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Follow the adventures of our pack of hunting Harris hawks, bred and trained at our Scottish falconry centre.Regular update on our main hunting teamOur training methods ensure that our birds are fit, superbly healthy and most of all happy in their environment doing what nature has always intended them to do. If you would like details on falconry lessons or experience days, click here. Latest -- 1-Nov-05 to 31-12-05
Hunting Diary for Nov and Dec 2005.
For those of you reading this diary daily, I must apologize but my personal workload and amount of hunting at this time of year has made keeping this diary up to date on a daily basis almost impossible.
We have acquired several thousand acres of new hunting ground based in and around the World famous “ Drummond Castle Estate”.
This new ground has really broadened the type of quarry and styles of flights that we can enjoy with our birds, allowing for pheasant hunting in forest on heavy rain days, and glorious rabbit and hare flights in the glens on the better days.
The majority of game taken thru this period has been the prolific numbers of rabbits that abound in this part of the world and the majorities have been pointed and flushed by Spencer (no introduction necessary).
One particularly productive area, we refer to as the “Rabbit Glen” is of great interest as it comprises of 2 thousand acres of open hill ground covered in part with bracken, which at this time of year holds many, many rabbits. As well as being particularly scenic it is also challenging ground for the hawks as it offers very little opportunity to catch the prey in the open meaning that the birds position at flush and close dog work are essential for success! Whilst our bags haven’t been too high (averaging around 3 per outing) we have enjoyed several good flights per day that ended with the eventual escape of our quarry, always the best flights in my book!
In addition to rabbits, we have enjoyed some fantastic sport on pheasant, mostly on wild birds that always put on a good show. In the latter part of November the woodcock moved down from Scandinavia and have provided some exciting if somewhat unsuccessful flights in cover so far this season.
Finally, the hill hares !!!
The smaller cousins of the brown hare that adopt a snow white coat at this time of year are abundant in certain parts of our hunting range, but boy can they use the ground well to evade capture and whilst we have had a couple of dozen slips on them, we have still to bring one home in the bag.
The Harris hawk team are flying well, with our youngsters really starting to sparkle now, Dixie is well into her first season and her younger brother Cain, has finally clicked and is providing our guests with some of the best flights of the month.
Even Chic’s bird Jester is finally getting the hang of working with the dog and took the first slips of his career this week over a pointing Spencer which made everyone really happy, especially Chic!
For me, its just like watching my children grow up and graduate as I have known all of my birds since they were twinkles in their parents eye’s, making it extra special on occasions like these when all the hard work, training and bonding finally pays off.
January should prove to be an interesting month for the hunt, and I personally have my sights set on at least a couple of hill hares and the first woodcock of the season, so watch this space………
We will almost certainly be pushing the boat out in Jan from a hunting perspective so if you fancy serious hawking with the hardest working commercial team in the country…this might just be the time to bag a bargain, as there are several special offers planned for January. Please call our booking number for details or book online here!
Finally, on behalf of the team here at Phoenix I’d like to thank all of you who joined us or supported us in 2005 (you know who you are!), and hope to see you back with us in the thick of things in 2006.
Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year.
Hunting Diary Notes from 21st of Oct, 2005 - 29-Oct-05 Date: 21-OCT-05 Party: 3 guests Team: Dixie, Rock and Vixen (Harris Hawks) After a slightly damp start in the morning, the afternoon’s weather opened up a bit and we found ourselves basked in some what dubious half light of a damp but rainless afternoon. The birds today were on top form and stuck to the dog like glue, following from tree to tree over “Spencer as he dissected the ground with his keen nose. A young Hare was flushed and neatly taken by young “Dixie” our resident baby female Harris Hawk. She looked somewhat puzzled by this new food item? But after a good feed on her first hare, she has broadened her gastronomic range! Rock in superb form took a young pheasant that was nicely pointed and flushed by Spencer.
