. Some seasons work out right, even if they have a few wobbles. But Lexi, Polly and Bob have made an average falconer a better one. Which is, at the end of the day, what we should aim for with each successive hawk.
Club news latest news from the UK Falconry Club - april 2010 Welcome to the first edition of the club news. for the UK Falconry Club. The club has appointed a committee and it is headed by our new Chairman, Lee Featherstone and the committes comprises of the following members. President - Ben Crane Chairman - Lee Featherstone Vice-Chairman - Martin Whitley Secretary - Steven Lambert Treasurer - Tommy Miles Membership Secretary - George Duncalf
Legal Officer - Mike Roberts Fieldmeet Officer - Kevin Massey Assistant Fieldmeet Officer 1 - Anthony Walker Assistant Fieldmeet Officer 2 - Joe Hatton Newsletter Editor - Neil Davies The committee will run the club for the first year and members who wish to stand for election for 2011/2012 elections will take place the 2011 AGM in May 2011. (Dates & venue tbc)
UK Falconry Club Rules & Constitution
Meetings
1. The name of the club is The UK Falconry Club.
1. An AGM will be held each year to coincide with a three day field meet.
2. The objectives of the club are: a. To promote the sport and traditions of Falconry. b. To provide advice and information to its members. c. The Conservation of all Birds of Prey.
2. Meetings shall be run by the Chairman or Vice Chairman in their absence. 3. General meetings will be held as required.
Membership
Alteration to Rules
1. Members of the club will be elected by the committee after applying to the Membership Secretary.
Rules may only be altered by a vote taken at the AGM. Notices of motions for the AGM must be sent to the Secretary at least 6 weeks prior to the AGM.
2. An annual subscription fee will be decided upon each year at the AGM. 3. Any member whose subscription is unpaid by the end of May of any year shall cease to be a member. 4. Should any member commit an act which may bring Falconry or the Club into disrepute that member must give a full written explanation to the committee. Failure to do so may result in that member being expelled from the club. 5. No member must give talks, interviews or material in the name of the UK Falconry Club to the media without first seeking permission from the committee. 6. Only Full members of the Club are eligible to vote on club affairs. 7. Associate members wishing to obtain Full membership must apply to the Membership Secretary for the consideration of the committee. Prior to applying the applicant should normally have completed at least 12 months membership. The application must give details of hawk related experience and should be endorsed by two Full members (exceptions can and will be made for experienced Falconers). 8. Supporter members should not be flying hawks.
Code of Conduct 1. Falconry is the flying of trained hawks at wild quarry. No member should ever take any action which may bring this into disrepute. 2. Permission must be sought before hunting on any ground and it must be determined whether another Falconer already uses the ground in which case their permission must also be sought. Due respect must be given to all landowners and their property. 3. The welfare of all hawks both captive and wild along with the continuation of the traditions of Falconry must be the aim of all members. 4. Every hawk must be properly manned and equipped and kept with the highest standards of welfare, housing and feeding. 5. All hawks flown free should be equipped with field jesses, a bell and a transmitter. Care must be always be taken to prevent loss. 6. Any member losing a hawk must take every step recover it.
UKFC Field Meet Rules 1. Field meets are run and organized by the Field Master; members must act under his instruction at all times. His decision is always final. 2. Slipping at quarry is under the control of the Field Master and slipping order must be agreed and understood by all attending before entering the hunting grounds. 3. All hawks attending must be secured to the glove when not being slipped. Any member slipping their hawk at quarry out of turn will be asked to leave immediately. 4. All hawks on field meets must be fitted with a working transmitter. 5. Dogs attending must be pre-agreed by all those attending. You should only work your dog for others hawks if they have agreed for you to do so. 6. Members are expected to behave in a sporting manner at all times. 7. All quarry should be dispatched quickly and under the direction of the Field Master. 8. Members will be expected to respect the land, livestock and property whilst attending a Field meet. 9. Members attending Field meets on another member’s land must under no circumstances return or attempt to gain access, for any reason. Failure to comply will result in immediate expulsion from the club. 10. In the event of a lost hawk at a Field meet all members in attendance are expected to assist in the search and recovery. Hunting will be suspended until the hawk is recovered, then the slipping order will resume as normal.
11. All members attending are expected to dress in a manner appropriate to the activities and conditions on the day (i.e. no jeans, trainers etc). If the Field Master thinks you are not prepared for the day you may be asked to leave. 12. Members must give the Field Master at least 7 days notice if they cannot attend a pre-booked Field meet. Failure to do so could affect that member attending future meets and failure to cancel, or non attendance will result in the agreed Field meet cap being paid in full. 13. The Field Master will inform members attending meets of venues and times to meet. If you are running late, the Field Master must be informed. If the group has already left the meeting point, late arrivals will contact the Field Master for further instructions. Under NO circumstances should you go off hawking alone or slip your hawk at quarry on your way to catch up with the rest of the group.
