Passage diaries.

[Hardcore Hawker]

This is mainly aimed at the american contingent on the forum, I have just obtained a copy of Road to Bakersfield and all i can say is awesome awsome awsome especially the redtails which i take are passage birds my question is this, Do you have to enter these passage birds on quarry you as the falconer wish to hunt or will they go for almost anything within thier prey size range as alot of the studies i have read regarding redtails quote thier main prey as small to medium rodents cottontails must fall into this catagory but what about Jackrabbits? Also i would be really interested in reading a passage diary from trapping to hunting if anyone out there is going to do this next season(dont know if your seasons are the same as ours) for a gos, harris, redtail or falcon i think it would be of great interest to many over here as it cannot be experienced due to being illegal, Yours Steve.

[Dude]

in the case of a goshawk u dont have to enter them in most cases, but if u wanna hunt hares sum bagged bunnies are helpful, but not neccessary if the gos do the job without 'em.

Dan.

[Tasha55403]

Some birds need to be entered, others don't-like most everything:) The redtail I have now has never had a baggy of any kind and has taken 6 different species (cottontail, gray squirrel, snowshoe hare, pheasant, duck, and an accidental fox8-) ). He's chased both black and whitetail jackrabbits as well. Never got a foot on a whitetail, yet (all we have locally), and he couldn't hold on long enough to the one blacktail he grabbed at the NAFA meet two years ago. On the other hand, the redtail Greg had last took quite a few baggy cottontails before he would chase them. He was a TINY bird, though-he flew around 700g (24 3/4oz). More birds need to be entered on squirrels and jackrabbits, than cottontails, but not all birds need it. I'd do a diary for you, but I'm not planning on trapping a new bird this year. I WILL (hopefully) be pulling a wild eyas sharpie to imprint, though-I'll be putting up a diary of that, I'm sure:)

[Hardcore Hawker]

Thanks for that Tasha i will look forward to reading about the Sharpie for sure.
Also like to mention to dude keep us updated on the spar.

[MitchellBrad]

More birds need to be entered on squirrels and jackrabbits, than cottontails, but not all birds need it.

Your completely right on some redtails. In the 60's and early 70's most of the birds I flew were passage redtails. Someone referred to it as "Their motor was turned off." Whatever the case entering seemed to work, as I remember. The last redtail I had was a male taken at branching. He caught 77 rabbits, ten pheasants and a lot of misc stuff. He wasn't entered. Not only that he would home from as far as 7 miles away. It wasn't uncommon to find him at home finishing up one of the leghorn cockerals I had loose.

Unfortunately, I don't keep a diary but used to a very long time ago<G>

Brad

[DeniseTail]

what does it mean to be entered?

[Hardcore Hawker]

Denisetail this in short is finding an easy opportunity for your hawk or falcon to catch a quarry species which you want to hunt for the first time IE it has entered into killing for itself, In the USA you are able by law to use what is known as a baggie IE you can pre-catch a specimen of the desired type of animal you wish to catch then let it go in a way that provides the best chance of a kill this is illegal in the UK. Hope this helps.