Hunting season.

[basil]

Will you rest your bird or do you hunt all year?

[Yorky]

I'm putting my Pere x Saker Rook Hawk down to moult 1st Week May latest. After this time, there will be too much foliage and young corvids around.

Going to fly my FHH during Summer at Bunnies.

My thoughts on the close season are that ethically its the right thing to do to give your quarry time to be born, grow and develop into a worthy challenge for your bird. If you were to hammer them during the breeding season, there will be less around next year. Also your Bird will need a chance to rest and recupirate and moult out to allow it to perform correctly...not to even mention the legal aspects of hunting out of season.

[Sean D]

I'm putting my Pere x Saker Rook Hawk down to moult 1st Week May latest. After this time, there will be too much foliage and young corvids around.

Going to fly my FHH during Summer at Bunnies.

My thoughts on the close season are that ethically its the right thing to do to give your quarry time to be born, grow and develop into a worthy challenge for your bird. If you were to hammer them during the breeding season, there will be less around next year. Also your Bird will need a chance to rest and recupirate and moult out to allow it to perform correctly...not to even mention the legal aspects of hunting out of season.

Seems you are going against your own ethics or does your ethics only apply to birds:roll:

[Yorky]

OK firstly Rabbits now breed all year around in the UK, you have to draw the line somewhere or we wouldnt/ shouldnt hunt them at all.

Secondly Rabbits are a pest not game species, being pests they do need controlling,

Thirdly if you are lucky enough to have permission from a Farmer to control them and you dont, you are taking the p#ss out of him by not doing the do the job he has "employed" you to do.

My own personal (and this is a very subjective thing) start date would be mid summer.

[FireAsh123]

OK firstly Rabbits now breed all year around in the UK, you have to draw the line somewhere or we wouldnt/ shouldnt hunt them at all.

Secondly Rabbits are a pest not game species, being pests they do need controlling,

Thirdly if you are lucky enough to have permission from a Farmer to control them and you dont, you are taking the p#ss out of him by not doing the do the job he has "employed" you to do.

My own personal (and this is a very subjective thing) start date would be mid summer.

same could be said about the rook less the all year breeding

atb ash

[MattSpar]

My falconry is not, nor have I ever claimed it to be, a method of pest control, therefore I obtain flying rights under that understanding so no-one is misled.

I don't fly during the summer because -
1.I'm something of a traditionalist in this respect.
2.I respect my quarry, be it rook, rabbit, or whatever.
3.At the end of the season, it's not just the hawks that get a rest. One rather creaky falconer also takes a break.

[Yorky]

Ash, sorry dont understand mate, about the ethics or flying against them becasue the farmer wnats you to?same could be said about the rook less the all year breeding

atb ash

[Yorky]

Matt, if you are lucky enought to have enough permission where you can take this approach and uphold your traditions and ethics, then great, I envy you. On some of the land I have, if the farmer asks me to hammer the bunnies and I dont, I will lose it. Also I've just manned and entered a real fruitcake of a FHH, and the intention to get her going fully is to fly her as long as I can before putting her down to moult.

My falconry is not, nor have I ever claimed it to be, a method of pest control, therefore I obtain flying rights under that understanding so no-one is misled.

I don't fly during the summer because -
1.I'm something of a traditionalist in this respect.
2.I respect my quarry, be it rook, rabbit, or whatever.
3.At the end of the season, it's not just the hawks that get a rest. One rather creaky falconer also takes a break.

[Jan1]

My rabbits don't breed during the winter :o

Unless things have changed, I didn't realise that there was now a legal 'close season' for rooks. :confused: