hunting with an owl?

[Geffaz]

OK anyone out the succesfuly trained ther owl to take prey?
i dont wont to hear just from americans (tho this is very usful)
but are ther any brits out ther! if so what species?,what prey?,could be anything from srew to a munkjack (no my little owl found a beetle once) lol
what methods of training did u pratice?
alot have told me this is near impossible so please bite ya lip if the post its just gana be AAAAAAR U MAD! and DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
cheers inadvance peaple! :wink:

[Jay]

No offence but why would you not want to hear from Americans? If it is because of our passage birds this wont be a problem with owls. Almost anyone that trains owls will take them from the nest......... same idea as taking them from a breeder over in the UK. Also we are chasing the same game...... bunnys.

[Geffaz]

WOH HOLD UP I SAID I DONT WONT TO JUST HEAR FROM AMERICANS! JUST! ALL INFO IS USFUL MATE! ITS JUST ITS MORE POPULAR FROM WAT I GATHER IN THE STATES! and from wat i can tell ther arnt many over here that do it! so would be good to hear from them ASWEL! all info is good! and its seems the US has the edge as far as hunting with owls gose! so please if u got storys or info mate post them! ;-] CHEERS!

[Geffaz]

sorry Andy what sort of eagle owl mate!
dont they yous gho alot in the states! like jay says we have the same prey animals?
luve eagle owls tho the europeans ar awsome!

[Jay]

I didnt take it that way at all. I was just wondering if you didnt want advice from american faloners on it because you thought we used wild trapped birds where as UK faloners only use are able to use captive bred birds

[Geffaz]

nope like u said in the other thread ! whats the diffence!

[Jay]

A passage bird is a bird in the wild on its first migration, less than 1 year of age. Basicly they hit puberty at one year of age. A bird that has not fleged yet is considered an eyass. Also any bird taken at this stage regardless of age can be refered as an eyass. But sinec your over in the UK you dont really need to worry about the whole adult/passage thing since you can not take wild birds, just some general falonry info one should know.

[Jester]

would love to offer some help and advice on bunnys but all Jester has caught so far are some leaves that dared to rustle in fronnt of him :roll:

he had a little sparrow type thing in his aviary on xmas day which disappeared and when i weighed him he was 1 3/4 oz heavier than expected so i guess it didnt escape :wink:

oh yeah and this :lol: :lol: http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/files/deer_s.jpg

but i dont like to brag too much :oops:

[Mr. Twinkie]

i ve only ever seen 2 owls hunt...a european and a snowy, both trained by the same guy. the european keep trying to swallow rabbits whole....until it nearly choked on 1.......the snowy i was impressed with....it was catchin rabbits that wer bolted by ferrets.....but was almost impossible 2 get off a kill.

[Geffaz]

JESTER THAT PIC IS WICKED! PMSL :lol:

[TonyDunn]

have a friend who hunts with his european..... its great on rabbit as long as u only want 1 kill a day.....cause u can't get it off a kill.

[Jiff]

the first time i seen a european eable owl,i've had this idea of hunting one in the back of my mind,two reasons first they have awsome feet,secondly because it's difficult to do successfully,i don't have the experience yet but in a year or two i think i'll give it a go.

[Geffaz]

thats great news! one kill is no problem ;-] duz he have trouble with the owl flying off with the bunny! have an ask mate and see if he can recomend any books or vids! or better still get him on here ;-]

[Geffaz]

yeah thats it! ther around for a very long time so you can grow with the bird! thats what i intend to do :-]

[IAmTheWeasel]

You say one kill is OK....Wait until she starts taking them within a few minutes....It gets old real quick. :-)

[Geffaz]

You say one kill is OK....Wait until she starts taking them within a few minutes....It gets old real quick. :-) nahh i dont think so not for me anyway if i decided on an owl ! hunting would not be the priority like ive said in previous posts! just think it would be good to get it to take the odd bunny! just another string to the bow on top of training keeping and flying such an awsome creature! it also cant be bad for the mental state and general quality of life for the bird! may be im wrong? if i decided on a hawk then obvcouse id want it out ther bagging up! but an owl no! ive got a butchers up the road that deals with my tast for meat anyway :P

[Hawkmaster]

Give It a Go!

[Geffaz]

Give It a Go! THANKS FOR THE POSITIVE MATE! can u tell me some of the pit falls i havnt seen, im aware that if im to succede then ive really gota put thos hours in, say more than a rt or hh, are these guys flying from the fist at pray they have flushed or snuk up on! will i have problems with it just legging it with the prey! or sitting on it and not being able to get a look in? ive read some books but they all deal with hunting with a hawk, falcon.
so anything will be valuable! i will say this is hyperthetical as i have a long way to go before im in a position to own a rapter of any kind!
but im well up for the challenge! and ive heard it is a challenge :?

[Hawkmaster]

I have over the year help and advise many people on what I think may work to get an Owl hunting and sadly none have succeeded. Craig that has not been on the forum for some time now may come the closest but we will see. It may be best for us to talk on the phone.

