T h e C h a s ethe newsletter of the UK Falconry Club - april 2010

www.ukfalconryforum.com

Like all falconers I have a huge admiration for all the intricate facetsof falconry. I have been lucky enough to visit the far flung corners ofthe planet researching all manner of flight styles with all manner offalcons and hawks. But without question, the most memorable havehad one fundamental filigree thread running through them. The best,most consistent falconry is not an accident. It comes by design. A designbrought 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 perfectbalance between predator and prey. The fields and hedges tell us all weneed to know about bio-diversity, quarry species and their relation tothe correct predator. This alone will provide the opportunity for thebest flights.

I remember one summer sitting on a bench in my little back garden.Suddenly from the right a fit female Sparrowhawk crashed headlonginto the ivy not 20 feet in front of me. Like a remote controlled planeattached to a short wire, she spun out, over and round.

There followed the familiar chattering scream as a jet black tracerBlackbird launched full volume into the world. I had no knowledgeof the ‘Unknown Author’, Jack Mavrogadato or Liam O’Brion. But by God a British Sparrowhawk was having a ball chasing a greatBritish Blackbird!

I have witnessed this many times since. Yet the flight between these twospecies still remains an awesome spectacle; a jaw dropping delineationof the triumvirate balance between land, predator and prey.

At this moment in my life, the diminutive Sparrowhawk is withoutquestion the brightest and best of the true hawks the land has to offerin the UK. They are fast, unyielding, relentless, aggressive, small andmost importantly indigenous.

Editor’s noteWelcome to the first edition of The Chase.The UK Falconry Club's on-line newsletter.

Over the coming months we will featuring articleson falconry and related countryside matters fromthe UK and around the world.

The UKFC will be holding several field meets acrossthe country throughout the coming season andfurther details will be posted within futuremonthly newsletters and online on the UKFalconry forum.

So please enjoy reading the first edition and pleasesupport our trade members and advertisers.

Good hawking.

Neil Davies - Editor:

neil_davies@ukfalconryforum.com

The Chase is the online newsletter of the UKFalconry Club. No article, photograph, or part ofthis publication maybe reproduced withoutwritten consent.

The Editor and the UKFC Committee reserves theright to approve or refuse any advertisement orcontribution for any reason.

Cover Photograph © Ben Crane 2010

Contributing writers

Neil DaviesBen CraneGeorge DuncalfLee Featherstone

Contributing Photographers

Neil DaviesAlex MayBen CraneGeorge DuncalfLee Featherstone

by ben crane

Musings o& ObservatAccipiter

- 1 -

on Problems tions ofNisus

- 2 -

- 3 -

Lexi

When fine tuned and a turned just right, they offer uparguably the best sport one man and his dog can muster.They are literally breath taking. There is no metaphor orallegory that does them justice. They stand alone in andof themselves. They are perfect.

Of course, every falconer will argue the same for theirchosen species, which is understandable. But a Spar’sability to mesmerise and frustrate so relentlessly and insuch quick succession has forced me to continuouslybuild and re-build my falconry minute by minute out inthe 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 andpersonalities were varied and surprising. So much so thatit 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 neversuffer ‘issues’ is exponential to those who perhaps sit intheir armchairs and theorize.

Daisy, my first Spar, was crèche reared. I picked her upjust prior to hard penning and she weighed in at 300plus grams. As the weight came off she reacted badly,was batey and noisy. As I had not imprinted her, Iplanned to carry out initial manning and training inexactly the same way as a parent reared hawk.

By about day 7, her weight had come down well and shewas stepping up smoothly, happy with her surroundingsand feeding on the fist. At day 10 she went the whole lengthof the creance. A cut in rations and by day 12 we got ourfirst determined flights at wild quarry. By day 14 we wereentered and on our way. Over the course of the season shetook a fair head of Partridge along with a mixture of otherwild quarry. Some from over the dog, lots from surpriseflushes 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 weightgain), relative to the size of the hawk. What seems like asmall margin of error, 6 or 10 grams say, is not that easilylost if the mews is well built and a close eye is kept on thefood intake/energy expenditure dichotomy.

What was more complex and in some cases had no relationshipto weight was the fine tuning of ‘psychological’ conditionin the field. Weight in this sense has very little to do with

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 demonstrationand books, but totally different with your own hawk.The only factors I could pinpoint revolved around killingregularly, hydration and a full feed up once or twice a week.Even so these contained caveats.

