Majestic Tree H
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Nov 2005
Location: New Market Va
Posts: 4670 |
UpDate : My Brother and Sister-in-law just wrote up how their Gos hawk has been doing in the past week..
The last couple days has been so rewarding for the new baby gos that it warrants an update!
For a long time we had limited her to 2 head per day. However, this was typically accomplished with minimal flights, maybe a 20 foot and a 30 foot flight per day with virtually no sustained airtime. So, last Sunday we decided to start flying the wings off her - so to speak. With the help of John Foley, Kevin & Donna we got a lot of flying in, ending up with a cottontail. Then Monday and Tuesday we probably lost what little conditioning she had gained because we didn't fly her much due to the rainy weather. On Wednesday it was cold, windy and miserable but we forced ourselves to go out and at least try flying her in the wind. We lucked out and caught a rabbit before dusk.
Yesterday, Thursday, we decided to fly her hard on as many rabbits as we could, and that we did! For some reason the rabbits were getting up way out in front of us and Kalika did a fabulous job of trying to catch them before the got to cover. We sure got a lot of flying out of her that afternoon. In the end she had caught a field vole and three cottontails.
Today, Friday December 3rd, we wanted to catch a duck with her. The creeks were still high and rough so ducks were mainly in ponds. We had limited (zero) experience hawking ducks on ponds with Kalika but we gave it a try. For the first flight Lance took the goshawk on the fist and sneaked up behind the dam. We had planned on timing the flush for when Lance walked up on the dam while Jill would be rushing the ducks to flush them. Well like anything else involving a goshawk, it went awry. Before Lance could get onto the dam the ducks saw Jill coming and split! All that Lance and the gos saw was a flock of about 8 or 10 ducks blasting out of the pond. The gos heard them taking off but waited to see them well off the pond and climbing before she left the glove. She flew level for about 10 feet then pitched up another 15 feet to bind to a big drake mallard! When it happens like this, it sure makes goshawking ducks look EASY! But, trust us hawking ducks with a gos is tough compared to a big longwing.
Kalika is still learning to throw a foot on the duck's head so she can control it. However, her forte is to stand on the back of a duck which in turns runs/slithers really fast back into the pond or creek. This has happened many times but, to her credit, she hangs on to the duck regardless of how deep the water gets. The big downside to this is that before we can fly her again we have to dry out her wet feathers using the car heater on full blast. This takes about 30-40 minutes.
As soon as Kalika was dried out Lance dropped off Jill with the gos at a dead end creek. Walking quickly Jill rushed the ducks which blasted out of the creek bottom over a fence and a cow pasture. Kalika did a good power flight and after about 110' she bound to another drake mallard and brought it down! This one was too far away to even consider dragging the hawk into the water and so she stayed dry. So, we drove for another 10 minutes and found a pond with about 12 ducks in it. After quickly getting permission from the farmer we drove down close to the pond and got out of the truck, Jill holding the gos up high so she could clear the high pasture fence when and if she wanted to fly. Lance quickly threw a couple of choice rocks at the ducks. The flock of ducks took off with Kalika hot on them. She took another drake mallard after about 150' flight and that was that!
So baby gos had 3 flights from the fist and caught 3 drake mallards today. It was still early so we drove to a rabbit field just to round it off. Not long afterwards we had a rabbit in the bag as well. Needless to say we were very excited and proud of Kalika and she got a well deserved crop
Jill, Kalika, 3 drake mallards & a cottontail rabbit all in 2-1/2 hours of hunting
We eat everything we catch (excluding field voles).
Here are the 3 drake mallards 3 hours after catching them.
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Steve Morrow "Saltlick Majestic's"
"Never Have Hounds Or Kids And You Won't Get Your Heart Broke"!!
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10-28-2010 03:11 PM
