FALCONRY is the rebranded original 'DAVE SHARPE nature boy' channel and will now only feature falconry content in any new uploads. A new channel is now set up under the 'DAVE SHARPE nature boy'' title for all my nature and vlog content and SNAKES + will see all new uploads of reptile and exotic content. PLEASE HELP ME BY SUBSCRIBING TO ALL THREE CHANNELS IF POSSIBLE. The point of this channel is to enthuse you about the art and practice of falconry as well as working with birds of prey across various settings. The real ethos of the channel is helping you guys learn from my success and especially my mistakes from a lifetime of interest. I run raptorxotics.co.uk and icarusfalconry.co.uk, hence my whole life is practicing what I preach! Click subscribe and stay tuned!
Redtails are excellent rabbit hawks. Most redtails here in the US are flown from the trees. I flew a tame hacked tiercel for 10 yrs and he caught multiple pheasants.
Red-tailed hawks are used as the introductory birds to apprentice falconers in the US precisely for the reason you just stated. By learning how to train and care for a red-tail, you can pretty much then easily transition to other raptors. Whereas if you start with a Harris hawk then the bird kinda trains you instead and so it's harder to start working with other species down the line. Here in American, a Harris hawk is actually something a more experienced falconer would fly.
How do you manage the casting material on the DOCs that you are feeding, as you say you are putting him away hooded at night time, I've read somewhere to remove all casting material from food if putting the bird away hooded? Thanks
Yes you can remove all the fluff and feather etc , but unless you’re feeding excsssive then certainly the hoods I use have a beak opening that they can cast through without issue if you’ve not got them out early enough to cast after hooding off
if you have a working line german shepherd , is it compatible for falconry with harris hawk ? ( i know GSD is not a hunting dog , but still if they got high drive they can excell in things )
@@falconry.davesharpenatureboy also I got a question about sparrowhawks. I’m getting one this year, my mates breeding his he said come grab it when ever your ready. The eyas is currently 11 days old, I’m just wondering at what age do you think would be best? as I don’t want a full imprint, but taking at about 20 days old and partially imprint is my idea. What’s your thoughts on the matter?
@billygrey9235 is either go full imprint of you want an imprint or wait till it’s hard penned and fly parent reared . At 20 days neither here nor there I don’t think unless you’re leaving shut away until fully grown but then it s best off with parents
Having said that it may or not make any difference to how it turns out in behaviour !but to be the benefits if imprint you really need To imprint it well ….
I would buy this book in a flash! But since I'm in Germany, shipping from the UK might be complicated. I'll look into it! I'll bet I'm not alone as someone who was trying to "zoom in" on your bookshelves while listening. 😅 I vote for a "Show us your shelves" post!
WOW A RONNIE MORE BOOK - I NEVER NEW HE DID ONE - IM NOT A FALCONER I JUST KEEP RESCUED PARROTS, THEY LIKE CHILDREN MUST TRY TO GET A HOLD OF THE BOOK THANKS FOR POSTING
Great video thanks. I found a club to join as wanted to do falconry as a child and 31 now.... The Safa meeting is near me this week from July so I decided to fill in a form and have to attend the meeting in the next week. I am so exited I have been bench watching falconry videos and soaking up knowledge. I hope I get a good sponsor if any at all. but non the less still exited.
Sorry Dave .no one talks about them. No one has them . Can you do a spotlight species . Love you Dave top folconer and you always respond to your subscribers when they need help or information. 👍👍
Yes, I’ve had a couple of close calls with both Buzzards and HH’s, mostly through complacency on my part. Taught me a lesson! And also the mental heath issue is definitely something I can relate to recently. Great videos, keep them coming!
@paulharter2343 she’s not going out of our circle ; I’m hoping a passionate volunteer will hunt with her this winter and hoping I can convince him why she’ll be a demon and why he won’t need to get a hh!
I've just taken on a 17 year old female having lost my Ferrutail about 18 months ago. I'm going to see how she is once I get her fit and hopefully hunting this autumn. Great birds Redtails, one of my favourites for sure.
I let him go an awful lot and he keeps coming back … but i can’t let him go in the centre itself or he will Kill some of my other birds however he isn’t tied to the stump and can fly there too. Of course when i do let him go wild and free he kills other animals to eat them as I’m sure you’d approve of.
Thanks for the information I really appreciate it I am 13 years old and I wanted to learn more about falconry and try and take the exam next year, I live in Ny.
@migelantony2314 you’ll be cleaning up poo and cutting up dead animals and cleaning guts etc , but if you donut properly , have adequate kit and are methodical it won’t be a problem . If you’re thinking of keeping one inside your house then think again unless it’s small !
I’m happy to tell you why I feed what I do but first tell me the problems you’ve personally encountered incorporating dry cat and dog food into the diet of yours? Not hearsay tho; problems you yourself have encountered
I wonder about the frequency and duration of contact a falconer must have with their, in particular, golden eagle in order to maintain a bond for the hunting partnership. Can you tell me what the bare minimum of frequency and time spent is involved for that relationship?
So variable in so many ways but you deffo want to put in a good hour a day I guess , once hunting you’d spend way longer just finding flights , but early days I’d want to benworking with it for at least an hour and have it see me about the garden or whatever as well
Sound advice. I’m a health and safety professional and I’m not immune to injuries. I’ve had my fingernail ripped off by a young HH, just by a momentary lapse in concentration. It can happen so fast and us humans don’t have the reflexes to avoid it.