Date: 22-OCT-05 Party: 4 guests Team: Dixie, Rock and Vixen (Harris Hawks) Wet weather today, but that didn’t stop us heading out to the arable side of the estate, for a spot of Bunny Fun! This area in particular holds the largest number of rabbits, to be found anywhere on the Touch Estate, and as a commercial farm, they suffer great losses thru rabbit damage! Our job today was not only sport and exercise for the team, but also a vital service to the landowners. 3 Rabbits were taken the team, one for each bird. Always nice to travel home with three contented and well fed up birds!
Date: 23-OCT-05 Party: 4 guests Team: Dixie, Rock, Vixen and baby Cain (Harris hawks)
W took along baby Cain today, a 20 week old crèche reared male we bred this year as he has just finished his basic training, performed by one of our apprentices “Gary”. Gary has really made an excellent job of the basics, but now it’s off to predator school! We work on a very simple principle with our hunting team, in the wild a young bird like this will follow and learn from his parents, so that’s exactly what we re create in captivity by encouraging him to follow and eventually work with his older and more experienced siblings. Although very nervous of the dog to start with, he calmed down enough to free fly and follow at the latter part of the afternoon. It’s early days, and although he didn’t join the others in their two rabbit catches, he was responsive to the fist and had immaculate manners. Today’s Bag: 2 rabbits.
Date: 26-OCT-05 Party: 5 guests Team: Dixie, Rock, Vixen and Cain (Harris Hawks) Absolutely poured it down! Soggy birds, wet guests and no game! Some days can be like this unfortunately and it is the nature of the beast: the quarry have their days too after all and it's the way nature works. Our guests enjoyed the countryside and watching Spencer and the birds work nevertheless. They'll be back when the weather is perhaps kinder...
Date: 27-OCT-05 Party: 4 guests Team: Dixie, Rock, Cain and Vixen (Harris hawks) Well at last some good weather! With the sun splitting the tree’s we set out in search of adventure: what a contrast to yesterday. The dog was on top form today as point after point materialised, and the hawks must have been taking notes, as success after success was to follow. This team is becoming an awesome combination and we ended the afternoon early with a bag of 5 rabbits and 2 pheasant. Great sport, great dogs, great hawks; even I was impressed!
Spence on point!
Date: 28-OCT-05 Party: 2 guests Team: Dixie, Rock, Cain and Vixen (Harris Hawks) Today started with a flight almost immediately with a fallen tree holding the dogs point, the birds were positioned above in vacant trees, and the dog flushed! A rabbit came tearing out with escape on his mind, ducking and jinking thru the dense cover, using all and any available escape routes, but sadly the apex predator was to win again. That's how it works: the predators can only catch the old, the young, the sick, the weak and the stupid thereby honing the wild population into a race of the fittest. I really take my hat off to the humble rabbit, as a sporting creature that offers excellent sport, and more than often gets away...just not this time. After yet another bunny, the final kill of the day was one of the biggest grey squirrels I have ever seen! A real bruiser, but the hawks didn’t have it all their own way and Vixen received a few bites in the fray, hopefully none will turn septic with the right husbandry. So, many good flights and a couple of bunnies and a squirrel for the collection at home to enjoy.
Date: 29-OCT-05 Party: 4 guests (John Currie and Friends) Team: Dixie, Rock, Cain and Vixen (Harris Hawks) Well an ambitious start on a very wet day had us hiking thru autumn woodland. Cain has shown a great improvement over the last few trips and today was flying like a true member of the pack, joining all activities and forays. It was then Rock and Dixie’s turn as a pheasant was pointed and flushed on command by Spencer. This old cock bird headed straight down the estate with firm plans on some distant wood, but two birds were well and truly locked on. No sign of them after 5 minutes meant a long haul down the estate with tracking device in hand, to find the little monsters. 1/2 mile down hill, I eventually found them tucking in greedily to their prize. A long trudge back to join the guests, and return the birds and off we went again. The weather today was mixed with very heavy showers, and we were all pretty much soaked, so the afternoon session was drawn to a close on just 1 pheasant.