Being overly enthusiastic, I had ordered a huge amountof Partridge. At the start of the season this was fine, wekilled a lot, we killed everyday, the step up was perfect andcarrying nonexistent. However this was at the expense ofa lot of wild slips. Most of which she pulled off after ashort while or just had not got the mental capacity toput together how and why they evaded her.

Don’t get me wrong we caught enough wild quarry andsome were in deep mid winter. But Turdus Merula was notamongst them; as such Daisy was absolutely hindered bymy own incompetence. I ran up against my own limitationsand even though we had fun, I am ashamed to say I didnot understand the degree to which she had wedded toPartridge and how it therefore affected her performance.

On top of not truly extending her mental capabilities,killing Partridge and feeding up on the ground alsosmashed her train to pieces. Imping kept her in fullfeather as much as possible, but in retrospect, I shouldhave let her plume then picked up and fed off the glove.This may or may not have caused aggression but inretrospect it would have been preferable to ending theseason early. In all honesty I can live with a little bit ofaggression, but a hawk is not at its best with a set ofsecond hand feathers.

Lexi on Blackbird

Blackthorn was also something which caused me problems.Daisy had being flying well and really putting in effort andhad been crashing into hedges all week long. In one suchsojourn, she must has footed a Blackthorn is frustration.The tip of the Blackthorn had broken off and being righton the ball of her foot, it was fairly undetectable. That wasuntil the swelling began in earnest. The upshot of thiswas a trip to the vet and a small rice sized piece of waxydischarge was cut out. At a cost of about £600 I was gladof full insurance.

We ended the season well, Daisy was set up with a handeddown musket. This was also a steep learning curve; sufficeto say she went on to her new owner fully moulted out,free and happy. He went back to his owner with only aslight 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 styleand we had taken wild quarry on very quickly. She was amonumentally beautiful Spar. Her moult had released herinto that grey great blue sheen bloom. She had glowingcheeks 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 inthe field. Obviously not every flight was spectacular, buther strike rate was the best I had ever experienced in termsof walked up quarry without beaters or adjusting the fieldin any way. She had spent the previous year on wild quarryand it had shown. Her manners were perfect and she hadthe contented, tight focus of a hawk on top of her game.

We had some outstanding flights at Blackbirds andeverything I needed was being laid out as she taught mehow to approach them. Unfortunately the momentumwe had built up was cut short by a trip I took to Austriacovering a story about Josef Hiebeler. Worse still wasthat on my return it transpired that Mia had died whilein the care of a friend and fellow Sparviter.

The only thing which I have isolated and which may ormay not have affected her was that the journey to dropher off was long and troubled. I had kept her quite closeto her hunting weight and although she had fed andsurvived several nights the stress of the new surroundingswas perhaps too much. I find it quite difficult to describehow this feels, but any falconer who has lost what potentiallycould 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 determinedlyread and consumed as many books as I could on imprintingsmall accipiters. There was continuity between the variedsources, some more complex than others, but all of itvaluable.

From my very limited standpoint a lot of imprinting or evenother methods of rearing is incumbent on both the sex ofthe hawk and certainly its provenance. I used exactly thesame imprinting methods on two unrelated Spars andan unrelated Musket; all three threw up different typesof behaviour to myself and to various stimuli. How theselittle hawks ‘perceived’ my rigid and ‘exacting’ approachis open to debate.

I guess nature knows best, genetic one degree variationsin approach over time will throw up the most flexibleand most beneficial characteristics in any given situation.The bottom line is that any ‘rules’ need to be taken ascommon sense and any approach needs to be as flexibleas the hawks flown. As long as the final results make youhappy then you can accept or reject wisdom as and whenit doesn’t fit.

I staggered the age of my chicks by about a week. I wentto two separate breeders and spoke to them in depthabout their hawks and their approach. I took two unrelatedeyasses off Nigel King in Kent and my hunting hawkfrom Den Lucey in Essex. All were hand fed, thenswapped 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 fedthem a week previously. I had them in a large imprint

Lexi bathing

tank in my classroom when one of the pupils noticedPolly flicking her food and regurgitating her meal. Oncloser examination she had a white growth the size of agrain of rice on her windpipe. Bob on the other handhad smooth cream cheese type areas all in his mouth.His looked more pronounced, but because of its positionhe was still able to consume his food.

