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Longwing Diaries by Chic McSherryAugust 2006Well it just had to be done. After the magnificent Jester had been put down for his second moult in March of 2006 I was totally lost for things to do. That may put me in the sad man's camp, but it was true: the wee hawk and the attendant time spent in the field after game had quite taken over my free time and that of my kids. So we hatched a plan: why not get a summer bird and keep Jester as a winter one! What a great idea AND we might even make it a summer falcon...now wouldn't that be special. So the negotiations started with Adrian and as we talked he began to persuade himself (and me) that maybe I was ready for a longwing and maybe I could put together suitable accommodation. First off was to construct a shelf-perch: an ingenious system whereby a carpeted flat wooden platform is transformed with a mute-tray and a backplate fixed with a falcon perch. This was situated in my summer house and proved to be excellent day and night quarters supported by a conventional block perch on the lawn for day weathering. Sorted. Adrian had already selected the bird for me: she was a 2 year old Lugger falcon called Pasha that was being returned to him from a bloke in London. The reason he was returning her was that he thought she was a lazy so-and-so that would only do one pass to the lure and then would go off and sulk...but Adrian sensibly didn't tell me that bit so in my ignorance I just carried on and trained her under his guidance. First came the lure swinging techniques practiced initially without a falcon: left hand passes, right hand passes, drop passes and overhead passes. All much more technical, and surprisingly physical, than you might think. If you've watched Mr. Halgarth work a team of up to four falcons simultaneously whilst giving a running commentary at a game fair you probably have no idea of the true depth of skill, birdcraft and timing that it takes. It's one thing to have a single falcon pass at high speed and take the lure away from it, but multiple birds is a mind-boggling combination. Once I had practiced my left hand pass for about 30 minutes under his supervision Adrian said "Right. Let's do it for real!" My opponent, for that is probably the right mind-set for the aerial chess-match I was about to undertake, was Kris - a three year old peregrine that had the reputation of being one of Adrian's fastest display birds. Adrian unhooded him, faced him into the wind and with a quick rouse he was off as I walked nervously into the middle of the field thinking "Now...am I right handed or am I left handed...". "Get ready!" yelled Adrian, but I fumbled grabbing the lure from the bag in my adrenalin fuelled state and Kris glided over me puzzled. He swung round back into the wind and this time I got the lure out and started to swing it. Kris was way up at the far end of the field climbing round when he saw the lure and, swear to God, the next second I knew it he was 10 feet away from me in a full power-dive worthy of an F16! I have no clue how I managed it but I got the lure away from him and turned as he rocketed past to climb again for another pass. I managed 5 full passes before Adrian told me to serve him the lure. Smack! Kris hit it and carried it off a short distance to devour his prize. "You'll do" said Adrian and that was that: Pasha was ready to come home. You can read all about Pasha here but unluckily for me she went into a very heavy moult before I could finish the training job and get her entered so I started to fly another of Adrian's birds, Rattler. When I say "fly" I mean I was the one who slipped her, got her off kills and occasionally got her back when she went off on a fruitless chase. But it's close enough for rock and roll so fly her I did. For More Information on our exceptional parent and crèche reared falcons
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