Falcons for starlings

[KnightHawk]

An surgestions on breeds of falcons for hawking starlings.

[Hacker]

yes, might be teaching you to suck eggs but check out general license.
Hopefully this will not effect you.
if not go for a small tiercel, pere, barbary etc.
check out mark collins threads on here for some excellent advice.

[OutFlying]

You'll not get a licence to hunt starlings in England.

[Hacker]

You'll not get a licence to hunt starlings in England.

yes,
as i said check out general license, all depends where you are looking at flying this quarry?

[HelenG]

Try North America! You Europeans can have all your starlings and house sparrows back, the relocation and breeding program was very successful :wink:. We want our continent back now!

[JFSeaman]

Merlin
Perlin
Lannerette
Musket
Spar
Sharp Shinned
Male Coopers (if you are insane)
Aplomado
American Kestrel
Eurasian Kestrel (or at least someone should try using Mullinex as a guide)


In the UK get a license or it's poaching.

[Hatchero]

Merlins slaughter starlings pretty much at will. you can hardly go wrong with a merlin on this quarry.
Jim

[BlueJack]

Jim's got that right. You'll want a female though. Some jacks will chase them but their much too vulnerable to predation from larger hawks when they're busy trying to subdue one.
Keith
P.S. I'm glad we have lots of starlings and house sparrows in the US. They are a great legal food source as well as quarry and are the best for trapping esp the house sparrows.

[JFSeaman]

Jim's got that right. You'll want a female though. Some jacks will chase them but their much too vulnerable to predation from larger hawks when they're busy trying to subdue one.
Keith
P.S. I'm glad we have lots of starlings and house sparrows in the US. They are a great legal food source as well as quarry and are the best for trapping esp the house sparrows.

:supz:
There's always something to hunt!

I'd like to try a make coops this summer for starlings. If not this summer some time. I'll just have to see how life goes.

[Dave G]

carnt believe you carnt hunt starlings in ENGLAND they are a pest and are everywhere hundreds of thousands of the ******s ??

[Alan G]

carnt believe you carnt hunt starlings in ENGLAND they are a pest and are everywhere hundreds of thousands of the ******s ??

Probably more like millions. :D

Not looked too much into the guidlines under section 5, but they are on the list up here.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/921/0055151.pdf

[Alf]

Don’t know who had the brain wave to put starlings on the list of protected species?
There are not as many around as there were but they still number in there millions
A few falconers taking a few each year well there not going to dent the population are they?
They should lift the ban for falconers its ****ing stupid not to.:yawinkle:
Alf.

[HelenG]

P.S. I'm glad we have lots of starlings and house sparrows in the US. They are a great legal food source as well as quarry and are the best for trapping esp the house sparrows.

True, and without them I wouldn't really have a job! It's just the clouds of thousands of starlings in July and August that just won't go away that give me a bad day sometimes!

[HelenG]

I know someone who used an American kestrel male on starlings. He used to just sit the bird on the back of his truck passenger side headrest, and when he would see a flock just open the power windows and out it would go. Apparently quite successful, but I would guess a female AK would have an easier time of it.

[SeagulBasher]

here in wales starlings and sparrows can still be taken on a general licence this is the bird i intend to use to control them on the landfill site that i work on hes a prairie falcon/merlin hybred i havent got him entered yet but he is very fit and hopefully i will get him entered very soon heres a picture of him cheers
colin

[Hacker]

here in wales starlings and sparrows can still be taken on a general licence this is the bird i intend to use to control them on the landfill site that i work on hes a prairie falcon/merlin hybred i havent got him entered yet but he is very fit and hopefully i will get him entered very soon heres a picture of him cheers
colin

Colin,
Prairiexmerlin, now that must be a pocket rocket:supz:

[Alf]

Colin what’s his temperament like?
He looks good by the way. Alf

[David Rampling]

here in wales starlings and sparrows can still be taken on a general licence this is the bird i intend to use to control them on the landfill site that i work on hes a prairie falcon/merlin hybred i havent got him entered yet but he is very fit and hopefully i will get him entered very soon heres a picture of him cheers
colin

He is a little beauty.

[MattSpar]

Merlins slaughter starlings pretty much at will. you can hardly go wrong with a merlin on this quarry.
Jim

Your American merlins must be different from our British ones. I've flown merlins a lot and have never had one that would fly starlings with any enthusiasm, nor ever heard of one.

If there's anyone in the UK with a genuine starling catching merlin (by which I mean a merlin that's wedded to this quarry, taking them regularly and often) I'd be interested to hear about it.......