Contact: Kevin Massey, Field Meet Officer kevin_massey@ukfalconryforum.com Joe Hatton, Assistant Field Meet Officer joe_hatton@ukfalconryforum.com Anthony Walker, Assistant Field Meet Officer anthony_walker,@ukfalconryforum.com We will have field meet dates in the June Issue of THE CHASE.
We will be at The British Falconry & Raptor Fair Chetwynd Park, Newport, Telford, Shropshire 2nd -3rd May 2010
Last year Falconmews bred the first ever Gos x Black spars in this country, in fact I think they were only the second ones ever bred in the world. They had two clutches, the first one had 4 males and a female and the second clutch had just one male. Neil Hunter had ordered the first one to hatch which was a male and he picked it up when it was 12 days old to start the imprinting process. Everything went to plan and he was entered and flown hard by Neil. The one down side to all the chicks was they were all very, very vocal to the point that most of the owners were struggling to put up with it. To try to cure this Neil lent Bwana to one of the other owners and he took on that guy’s bird. Although this cured Bwana of the noise unfortunately it did not stop the one Neil now had so after a couple of weeks they swapped back. Neil continued to fly him but in mid October his mate’s Gos was killed by a fox so he kindly lent him Bwana. Unfortunately, that did not work out and after a couple of weeks he handed him back. The trouble then was Neil was busy training up his home bred male Goldie, so he was struggling for time.
At the same time the male Gos I had been flying for a friend had to go back unexpectedly and so I was birdless for the rest of the season. I tongue-in-cheek emailed Neil and offered to fly Bwana for the rest of the season and to my great surprise Neil emailed back to say he would be happy to lend him to me. So at 6.30am on the 16th November I boarded a train from March in Cambridgeshire and made the journey to Edinburgh to meet Neil and pick up Bwana. I arrived at 11am after a very pleasant journey and Neil was there waiting to pick me up. We went for a coffee and a chat then it was back to the station to get the 12.45pm train home. I finally arrived at my house at 5pm so quite a long but very exciting day. I took Bwana out of the giant hood he had travelled back in and he was fine with hardly a bate. I gave him a small feed then put him away for the night in his mews. The next day he was 1lb 6 3/4ozs but fed on the fist and even came twenty yards on a creance. Training progressed rapidly as I knew his flying weight was 1lb 5ozs. During the weight reduction his manners on the fist were perfect and his recall from greater and greater distances was fantastic. A credit to Neil’s imprinting and training, plus he was still silent. In fact the only thing
I found hard to handle with him was he had a habit every now and again to have a bating fit for absolutely no reason. This would start when I would feel his grip tighten, at first I thought he had spotted something but then when I looked at him his head would go back his eyes would go large as if I was a complete stranger, (I may be strange but I am no stranger to him! ) and he would then have a bating fit. As soon as he recovered the glove he acted like it never happened. Finally on the 8th December it was time for his first hunting trip with me. Arrived at my ground and as soon as I was set I put Tess the GSP out to begin. But almost straight away a red leg got up about 30-40yds out. Bwana bated at it and so I let him go. The next few minutes are etched in my mind for ever. He left the fist like an exocet missile, and they both disappeared over the horizon. I just stood there with a big grin on my face and in complete awe at what I had just seen. Coming to my senses I thought “ Christ I’d better get after him” and proceeded to run towards the way he had gone and went straight down a 6ft dyke I had forgotten was in front of me. Nothing broken but a couple of bruises including my pride and I was up the other side and off. Found him a fair distance off but with no prize unfortunately, but I was over the moon with his speed and commitment, plus his recall from about 100yards was spot on. Had several more flights that day but nothing in the bag, but returned home that afternoon with bird, dog and a mind full of expectations for the rest of the season. Over the next four weeks he took several partridge with two of these being the best flights I had ever seen after taking both in the air. His results on pheasants was not as good and although he had a few hens from easy slips he was struggling to hold hens in full flight and very rarely held them when it came to a struggle on the ground. With cock birds he was even less successful but not for not trying as he flew everything that moved with a passion that was a pleasure to witness. Early January I decided to concentrate on rabbits for a few weeks and he had several but once again struggled on the big bucks. I do not have many bits of rabbit land so when I had hit it hard for a while thought I would finish the season on corvids. If slipped close he took them with ease so I started slipping further and further away but then if they spotted him early it ended up in some very long track downs. I was not really enjoying this flying and if I was honest my bottle went as he is not my bird.
On the 10th February after chatting to Neil I put him in a semi seclusion aviary in the hope he will have an early moult so Neil can have him back for the start of the partridge season. One thing that has stood out is his immature feathers seem to be a lot more resilient to damage than the average immature gos’s feathers. Bwana has not had a tail guard on all season and through all his encounters he has only tipped two feathers. Both on rabbits. The first I salvaged and imped back in and the second was on his last outing where he snapped a deck about a third of the way up. Neil had said he would be fine so I did not imp that one before I put him down to moult. I still go in with him every day and he comes to the fist to feed. He is now well up in weight although not quite at top weight but his manners on the fist are still impeccable and he allows me to play with his food with my bare hand and check him out all over. Like I said earlier a credit to Neil’s imprinting technique. Last week the broken feather was still playing on my mind and as I didn’t want to cast him at this stage I went in with a good size grown- on on the fist and once he was tucking in I walked over to the nest shelf and put him down. I then proceeded to imp in another feather to replace the broken part with Bwana not batting an eyelid at me doing it. Not the neatest imping job I have ever done and not the most stylish as I had to use a trimmed down sakerette’s deck feather but it will support the new growth, so I can live with that. Basic thoughts on him • Luckily he was silent with me • Mood swings were unpredictable • Pleasure to handle, mostly • Pleasure to fly, undoubtedly • Ease to train, good • Commitment to hunting, 150% • Speed off the fist, second to none • Would I fly another, yes, not sure, maybe? • Definitely if it was not someone else’s bird as the pressure of flying him is made worse when it is not yours. • Would I like to fly a female, PLEASE. I cannot wait to see him in his new suit after the moult. He is stunning now so can only get better.
Hunting with a Golden Eagle by Neil Davies Photos Alex May
This February, I was staying with my good friend and fellow falconer Alex May and to my surprise Alex had arranged a day out with Neil Hunter to see Nelson his male Golden Eagle fly the mountain or blue hare (Lepus timidus). Neil arrived at Alex’s house for breakfast and shortly afterwards we were heading for the hill. Neil warned me the ground conditions were difficult and that this was the first time he’d been on the hill for over a month due to the amount of snow that had fallen since December. We travelled up a steep track for several miles to the snow covered hill.
After several other near misses, Nelson was justly rewarded for all his effort, when a blue hare was flushed and Nelson took his hare in some style. Seeing Nelson’s manners on the kill and feather condition is testament to the time and dedication that Neil spends on his young eagle. It was a day that I will never forget and hopefully, I will be invited again out on the hill with Neil and Nelson. Fingers crossed!
Neil quickly briefed both Alex & I on how he wanted us to walk the hill and quickly checking the telemetry and slippng his cocker spaniel we were away in search of the elusive blue hare. Within a half hour, we had our first slip, a cracking flight with Nelson covering the ground at some speed, he connected with the hare as both Nelson and the hare went down a small snow covered gully only to lose the hare on the ground.
Neil & Nelson with their hare.
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The Falconry Award assumes that candidates have no previous knowledge or experience and covers all aspects up to Flying to the fist'; after which the raptor can be flown free and taken hunting. Therefore, falconry, in this context, does not mean hunting with birds of prey, although subsequent modules could cover this. Further Awards in respect of more advanced husbandry, breeding and falconry may be introduced later so as to provide a progression path for candidates. This Award is approved by the Hawk Board and is administered by Lantra Awards. The award is granted to those candidates who are able to demonstrate an understanding of the relevant background knowledge, and those practical skills necessary to keep a Bird of Prey in a healthy and happy condition. The Award consists of two units: Unit 1 Bird of Prey management and husbandry Module 1 Housing Module 2 Hygiene Module 3 Feeding and food preparation Module 4 Health Module 5 Species suitability Module 6 Purchasing your first bird Unit 2 Basic Falconry techniques Module 7 Essential falconry equipment Module 8 Picking up and carrying Module 9 Feeding and manning and initial training techniques Module 10 Weighing and weight management Module 11 Flying to the fist on a creance Full details are available from Lantra Awards awards@lantra-awards.co.uk or telephone 02476 419703 http://www.hawkboard-cff.org.uk/lantra.htm http://www.lantra-awards.co.uk/
F.A.Qs 1. All candidates pay £25.00 +VAT for the Lantra Award 2. All assessors apply to Lantra Awards with their application/resume. They must then achieve the Lantra Award themselves before attending a Lantra Awards Falconry Assessor course £75.00 + VAT (£88.13) 3. When assessors have attended the course they will receive a certificate stating that they are Probationary Assessors until their 1st candidate. Then their External Verifier will attend and evaluate their competence as an assessor. If he believes that he is competent the External Verifier will then invoice the probationary assessors Approved Administration Point £250.00 + VAT (£294.00) for this visit. The Approved Assessor will then receive a certificate from Lantra Awards. External Verifiers will visit Assessors at least once every two years, however if there are concerns raised, further visits may be required. 4. The Probationary Assessor must link to/apply to become an Approved Administration Point and show that they are capable of and have facilities to deal with the clerical aspects of the award. For example registering the candidate with Lantra Awards, distributing certificates, answering queries, keeping records and dealing with all administration aspects. The fee for AAP status is £25.00 + VAT (£29.40) annually. 5. It is preferable that a probationary Assessor should have assessed his first candidate and therefore been evaluated by his External Verifier within 6 months of his Lantra Course date. If however this has not been possible it may be necessary to arrange more than 1 external verifier visit with the first 2 years.
