Preventing screaming

[Keith Robert Talbot]

Its that million dollar question, anyone come across any tips whilst imprinting this year as to preventing gos's screaming or minimizing it.

With a new bird potentially on the way next year was wondering if anyone had any tips? I will fully socially imrpint the gos, not ever allow it to see the food appearing from me during the imprinting and get it hunting asap, probably purchase some pheasants and release nearby so early access too quarry is guarenteed. IN the past i have found the period when the bird starts to fly around most problematic, as we're all inclined to tether it and thus spend less time with the bird, bringing the screaming. I read on one thread earlier never to feed the bird at home which i like the idea of. The reason for this thread is that my season of late has been ruined by a neighbour complaining about my gos and there's no way in hell i'm going to stop falconry, so i hope to make a new imprint as quiet as possible!

Any ideas?

Keith

[K.K]

My imprint female stop to scream when she started to hunt. I know this from other falconer, every imprint will stop to scream when he start to hunt. Till the moment of hunt you will have to hear this terrible noise:)

[GoodFooter]

Keith, I dont fly am imprint for several reasons and the only hand on experience I have is a season and a bit with an imprint spar so I couldnt pretend to answer the million dollar question of how to produce a silent imprint.
I have seen one or two but the majority I have seen make noise in the adolescent stage just as they would do in the wild whilst gaining independence, just some never get past this stage. Your job is to get your bird through that stage give it its independence and allow it to grow mentally through catching copious amounts of quarry just as it would in the wild whilst keeping it tame/obedient and not seen to be the provider of food as its parent would and get a vocal rollocking for doing so.

I cant do that......I dont have the time so i dont fly an Imprint ( I can see the logical benefits) but still do falconry.
why not fly a PR bird it might keep the neighbours happy?

[Coalminer]

I had a similar problem with a neighbour and my Eagle Owl hooting at 2am.

Fair enough, and he probably had a point.

But the same guy had a dog that yapped from morning 'til night.

Sadly the local council said his dog was making a noise during "acceptable hours" and I ended up selling the bird, or face the police.

However I caught him one night in my garden trying to "poke" one of my birds with a pool cue when he was drunk.

Good enough excuse to knock seven bells out of him and put his lamps out!

So it all ended happily ... and he moved.

PS - Doesn't solve the imprint problem, obviously, but a good tip for "imprinting" neighbours.

[Peregrino555]

My imprint Gyr/Saker kept screaming even when she was hunting i done it by the book never associated me with food but it did not stop her screaming after the first moult she stopped screaming she will grow out of it i have a friend who spray water on her mouth every time she open her gap for screaming and he got good results

[OutFlying]

I found starting the weight drop after hard penning, no carcass feeding or imprinting on the lure - has made a quieter imprint gos.

Jim.

[MattSpar]

i have a friend who spray water on her mouth every time she open her gap for screaming and he got good results

Me too, but I used the technique on my wife.

Oh, and the water was still in the bottle.

[Keith Robert Talbot]

The bird that i'm having problems with is in its 2nd year, i think its fairly unusual to get a bird that keeps screaming in its second year, though to be honest its not too bad (i don't think) and i have taken alot of measures to ensure the noise is as quiet as possible. As for flying a parent reared bird, i don't know why i'm reluctant i guess i've seen the benefits of imprinting and been really impressed before

keith

[Keith Barker]

hello keith,
first of all you should ask yourself why you want to imprint,
second could you dedicate every day enough time to hunt and secure a kill with your hawk well after the clocks go back, this is a long time from taking up your eyass if it is a first clutch bird.
if you can answer yes to the second you can achieve your goal of a silent imprint.
personally i dont think a pen with a few pheasants released will do, you will need an unending supply of quarry to go at throughout the season to keep him happy.
after entering and when your hawk is killing every day he will get into the routine where he does not see you as a food provider, just like eyasses do with their parets in their natural state.
you will need to make his hunting trips as easy and successfull as you can, every day, if your country allows it he must have an easy kill if he does not catch one legitimately.
fly him early in the morning, he will be full during the daytime and will not slip into the habbit of screaming his head off all day long as he waits for you to come home from work.
if he kills every day you will have a silent imprint come the end of october, it does not matter if your hawk sees you feed it at first he will have it fathomed out you are the provider when you start lure training him anyway.

i am half way through my first season with my first imprint goshawk, i fly crows and rooks because they are everywhere here in ireland, if i were flying pheasants i would have a screamer on my hands because there is just not enough of them to secure a kill every day, same goes with rabbits.
does my hawk scream or call to me at home? NO!
regards
keith

[Alf]

Sound advise mate. Alf.

hello keith,
first of all you should ask yourself why you want to imprint,
second could you dedicate every day enough time to hunt and secure a kill with your hawk well after the clocks go back, this is a long time from taking up your eyass if it is a first clutch bird.
if you can answer yes to the second you can achieve your goal of a silent imprint.
personally i dont think a pen with a few pheasants released will do, you will need an unending supply of quarry to go at throughout the season to keep him happy.
after entering and when your hawk is killing every day he will get into the routine where he does not see you as a food provider, just like eyasses do with their parets in their natural state.
you will need to make his hunting trips as easy and successfull as you can, every day, if your country allows it he must have an easy kill if he does not catch one legitimately.
fly him early in the morning, he will be full during the daytime and will not slip into the habbit of screaming his head off all day long as he waits for you to come home from work.
if he kills every day you will have a silent imprint come the end of october, it does not matter if your hawk sees you feed it at first he will have it fathomed out you are the provider when you start lure training him anyway.