Thankfully I had been keeping Lexi away from them asher imprinting method was slightly different and I alsodid not want her to be another crèche reared Spar. Thevet weighed them and took swabs, they had not droppedweight and within four days they were cleared up,fighting fit and growing ever more lively

Lexi was taken a lot earlier, in fact she was still in herfirst set of down. She was from the start a totallydifferent character. She was very aggressive andconfident, feeding and cropping up quickly. By the timeshe was three bars down she was roughly at the top endof the 200 gram mark. Her behaviour was perfectaround most things, except for red vehicles. Thisincluded the post van, a large red digger on the estate siteand my landlady’s red Nova.

Keeping a close eye on her legs, she was fed in a differentlocation most days and at varied times. Her diet wasvitamin enriched quail with the odd chick and vitaminsupplement added. In the week up towards hardpenning she was making small hops from a bow in andaround our hunting permission. Some days she wasvocal, and mantled a little bit.

As soon as she was hard penned I basically trained andmanned her as a ‘normal’ hawk, a relatively quickweight reduction and then out hunting. In my limitedexperience and through conversations with manyexperienced sparviters logic dictated that many of theissues surrounding the worst of imprint behaviour couldbe circumvented by killing quickly. Noise, aggressionand manners could reduced quickly in direct proportionto the speed with which the kills on wild quarry could be achieved.

So before the season started in earnest I would behunting Magpies and vermin, then switching to a mixedbag as the months became colder, the cover dropped andthe Blackbirds were fit.

Lexi

Being a full imprint I was thrown completely by her initialreaction and need for weight loss. So much so she spent acouple of days at ‘hack’ due to showing she was ready, butin fact being at least an ounce over her hunting weight.

The only major issue I had with Lexi was a serious boutof carrying early on in her hunting. I am not talkingabout her hitting quarry mid-air and flying to a bush,but actually catching quarry and then on my approachflying off or dragging it to cover.

Her first dozen kills were very small things, as such I hadmade in with little or no offering and just scooped herup onto the glove. I was more concerned about featherdamaged (a lesson from the previous seasons) rather thanhow she may feel about this. As a result she quite rightlybegan to resent me and tried to fly off to a place of safety.

I dropped her weight but this did not have the desiredeffect (I hate dropping weight and avoid it at all cost if Ican) so it was a case of going back to basics. I raised herweight right up for 36 hours, then brought her backdown and made a quick kill on quarry she was unable tocarry. I repeated this and simply took my time withmaking in and getting her to step up. I also was given afew tips from abroad and on the occasions she caughtsomething a lot smaller I used a whole Partridge or quail

carcass as a lure. This deflected her focus and over thefollowing weeks she got more and more used to myapproach. So much so that she is now happy to have mesat next to her while pluming, and will step up for achick on even the smallest kill.

As I write this, it is the 8th of February 2010. It is thesecond day of her moult. Yesterday she was calling allmorning and then took a wild Musket for a big flirtaround my permission. She was calling from the top of ahuge Larch tree near the lake at the back of my cottage.It took a swung lure to bring her back down, even thoughshe was on hunting weight. Nature knows best, so it wastime to end the best season I have ever had.

In total Lexi took 16 Blackbirds, on two occasions she tooktwo back to back over two days. On more than one occasionI took a Blackbird on the first second or third slip, off thefist 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 workout right, even if they have a few wobbles. But Lexi, Pollyand Bob have made an average falconer a better one.

Which is, at the end of the day, what we should aim forwith each successive hawk.

Lexi

Welcome to the first edition of the club news. for the UKFalconry Club. The club has appointed a committee andit is headed by our new Chairman, Lee Featherstone andthe 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 memberswho wish to stand for election for 2011/2012 elections will takeplace the 2011 AGM in May 2011.

(Dates & venue tbc)

UK Falconry Club Rules & Constitution1. The name of the club is The UK Falconry Club.

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.

Membership1. Members of the club will be elected by the committee after

applying to the Membership Secretary.

2. An annual subscription fee will be decided upon each yearat the AGM.

3. Any member whose subscription is unpaid by the end ofMay of any year shall cease to be a member.

4. Should any member commit an act which may bringFalconry or the Club into disrepute that member must givea full written explanation to the committee. Failure to do somay result in that member being expelled from the club.

5. No member must give talks, interviews or material in thename of the UK Falconry Club to the media without firstseeking permission from the committee.

