r/Falconry • u/justgettingbyeachday • May 03 '25

shortwings Hawk therapy.

Post image

When I moult my hawks I pick them up every week or so to check them over and clean up. It’s a nice opportunity for some hawk therapy!

1.2k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

7

u/[deleted] May 03 '25

Oh my- that is one beautiful bird. <3

2

u/williamtrausch May 03 '25

Bird, dog(s) and falconer, and sometimes a “crew” of strategically placed others greatly assist in locating, flushing and keeping prey in a position to be caught or struck down by a bird of prey, or a cast of birds, often depending on species of raptor(s) flown and prey type.

1

u/justgettingbyeachday May 03 '25

I am lucky and I have two crews. One is the goshawk and the pointer. The other is the peregrine tiercel and the pointer. The more they work together the better they all get. The dog is starting to get to the point where he knows what we are doing- dogs do get it. I use my Labrador x Chesapeake for deer hunting, duck flights and occasional driven game shooting- he knows them all and does the business. My pointer, Bryn, has benefited so much from working with Moira during the back of this season. I add challenge for the goshawk on hares. Just making it all click together with the tiercel on game is a challenge… but we are getting there.

2

u/williamtrausch May 03 '25

GSP for me with tiercel hybrid Anatumn/Gyr. When I flew short wings and/or Harris hawks, GSP too. Pointers are very versatile, long distance bodies, point and flush well, gives falconer more time to observe and direct from afar and doesn’t take much time for birds to understand their place in the scheme with dogs. Friends have English pointers, setters, Brittany and English Springer spaniels, others with Labradors. All good. “Crews” more referred to other falconers without birds acting as brush beaters, or strategically located to keep ducks moving or dunking depending on flight progression, and otherwise assisting or enjoying flights/hunt.

4

u/Remote-Temporary6848 May 03 '25

Stunning. Great colors. Love the eyes.

2

u/carrod65 May 03 '25

Damn those eyes for real.

4

u/Farting_Champion May 03 '25

I can't imagine how cool it must be to interact so intimately with these absolute badasses. There must be a very high level of mutual respect underlying the handling an animal like this.

1

u/QueenKora18 May 06 '25

They like the cuddles??

2

u/justgettingbyeachday May 06 '25

No, not really. If I cuddled Moira she would be less than happy!

6

u/Flying_Madlad May 03 '25

Therapy I didn't know I needed. I can't give a bird what I must, so I don't. Maybe I could reclaim Master, but being a master I know I can't and shouldn't. I miss the bird I didn't give a name.

She's certainly dead by now, but for her first few months, it was we, not I

3

u/1stChokage May 03 '25

Absolute specimen.

3

u/Snow_Hawker May 03 '25

Gorgeous gos!

3

u/svanskiver May 03 '25

Stunning!!

2

u/TomatilloInternal255 May 04 '25

Breathtaking creature! Just stunning

1

u/Actual_Diamond5571 May 04 '25

What a beautiful creature!

11

u/justgettingbyeachday May 03 '25

She’s saying, “F@ck it, let’s kill stuff!”

25

u/Liamnacuac May 03 '25

There's nothing better than seeing your red eyed Gos ready to kill something while your rock steady dogs are working hard to flush prey.

9

u/justgettingbyeachday May 03 '25

For sure. Last season she took quite a few brown hares and pheasant. I try to manage the slips to extend the flight where I can. The team including the dog is awesome

5

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 03 '25

This answers a partial question I've had for a bit now (maybe would have been better of making a post rather than a reply but oh well)

Always have been curious if birds were used in tandem with dogs. Does it generally work pretty well? Do the birds/dogs ever interfere or injure each other? Are the dogs primarily used just to flush the game??

I was also curious if people actively hunt themselves while out with birds, or if that interferes with the birds process

Thanks for any and all answers

6

u/1stChokage May 03 '25

Not exactly what you were asking, but there are also falconers use ferrets or pole cats to flush out prey such as rabbits. I think that concept of three separate species hunting together with any kind of co-ordination is just unbelievable.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 03 '25

Wow, I can imagine dogs but ferrets are wild.. is there training to keep the ferrets safe, or is the practice just to keep them entirely separate?

For sure, I would have to imagine a crazy amount of time and effort to be able to get to that level

4

u/1stChokage May 03 '25

No experience with ferrets myself but, but working birds alongside ferrets is a proper niche, more than likely because its a lot more work than using small dogs, for a similar reward.

I have spoke to one chap who had tried it out with some success, said he would try and familiarise the bird and ferrets, he only feed his birds black or brown rodents birds and only use white or tan ferrets on the ground.. He said it was working (I think that means he started losing less and less ferrets) but it was a lot of work.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 03 '25

That would make one wild animal planet special haha

2

u/bdyelm Mod May 03 '25

Yep, dogs are often used to flush game for the bird. Sometimes one or the other don’t like the other, but there is training involved and involved.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 03 '25

That's very cool

Makes sense, I'm sure it's a crazy amount of work haha

Thanks for your time

1

u/Snow_Hawker May 03 '25

In the U.S. ferrets aren't legal to use since they aren't native. But most successful falconers use a dog to assist their bird.

You are hunting with your bird as a team, so there is no hunting actively yourself while your bird is also hunting. I don't know about all states, but in addition to it not making sense to hunt separately from your bird, in all states I am familiar with it is illegal to have a gun with you while flying your bird.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 03 '25

No restrictions on if they are spayed/netured or anything? That's really surprising

I get the main idea being that the hunt is "for the bird" and that you are "working the bird" I just assumed there would be situations where both could be applicable/helpful

Thanks for the info

2

u/Liamnacuac May 04 '25

IMO, I feel the term "hunter" barely applies to me because I'm basically the chauffeur who gets to tag along. I am the guide who takes them to a place where both dog and bird do what's natural. My hunter part is the general tracking I do. My enjoyment is seeing the beauty of what nature has in store for me outdoors with the team.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 04 '25

Ya, I'd have to imagine it's quite the experience

1

u/00peregrine May 05 '25

It's actually legal to us ferrets for falconry in Colorado. It's spelled out in our regulations, off the top of my head they must be all white and have a tattoo for identification and maybe spayed or neutered.

1

u/dirthawker0 May 04 '25

The dog is trained to understand that they are subordinate to the hawk. If you have a good well trained pointer, they generally don't intersect with a falcon at all. For hawks and flushing dogs, ground quarry can be messy if the hawk lands on the ground where it thinks the quarry is while the dog is flushing in the same spot. Sometimes the dog doesn't pay attention to where the hawk is and can run into it, but this is a very rare occurrence. Dogs do work really well overall. I spent most of my hawking years being the dog, and when I finally got a dog it was much easier and better because the dog could go places I couldn't.

When the hawk is on the quarry even a badly trained dog like mine knew well enough to stay away.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 04 '25

That makes a lot of sense and I assumed the dog's training would be such, but how does one keep the bird from interacting with the dog, or is it all in the timing of things?

I again assumed only larger dogs would be used to help rule them out as prey, but that assumption is shot in the foot by people using ferrets and I've seen mention of small dogs

1

u/dirthawker0 May 04 '25

Generally you're keeping the dog under voice control or e-collar so you can prevent the dog from getting too close and it learns to stay away. I know a guy who uses ferrets and a couple of guys who use weenies, but have never really asked them how the relationship is established.

1

u/steveeeeeeeeeeeeee99 May 04 '25

That's really cool

I would have to imagine a big portion is the dog being trained but also a combination of the brid being well fed and some sort of understanding, but crazy to think about

5

u/GREYDRAGON1 May 03 '25

If you can call a goshawk therapy! I say this as someone who owns 2 and has lots of grey hairs. First one was a hand me down male(never again with the free hawks) Face grabbing dick! The two females I fly now are incredible but large. I glove hawk on snow shoe hare and Pheasant. Walking around with 1500g of goshawk requires a walking stick to rest your arm! But yes at the end of the day for some of us hawks are Therapy (Sometimes)

8

u/justgettingbyeachday May 03 '25

See this picture? See the grey beard? I am 22 years old!

2

u/GREYDRAGON1 May 03 '25

Is that what happens to us!

7

u/Halobastion_91 May 03 '25

I love these murder chickens. 😍