Begining of December update

Last weekend we took Kajika out flying, he was slightly unfit, as we couldn't fly him for a week due to bad weather, but he was following on well. This means i wont have to feed him as often so I can walk further with him because he stays close to me. Still haven't been able to enter him on prey yet,we haven't seen a rabbit in months.

Flying as a Cast

Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet up with some other falconers. We went out to a wood near their house and flew all the birds together. It is amazing when you see more four harris sitting next to each other in a tree. Hopeful when the weather is better we will be able to go ferreting.

Flying through the trees

On Saturday we took him to an open piece of woodland so he could learn to land in trees. At first he landed on the thinnest, most awkward branches but after a while he figured out the best places to sit. Don't forget it was the first time he had ever landed in a tree in his entire life so he was making quick progress.

At the weekend I will hopefully try to enter him and catch a rabbit.

flying free

Yesterday we did some lure training to familiarize him with it. The lure, which is basically  a furry beanbag, was garnished with food at the top end. This is to train him to grab onto the head of his prey so that it is a clean kill. He responded well to it, flying to it as soon as it was shown to him, and hitting it with force.

Today I did one long flight to the lure and he responded well, so I untied the creance and he was free, flying happily to and from the glove. Soon I will be able to enter him, which is getting him his first kill, but first his fitness will need to improve or he wont be fast enough to catch the rabbit.

Today we took him out and started creance training, We gradually increased the distance he had to fly to the fist to 50m, we will do the same tomorrow and friday, slowly introducing the rabbit lure. If all goes smoothly and he is instant to the glove and the lure then on saturday he will be flying free for the first time.

Making Progress

For the last week i have been feeding him on the glove every other day, trying to lower his weight. On monday he weighed 1lb 12.5oz and today he weighs 1lb 10oz. Now he is at a lower weight i have been able to make some progress, for the past two days he has been hopping onto the glove for food. Tomorrow I hope to start training him on the creance, starting with a small distance and building it up until he is flying free.

Photo Taken today.

Mild tragedy

Yesterday i got kajika out from the moult, attached the telemetry mounts on his middle tail feathers(deck feathers). He didn't like them so he pulled out the two feathers. Which means i will have to mount the telemetry on his back with a trackpack. http://marshallradio.com/de/european-falconry-products/european-falconry-accessories/item/91-trackpack-mounting-system
The bell will be tied to one of his anklets. the two feathers should grow back slowly over the season.

Today he was still very wild and he broke another feather, this time it was a wing feather. We will imp it, which is re-attaching a broken feather. Because he is so wild, i will do a waking again, and hopefully it will calm him down so i can start to train him.

Mid-moult update

My previous post didn't work for some reason, so i shall explain what has happened since February. After waking him for a weekend, he dropped a tail feather; this meant that he had started the moult. The moult is when a bird drops its feathers and grows new ones, this is a slow process, because the bird needs to be able to fly at all times they only loose one feather at a time. He is now well into the moult and has grows some of his new wing feathers  back, also he has turned a dark red colour on his upper body which is what adult birds look like. It will be two months at maximum before he will be ready to train and fly, the reason you have to leave the bird during feather growth is because you can't cause stress to it or the feather may become weak and break.

he ate a whole chick today

Kajika ate a whole chick, this is great as it show he trusts me enough to bow his head. Also it means his weight is down so he will be more responsive. It\'s nice to see him finally eat, his crop is bulging.

His name is Kajika

His new name is Kajika pronounced car-gee-car

It has been a tiring 48 hours...

...for the bird and for us!

he can finally get some sleep and tomorrow we can start the manning process.

Hawk Walk

This evening since he had progressed so much so quickly, we took him for a walk to familiarise him with other dogs and sheep

He was very calm whilst approaching sheep and took no notice of max.

Overall i think that the Waking process as worked a treat, we now have a hawk that is good around dogs, sheep and other people.

Eating for the first time

At 4pm today He ate from the fist for the first time

This is excellent progress as it shows he trusts us, he no longer needs to be held 24/7 and can be tied to a perch overnight whilst the finishing touches are made to the aviary.

Waking the Hawk

Waking involves keeping the hawk on the glove for 48 hours (so far !)

On Thursday evening after a 30 minute car journey with a hooded hawk on my fist, we were ready to remove his hood, we where expecting him to scream at us and bate (jump off). But surprisingly as you will see in the following video he doesn't scream at all.

After the initial bates he settled down and we got familiar with swapping the bird between gloves as we would have to do it when we were tired early next morning.

After the practicing we ate dinner (i only had one hand to use), then i got comfortable and sat down to do the night shift, throughout the night the bird progressed with confidence.Eventually after two hours he let me stroke his feet and play with his feathers. at about 12pm i quietly introduced him to Max our dog, who was fast asleep. It was key to create a bond between dog and bird as they will be working together in the field to hunt, so these short encounters helped a lot. At 4:30am I was getting tired and Dad came down to take over while I went back to bed. 

The Following Morning 

during the day we walked around the house max came in to see him and he was tolerant of him,

Day 2

After a similar night and after i had swapped with Dad, we introduced him with the garden

At first he bated a bit, but then he bobbed his head, meaning he was looking at his surroundings.

When I took over again, I wanted to check his progress and see how tame he had become.

I was able to stroke his beak on top, and under it. I can rub and move his feet and i can play with his feathers and beak, also i could open his wings.

Collecting My Hawk

We went to the breeder on February 9th to collect him.

After we caught him up in the breeding pen with a net, we had to fit the bell to the tail, and the anklets to the legs, to do this we calmly pined him down.  This whole time he was wearing a hood to keep him calm.

The first time he was put on the glove he fell of a couple of times, this was due to the weight of the tail guard which put him off balance.

But he soon got a grip and was able to pose with me for a photo.

Building the aviary

On Saturday 4th of February we started to build the hawk's aviary (enclosure).

 First we laid out the wood for the base and held it in place with stakes.

Then we stapled the landscape material in place to stop the gravel getting muddy.

After that we filled it with gravel, (well I say we, but I had to shovel one tonne of gravel myself!).  We started to bring in the wooden sections Paul had made during the week for us.

The first half of the aviary was screwed together and squared up.  this meant that when we screwed the second section on it would be square as well.

The roof started to go on.

The second section was screwed together and the roof struts were screwed in place for the last part of the roof.

The roof was attached and the shiplap nailed in place, the hole in the roof is for the bird to sit in the rain if he wishes to.

 Finally the felt was tacked down and the wood painted, the wire in the hole has been attached but I took this picture before that happened.