Gyr/saker's

[Afshimo]

Hiya,

Who here fly's a gyr/saker? Info and pics of the bird/s etc, hunting? Display?
Why are the birds good? Or if they arnt why?

Trying to get more information on the gyr/saker as there isnt that much around.

like:

>weight
>quarry
>flight style
>temperment
>colouration


Thanks very much!!!

[PeregrinesUK]

Hi i have flown a couple of males in the past and seen a lot more fly, the 3/4gyr 1/4alti i had fly at 2lb very powerful bird chased crows well but temprement wise i got him off a friend and he had been left a little to long and was a bit scatty / 50/50s the ones ive seen flew aroung 1 lb 10oz+ very nice bird as with any falcon can be encouraged to do what ever you want a friend of mine had a very good tiercel which would mount to about 600' very quickly and the stoop to the lure for reward used for display type work, they tend to have an ok wing beat better than a pure saker are quite fast and will take anything from corvids off the fist to phesants waiting on colour wise i love the white ones a friend of mine has two from peter gill very white fronts and nice backs very nice but they can range alot an other frind has a white bird off mark robbs and looks like a goos white gyrkin, temprement wise with a 50 / 50 got young should be great

hope ive helped a little

mike

[Afshimo]

Thanks for that Mike!
I'm hopin to get a white of Mark Rob, male 50/50. I just needs more information as there isnt much around on them.
any pictures?

[PeregrinesUK]

not of the white ones but ive seen a few what friends have from mark robb and they are deffinatly special birds beautiful dare i say the nicest looking gyr x sakers you will find (sorry all you gyr saker breeders :D ) i was going to order a white female from him for this year but decided to go for a female pere insted but dont think you will go wrong what are you going to use the bird for

[Afshimo]

Im getting the gyr/saker purely for hunting. Preferably pheasant off fist, or drows. Will see what he is like!

What are gyr/saker's like when you start training - manic? Piece of cake?

I found Afra ok, fell asleep on my fist first day then no problems till december! I didnt use a hood with Afra though, so this gyr/saker will be a tad different to train!

[RabbitHawker]

Great birds, better in the damp weather than pure sakers, and with a bit more speed. I've flown 3/4 saker falcon and 3/4 gyr tiercel, buth great birds, but the falcon tends to go off and kill herself if worked too hard to the lure, always the same couple of farms a few miles from the exercise field, so I just drive there and then get the telemetry out. Gyrs are slower to mature than sakers. Get good telemetry, you'll need it if you get one going well, they can travel.
Chris

[PeregrinesUK]

good advice! deffinatly mate sure you have a good system in place and regularly check batts sakers are little buggars when it comes to nicking off, to train as with most young falcons pritty strieght forward as long as you have a good basic understanding of training which from your previous falcon you should it shouldnt be to difficult really.

[Shaun Byrne]

He'll be a top quality bird if you are getting him from Mark Robb, his birds are stunning, its going to make a nice hole in someones wallet though!! lol!!

[EddieT]

Hannah,

I have a male gyr/saker. In the first days of manning he was a real stinker but once he got over it he became bomb proof and didn't look back.

I have found that he has on days and off days. On the on days he's dynamite and on the off days in the same conditions (same weight, same weather, similar slips - from a human's perspective anyway) he just messes me about. I have heard from others that this is not unusual for gyr/sakers.(?)

I think that gyr/sakers can be very clever. As a consequence I should have got mine entered quicker and done less lure flying. I probably spent 4-5 days too many getting him fit before getting him entered, I should have just got him straight out there once he was going free. In the mean time he learnt that lures are a lot easier to catch than crows and as a consequence he can be v.picky about which slips he will take on. It can be very fustrating as if he chooses to put on the afterburners he can take my breath away, or he can just p*ss me about!

We are going to go after pheasants instead next season and we'll see if a switch of quarry can bring a more consistent response.

You said that you are going to fly your gyr/saker off the fist at pheasant? They are probably fast enough to take pheasant in this manner (?) (has anyone else had success like this?), however if you have a suitable dog getting the falcon in the air over a point will give it significant adavantage over being on the fist even if it isn't at a great pitch, so why fly the falcon off the fist?

[Dave Whitt]

Hannah
Gyr /Sakers make exceent birds but are slower to learn than some other longwings, you mentioned flying pheasants of the fist if you meant in a direct persuit flight then you probabally wont have much look.
You need to decide in advance wether you are going to be training your bird to wait on as a Game Hawk or as a direct persuit bird at corvids because the methods of training are entirley different. The decision is usually made by what type of hunting ground is available and with game hawking wether you have a reliable pointing dog. Gyr / Sakers are good at either, Good luck

[Moritz]

Hi Hannah,
as the bird is from Mark Robb I would say that you won't need a lot fitness training, as the brid will propably be wild hacked. You will have to be very quick and good with the lure. Flying a Gyr/Saker at phasants from the fist should be fine as long as you have a good telemetry system.

