My birdfriend's back and they're gonna be in trouble (Hey la, hey la, my birdfriend's back)

[BirdManMike]

What a difference 15 degrees F(reedom) makes - 30 degree morning instead of 45+ (no idea what that translates to in C(ommunist) measurements).

Roach's head was in it - fully ready to participate.

Nice point on the grouse, but they werent in the best spot. I still put him up in the hopes I could sneak round and flush them the way I wanted. He stuck with me wonderfully, mounting great. The point was 300+ yards away, and I slowly let him mount as I worked in. I had almost gotten the group when they went for it, no fault of (the amazing) Greta Grouse who didnt break point until they flew. They are jumpy and rightfully so - a couple vehicles with dogs showed up after we were done, so they must be getting shot at.

Roach was in decent position and at 800+ when they headed down to creek bottom on the flush. He pursued, hard, down to the creek, but came up short. I wish I couldve gotten between them and the creek, but not to be - thats the game and we lost.

Roach came flying back and mounted again. I let Greta run the field some more but I knew there wouldnt be anything else. With Roach at 600' or so and sticking with us, I decided to reward the flying with a homer flight.

Roach stopped hard, got dodged, pitched up, and coursed the homers, pitching up and taking shots as he could, eventually getting beat then pulling off to come down to the lure. It had been 10 flights of game at this point with no homers...

And the pigeon flight was as rewarding - or more so - than any of the recent hun kills. I daresay I miss it, but not entirely. Im into the booze this evening - hence this post, I wasnt going to post the flight at all - but as rewarding as the successes on game are, I still cant help enjoying watching the flight on homing pigeons more - I cant adequately explain them, but...well...lets just say releasing the pigeons today and watching the ensuing battle was as good as it gets.

I cant fly tomorrow. Work stuff. Back at it Friday.

 

[BirdManMike]

He is a redtail now, crashing brush after quarry.



Two got up out of the covey on their own when he was way wide but high, almost 800’. I was too close. He powered over, losing a couple hundred feet, when I released the dog to flush the rest. He was after the first 2 that flew south but they must have put in because I saw him veer right and start a stoop after the rest that were headed south west and more into the wind.

Don’t know how it ended other he got one because I couldn’t see the creek from where I flushed. That’s how I found him.


Done with the grouse for a while unless I can find them in another fields. My second best grouse field has a bunchve cows blocking access. It usually fine playing dodge cow with the dog when I have to do it, but it’s not fun and not something I do by choice.

There are only 5 grouse in the one field and they are almost always too close to the field edge at the hillside down to the creek. He has no chance and I don’t want to discourage him, plus general big game is open now and those grouse are going to be getting moved around a lot more by big game guys in the wee morning hours.

I had forgot it was big game opener until I saw all the road hunters this morning as I headed out. I’m not going to sit tonight but tomorrow evening I’ll sit out back and blast a whitetail doe, hopefully.

 

[BirdManMike]

Killed one Tuesday, prior to the snow, also.

 

[BirdManMike]

If you were to ask me whether I prefer a 'nice' bird - as many peregrines are, absolute sweethearts - that didnt fly quite the way I wanted versus a high flying, hard hunting falcon that is a total dick, like, Roach, Id be hard pressed to decide. Right now, Id probably say Id like a nice bird, but in a few weeks that answer is probably going to be different.

Days like today reinforce how much I dislike Roach. I am not going to go into the crap Ive been dealing with, with him, or my 'fun' today other than to say I dont think he will ever be a grouse bird. And for a tiercel thats totally OK - its OK if he is only a hun hawk which many tiercels are - or it would be OK if he were just a nice bird, but the crap and tantrums both before and especially after the impossibly perfect opportunity on sharptail I gave him today just reinforce my dislike.

Oh well. He is what I have and tomorrow is another day.

 

[MNElkNut]

Interesting picture. how does he get along with Greta?

 

[BirdManMike]

Interesting picture. how does he get along with Greta?

Tolerates her. Hasn’t grabbed her face yet. She knows to stay clear and understands the difference between the falcon and gamebirds just as all my other dogs have.

 

[BirdManMike]

Days like today reinforce how much I dislike Roach. I am not going to go into the crap Ive been dealing with, with him, or my 'fun' today other than to say I dont think he will ever be a grouse bird. And for a tiercel thats totally OK - its OK if he is only a hun hawk which many tiercels are - or it would be OK if he were just a nice bird, but the crap and tantrums both before and especially after the impossibly perfect opportunity on sharptail I gave him today just reinforce my dislike.

Oh well. He is what I have and tomorrow is another day.

I may be being a bit dramatic here. Just…

Holy eff. He is the most high strung bird I’ve dealt with. High strung and defiant with stubborness and tantrums. As bad as - tho in different ways for different reasons - wild, female prairie falcons.