Annabelle
new blood An insight into importing Northern Goshawks by lee featherstone For years now I have wanted to get fresh blood into the UK to expand the gene pool available and hopefully improve the ever popular goshawk. A few years ago it was a very difficult task to get your head around where to start, who to approach? Which country would have them available, the questions to ask and get answers to was... well amazingly endless! Since internet and cyberspace growth in popularity, this has opened up the world that was quite in the dark eight years ago or so when I first thought about getting new genetics into the UK, I made several contacts in
Germany and Russia but the language barrier was always a problem, there were also the rules and regulations of each country and then the CITIES paperwork not being acceptable by the UK from different countries, very much a mine field of questions and even more questions. Now with the EU sorted and the unity of most of Europe, importing the needed birds was well very simple, finding a reputable breeder and one which has a good understanding of English, makes it much easier for the whole process to happen.
I decided that I needed to get a male from outside the UK, something fresh that I could imprint and mould into a semen donor and eventually inseminate my females here with and produce some fresh youngsters, so I could see what it would achieve and whether my personal thoughts and suspicions were correct about what was happening with the gene pool here. I had a reasonable 2009 season and re-invested all that I had made from the season into buying and fetching these new birds back. I went with the intentions of buying just a male bird and flew out to Germany prior to the breeding season to have a look at parents and meet the breeder I had selected. When I got there I was given a warm welcome and the whole visit was, I felt a success. I was able to view the parent birds and they had thousands of pictures of young produced from years gone by. I had then to make a choice between the various sub species that were available to me. From this I selected a male and then decided I would also have a female which I added by phone when I got back home to the UK so as to make a clean line that I could produce from. This was no problem. I was told that when they are ready for me to collect they would advise me with plenty of notice so as to arrange the long drive over. A few weeks passed and I had regular emails and phone calls about the progress and the day arrived that there was a few to pick from, ageing from 7 days to 15 days old roughly. So I made my arrangements and drove to the tunnel crossing at some ridiculous time in the morning; however this was best as the traffic was less and driving through the night would be better and faster for me as a personal preference. A mate, Gordon came along for the ride and to have a look at what was on offer as he may be interested in a bird for himself. We got there at about 11am Saturday morning after leaving the UK at 9pm Friday evening. We received a warm welcome and had some lunch and drinks and a good natter about our journey, we were put up for the night and were shown to our beds to drop off our overnight bags and then we were taken to the garden where we were greeted with 2 big baskets of baby goshawks! A basket of males and a basket of females, well Gordon and I just looked at each other with a grin from ear to ear! We looked at the females and the choice wasn’t easy but we seemed to both point to the same chick and she was chosen as the one. The males were a different kettle of fish! We just couldn’t decide on which one to have! We narrowed it down to 2 chicks, a straight Gentilis Gentilis and a Buteodes x Albidus, these were just bundles of fluff and no markings or colours could be seen on them just the size of their legs and feet.
Bruno There was a big price difference between the 2 chicks and there was also a chick that was also in the running that was priced in between the two, decisions decisions!! I thought well I’m not coming all this way to go back with something that I would buy because it was more affordable. This wasn’t what I had intended so the price difference thought process was quickly dismissed. It was now purely down to the features of each individual. I went from one to the other, back and forth before I finally selected the Buteodes x Albidus male. Even the next day I was still in two minds whether I had selected the right one and kept having another look. In the end, I made my selection and decided to stick with it. Both males turned out by all accounts crackers and the male I brought back was named Bruno and the rest is history. The female was named Katrina and I was completely satisfied with my choice of birds, both unrelated and both picked up and in my possession at 14 days old being put through the imprinting process. I have been back a few times and have had more females from them to add to my project. I will say that I have never been anywhere that has given the friendly service and after sales service that these people have given me. I highly recommend them to all. Yes their birds are a little more expensive than the UK but you are getting something fresh and genuine quality. I now have 5 females from there and a male, with some more new stock that they have got in I shall probably be back there for another male again soon. I have probably driven a good 6000 miles back and forth to there and it was worth every mile. Would I do it again?? Too right first thing in the morning!
In next month’s edition the launch of the UK Falconry Club at The British Falconry & Raptor Fair, plus much much more...
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