6. Only Full members of the Club are eligible to vote on clubaffairs.

7. Associate members wishing to obtain Full membershipmust apply to the Membership Secretary for theconsideration of the committee. Prior to applying theapplicant should normally have completed at least 12months membership. The application must give details ofhawk related experience and should be endorsed by twoFull members (exceptions can and will be made forexperienced Falconers).

8. Supporter members should not be flying hawks.

Meetings1. An AGM will be held each year to coincide with a three day

field meet.

2. Meetings shall be run by the Chairman or Vice Chairmanin their absence.

3. General meetings will be held as required.

Alteration to RulesRules may only be altered by a vote taken at the AGM. Noticesof motions for the AGM must be sent to the Secretary at least 6weeks prior to the AGM.

Code of Conduct1. Falconry is the flying of trained hawks at wild quarry. No

member should ever take any action which may bring thisinto disrepute.

2. Permission must be sought before hunting on any groundand it must be determined whether another Falconeralready uses the ground in which case their permissionmust also be sought. Due respect must be given to alllandowners and their property.

3. The welfare of all hawks both captive and wild along withthe continuation of the traditions of Falconry must be theaim of all members.

4. Every hawk must be properly manned and equipped andkept with the highest standards of welfare, housing andfeeding.

5. All hawks flown free should be equipped with field jesses, abell and a transmitter. Care must be always be taken toprevent loss.

6. Any member losing a hawk must take every step recover it.

C l u b n e w slatest news from the UK Falconry Club - april 2010

1. Field meets are run and organized by the FieldMaster; members must act under his instruction at all times. His decision is always final.

2. Slipping at quarry is under the control of the FieldMaster and slipping order must be agreed andunderstood by all attending before entering thehunting grounds.

3. All hawks attending must be secured to the glovewhen not being slipped. Any member slipping theirhawk at quarry out of turn will be asked to leaveimmediately.

4. All hawks on field meets must be fitted with aworking transmitter.

5. Dogs attending must be pre-agreed by all thoseattending. You should only work your dog forothers hawks if they have agreed for you to do so.

6. Members are expected to behave in a sportingmanner at all times.

7. All quarry should be dispatched quickly and underthe direction of the Field Master.

8. Members will be expected to respect the land,livestock and property whilst attending a Fieldmeet.

9. Members attending Field meets on anothermember’s land must under no circumstancesreturn or attempt to gain access, for any reason.Failure to comply will result in immediateexpulsion from the club.

10. In the event of a lost hawk at a Field meet allmembers in attendance are expected to assist in thesearch and recovery. Hunting will be suspendeduntil the hawk is recovered, then the slipping orderwill resume as normal.

11. All members attending are expected to dress in amanner appropriate to the activities andconditions on the day (i.e. no jeans, trainers etc). Ifthe Field Master thinks you are not prepared forthe day you may be asked to leave.

12. Members must give the Field Master at least 7 daysnotice if they cannot attend a pre-booked Fieldmeet. Failure to do so could affect that memberattending future meets and failure to cancel, or nonattendance will result in the agreed Field meet capbeing paid in full.

13. The Field Master will inform members attendingmeets of venues and times to meet. If you arerunning late, the Field Master must be informed. If the group has already left the meeting point, latearrivals will contact the Field Master for furtherinstructions. Under NO circumstances should yougo off hawking alone or slip your hawk at quarryon your way to catch up with the rest of the group.

Contact:Kevin Massey, Field Meet Officerkevin_massey@ukfalconryforum.com

Joe Hatton, Assistant Field Meet Officerjoe_hatton@ukfalconryforum.com

Anthony Walker, Assistant Field Meet Officeranthony_walker,@ukfalconryforum.com

We will have field meet dates in the JuneIssue of THE CHASE.

UKFC Field Meet Rules

We will be at The British Falconry & Raptor Fair Chetwynd Park, Newport, Telford, Shropshire2nd -3rd May 2010

Last year Falconmews bred the first ever Gos x Blackspars in this country, in fact I think they were only thesecond ones ever bred in the world. They had twoclutches, the first one had 4 males and a female and thesecond clutch had just one male.

Neil Hunter had ordered the first one to hatch whichwas a male and he picked it up when it was 12 days oldto start the imprinting process.

Everything went to plan and he was entered and flownhard by Neil.

The one down side to all the chicks was they were allvery, very vocal to the point that most of the ownerswere struggling to put up with it.