Guests: 2 Instructor: Adrian Team: Dixie, Vixen and Rock Two great guests out today, one who had a lot of sporting experience from the perspective of shooting and the other who has been on our introductory day and wanted to further his experiences a bit. The dog worked hard to produce some good points, but it was hard work as there didn’t seem to be much around today. The dog produced two good pheasant flights, both old wild cocks (the hardest kind to catch) and one was neatly taken by young Dixie whilst the other fell victim to the old bagger “Vixen”. The ferret even produced an exceptionally sporting rabbit from the middle of a dense plantation with a very exciting pursuit thru the primeval forest scene. Exciting sport, enjoyed by all present, enjoy the pictures.
Guests: 3 Instructor: Adrian Team: Vixen, Rock and Dixie After the other days disaster I was interested to see how my team would perform, but I was not disappointed. The team flew their socks off with three good rabbits taken thru out the afternoon, one by each bird. Spencer was his usual brilliant self, and held three good points for us whilst we got the birds and guest into good positions. This caliber of hawking is hard to beat, and I swelled with pride as my little project team fed up on their prizes at the end of the afternoon. Some days you’re just glad to be alive!
Guests: 4 Team: Gary, Ben. Birds: Vixen, Rock, Dixie (Harris Hawks) Disaster! Sadly, I couldn’t join the hunt today as I had a prior engagement so our “B” Team instructors jumped into the fray. This was one occasion where events combined to produce a disastrous day. One lady spectator did not appreciate the sometimes rough terrain that we find ourselves in and the walk was a little too arduous for her. Holding onto keen hunting hawks can at times be quite difficult as our Junior Instructor found out to his great cost when ferreting, two birds were released by guests to grab one very unfortunate ferret, the result: 2 bitten hawks and one very annoyed but lucky ferret! Thankfully all three were cleaned up, anti-biotics administered and all 3 are currently fine and happy again. The moral of the story: don’t come out hunting if you are not up to a little exercise; if you do realize the serious implications of your action’s and realize that these creatures are not pets but working predators doing what they have evolved to do for thousands of years. I hope that anyone reading this diary will realise that this is very much a participatory activity with you being given command and control of your own bird, a very responsible job and not for the feint hearted. We have invited the more enthusiastic guests from this day back to our facility free of charge for another day to maintain our aim of ensuring that everyone leave sus with lasting, unforgettable and enjoyable memories. As it says on the home page: we aim to ensure you have the best possible experience when with Phoenix Falconry.
Birds flown: Alchemy (female Peregrine) Vixen and Rock (pair of Harris hawks)
Guest’s: Jan and his father from Holland.
The rain here in Perthshire has been horrendous for the past few days and the river level has increased about 2ft with flooding.
The good news is that the annual run of salmon are here again and we spent several minutes admiring this wonder of nature as they ran the salmon leap just below our facility.
With the weather greatly improved we headed out this afternoon with a three bird team, and I don’t mind telling you that I had butterflies at the thought of flying free once again, my old game hawk “Alchemy”. She is a credit to our sport at 11 yrs old, having taken a vast amount of game in her life, she was temporarily retired for breeding and hasn’t flown for 3 yrs and today was to be her first day back in the job!
On arrival at the estate, we gave her a quick burn round, gliding and cutting the wind as she did raised my heart rate and my enthusiasm for this old girl, even adding a small chase on a distant pheasant that flushed, but with no real height.
She was brought in and rewarded for her efforts after so long, then the team was swapped as we got out our Harris hawks for the afternoons action, Vixen and Rock.
Spencer was his usual self; streaking backwards and forwards in search of anything he thought the hawks might like to catch, until our first point was established in deep bracken. The birds wasted no time and shot off our guest’s fists to take stand in a tall tree above the dog. A rat hunt ensued in the deep bracken with the rabbit flushing then sneaking off under the mantle of cover, but eventually the dog did his job and Vixen, stooping in a steep curve put and end to the waiting, taking our first rabbit of the afternoon.