i am half way through my first season with my first imprint goshawk, i fly crows and rooks because they are everywhere here in ireland, if i were flying pheasants i would have a screamer on my hands because there is just not enough of them to secure a kill every day, same goes with rabbits.
does my hawk scream or call to me at home? NO!
regards
keith

[TazAndMeg]

parent reared sounds the way mate, if you are prepared to do the manning and your bird will be as good as an imprint any day of the week ? :supz:

[Keith Robert Talbot]

hello keith,
first of all you should ask yourself why you want to imprint,
second could you dedicate every day enough time to hunt and secure a kill with your hawk well after the clocks go back, this is a long time from taking up your eyass if it is a first clutch bird.
if you can answer yes to the second you can achieve your goal of a silent imprint.
personally i dont think a pen with a few pheasants released will do, you will need an unending supply of quarry to go at throughout the season to keep him happy.
after entering and when your hawk is killing every day he will get into the routine where he does not see you as a food provider, just like eyasses do with their parets in their natural state.
you will need to make his hunting trips as easy and successfull as you can, every day, if your country allows it he must have an easy kill if he does not catch one legitimately.
fly him early in the morning, he will be full during the daytime and will not slip into the habbit of screaming his head off all day long as he waits for you to come home from work.
if he kills every day you will have a silent imprint come the end of october, it does not matter if your hawk sees you feed it at first he will have it fathomed out you are the provider when you start lure training him anyway.

i am half way through my first season with my first imprint goshawk, i fly crows and rooks because they are everywhere here in ireland, if i were flying pheasants i would have a screamer on my hands because there is just not enough of them to secure a kill every day, same goes with rabbits.
does my hawk scream or call to me at home? NO!
regards
keith


Cheers Keith,

Indeed good advice, i guess i'm not entirely sure I am lucky to fly on some of the best rabbit and hare land i have ever seen which is 30 mins from the house. With the work load of being a final year vet student next year i can do this 3 days a week, i then thought i would fly crows, rooks, rabbits and pheasants locally on other days. i have seen some very good gos's in the lamp and would bring this into the training pretty dam quick as well. The truthful answer is that i probably shouldn't fly a new bird next year but wait abit. my dilemma is that this may be the last year that i am living so close to the grouse moor (rabbit and hare land) that i fly on adn i know how easily this could set a young bird up to be a stunner (after next year it depends on where my job is -i will be hoping locally but not sure). The problem i have had with the current bird is that he will not fly in wind! Sounds rediculous (was a thread on it a while back) this has massively cut how much i can fly him up here as its always bloody windy, the result is that frustration and boredom have crept in and the screaming has begun, bit of a vicious circle.

Incidently i haev been folowing your thread and been really impressed by the dedication you've put in, you really deserve a quiet good bird, well done you.

Keith

[Jack]

Screaming is not always about food. It can be over other things as well, but it will almost always revolve back to food. Now, imprinting a hawk is an ordeal unless you have the time to do it. Retired and no real obligations to consider. If you are gone 10 or 12 hours a day you might find it difficult to do right. I am retired, and I spent about 4 solid months putting everything else on the back burner. Nothing else came first over my hawk.
Someone said not to drop weight until after hard pinned, and that is right. But you need to be there when the little bird feeds. Believe it or not, this is anti scream training. I kept food available 24/7. Chopped into tiny bits at first, then large chunks to pull on later. But the hawk never really felt hunger until I started dropping the weight. When the little hawk could fly around well in my den and would take the highest place for a night perch, I introduced him to the mews. Still with the food available all the time. I never attempted to hide the fact that I provided the food. This did not associate me with food so much. But had the hawk ever gotten hungry he would have taken notice of where it came from. I never did feed him from or on the fist. Never. And only after he was hard pinned and dropping in weight did I ever start the lure training. Weight drop was rapid so that the little hawk did not have to experience hunger over a long period of time. Once the weight dropped off I was able to start feeding him more and flying him more. Being in the mews and unable to see me, I would drop his food down a chute each morning so that he would be able to feed at his will. Then when time came to drop the weight I would simply short it or fail to drop it. Not seeing me he did not scream.
If you are not close by and in the hawks face when it is feeding while growing up it will resent your presents later on, and when you give it food it will scream at you. I never called him to me for food, and I never fed him from or on the fist. He used the fist as a hunting platform only. No jumps or other food related exercise programs either. Nothing that made him beg food from me.
Some times the hawk will scream all it's life. I have to say that a screaming hawk is not at all fun to fly. It turns into a job of work that is unpleasant at best. And excepting that a hawk is going to scream and mantle over it's food when you get close or while on the fist is only going to sentence you to having a screaming hawk every time. You have to realize that it does not have to be that way. Wild hawks raise young all the time that do not grow up to be idiots. You should be able to do the same.

Jack