Falconry

I've always had a strong interest in falconry, particularly the flying of longwings (falcons). To me the pinnacle of upland hunting is flying a falcon in conjunction with bird dogs. I have passed my state falconry exam and am currently looking for a sponsor in order to dive right in sort of speak.

I recently had the opportunity to go trapping for prairie falcons with a falconer frind of mine. We went out other day and managed to get a large female prairie falcon to stoop our bait bird first thing in the morning. It hit the Dho-Gazza net, but was able to untangle and break free before we could get to her. She ended up tearing the net and a little untangling and patch job was neaded.

We tried unsucessfully for the next few hours to get a few different prairies to take the bait. On the way back home we saw one more prairie and setup the Dho-Gazza net about 400 yards from where she was sitting on a irrigation pivot in the middle of a field. She sat there for quite awhile, but a marsh hawk and a couple of crows harrassing the bait was too much to handle and she came in looking for blood. She came in low, struck the net and pitched into the weeds beside the road.

We raced to her before she could break free and was rewarded by a very nice female passage (1st year bird) prairie falcon. Boy was she a beauty and very large. After getting here trussed up in a nylon stocking and hooding her she was weighed in at 1025 grams with no crop. A very nice passage female indeed.

We took her back to my friends house and fitted her with anklets, jesses and a leash. He is going to start manning her ASAP and already has a few battle wounds from the effort.

Here she is right when we got to her. You can see the net tangled around her feet and shoulders.



Here she is trussed up and ready to take back home. The nylon sock is to prevent flapping and injury to her and humans alike until the anklets and jesses can be put on.



Here she is jessed up and sitting on the fist. She simply is a beautiful falcon. You should see her with the hood off, simply awesome.



Hopefully if everything works out well with her, I should have some pics of her hunting by the end of the falconry season.

Goose Hunt

I went out on my first goose hunt with some friends of mine. I had previously never decoyed geese and had only shot 2 geese ever in my life before today. The group ended up with ten geese total and I managed to bag 3 geese for myself. It was really fun to see all the big flocks of geese work the decoys. We even had a big flock come straight in from at least a mile away and dump into the decoys. I managed to bag 2 with one shot on the last flock of the day.

Here are a few pics from the day.
Tag on lookout for some birds:


We put out quite a few decoys, well over a hundred:


Tag on the retrieve:


The days bag:

New Mexico Quail Hunt

Just the dogs and I went for an 8 day quail hunt to New Mexico. The main priority was to locate Mearns' quail in New Mexico and also to bag my first scaled quail. After a long drive over two days I finally arrived to Mearns' camp. I hoped to find Mearns', scaled, and Gambel's quail all within an hour drive of camp.

Mearns' Camp:


The crew on stake out:


Mearns' quail habitat in New Mexico was grazed down severly by the local ranchers. It was quite disapointing seeing the National Forest land grazed to bare dirt in many good Mearns' habitat locations. I did manage to find a few coveys over the next three days on the steep slopes that the cattle could not reach.

Darko and Ace on point for Mearns':


Raider on point with Maggie backing:


Pics of Mearns' in the bag:






Ace with his pair of Mearns':


After a few days of hunting Mearns' quail I dropped down to lower elevation and managed to bag my first scaled quail. I also managed to find a couple covey's of Gambel's quail and managed to put a reasonable day of quail hunting together with Mearns', scaled, and Gambel's quail all being bagged in less than 24 hrs, all within access from camp.

Here is a pic of a scaled quail on lookout. There was about fifteen birds in this particular covey:


Scaled quail habitat:


Raider working the cover for single scaled quail after busting up a covey:


Female Gambel's quail on lookout:


Overall the trip was a success and I managed to bag at least 5 birds of each species and managed to add the scaled quail to my list of quary taken. I look forward to heading back to the southwest again in January for a Mearns' quail hunt in Arizona when it's freezing cold and snowing here in Idaho.

A picture with all three quail species that were bagged within a 24 hr span: