Seagulls

[Hawkmaster]

Anyone after catching some gulls this season? :lol:

[OutFlying]

Anyone after catching some gulls this season? :lol:


What type of gulls and with what ?

[BFC 007]

think someone has a male saker clocking up a few but cant remember his user name

[Harrisii]

Gulls?? the biggar the better. me and a few of my mates fly harrises at them with very good success. obviously getting close to them is the key, and a car is the means. country roads, with low or no hedgerows, drive along till you spot some gulls, or crows, try to get close enough, (-50m) down with the window, "haw" is the yell and watch those babbies go. greater black back, herring gulls, rooks, carrion crow, all fair game.
the smaller gulls like the common and black headed require licences and are a bit on the nippy side. the bigger gulls struggle to get height and are set upon before they hardly get off the ground.
a friend of mine was out guesting at a local coup where his mate does the pest control. his sakers take them regular, and crows.
but make no mistake the harris will take them just as nicely.

[OhMyGod]

big gulls are easy to take with longwings, but most refuse to bind unless they have been fed on a few first. I have had birds be scared of them when they are placed next to the perch.

If you can get permission to take black headed gulls you can have some excellent sport with a male hybrid or merlin hybrid such as perlin or gyrlin.

The larger gulls are best taken from a good distance but you must let your bird go from the start and not call in to the lure when it goes too far otherwise they will not make the effort to ring up and give you what you want to see, you have to get them keen to chase first on close ones but only two or three, then let them go for a good lone gull from a distance and let the bird range right out. This is useless as far as pest control goes as you really want a quick chase and kill and let the flock see and hear the gull in distress, this is what freaks them out, but not so good to watch if you are after a good long flight. But if you can get single gulls you would do better at far out flights but you need good telemetry.

[Shaun Byrne]

One of my MHH wacked a Greater Black Backed on a landfill a few weeks ago. They both fell over a steep bank and when I looked over they were 10ft apart in long grass, both wondering where the other had gone. The gull was up and gone before my HH had even moved but not bad going for a 1lb 7 male.

[Rokaku]

Harrissii, flying out of a car window sounds good fun. Is it males only you fly ? and what speed is the car doing ? I gotta give it a go.

[Addi]

i got a dvd off ebay that has hours of slipping harris's out of a car window at gulls and crows .. not my type of thing but they was taking some of them in fine style!

[Harrisii]

yeah Rokaku, the car thing. HHs can be trained to get used to cars very easily. once they are used to traveling this way get them flying in and out of the car with someone calling them or use a lure to call them out. start off with the car being stationary, then moving very slow, then increase the speed slightly.
the car wont be or doesnt have to be moving quickly when the bird is cast out the window. dont try it at 30 mph for example. the sudden change of wind speed will cause the hawk to either ****** off or crash land. remember you dont have to be going fast. the gulls, crows etc are used to cars passing all day long and the last thing they expect is to have a hawk come flying out of a window.
this can be done with females and/or males, the sex doesnt matter although obviously the males being smaller its a little easier to work with them.
its the best and easiest way to get close to difficult quarry, but it can be done with any quarry, pheasant, rabbit, hare, gull, crow, partridge, etc, etc.

[Mikey]

If there are any ardent gull hunters out there,then you should visit Slapton sands(S.W Devon)You have two miles of beach along wich groups of gulls sit at anything from 100 mtrs to 1/2 mile apart.You can walk pretty much right up to them.Having had my harris for not so long ,but seeing how he baits for the car window,it wont be long before we try 'em.Gulls can be clever vindictive sods thugh,so be ready to chase your frightened hawk all over the south hams

[Rokaku]

Cheers for the info Harrissii. I have seen a video where it was done with gos`s and a dvd with some lads from the north east flying HHs , both looked good fun.

[OhMyGod]

Mikey

I used to work on heathfield landfill where you are. When I started there they had never had bird controll and there were about 4000+ gulls on the site. The quick short flights needed to disperse them would work well on a beach with a harris if you can get up close. But they will go out to sea, and watching your falcon go flying out to sea would not be something I would enjoy watching. When flying a mile or two away from the sea you have to be extremely carefull or you will lose it to the sea. One of the main advantages of flying gulls is you can find them inland where theyhave no cover and have to go up, if you give them this oppertunity you will get the classic ringing flights which is what most people are after with a longwing on gulls.

[Hawkmaster]

Phil, who also worked at Heathfield slipped his Pere/Saker today and nailed an adult gull, her first gull for the season but she also has 3 rooks now.