Got my capture authorization forms for my falconry liscense so we got out earlier this week to try and trap a new redtail for hunting rabbits and squirrels this year. The weather couldn't have been any better. We had some time restraints, so we could only trap for a couple hours. We ended up catching one mature male and one yearling male which we released. I'm waiting to catch a nice heavy passage female for training. Hopefully nextime we'll get lucky. Here's the setup.. The bait.. Comming in for the kill... In the bownet. Take care Dave
I can't even begin to describe how cool/awesome I think that is. Good luck getting the bird you are looking for.
Falconry is something I have always wanted to do. Look forward to seeing more pictures, good luck! Thanks for sharing!
nice dave, forgive me if i've missed the post but presuming you released Roxy????? great post as always!
Very cool! I guess it was a bad day to be a pigeon....... It's amazing to me that you can pick that thing up with your hands like that, it looks like it wants to rip your face off.
As ALWAYS..... very cool. Did I understand you correctly???? You released both birds???? Hey, how do you know if it's a male or female.... I'm just saying.... do you check for a zipper or what. LOL
Thanks guys. Yup - I did release my last years bird "Roxy" back in the spring time. Never did see her again, at least not that I could tell. Dave - We did release both of these birds we caught this day. One was a haggard male (a mature one - you can't keep them anyway) and the other was a small passage male (one that was born this year). I could have kept that one but I'm looking for a large female. They crash the brush a lot harder than the males. The males are usually 1/3 the size smaller than the females. They fly a little faster than the females but I like the power dives of the females. I'll post some more pics when I get one and start the training process. Next time I'm going to take my Contour HD video cam and try and get some vids while trapping. If I get any good footage I'll post them up. Take care Dave
Cool pics as always. I gotta tell you though, my appreciation for hawks and owls has really diminished sinced I started keeping chickens again. (ah, I still think they're cool.. when they're not in my yard) The redtails have been pretty scarce around here the last couple of years. (Maybe the wind turbines they put up are getting them?) But I have some coopers hawks and I what I think is a goshawk that make daily visits lately. A great horned owl was picking off any chickens that roosted in the trees and one even managed to get inside the coop but couldn't get back out. A great horned owl looks like a 747 when it's coming for you head in cramped quarters. I'm not sure who was tryin to grab who there for a couple minutes...