To try to cure this Neil lent Bwana to one of the otherowners and he took on that guy’s bird. Although thiscured Bwana of the noise unfortunately it did not stopthe one Neil now had so after a couple of weeks theyswapped back.

Neil continued to fly him but in mid October his mate’sGos was killed by a fox so he kindly lent him Bwana.Unfortunately, that did not work out and after a coupleof weeks he handed him back. The trouble then was Neilwas busy training up his home bred male Goldie, so hewas struggling for time.

At the same time the male Gos I had been flying for afriend had to go back unexpectedly and so I was birdlessfor the rest of the season. I tongue-in-cheek emailed Neiland offered to fly Bwana for the rest of the season and tomy great surprise Neil emailed back to say he would behappy to lend him to me.

So at 6.30am on the 16th November I boarded a trainfrom March in Cambridgeshire and made the journey toEdinburgh to meet Neil and pick up Bwana. I arrived at11am after a very pleasant journey and Neil was therewaiting to pick me up. We went for a coffee and a chatthen it was back to the station to get the 12.45pm trainhome. I finally arrived at my house at 5pm so quite along but very exciting day.

I took Bwana out of the giant hood he had travelled backin and he was fine with hardly a bate. I gave him a smallfeed then put him away for the night in his mews.

The next day he was 1lb 6 3/4ozs but fed on the fist andeven came twenty yards on a creance.

Training progressed rapidly as I knew his flying weightwas 1lb 5ozs. During the weight reduction his mannerson the fist were perfect and his recall from greater andgreater distances was fantastic. A credit to Neil’s imprintingand training, plus he was still silent. In fact the only thing

I found hard to handle with him was he had a habit everynow and again to have a bating fit for absolutely no reason.This would start when I would feel his grip tighten, at firstI thought he had spotted something but then when I lookedat him his head would go back his eyes would go large asif I was a complete stranger, (I may be strange but I amno stranger to him! ) and he would then have a bating fit.As soon as he recovered the glove he acted like it neverhappened.

Finally on the 8th December it was time for his first huntingtrip with me.

Arrived at my ground and as soon as I was set I put Tessthe GSP out to begin. But almost straight away a red leggot up about 30-40yds out. Bwana bated at it and so I lethim go. The next few minutes are etched in my mind forever. He left the fist like an exocet missile, and they bothdisappeared over the horizon. I just stood there with abig grin on my face and in complete awe at what I hadjust seen. Coming to my senses I thought “ Christ I’dbetter get after him” and proceeded to run towards theway he had gone and went straight down a 6ft dyke I hadforgotten was in front of me. Nothing broken but acouple of bruises including my pride and I was up theother side and off. Found him a fair distance off but withno prize unfortunately, but I was over the moon with hisspeed and commitment, plus his recall from about100yards was spot on.

Had several more flights that day but nothing in the bag,but returned home that afternoon with bird, dog and amind full of expectations for the rest of the season.

Over the next four weeks he took several partridge withtwo of these being the best flights I had ever seen aftertaking both in the air. His results on pheasants was notas good and although he had a few hens from easy slipshe was struggling to hold hens in full flight and very rarelyheld them when it came to a struggle on the ground. Withcock birds he was even less successful but not for not tryingas he flew everything that moved with a passion that wasa pleasure to witness.

Early January I decided to concentrate on rabbits for afew weeks and he had several but once again struggledon the big bucks. I do not have many bits of rabbit landso when I had hit it hard for a while thought I wouldfinish the season on corvids.

If slipped close he took them with ease so I started slippingfurther and further away but then if they spotted him earlyit ended up in some very long track downs. I was not reallyenjoying this flying and if I was honest my bottle went ashe is not my bird.

On the 10th February after chatting to Neil I put him ina semi seclusion aviary in the hope he will have an earlymoult so Neil can have him back for the start of thepartridge season.

One thing that has stood out is his immature feathers seemto be a lot more resilient to damage than the averageimmature gos’s feathers. Bwana has not had a tail guardon all season and through all his encounters he has onlytipped two feathers. Both on rabbits. The first I salvagedand imped back in and the second was on his last outingwhere he snapped a deck about a third of the way up.

Neil had said he would be fine so I did not imp that onebefore I put him down to moult.

I still go in with him every day and he comes to the fist tofeed. He is now well up in weight although not quite attop weight but his manners on the fist are still impeccableand he allows me to play with his food with my barehand and check him out all over. Like I said earlier acredit to Neil’s imprinting technique.

Last week the broken feather was still playing on my mindand as I didn’t want to cast him at this stage I went in witha good size grown- on on the fist and once he was tuckingin I walked over to the nest shelf and put him down. I thenproceeded to imp in another feather to replace the brokenpart with Bwana not batting an eyelid at me doing it. Notthe neatest imping job I have ever done and not the moststylish as I had to use a trimmed down sakerette’s deckfeather but it will support the new growth, so I can livewith 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 thepressure 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.

- 13 -

This February, I was staying with my good friendand fellow falconer Alex May and to my surpriseAlex had arranged a day out with Neil Hunter tosee Nelson his male Golden Eagle fly themountain or blue hare (Lepus timidus).

Neil arrived at Alex’s house for breakfast andshortly afterwards we were heading for the hill.Neil warned me the ground conditions weredifficult and that this was the first time he’dbeen on the hill for over a month due to theamount of snow that had fallen since December.We travelled up a steep track for several miles tothe snow covered hill.

Neil quickly briefed both Alex & I on how hewanted us to walk the hill and quickly checkingthe telemetry and slippng his cocker spaniel wewere away in search of the elusive blue hare.

Within a half hour, we had our first slip, a crackingflight with Nelson covering the ground at somespeed, he connected with the hare as both Nelsonand the hare went down a small snow coveredgully only to lose the hare on the ground.

After several other near misses, Nelson was justlyrewarded for all his effort, when a blue hare wasflushed and Nelson took his hare in some style.

Seeing Nelson’s manners on the kill and feathercondition is testament to the time and dedicationthat 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 Neiland Nelson. Fingers crossed!

by Neil DaviesPhotos Alex May

Hunting with a Golden Eagle

Neil & Nelson with their hare.

- 14 -

The Falconry Award assumes that candidates have noprevious knowledge or experience and covers all aspectsup to Flying to the fist'; after which the raptor can beflown free and taken hunting. Therefore, falconry, in thiscontext, does not mean hunting with birds of prey,although subsequent modules could cover this. FurtherAwards in respect of more advanced husbandry, breedingand falconry may be introduced later so as to provide aprogression path for candidates.

This Award is approved by the Hawk Board and isadministered by Lantra Awards.

The award is granted to those candidates who are able todemonstrate an understanding of the relevant backgroundknowledge, and those practical skills necessary to keep aBird of Prey in a healthy and happy condition. The Awardconsists of two units:

Unit 1 Bird of Prey management and husbandry Module 1 Housing Module 2 Hygiene Module 3 Feeding and food preparationModule 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 trainingtechniques Module 10 Weighing and weight management Module 11 Flying to the fist on a creance

Full details are available from Lantra Awardsawards@lantra-awards.co.uk or telephone 02476 419703

http://www.hawkboard-cff.org.uk/lantra.htm

http://www.lantra-awards.co.uk/

F.A.Qs1. All candidates pay £25.00 +VAT for the Lantra Award2. All assessors apply to Lantra Awards with their

application/resume. They must then achieve theLantra Award themselves before attending a LantraAwards Falconry Assessor course £75.00 + VAT(£88.13)

3. When assessors have attended the course they willreceive a certificate stating that they are ProbationaryAssessors until their 1st candidate. Then their ExternalVerifier will attend and evaluate their competence asan assessor. If he believes that he is competent theExternal Verifier will then invoice the probationaryassessors Approved Administration Point £250.00 +VAT (£294.00) for this visit. The Approved Assessorwill then receive a certificate from Lantra Awards.External Verifiers will visit Assessors at least onceevery two years, however if there are concerns raised,further visits may be required.

4. The Probationary Assessor must link to/apply tobecome an Approved Administration Point and showthat they are capable of and have facilities to deal withthe clerical aspects of the award. For exampleregistering the candidate with Lantra Awards,distributing certificates, answering queries, keepingrecords 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 shouldhave assessed his first candidate and therefore beenevaluated by his External Verifier within 6 months ofhis Lantra Course date. If however this has not beenpossible it may be necessary to arrange more than 1external verifier visit with the first 2 years.

For years now I have wanted to get fresh blood into theUK to expand the gene pool available and hopefullyimprove the ever popular goshawk. A few years ago itwas a very difficult task to get your head around whereto start, who to approach? Which country would havethem available, the questions to ask and get answers towas... well amazingly endless!