[SeagulBasher]

Colin what’s his temperament like?
He looks good by the way. Alf

hi alf

hes got lovely temperament he makes alot of noise as hes an imprint and he can be abit fiesty but he hoods like a dream and his manners are not bad at all he is really fit now and when stooping him to the lure i'm tierd before he is he just goes on forever just got to get him entered now
colin

[Alf]

Sounds perfect mate!
Pleased he’s not got the prairie fire regards being a little awkward.
Excellent mate looking forward to some reports? Alf.


hi alf

hes got lovely temperament he makes alot of noise as hes an imprint and he can be abit fiesty but he hoods like a dream and his manners are not bad at all he is really fit now and when stooping him to the lure i'm tierd before he is he just goes on forever just got to get him entered now
colin

[BarbaryHawking06]

Your American merlins must be different from our British ones. I've flown merlins a lot and have never had one that would fly starlings with any enthusiasm, nor ever heard of one.

If there's anyone in the UK with a genuine starling catching merlin (by which I mean a merlin that's wedded to this quarry, taking them regularly and often) I'd be interested to hear about it.......

Your British ones must even be different to those on the continent, they seem to lack courage at larger quarry, please don't get ****ed off by this but where I live we got a lot of passage merlins coming through (in a very good day I can see up to three, but just for two weeks a year) and I have seen a wild haggard jack putting a flock of starlings under pressure that would have put any sparrowhawk to shame. The merlins must be Norwegian or Russian as the Merlins winter in Spain and North Africa and it would be senseless for a British merlin to pass Germany. A friend her has flown Merlins, English- and one Danish bred, while the English never looked anything larger than larks, the Danish would go for anything including starlings without "encouragement" :lol:

[KnightHawk]

Glad I started this one. Didn't realise you couldn't get a lisence to fly these.
I was under the impression you could get a lisence if it was classed as pest control. I will look into it further. Thanks for the replies.

[Mark Collins]

Its such a shame starlings and sparrows are declining , certain times of the year they are in big flocks, but as a kid growing up in the 70s i could lay in bed and listen to the chattering as soon as it got light, every house had a nesting pair of starlings and sparrows , not any more , in fact local to me there isnt any sparrows either, although if i drive about half a mile up the road to my mothers house she has a small population of sparrows , there seems to be small pockets here and there, getting back to starlings , its a prairie tiercel for me, its the only bird i have regulary caught them with, i think colins , prairie/merlin would be good at starlings, i took one last year with a barbary/praire, this is also a good cross, fast and naturally aggressive, the last 2 pictures are of a barbary/prairie tiercel, the first is a straight prairie tiercel on his first starling,mark.

[StoopDoggyDogg]

I've been told by a bloke called Steve Kelly who is in the BFC, used to hunt starlings with great success with merlins in the Uk.

I dont know if he is on the forum but a lot of people on here know him and might be able to put you in contact with him.


Cheers






Your American merlins must be different from our British ones. I've flown merlins a lot and have never had one that would fly starlings with any enthusiasm, nor ever heard of one.

If there's anyone in the UK with a genuine starling catching merlin (by which I mean a merlin that's wedded to this quarry, taking them regularly and often) I'd be interested to hear about it.......

[FredrickFogg]

I hunt them regularly with a female coops here in the states. She took 217 head of game in 3 months last spring with about 165 of them being starlings. She is under grow lights now in a forced molt and will be coming out to start training at the end of this month. I have also caught plenty of them with a male American Kestrel. He caught about 50 head in 2 months a couple years ago before I turned him loose and pulled this coops I have now.

Fred

[Athene]

Fred, were the starlings hunted from a car or in the open?

[FlameHairedFalconer]

Glad I started this one. Didn't realise you couldn't get a lisence to fly these.
I was under the impression you could get a lisence if it was classed as pest control. I will look into it further. Thanks for the replies.

I believe you can get a licence for pest control in England.

FHF

[FredrickFogg]

Fred, were the starlings hunted from a car or in the open?

From the car, I did hunt her in the fields and caught sparrows, but I couldn't provide her with enough slips that way so mostly car hawked her. The merlin I had chased starlings, but never caught any before she died. I think she would have eventually caught them as she was getting closer and closer each time. She caught her first head, a sparrow, and it must have been posioned as the next day she had thrown up during the night and was dead.

Fred

[RabbitHawker]

I got a license this year for starlings from English Nature

[KnightHawk]

I got a license this year for starlings from English Nature

What where the requirements of the license.