I'm glad you said fishing as a comparison, I have fished my entire life and had plenty of wounds and infliction. At around fourteen years of age I manged to get a treble hook stuck in my forehead and earned a trip to the ER. I have a puncture wound on a knuckle as we speak that's been exposed to dirty water and I know better just get too complacent.
Some very good points because people (particularly our generation) are too casual about stuff. I had been stung by bees wasps whatever, many times then one day stung by a bee I was getting out of a pool (ungrateful thing) hand swelled like a boxing glove. Didnt take it seriously. Next sting, in hospital , now I have to carry an epipen . First person to be given peniciilen got an infection from a rose thorn , sadly they ran out of peniccillin and he died.Plus one on communications specialy in remote areas .Weather is a good point Dr Mosley being a case in point . Unlikely in a UK summer I agree.
Yeah you can ; my first hawk cost £1200, I was 21 , had. A house and a car and earned £95 a week gross . Just graft and at the end of the day good second hand kit is a lot cheaper than new.
I had the misfortune to walk straight into a swarming hornets nest last summer. One of my dogs temporarily lost the use of his back legs from some of the stings but Thankfully although we had many stings and a lot of pain for a few days no extreme shock reactions. Great video shows that the unlikely can absolutely happen!
I didn’t know about the feather dust but it makes sense. I always wear an extra set of jesses on my boot zips and carry neosporin. It can be used for me and the bird. You are so right about the eyes and glasses. Best be safe! The other things you could mention is if you’re able wear your hair in a ponytail on the back of your neck and if you have a bird that hits from behind a baseball cap worn backwards helps. This video was so educational! Cheers!
Fuk that’s bad really fitting for that film; talk about the little things ! Wife had one on her in Australia , rang me mate and he said don’t worry we don’t have Lymes here; that was handy !
@@falconry.davesharpenatureboy There are lots of diseases spread by ticks here in the US but I don't know about the UK or Australia. If your wife develops any strange symptoms that cannot be diagnosed, remember the tick bite. It might be worth researching to see if Australia has any tick-borne diseases. You can't be too careful.
One if the hardest things ;’some folk dress smart and knock on farmers doors but often they don’t live in the farm houses … But once you get a bit it’s easier to get the next land adjoining if tou behave yourself … but sometimes it’s just luck who you talk to somewhere
The dust mask idea is a really good one. When I was volunteering with birds of prey on weekends the first couple weeks after a break I was coming down with cold-like symptoms and I was worried I might be allergic to the birds, but it would always settle pretty quickly. Always kept it in the back of my mind though. I had to get allergy tested for unrelated reasons and I was asked if there were any tests I'd like added to the bloods- turns out there was cage and poultry feather mix, so I had both done. Both came back negative, turned out I'm massively allergic to pollen though, so I'd been getting hayfever. While I'm not allergic to birds now, that doesn't mean it couldn't develop over many years. The infection one really resonates. I was lucky, at university my tutor was an epidemiologist. She did a lecture including the line tracking up the arm thing. In the worst case you can lose the limb in six hours. Go straight to A&E. I got a spider bite which started doing that and the line moved about an inch in an hour. I was lucky and it wasn't that serious; I was given a strong course of oral antibiotics which knocked it on the head. But I don't doubt if I'd left that a day I would've been hospitalised just like your friend. I've seen a black kite puncture an eyeball, those were some stitches I didn't think they could even do. Part of the reason I wear a broad brimmed hat when I'm flying; if something freaks and needs to land somewhere, it's less likely to want to try and latch onto my face. Although jumping off perches as aggression is always a big risk.
I learned that raptors' talons are covered in bacteria and in the ancient times, people assumed they had poison or venom because of how wounds reacted to them. Ever since then I've taken even the smallest talon prick extremely seriously, all it takes is one day for my body's immune system to be out of shot. This is an excellent video, I think I'll be coming back to it again and again to refresh my memory, thank you!
A friend of mine got a small cut on his hand when out fishing, still doesn't know if it was barbed wire, thorns or something else. His hand ended up swelling up like an inflated marigold and had to be cut down its length to relieve pressure, he ended up losing two fingers and most of the movement in his hand. The type of injury we've all had a thousand times and thought nothing of but ended up costing him his livelihood.
Those "little things"! I took a fall, and had a "contusion" on my elbow...not even a cut, just one of those things that oozes s bit of blood... Scabbed over, not much to worry about, and, one day, unconsciously picked of the little bit left... A couple of days later, elbow looked a bit swollen, and warm... Not to worry... But, went into the hospital for something else, and they called orthopedics department... Hmmm... FOUR SURGERIES LATER; the little thing had become an infection in the joint, and damned near cost the forearm! As you noted, you just can't ignore "little things", especially in this time of antibiotic-resistant bacteria! (Sorry to jump in, but, a cat scratch, a Talon puncture, a thorn...)
Best of luck with the new addition. Looking forwards to finding out more details. If all goes well i will be flying a male gos this year. He is a month old at moment and looking pretty good if i say so myself 😅
Hehehe what are you like ?! Hehe! No like reptiles , Guinea pigs, cats and dogs etc etc , here in the uk as much of the world we breed them in captivity for generations now .
Hi Dave, the only thing stopping me attending the gathering is the no dogs policy, I respect your decision but I think you’d have a better turn out if they were allowed to walk round on a short leash. Wishing you all the best with your soon to be new acquisition.
Thanks for that as an owner of several Dogs I understand , sadly as an Owner of two animal related business sadly I can tell you it would be chaos and the risk of losing a bird here is high , ontop of that the centre birds don’t see strange dogs and they frighten some of them , added to that all the folk that can’t pick up litter or dog poo or abide by the on lead rule is shocking sadly