First thing is what quarry do you have that is EASILY obtainable?

[Geffaz]

loads of rabbits, squirrel, staks of feather! ducks pheasnat, partridge but not shaw if thats relevant! i live on the south downs so the terrain is a mixture of feilds hedges and open woodland! diciduous forest , chalk pits,

[Hawkmaster]

Focus on one of those, my guess would be rabbits, especially if they are out in the open and now choose an owl that would handle them and think of what it has to do to catch it off the fist?

Personally I fancy a Benegal Eagle Owl to do the job, as they are large enough to tackle the quarry, not too large to be slow off the fist as many other owls and can be rather rapacious too.

[Albie]

Like some others have said I think it would take a long time with plenty of patience to actually train an owl to hunt and when it had made a kill I too think you would have a job to get him to "hand it over".
I had a male Bengal that killed a Large wild rat in his mews and me thinking that I would take it from him in case the rat had been poisened.
Well let me tell you it aint no joke trying to retrieve a nice warm meal from an Eagle Owl!!
Albie.. :wink:

[Hawkmaster]

I think that would come with training and not robbing the bird so that would be Ok to overcome Albie, let get an owl catching or even chasing FIRST!

I have been PMed by someone that wants to know if I know it all why don't I do an owl hunting?

I do not profess to know it all, I am only saying how I would go about it, and hope someone can do it and start a trend with people and turn owlers into hunters too. This way they will receive admiration from people like me, that would not waste a season trying to do an owl, as I prefer hawks.

Good luck OWLERS, you have my support in trying to help you into the hunting circle.

[Geffaz]

thanks matey! dont worry about the pm you will find many closed minded peaple in any circle fortunatly thers enuff chaps like you that are happy to push things in relativly unknown directions, terratory and possibly forward!
Being a total novice but having experince with other animals i feel its possible to program most creatures too some extent! with time and patience u can train even a mouse to do tricks (not that ive tried). Havent u seen a flea circus boys lol!
i think owls are very much ambush predators and what better point of ambush than siting on a branch of a tree (thats me) thats activly seeking pray for u.

p,s a bengal was my first choice mate :)

[Varmint]

Seems a slightly hipocritical topic considering your earlier posts on Passage bird training Geffaz?

[Shaun Byrne]

Good luck Geffaz, I think you'll need it. I know a couple of experienced guys that tried with EE owls, both daft imprints and both got pretty dangerous after being "Robbed".
I feel it would ruin a good imprinted owl.

[Colohen]

Khan , My GHO is great on the take but will not give up the kill ! Ask my jack russel (Count) found out , he has, correction (had) a habit of steeling food from the birds while they are feeding till he tride to sneek a pigion from Khan. took me 15 min to get Count from him ! No harm done . Count keeps his distance from Khan now.
Khan's kills so far has been 2 cotton mouth , one timber rattler, one copper-head , one red-tail, hated that to happen!, 2 opposum one over 5 pound, one armordiller, a stray cat that some how got in his cage, and I dont know the number of pigion and checkens used in his training!

[Hawkmaster]

I think you should not remove it from the first 10 kills anyway, so let the owl feed up on them.

I don't think people are close minded, I think most have heard and seen too many wanting to hunt with owls and it just does not happen!

But good luck and go for it!

[Geffaz]

thanks hawkm!
colohen nice one!how do u train the gho, mind if its taking cottonmouth and diamond back cant see u wanting to get near the kill for a will lol,
ive herd u take the owl egg from the nest as apose to a i year old hawk rt etc! cant remember wat u call it! so if its hand reared are ther any training technics with owls u could tell me that i wouldnt find in the average book on hunting with falcon and hawk!
sorry to rake ya brains on this peaple! i no the pros and cons of a hawk versus owl, just wana get any little tips and prepare myself for any little qurks the owl mite have inadvance! ie taking and driving away, armed robbery,hostege taking,hit and run! and any other analogy i can think of :roll:

[KenHawker1970]

I know a guy who hunts with an EEO, Ive even been out on the lamp with him. He does most of his hunting that way. The bunnys do get a bit of a shock I can tell you. As for getting the kill off the owl well, its just like any other bop. If they think they are been robbed good luck trying to get the kill lol. At 200 pounds per square inch of gripping pressure in each tallon I would not like to get in her way. My mate doesnt have that problem as he lets her have a feed from the kill. And shes been doing the hunting thing for a wile now so shes got it sussed.
With owls well its just like every thing else the more time and training you put into the bird the more you will get out of it.

Reguards, ken

[Hawkmaster]

Superb, it would be nice to see some pictures or get him to join the forum and share his experiences with others?

[Kevin Massey]

now thats a good idea h/m.

kev

[Albie]

I have to join in and say that I wasn't trying to rob the owl of his catch, after getting hold of the rather long tail of the wild rat I threw a couple of weaner rats to one side and he went for them instead!
My concern was he had already eaten the head of the wild rat and What IF THE RAT HAD TAKEN POISEN PUT DOWN BY A NEIGHBOUR!

