Kevin Massey
06-02-2005, 06:53 PM
went out today with Paul r (and laker) Gary astrahawk (and bracken) ...
we were in the field for about 9am walked through a small patch of wood before getting to the dale and larger wood....didnt flush anything there....so walked down the field towards the larger wood,
there's a large strip of set aside between the open field an wood...walking through the over grown area the birds spotted summut...off they went first there i think was fern...al i caught was her diving in....up popped a pheasant and off it was gone, but she was still down so i ran across but she didn't have anything, picked her back up.
then she bated again i was convinced she was seeing things but out the corner of my eye i saw a cock pheasant and it was too late up and off it was gone !! gawd i messed that un up ...sorry fern.
meanwhile laker and bracken had made it to the side of the wood...we let them all follow on all the way down the wood side then the both set off down towards a set of pheasants along the fence line...it was an awesome effort but they had too much of a head start..
we got the hawks on the fists and walked our way down...going round the bend we saw a cock pheasant down the other fenceline...braken was off like a shot...the soon going into one of those Harris long glides...but he put up into a tree...the pheasant was beneath him......i slipped fern and she went wide...i thought she was doing a bit of the same...but she turned in and went for it....bang !!! loads of feathers...flapping....hawnon the floor and the pheasant up in the air getting away with bracken woken up in a lost cause pursuit !!........."is this going to be the trend for the day i wonder?".
gathered the hawks again...decided to ferret some warrens...in goes the ferret....almost instant out pops a bunny....short sprint back down again...hawks all over the place.
a few moments past and the hawks all in the positions...out popped another...laker made the first dash...but it was back down again...out shot another and fern put in...she just nabbed it as it was going back down the hole....dispached and hawk traded off the quarry...
and no sooner had i stood up then the whole area exploded "rats !!!"...blimmin every where...braken trying to nabbed two @ a time and getting none...laker not knowing which one to have....fern wanting some of that...but i hold her back ( i still have a thing about rats after Mia died)....about 30 seconds of mayhem 30 or so rats every where...and laker holding onto her prize...and Paul there quicker than you can imagin...once the ferret came up me moved on,
ferreted a couple of more warrens but the ferrets killed in !! so we decided to work our way back along the bottom of the dale...letting the hawks follow on !!!
on the way back we had a couple of half hearted distant chases...but all to far off stuff...
but while laker landed on a branch he hunting Jesse wrapped around it and got her tied up !! Paul climbed up broke the branch and she was releast..no harm done !!
walking back to the cars we stopped to watch a stoat hunting rabbits and the hawks trying to but in...a few deer...and by this time 3.30...quite a few hikers !!.
when we did get back to the car...gary and Paul put there birds away and i was going to feed fern up on her kill...but we spotted a couple of hares...i walked her out into the field and made my way towards them...she was off..., but seemed to veer off , i thought she was going off to the hedge but she turned in towards the hare and put in !! full on !! bang ...the with two kicks she was off again...and so was the hare !!!....i had ran across the field and when i got there she had one of them "how dare they" looks about her...picked her up...fur clad talon aswell...went back to the car and fed her up... not the most productive of days...and some times not the best behaved hawks...but it was a good day on the whole and some awesome weather !!!
Kev
we were in the field for about 9am walked through a small patch of wood before getting to the dale and larger wood....didnt flush anything there....so walked down the field towards the larger wood,
there's a large strip of set aside between the open field an wood...walking through the over grown area the birds spotted summut...off they went first there i think was fern...al i caught was her diving in....up popped a pheasant and off it was gone, but she was still down so i ran across but she didn't have anything, picked her back up.
then she bated again i was convinced she was seeing things but out the corner of my eye i saw a cock pheasant and it was too late up and off it was gone !! gawd i messed that un up ...sorry fern.
meanwhile laker and bracken had made it to the side of the wood...we let them all follow on all the way down the wood side then the both set off down towards a set of pheasants along the fence line...it was an awesome effort but they had too much of a head start..
we got the hawks on the fists and walked our way down...going round the bend we saw a cock pheasant down the other fenceline...braken was off like a shot...the soon going into one of those Harris long glides...but he put up into a tree...the pheasant was beneath him......i slipped fern and she went wide...i thought she was doing a bit of the same...but she turned in and went for it....bang !!! loads of feathers...flapping....hawnon the floor and the pheasant up in the air getting away with bracken woken up in a lost cause pursuit !!........."is this going to be the trend for the day i wonder?".
gathered the hawks again...decided to ferret some warrens...in goes the ferret....almost instant out pops a bunny....short sprint back down again...hawks all over the place.
a few moments past and the hawks all in the positions...out popped another...laker made the first dash...but it was back down again...out shot another and fern put in...she just nabbed it as it was going back down the hole....dispached and hawk traded off the quarry...
and no sooner had i stood up then the whole area exploded "rats !!!"...blimmin every where...braken trying to nabbed two @ a time and getting none...laker not knowing which one to have....fern wanting some of that...but i hold her back ( i still have a thing about rats after Mia died)....about 30 seconds of mayhem 30 or so rats every where...and laker holding onto her prize...and Paul there quicker than you can imagin...once the ferret came up me moved on,
ferreted a couple of more warrens but the ferrets killed in !! so we decided to work our way back along the bottom of the dale...letting the hawks follow on !!!
on the way back we had a couple of half hearted distant chases...but all to far off stuff...
but while laker landed on a branch he hunting Jesse wrapped around it and got her tied up !! Paul climbed up broke the branch and she was releast..no harm done !!
walking back to the cars we stopped to watch a stoat hunting rabbits and the hawks trying to but in...a few deer...and by this time 3.30...quite a few hikers !!.
when we did get back to the car...gary and Paul put there birds away and i was going to feed fern up on her kill...but we spotted a couple of hares...i walked her out into the field and made my way towards them...she was off..., but seemed to veer off , i thought she was going off to the hedge but she turned in towards the hare and put in !! full on !! bang ...the with two kicks she was off again...and so was the hare !!!....i had ran across the field and when i got there she had one of them "how dare they" looks about her...picked her up...fur clad talon aswell...went back to the car and fed her up... not the most productive of days...and some times not the best behaved hawks...but it was a good day on the whole and some awesome weather !!!
Kev