More rabbits were pointed in this deep cover, but due to the nature of this stuff, we decided to head into open ground, for what might make more visual flights.
Our second rabbit of the afternoon came not long after, when a bunny broke cover in some open ground at our approach, both birds were after it in an instant, with Vixen again adding it to the bag after an exciting but short 40yd chase.
Finally, our third and final rabbit was taken neatly from a point, with a spectacular 100ft stoop by both birds almost vertically from their lofty position in the top of a Douglas Fir tree, Once again Vixen did the honors.
This wasn’t to be Rock’s day, today, with his bigger partner always slightly better placed or nearer the quarry, but tomorrow is always another day, and with 4 more guests to share the action, I’m sure he’ll get his chances.
Jan, one of my guest’s today, is from Holland and regular visitor each year. I am always interested in his opinions about our days as he has been back so many times. His response to today’s sport was simple 10/10!
I suppose we can’t do much better than that but it always makes us feel better knowing that people appreciate our hard work and effort.
So today’s Bag: 3 rabbits.
Hunting Diary for Sun 9th Oct 2005.
Birds: Rock, Vixen and Dixie. (Harris Hawks)
Dog: Spencer
Guests: 4 The weather today was touch and go with strong 50mph winds and heavy rain, but where there’s a will, there’s always a way, and we decided that we’d better make the best of a bad job! It is incredibly difficult to achieve much in these types of weather condition in the open, as the birds get wet quickly and effectively go on strike. Even the remotest chance of success is largely down to experience on the day, both the experience of the birds in the weather conditions, and the experience of the falconer in knowing both his birds, their limits, the ground and the quarry. I decided to head for some light woodland on the estate hill, which might just hold a few refugee’s of the harsh weather. Spencer our GSP pup decided today of all days to become a racing greyhound , streaking as he did in ands out of view? We refer to him in this frame of mind as being “Hot” and “volcanic” was his mood today! He succeeded in flushing two pheasant without pointing in the first 15 minutes, both of which were half heartedly chased out of the wood by the birds, but to no avail. Then we trudged thru the cover for a further hour with little events other than to appreciate just how marvelous these birds fly in woodland. Harris hawks revel in deep cover, opening and closing their wings in mid flight to squeeze thru the tightest patches of branches almost effortlessly. Finally, the familiar “Beep, Beep” of Spencer’s collar spelled a point and on closer investigation, we saw him pointing some light brashing in which we could just see a rabbit sitting tight, hoping above all else that if he were to sit tight enough, we might just pass him by? Sadly, this wasn’t to be his day, and after flushing he led the hawks a merry dance streaking thru the tightest cover of branches and fallen tree’s. In this environment he really had the advantage, as the birds ducked and weaved in close pursuit. It appeared he had gotten clean away, when the flight ended with two of the birds sitting above a fallen tree roots, with deep holes at it’s base. We decided to carry on and started to walk away, when we noticed that neither bird followed and went back to “Gee” them up a bit. Surprise!!!…. Old Vixen had dived deep into the roots and managed against all odds to grab the rabbit deep in his hiding place. She was duly rewarded and the afternoon came to and end, with the result of just one rabbit today, and a small bundle of fresh food for the hunting hawks. Scottish weather will remain a problem, but the best we can do is “endeavor to persevere”, in the words of a wise man! Hunting Diary for Fri 7th Oct 2005.