[BrianM]

good point nimbus,,,,, i have also heard of birds dying after eating wild rabbit that had beed *****ed by a shotgun and had shot inside.... caused lead poisoning

[Wightwings]

VERY good point nimbus, the wifes mhh had his first kill a couple of days back, a large rat :roll: in the old barns at the back. She let him have the heart and felt terrible taking it off him ( and he did not want to let it go ) but she was worried to death about posion and spent most of the night going out checking on him (or sending me )

[Lanner_Man]

hi folks,
i have hunted with a barn owl, very interesting how she went off and hunted all on her own, i just encouraged her with a Mouse (cat toy) a little bit and off she went. great how they just dissapear into the grass

cheers
Luke

[IAmTheWeasel]

Perhaps that should be rephrased to read "I watched a barn owl hunt"......Sorry, couldn't resist. :lol:

[Bubo]

hello everyone,

even though hunting was far from my mind when i got kadabra I think he is well on his way to actually doing it. Even from a very young age i have always used a stimulus to keep his hunting instinct well active and just carried on through games.

I will always finish a flying session with a good hunt (well actually i'm dragging the dummy rat and he is chasing) but it is very exciting and it really gives him and myself a buzz. The whole facial expression changes and the impact on the dummy rat is very different to when he lands on the glove. I hope with a little more encouragement (know i have learnt much more about getting raptors entered) one day he just might give it a go. although he did catch his little vole bless him hahaha. He will be welcome to keep what he catches hahaha.

HM i think your dish out good advice so keep it coming mate!
bubo

[Hawkmaster]

What I would like to say is that they all look like they want to hunt, but actually getting down to it is another job?

Catching rabbits or what we would term as game would also be the proper way to do it.

Too much hard work for me. Albies bird Finley is on his way though.

[Bubo]

yeah i know what you mean, i personally love the challenge!

bubs

[Hawkmaster]

GO for it, anyone who dese has my respect, even for at least trying.

[Bubo]

:D

[Colohen]

I have worked with several barn owls, starting them to hunt own there own. Even had one take a bunny! But for wild release not falconry. There hunting style, over open fields, had it simelerarity to a harrier. High perched, they watch there pray land in the field, a very low fly over the tall crops, then a sudden drop on it's pray. Buitiful flights!
Makes my think of trying one in falconry!!
GHO another story, if he has it, about the only way to get it is a bloody million peaces! A swap off works for some but not all. And the POWER bone crushing , you can hear bones crushing in ther powerful gripping talons!

[Jester]

it seems to me like Jester would rather have his "staff" (i.e. me :roll: ) feed him rather than go to the effort of catching anything for himself but im not giving up on him just yet. He is beginning to catch some of his tit-bits in the air when i throw them for him though so i might try using a swing lure of some sort which might help his co-ordination although i doubt if he will ever be fast enough to take any sort of bird in the air (be a nice sight if he did though)

[Colohen]

I have not seen any owls take in flight. From personal observation and includeing a considerable amount of video footage I have collected.
There is one aera I hunt squirrel and have to compete with a pair of bard owls. I've watched them take several squirrel then I'll slip away with out disturbing there hunt. I think they may have been useing me as a distraction for the squirrels, every morning the first kill would go to the bards, then I could move away and contenue my hunt and would not see them again. Some times I would ponder the idea of trying one for squirrel hawking but have never come across a nest to aquire one.

[Colohen]

Speeking of , I have a barn, baby, calling for her mouse. She is early this morning, she usely wakes me about 3:30am.

[Anton Deja]

Hi ,

Buy 10 of them , train them all and keep the best .

This is my advice on eagle owls .



See you .

Anton deja
www.kunstdervalkerij.be

[Jester]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm wonder how much aviary space i can squeeze out of my garden :mrgreen:

nah guess not :( i will just have to keep trying with the one i got and enjoy the flights whether he hunts or not


ohyeah and enjoy him trying to mate with my head but thats another story :shock:

[Bubo]

:lol: :lol: new hair conditioner jester:lol:

As much as i love owls I wouldnt be too hot on the idea of training so many owls and just keep the best one. I love each and every bird i have and get extremely attached. Working towards a target with a bird is to me what all the fun is about. weather we actually reach it is another issue :lol: :lol:

bubo

[Moses]

would love to offer some help and advice on bunnys but all Jester has caught so far are some leaves that dared to rustle in fronnt of him :roll:

he had a little sparrow type thing in his aviary on xmas day which disappeared and when i weighed him he was 1 3/4 oz heavier than expected so i guess it didnt escape :wink:

oh yeah and this :lol: :lol: http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/files/deer_s.jpg

but i dont like to brag too much :oops:


nice pic bud thats one bad ass owl deer hunter :D haha

[Swann]

This webpage I have has a couple good stories and info on hunting with GHO... (from the states though)... if you find this guys email address..tell me . The pages says you can email him with questions..although his email is not given???

http://geocities.com/hoot_owl_falconry/


Thanks Swann