Field meeting akin to california ??

[Midge]

Just viewed a thread started by the " broadwingers ", great bunch of guys .It was concerning a field meet for Ferruginous ..check it out !
Anyhow if it was planned properly by those who know how to plan this sorta thing ........why can't the forum have a field meet similar to those done by the California Hawking crowd ?,surely there would be enough ofan interest frm the forum to have a viable and very enthusiastic level of entry.
Could it happen ?
here's the thread which caused my curiosity;http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24236

[Hawkmaster]

THREAD MOVED FROM GENERAL FALCONRY!

[Midge]

SORRY FOR SUGGESTING SUCH A THING !!!!!!!!!,
From now on I'll keep my thoughts to myself.
Perhaps it was a bad idea after all, sure who would have wanted to meet up with other guys off the forum and possibly hunted with them with their birds , and maybe had some great sport and chat and maybe even friendship.GOD FORBID.

[Fenlands Rescue]

Get a ferrug and come and join us in November.

[Jiff]

thing is, the rules of engagement are so much differant for our mates accross the pond, i'm sure theire meets involve baggie pigeons ect, which infact would give the crowd something of interest without such things it would just be another falconry fair surely.

[Greg]

thing is, the rules of engagement are so much differant for our mates accross the pond, i'm sure theire meets involve baggie pigeons ect, which infact would give the crowd something of interest without such things it would just be another falconry fair surely.

Not quite sure where you get the baggie pigeon idea from because they are only used at the sky trials! The CHC meet is a lot more like the Woodhall Spar meet held by the BFC exept a lot less formal. The meet this year was held at a hotel in the the middle of Sacramento not a field to be seen from the hotel.
Everyone splits up and goes off hunting during the day and get back together in the evening. No real organised groups, people just agree who they will be hawking with the night before. Much of the hunting is held in what we would call semi urban areas in patches of land between developments. Because they are isolated and away from preditors they hold large numbers of game and no one is allowed to shoot so close to habitation. You need to know or meet up with someone who knows the area and where to catch the game. Would not work in this country as it would be almost impossible to obtain permission over enough land to make it work. Even in CA people will drive a couple of hours from the hotel to pieces of land that they know will produce game.
Greg

[Midge]

why didn't this posting get this respons the first time it wa up ?
All I did was ask the quetion , I didn't know the BFC did similar.

[Jiff]

greg i was watching a dvd, but can't remember the name of it, anyway it was good, but i never saw the end either, but basicaly it was a huge get together, i got the impresion it was the pinicle of the falconry callender, they had pigeons in crates, and as you say have some sort of trial, i'm not knocking it mate i think it's great for like minded people to do this, a bit like hare coursing with falcons,

[EagleMan6905]

Greg,
your right , I have attended the CHC meet for years, and when it was up in Sacramento my buddys would come to my house we'd go hawking 50 plus miles south of the meet at ponds I knew of fly 5-6 falcons and then drive up the meet. The problem is if your a visitor and don't know to many people you could get left standing at the lobby with no hawking party to go with. This happen a lot last year, was not good for some. The area is not the greatest hawking ground, most of the fields are covered over with track homes and junk. In the past Sacramento was the mother lode for game had everything to offer, not anymore. Take the ducks for example, the rice farmers can no longer burn off thier fields because of the smoke so now in inorder to controll the weeds they keep the rice fields flooded, so as the ducks come down south for the winter they come across 100,000,00's of ackers of flooded fields and they stop and hold up in the fields feeding on the left over rice. Ducks don't flush well off a 100 acker pond. This has greatly effected the duck numbers down in the central valley. The ponds that I few for 20 years some of the best in the State over the last 5 years would only have ducks in them once a week if that. I know of a couple of hard cord duck hawkers that stoped flying ...no slips. The pheasant situation is not much better, farming parctices spraying eveything with weed killer has taken away all the cover for upland game......not good.

[Eagle Owl]

greg i was watching a dvd, but can't remember the name of it, anyway it was good, but i never saw the end either, but basicaly it was a huge get together, i got the impresion it was the pinicle of the falconry callender, they had pigeons in crates, and as you say have some sort of trial, i'm not knocking it mate i think it's great for like minded people to do this, a bit like hare coursing with falcons,

This is called Sky Trials. It is held not with the intention to catch baggies:( It is a competition that longwingers have. A group of people get together and let their bird take a good pitch then let a pigeon go. The point is to judge the bird on the flight...not the kill. I don't know much about the actual judging, I just go to watch the amazing stoops those birds do!!!! But I have yet to see a pigeon get got!!!! They are usually faster than the longwing and are just bait. It is not a "bagged hunt"!!! I am sure there is someone else that can explain it better than I am!!!

But please don't jump to conclusions about such things before getting your facts straight. We (US falconers) are a great group of people and pride ourselves on doing the best for the sport of falconry!!! Of course, we have bad seeds just like you have bad falconers over there, I am sure!!!