Since internet and cyberspace growth in popularity, thishas opened up the world that was quite in the darkeight years ago or so when I first thought about gettingnew genetics into the UK, I made several contacts in

Germany and Russia but the language barrier wasalways a problem, there were also the rules andregulations of each country and then the CITIESpaperwork not being acceptable by the UK fromdifferent countries, very much a mine field of questionsand even more questions.

Now with the EU sorted and the unity of most ofEurope, importing the needed birds was well verysimple, finding a reputable breeder and one which has agood understanding of English, makes it much easierfor the whole process to happen.

by lee featherstone

new bloodAn insight into importing Northern Goshawks

Annabelle

I decided that I needed to get a male from outside the UK,something fresh that I could imprint and mould into asemen donor and eventually inseminate my females herewith and produce some fresh youngsters, so I could seewhat it would achieve and whether my personal thoughtsand suspicions were correct about what was happeningwith the gene pool here.

I had a reasonable 2009 season and re-invested all that Ihad made from the season into buying and fetching thesenew birds back. I went with the intentions of buying justa male bird and flew out to Germany prior to the breedingseason to have a look at parents and meet the breeder I hadselected. When I got there I was given a warm welcomeand the whole visit was, I felt a success. I was able to viewthe parent birds and they had thousands of pictures ofyoung produced from years gone by. I had then to makea choice between the various sub species that were availableto me. From this I selected a male and then decided Iwould also have a female which I added by phone when Igot back home to the UK so as to make a clean line that Icould produce from. This was no problem. I was told thatwhen they are ready for me to collect they would advise mewith plenty of notice so as to arrange the long drive over. A few weeks passed and I had regular emails and phone callsabout the progress and the day arrived that there was a fewto pick from, ageing from 7 days to 15 days old roughly.

So I made my arrangements and drove to the tunnel crossingat some ridiculous time in the morning; however this wasbest as the traffic was less and driving through the nightwould be better and faster for me as a personal preference.A mate, Gordon came along for the ride and to have a lookat what was on offer as he may be interested in a bird forhimself. We got there at about 11am Saturday morningafter leaving the UK at 9pm Friday evening.

We received a warm welcome and had some lunch anddrinks and a good natter about our journey, we were putup for the night and were shown to our beds to drop offour overnight bags and then we were taken to the gardenwhere we were greeted with 2 big baskets of baby goshawks!A basket of males and a basket of females, well Gordon andI just looked at each other with a grin from ear to ear!

We looked at the females and the choice wasn’t easy butwe seemed to both point to the same chick and she waschosen as the one. The males were a different kettle of fish!We just couldn’t decide on which one to have! Wenarrowed it down to 2 chicks, a straight Gentilis Gentilisand a Buteodes x Albidus, these were just bundles of fluffand no markings or colours could be seen on them justthe size of their legs and feet.

There was a big price difference between the 2 chicksand there was also a chick that was also in the runningthat was priced in between the two, decisions decisions!!I thought well I’m not coming all this way to go backwith something that I would buy because it was moreaffordable. This wasn’t what I had intended so the pricedifference thought process was quickly dismissed. It wasnow purely down to the features of each individual.

I went from one to the other, back and forth before Ifinally selected the Buteodes x Albidus male. Even thenext day I was still in two minds whether I had selectedthe right one and kept having another look. In the end, I made my selection and decided to stick with it. Bothmales turned out by all accounts crackers and the male Ibrought back was named Bruno and the rest is history.The female was named Katrina and I was completelysatisfied with my choice of birds, both unrelated andboth picked up and in my possession at 14 days oldbeing put through the imprinting process.

I have been back a few times and have had more femalesfrom them to add to my project. I will say that I havenever been anywhere that has given the friendly serviceand after sales service that these people have given me.I highly recommend them to all. Yes their birds are alittle more expensive than the UK but you are gettingsomething fresh and genuine quality. I now have 5females from there and a male, with some more newstock that they have got in I shall probably be back therefor another male again soon. I have probably driven agood 6000 miles back and forth to there and it wasworth every mile. Would I do it again?? Too right firstthing in the morning!

Bruno

In next month’s edition the launch of the UK Falconry Club

at The British Falconry & Raptor Fair,

plus much much more...

www.ukfalconryforum.com