 

[BirdManMike]

Whatever was causing him to protest and throw tantrums has stopped. After a couple weeks of acting 'goofy' - flying off the fist then landing, freaking out over random crap, food possessiveness, one instance of leaving the fist to immediately go and fight some other raptor a mile away (I think it was a prairie falcon but I dont know what happened, only that his feet were all bruised up and had some talong punctures - lucky little shit) - Roach is participating and acting mostly nice again. The thing is, even when he was protesting, I could wait him out so hed eventually change his mind and end up flying well and killing something - battle of the wills - which I should be happy about.

He has killed 2 more huns since my last update. Todays flight, tho, was really incredible. I put him over what turned out to be a false point. Usually I can tell, but Greta was locked up, at least for a while, before breaking and moving on.

The wind today is really ripping - a good 20mph sustained. Roach mounted well and stuck with us while we tried to get another point. He just kept going up and up so I decided on pigeons since hed have no shot getting to the gamebirds before they made cover at that height in the wind.

He was almost 1800' when I released the homers - 1775' - and a bit wide. I couldnt see him up there - obviously - so thank goodness for GPS. The pigeons were almost - Id guess - 1/4 mile away and at 200' or so before they realized their predicament. His initial pass was at high speed - the GPS says he hit 143mph - missing the target with him having enough speed to pitch back up a good 100', easy, over the homer he was on. The next pass he came down hard and falcon punched the homer, flying thru it and getting height advantage again. The homer was still flying but it was beat - it knew it and Roach knew it - making a 90 degree turned and trying to get speed going down to cover around the ranch house with Roach on its ass.

The GPS showed that he had stopped moving and was down, but the dog GPS showed that Id lost connection to Greta's collar. I have the Dogtra system rather than the Garmin and it seems to lose connection at ~500 yards (which Greta regularly hits if I am not keeping up). Figuring Roach was either eating a pigeon or would come looking for me, I went off to wrangler up Greta first. I found her maybe 1/3-1/2 mile away holding a nice point on a covey. After releasing her to flush, back we went to find Roach.

Roach hadnt moved since the last time Id looked at the GPS because he was on the ground happily eating a pigeon. I found him back at the ranch house under the deck where the homer tried to bail. I shouldve taken a pic.

 

[BirdManMike]

Flights have been tough. Roach takes huge pitches, often mounting really wide before coming back over too high to get to the game before they make cover. No complaints, this is the type of flying everyone wants. Itll get easier when it cools off again and there is a bit of snow - the huns will be dug in out in the middle of fields, at least until there is too much snow and a hard hard crust. I am almost certain we will kill a few more birds this season.

We got a flight today. He came back over - close enough - around 400'. It was only a few birds and they hugged the sage on the flight so he didnt connect. He remounted and stuck with us, gaining and gaining, then I released a pair of homers when he was over 1300' - at that height there isnt much of a chance he gets to the huns in the field we were in even if we found a second covey (which we did after the pigeon flight - they were way too close to safety so right call). He tagged one of the homers on the initial stoop, pitched up over it, then hit it again - it gave up and died on the way to cover. This was one of my best homers, one that consistently has beaten him over the past 2 seasons and a go to that I grab every 3rd flight.

Two days ago, we didnt get a point so I put him up thinking Id see how high I could get him before throwing an easy pigeon (rather than homers). I threw the pigeon when he was at 1850' and overhead. That one didnt make it through the first stoop.

I have some other falconers telling me (again) that I should think about taking him down to the sky trials in Utah, that if he flies like he usually does he is sure to place if not win. But its in late January down in Utah - 7 hours away in mid winter and I dont think I want to keep flying that long...

...because this will be my last season with Roach. The breeder who bred him has a falcon hed like to breed with him. He has said I should fly him thru the season then whenever I am ready he will take him back.

Its going to be bittersweet. Roach is the best flying peregrine Ive had (or even been around), but - as Ive mentioned many times - hes a pain in the ass outside of hunting. I will miss him - he is my little buddy whether we currently like each other at any given moment or not.

For as long as he breeding, Ill be able to take an offspring from the pair. I may do so in the future, but I am looking forward to trapping wild birds again. For a long time, trapping and training passage birds was my falconry and I really miss it. I am really excited for next season - the trials and tribulations are not less with a passage bird, but they are different, and the commitment is not the same - not so long term - since they can always be released back into the wild - happy, healthy, and in good shape - whenever I am done with them whether thats after a single season or after 5.

Hope dies last, and at the moment it is far from death.

 

[BirdManMike]

Guy that bred Roach came out today. I’ve been inviting him to see him fly since he gave him to me and today was the first time.

Took him to one of the ranches I have permission on. Got a point but too close to cover. Put Roach up on spec and tried for another point but a bunchve antelope were hanging out in the area we usually find another covey. Figure they moved them trampling round.

Released the homers with Roach over 1400’. He hit one of the homers in the stoop and pursued it down to the house. Got a call from the woman at the house that either he or the pigeon had hit a window. She text me a picture of him a minute later as I headed over there - the pigeon smacked the window and Roach was on it. One of the kids was outside and saw it - he is 9 and comes out with me sometimes and was pumped Roach caught it.



That’s the picture she sent me.

Have to be careful throwing pigeons now - he is catching my good homers. He was way out of position when I released them today and still caught one.

Another month of flying. Snow forecasted in a couple days will help things. Also, the bulls were moved out of one of my other fields finally so another field to fly with uneducated birds. Also big game finishes next week so the birds won’t be getting pushed around and bumped so much on the public. December could be really good.

 

[BirdManMike]

Ramping down the season. Going to only fly every second or even every third day until early January when he will go into the breeding chamber.

He is in too good of shape for gamehawking. His consistent pitch is now 1300’. He mounts really wide, almost a mile out at times, then come back and puts himself into position at this height, sticking right on me and slowly gaining. This would be wonderful if I had regular grouse flights this year and if I thought he were going to kill them, but I don’t. The chance of killing a hun from this height before they dump or make cover in most of my fields is almost nil.

He kills one of my homers almost every flight. He will kill over half the flock if I keep going at this rate. Really impressive. Going to go trap some barn birds for him to fly.

A couple flights ago he took his first pitch over 2000’, too. Good grief. Hoping less flying will see his pitches drop a bit so we can kill a few more huns before season end.

 

[BirdManMike]

Took him three tries today. Three separate coveys. Next two days off.

 

[BirdManMike]

I got a nice flight from a prairie falcon today.

Finally ran the field that had the cows in it. There were no grouse, but there was 3 coveys of huns - all of them large, ~20 bird, coveys. The first w2 were real close to one another and close to the gate as we walked in - not the best shot with the fenceline right there plus cover not far off. Just flushed them. 3rd covey was out in no mans land, a nice setup.

Roach began mounting well then when he was a couple hundred feet and downwind I heard a bunch of yapping. A female prairie had come in on him and he was squawking at her. Luckily they hadnt locked talons, but it was pretty clear she wanted to. Roach was outflying her and as the flight came over the point with them at maybe 250' or so I released Greta to flush.

The prairie veered immediately and got a nice shot at one of the huns but didnt connect as it dumped into sagebrush. Roach veered off the other way, not stooping, and went flying off.
With Roach way off over the far side of the field, the prairie falcon got back up and started following Greta and I around looking for another shot. We kept running the field hoping for some grouse or something until the prairie dipped out and Roach came back to take position.

Unfortunately there were any grouse in what is usually the best part of the field and with ROach at about 1200' I released the pair of homers. One of them again got caught. Not what I wanted, but Roach is really confident and flying great. Another couple days off then we will go back after them.

I really need to go catch some barn pigeons.

 

[Gravelyctry]

Mike, are you saying you were flying a Prairie Falcon and Roach at the same time? Or was the prairie falcon a wild bird? Sorry if that's a dumb question, as I know little about what you do but really enjoy your posts.

 

[BirdManMike]

Mike, are you saying you were flying a Prairie Falcon and Roach at the same time? Or was the prairie falcon a wild bird? Sorry if that's a dumb question, as I know little about what you do but really enjoy your posts.

She was a wild prairie falcon that came in to fight with Roach. Just happened to get to witness a nice flight from her on some huns. Just another reason I enjoy doing this - never know what to expect and sometimes its some interesting stuff.

 

[BirdManMike]

Saw the prairie again in the field just north of last time. Roach didn’t stoop the flush which was odd then I caught sight of her chasing the huns. She came back and followed Greta around a short time before flying off. Roach stayed above us over 1000’ and only came down when she was gone.

Maybe I just keep training her like this then go trap her to fly the rest of the season once Roach is back in a chamber. That’s all I need. Haha

 

[kansasdad]

Saw the prairie again in the field just north of last time. Roach didn’t stoop the flush which was odd then I caught sight of her chasing the huns. She came back and followed Greta around a short time before flying off.

Makes me wonder if she’s previously hunted with humans/dogs and then released/escaped?

 

[BirdManMike]

Makes me wonder if she’s previously hunted with humans/dogs and then released/escaped?

Doubt it. She’s just been watching enough to think she might capitalize on the opportunity. I’ve had various raptors follow the dog around in the past - the most fun to watch are the Merlin’s. They are opportunistic and fairly smart.

I got my trapping stuff situated and am carrying a bait pigeon. Didn’t see her today.

No point. Roach went up over 1900’ and killed one of the homers. They don’t stand much of a chance at this point. It’s insane how good he has gotten.

 

[BirdManMike]

Roach and I don’t have many (any?) pictures together so we took a selfie with his hun when we got back to the vehicle. He was over 1000’ when they flushed but they were a good way from cover luckily.



We only have 10, maybe 12, flights left together.

 

[SwaggyD]

Roach and I don’t have many (any?) pictures together so we took a selfie with his hun when we got back to the vehicle. He was over 1000’ when they flushed but they were a good way from cover luckily.

View attachment 304988

We only have 10, maybe 12, flights left together.

Why only so few flights?