Tail Chasers

[Peregrynne]

In my quest to gather the most information I can, I am wondering which longwings are more apt to tail chase?

My desire is to aquire a saker or saker hybrid later on and want to know if I am in for some tail chases or waiting on?

Or can any bird be trained to tail chase?

[Hawkmaster]

There are two ways in which a falcon can be train, either as a pursuit hawk or a game hawk.

Pursuit may be what you are after and most can be trained to do this.

Hope this answers your question?

[Peregrynne]

I guess my question then is, does training a falcon as a pursuit hawk reduce or change the game that it goes after or just the style that it takes it in?

[OhMyGod]

Most people who train their falcons for persuit go for crow, rook, gull, heron etc. as waiting on falcons could never catch a menuvrable rook or gull. They would just dip a wing an watch the falcon go flying past. So we train persuit falcons to have good footing, be super fit and bind to their prey. Also we imprint them onto rooks and gulls when they are growing up so they dont look for game in the field, we never feed them game. But you will need good telemetry as a falcon on persuit may make its kill 2 or 3 miles away from where you slipped her. this is fantastic sport but you just don't always see the flight.

[OhMyGod]

pere/saker

[Adam Barrett]

Omg can i just ask you why you dont feed a persuit falcon up on its kills?
cheers
adam

[Shaun Byrne]

you can improve your chances of seeing a good flight by slipping at the right time and in the right direction. For example, a rook hawk should always be slipped into the wind i.e. The Rooks are upwind. The falcon will always make better headway into the wind than a rook due to its superior power and shape. Once the rooks see the falcon they will nearly always try to use the wind to escape and thus will fly towards the falconer, giving a better chance of seeing the flight and hopefully a kill.
Thats the theory anyway lol!!

[OhMyGod]

well said h4wka, theory anyway!! but the ******s are so sneaky somtimes you have to take what you can!!

Baywinghawker of course you may, I always feed my falcon up on its kill, breast, ribs, good bits then I feed her up on well washed meat from my pocket so she has a FULL crop but is the right weight the next day

[Hawkmaster]

It is possible to make a Pursuit Hawk into a Game Hawk, I have done it a few times, it is the otherway around that does not work for me though.

So if you want the best of bothe worlds do the pursuit thing first and then move on to train it the other way.

[Peregrynne]

Thanks for all the advice. Like I said I have at least two years before I enter into this, so I figured learn what I can while I can. Being from the US I have little choice as to my first bird, but what I get after that is all up to me.

Even though I have seen both a types of chase in the wild, I have to admit the site of the tail chase got my heart racing more. The stoop was impressive, but I actually found myself rooting for the chase bird as it happened before my eyes. I think I was bitten right there, if you get my meaning.

[The Late Lord Lucan]

If you are swaying towards the Saker or Saker hybrid, I would probably go to the Gyr/Saker.
Gyr's are very good at tail chasing. They are very strong and have an ability (second to none in my opinion) of 'tramping down' anything in sight.
Once they are onto it, thejust keep going and going and going and going. Eventually, their prey just can't get away.
Any Hybrid with Gyr in it tends to have a lot more strength and stamina for the tail chase.

Just my opinion.

Regards,
Lucky.

[HawkMan69UK]

ill have to agree with tlll my gyr saker chased anything in a straght line trouble is getting them to turn to come back but if its straight tail chase there the bird for you but you had better be fit lots of running

[Varmint]

I dont know if you guys will agree but in my experience my best rook hawks eventually start to mount anyway?

One v good Per/Sak i fly will sneak off upwind of the slip and re appear as a spec, starting things off with a rattling stoop, usually to shepherd her rook away from any cover, then she seems to toy with them knowing she's got the upper hand.

Not classic ringing rook flights Granted, but i fly her in far from ideal terrain and she has adapted well.

I can see how many of the old Hawking club birds could be switched from rook to partridge flights later in the season.

The Pere/Sak really has got the brain for the job, and is a very adaptable falcon.

[Wightwings]

what a great read that all was... :shock:

[HawkNorth]

i enjoyed it as well

pere/sak male or female?


gyr/sak male or female?

open and enclosed ground , quarry rooks what do you think is best?

[OhMyGod]

It depends on what you want to fly at. Do you get rooks in ireland? You don't want a bird that is too strong as you will just kill the whole time and will not be able to improve that much over the season, Get a bird that will be a challenge. Perhaps a male pere/saker will be a tad small for some large rooks or gulls, gyr/sakers come in different shapes and sizes over here so be carefull

[Shaun Byrne]

Why only Hybrids? Some of the best rook birds I've seen are Tiercels.

[HawkNorth]

i like the out line of pere/ i flew a jer/sak this year originally as display

bird and hope to fly one hunting what weight male would i need theres a

stack of rooks here some nice open ground though plenty of fenceing i

dont no anybody up here seriously hunting falcons so would appreciate

as much info as i can get.

Tiercels is that straight pere?sorry dont no how to work quote yet

Thanks

[OhMyGod]

yeah tiercels do make good rook hawks, however they can not climb at the same angle as a pere/saker for instance. The rook and even more so the crow can fly in a straight line and climb vertically at a very steep angle. The peregrine can not and has to go round in circles to gain height, by the time it has done this the rook will be furter away. A pere/saker has much more of a higher wing loading similar to the rook and crow, and tail chasing (or dog fighting) can be more exciting with a hybrid of similar wing loading.

[HawkNorth]

thanks again

[Varmint]

Id say Female Pere/Sak from a good line would do the job nicely mate, plus easier to enter than Gyr/Sak and more adaptable to quarry species overall, plus Gyr?sSak can sometimes check at ground Game which can be a pain if you want to fly over ground where there are any Bunnies?

Have fun mate! i would reccomend a Gary Wall bird for the job!

[HawkNorth]

why are they easier to enter than Gyr/sak?
more adaptable to quarry species overall? what size is minimum or max

Garry wall? sorry only questions

Thanks

[OhMyGod]

When choosing a pere saker I would recomend the middle size of the clutch, you don't want the bird to be too saker like and will get better results from a bird that throws the pere genes. A clutch that is pere into saker ie pere/saker will give more dominant peregrine genes and be more airial. The largest bird will probably be more saker like so try and get one that is in the middle somwhere. A pere/saker that is 950g or 2lb 1 1/2 I believe will probably be too large. If this is what it is at fat weight out of the aviary I would say it would be a good start, or lighter

[Sean]

Should see Northumberland crow falcons, loads of tail chases, great video, just got it too.