A great morning's sport rabbit hawking with a nice flight on a hen pheasant. A total bag on the day of 12 rabbits and a pheasant. Unfortunately the video camera battery died so we missed the last few flights. )-:
Good look forward to them I would love to see them birds in action never seen or done it im a rabbiting man I do ferreting snares cage traps lamping with rifles and air rifles and dogs but never done it with birds of prey
Another cracking video Dale, by the looks of that valley, I thought that Pheasant flight was going to be a really long one! I really do hope you put up a decent amount of stuff this season as I always look forward to your adventures with the Goss and Vizlas. Good to see a decent feather flight, she's becoming a bit of a master with those Rabbits. Happy Hawking Bradley
+Bradazthefalconer I was pleased to see her take the pheasant down after a couple of hundred yards. I didn't fancy trekking over to the other side of the valley to collect her! As long people continue to enjoy our videos we'll keep making them. (-:
I have a question regarding the dispatching of quarry - how do you do it with rabbits and feathered game? I am looking in falconry but there are aspects of it that I don't understand fully.
The Struggling Artist 'Digital' Yeah, the only civilized way to obtain food is through a slaughter house. I'm not smart enough to know what goes on there but I tell you what I sure do like the food that comes out of them.
The Struggling Artist 'Digital' im pretty sure he doesnt do this for sport idiot, who hunts birds and rabbits for sport, he trained his hawk very well to get food to eat, and i have never been hunting but it does look fun, why ya gotta be such a buzz kill
Couple of things mate, firstly I can see why somebody would think what you`re thinking, it`s understandable. But I ask that you consider a couple of things.. The Rabbit will "scream" not in pain, but as an alarm system and to confuse predators. The Rabbit wouldn`t have been in much pain..yet. This is where the handler comes in, he will quickly dispatch the Rabbit and then allow the Hawk to eat, Ferreters do the same thing. If the handler does not do that, the Hawk will just slowly rip the Rabbit to death, and it wants to hope it doesn`t start from the back end! So in this instance, the handler is a God send as far as the Rabbit`s situation goes. The main purpose of all pest control (that`s what this is) is to dispatch the pest in as fast and humane way as possible. Suffering and "sport" are not the name of the game. The problem with a bullet is that you can`t guaruntee a number of quarry where as with the Hawk or Ferret, you can get far better results in terms of catching the pest animal. People dedicate their lives to training animals for these jobs, it`s this or poison? which would you prefer? so these people will naturally get a lot of satisfaction seeing the Hawk work well and all their hard work paying off. It isn`t about getting pleasure from the killing itself or the animal`s suffering (should it occure), it is about doing a job and doing it well. That`s why a bad shot on an animal will stay with a hunter for a long time, eating them up inside and a good shot will bring great joy to the hunter. Quick and humane is what brings the joy in this thankless, but essential task. I hope you can understand this practise a little bit more now. All the best.