Good luck

Moritz

[Afshimo]

Hiya,

Sorry I wasnt earlier to get upto date with all the post's!

I have a dog, a cocker spanial. He isnt fully reliable, but he's almost there.

How does the training differ with direct pursuite and waiting on? Where I'm fliyng, its relativly flat - crop land. Few hedges and building, crops of tree's etc.

H4wka - the hole is gona b in my wallet lol! I wanted a quality bird, so it's outta my money. I'm getting help with the equipment though!

Give me a while to remeber the rest of my Q's lol...there's a few left - but u lot answered most of them so ... THANK YOU!
Are there any pics going around of gyr/saker's?
How many colour veriations are there? Just the basic black/white/silver or more?

Thx again!

[OutFlying]

Hannah,

I have a male gyr/saker. In the first days of manning he was a real stinker but once he got over it he became bomb proof and didn't look back.

I have found that he has on days and off days. On the on days he's dynamite and on the off days in the same conditions (same weight, same weather, similar slips - from a human's perspective anyway) he just messes me about. I have heard from others that this is not unusual for gyr/sakers.(?)

I think that gyr/sakers can be very clever. As a consequence I should have got mine entered quicker and done less lure flying. I probably spent 4-5 days too many getting him fit before getting him entered, I should have just got him straight out there once he was going free. In the mean time he learnt that lures are a lot easier to catch than crows and as a consequence he can be v.picky about which slips he will take on. It can be very fustrating as if he chooses to put on the afterburners he can take my breath away, or he can just p*ss me about!

We are going to go after pheasants instead next season and we'll see if a switch of quarry can bring a more consistent response.

You said that you are going to fly your gyr/saker off the fist at pheasant? They are probably fast enough to take pheasant in this manner (?) (has anyone else had success like this?), however if you have a suitable dog getting the falcon in the air over a point will give it significant adavantage over being on the fist even if it isn't at a great pitch, so why fly the falcon off the fist?

Eddie - you hit the nail on the head (gyr saker) with regards to flying off the fist at pheasants (a style better suited to a shortwing) also added to a non pointing breed of dog - certain failure and waste of time.

[Dave Whitt]

Hannah, is the land you will be flying on stocked with game if it is not you may find it difficult to find good quality slips, there is nothing worse than walking round all day and not fining many if any suitable slips, you need to be able to serve a young game hawk every day prehaps 2 or 3 times, you also need to be able to point the game for a young bird some people like to spot game from a car window, slip there bird then walk up a the said hedgrow beeting for the game unfortunatley you cannot ensure the falcon will be in position for the slip and it also gives the game oppertunity to run in cover thus meaning you catch very little ( if you want an example of this go on a BFC field meet in the Midlands area )
Rook hawking sounds like it would be more suitable.

[Afshimo]

Hiya,

From the advise - I'll stick to rook hawking!

So, if there is a rook of crows in some tree's, would I hood the g/s and get as close as possible and slip him, or have a certain distance is he needs to pick up speed?

Thanks again!

[Goldie]

Hannah, you need to do some more homework :lol:
You don't slip at the ones in the trees. It's the ones out in the open you want,far enough from cover to allow your falcon to get on terms before the corvids make cover

[TimberDog]

This chaps megga really high pitch and so keen ..

He has an habbit of dropping out of the sky right above you!!!





http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v348/timberdog/Picture156.jpg

[Dave Whitt]

Hannah,
Goldie is very right you need to do some reasurch on rook hawking, corvids a trickey beggers you need to enter your bird very quickley, dont worry to much about manning and feening on the fist get to coming straight to a Black lure, try and get some dead crows in the freezer befor you get your bird.
let us know how your planning on training this bird from day one and we will tell you weher you are going along the right lines.
The best piece of advice given to me when I had my first bird when I was 8 years old was find one person or 1 book that you can trust and follow it letter by letter or word by word because having 20 people giving you different advice and contridicting each other will leave you ( and your bird ) more confused than when you started

[Dave Whitt]

Not a brilliant picture but a good bird, 5/8 gyr saker bred by Martin Jones flew at 2lb - 2.2lb

[RabbitHawker]

You will need to do your homework, and get access to large areas of suitable land as the crows wise up fast. I've put my tiercel up 1 month ago, and the corvids are just beginning not to fly off as soon as they see my SUV.