Birds: Rock, Vixen and Dixie. (Harris Hawks) Dog: Spencer Guests: 4 Well, the weather was unseasonably calm today as we headed out over the estate in search of fun and adventure. Our guest’s, were of the highest caliber with lots of good questions and answers volleying backwards and forwards as we watched the dog work away. Our first point was in light bracken on a slight hill and with the guests and birds in position, the flush was called, Spencer dived in like a dog possessed and a Hare was rudely ejected from its hiding place. Two birds were badly positioned but baby Dixie gave it her best shot making light contact with its back end before getting a good kick from Mr. Hare to tell her that she’d better try harder than that! Mr. Hare made good his escape and perhaps will think better of hiding in the presence of Humans again, and good luck to him. The birds were off the fists at this point, with the two older birds high on telegraph poles when a bunny suddenly appeared streaking across the terrain below, big mistake! Our old girl, Vixen, folded neatly from her lofty pole and took him well as he just made it to a dense patch of gorse. One of our guests selflessly flattened the gorse edge as I retrieved Vixen and her prize, our first Bunny of the day. Today was to be one of those days, as no sooner had the dust settled another point was obtained with Spencer, and his beeper collar sounded out to announce that something else was on the cards. Second bunny was flushed with all three birds in hot pursuit in very difficult terrain, as it ducked under hedges, thru fences and thru forest, eventually getting caught 60yds away in deep cover by the baby of the team Dixie, I was delighted. The death of such a sporting creature is never cause for celebration; my joy was for this inexperienced hawk, who after thousands of hours of fitness and educations is just starting to get the idea. A few good flights on wild pheasant resulted in nothing but memories (sometimes the best kind of flights?) and our afternoon ended with a final rabbit pointed in a fence by Spencer and caught once again by Dixie. The hawks were rewarded with a portion of their kills, whilst we reflected on the afternoon’s sport. The result today: 3 happy birds, 4 satisfied guests and 3 bunnies.
Hunting Diary on Thurs the 6th of October 2005.
Birds flown: Rock (male Harris Hawk) Dixie (female Harris Hawk) Chico (Male Harris Hawk) Well Thursday afternoon found us once again looking out over the fantastic views from the touch Estate, nr Stirling. Today was a fitness and training exercise for two of our baby birds, with one of our older and more experienced birds (Rock) along to chaperone. As well as the birds we had “Spencer” our 20mnth old GSP who always lightens the mood, if not with work ethic, then with humorous behavior! Our quarry today was the prolific numbers of rabbit that abound in this part of the estate, and we were not disappointed as old Rock put one in the bag no less than 5 minutes into our afternoon. The unfortunate Bunny was having a snack out in the field of rushes where we parked and Spencer duly obliged us by “pointing” him. A dog on point is an awesome sight as every nerve in their body seems to tingle with the primeval struggle between natural instinct which says to pounce, and training which says don’t pounce, show us where it is. The rabbit was flushed from it’s hiding place on command and headed into a rocky bank of nettles, but sadly too slowly and was neatly taken by old Rock, who showed his two younger hunting companions just how it should be done! Due notes were taken by both, Rock removed from his prize and his effort rewarded. We wandered along allowing all three birds to follow us as they do from tree to tree with one or two abortive chases at distant quarries before a second point was delivered by Spencer. The quarry was flushed (another rabbit) and taken neatly by Young “Dixie” a 18 week old Harris Hawk that we bred this year and in the throws of educating. Old Rock’s earlier performance obviously sharpened her enthusiasm and by way of celebration, she was allowed 10 minutes to consume a small portion of her prize. The third point was by far the most memorable of the afternoon, with all three birds sitting about 80ft up a large popular tree, and the dog pointing a patch of nettles directly below. The flush was called and a large cock pheasant was rudely ejected from his hiding place, only to be met head on by two very determined Harris hawks The younger miss-timed her strike, the older hit perfectly but was out matched by at least 3 times his own body weight, and old “Cocky” made good his escape! As is often the case, the best flight of the day got away, but that’s life! And more importantly he lives to fight or flight another day as nature intended and we certainly didn't begrudge him his freedom. Hunting falconry birds, just like in the wild, can only catch the young, the old, the weak and the stupid. This bird was none of the above. So today’s Bag: 2 humble but very welcome rabbits! Better yet, there’s always tomorrow...
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