Re: Cool Bird!

L

Lance H

New member
Actually, one study several years ago used super slo-mo video to capture a peregrine in the act and found that they often as not, rake the target with the halix, the rear toe/ talon, causing the prey to fall. All the falconids are impressive as heck to watch hunt. Makes me think of a time several years ago when I was on my treestand hunting deer. A half-dozen trees away, this squirrel sat on a branch doing squirrel stuff. From my right, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned just in time to see a northern goshawk streaking in at Mach 7, very low to the ground. At the last moment, he shoots straight up in the air and takes that squirrel right off the limb. he realeases the prey, climbs above the treetops, does a 180 and comes straight down onto that squirrel before it had a chance to regain its sense and run off. I looked at my compound bow, my aluminum shafts, bear broadheads, and cammies and thought to myself, "Do your best and you're still just a rookie at this game." You're right, peregrines are very impressive and beautiful birds. Had the chance to work with several of them in my career and regard those instances as high points in my life. Thanks for the story.
 
I saw the neatest thing a couple of years ago. While calling coyotes, I heard some sharptail grouse get up. Usually this is a good sign as coyotes coming in will cause them to flush. I turn towards the sound and what do I see but a prairie falcon right on the tail of a sharptail. The grouse was doing its best at evasive maneuvers and clucking like crazy. I lost sight of them over the horizon but the falcon was right on it's tail.
 
Hi Tony... You may already know but for some of the other folks that dont, their living up on the ledges of the tall buildings down on central ave.I have a friend thats work on central & Adams since the 60s. He said that hes been walking down the street and have pigion feathers come floating down from above. Also a buddy of mine that was living near 32 st. and Thomas bought his daughter a rabbitt for Easter one year. The rabbitt wonder the yard and could'nt get out. But came up missing one day... His wife was looking out the back door a few days later and there was a bald eagle sitting on the telephone pole in the allie that overlooks the backyard...HHHMMMMMM think he was there just to rest his wings....... :eek:
 
Hey Bud- Yeah I found out that the Falcons migrate here from Canada and Greenland. I read that they're hangin out downtown but haven't seen any down there. I was going to say an owl ate that poor little bunny but if they saw the eagle then that's probably the culprit. I've had some of my customers tell me that they've had owls try to take their little dogs away but never get very far with them. What part of AZ are you in?
 
That is cool I have only seen one in the wild. It was 22 years ago in Hamilton co. IA. I was fox hunting next to the biggest wetland in that county. It is only 60 acres, if I remember right. T.20
 
Tony I moved back here to vermont to take care of my mom. I'm a native vermonter but Arizona is in my heart forever... I lived on the west side for 18 years and then moved to Prescott for another 4 years. Some day I'll be back out there. I dont think it'll be phx. though, I'm gonna find me a big ole hollow tree near Chevlon Canyon and that'll be home!!! Right in the middle of some great elk and trout country... Tony if you want, I've got a few secret places that have plenty of cats, coyotes and a lot of greys. I wont be out for a few years so the places should be looked after... If your interested give me a holler. just dont take the whole neighborhood there....lol /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif email is...
circecalls@vermontel.net
 
Bud-I have the utmost respect for those that take on the responsibility that you have and wish you and your Mom the best. The Mogollon Rim is one of the most beautiful area's we have out here. I haven't gotten up there in awhile because everytime I go, I don't want to come back. As for those "special places", you've got mail.
 
A guy I know in town has a hawk or two that he hunts pheasants with. The Perigine I saw was hunting pheasants.I'm not sure if it got one, I think it did not.T.20
 
I was in Dayton Ohio Tuesday and I saw a pair of them flying. Really cool. A few years ago I was at a pond and saw a immature peregine come in and land on a telephone pole nearby. Must of been looking for some ducks.
zach
 
While we're on the subject.....A few years ago we found a marsh hawk nest in the middle of my wheat field. I plugged the sprinklers in the wheel line and went around it with the tractors and harvesters all summer long and ended up being able to watch five chicks grow up and fly away.Really ugly when a few weeks old but they changed real fast as they grew. Was able to lay out a few sage rats for them once in a while and I became the local wildlife agent's best buddy when I pointed out what I was doing. Not often you see a farmer taking that kind of pains over a bird nest
 
Kenlguy,
Good going.

I grew up being taught all "chicken" hawks were evil and must be killed. Was a hard lesson to un-learn. The truth be known, your marsh hawk does far more good than harm. Ask any farmer being overrun by rats, mice or gophers which would he rather have. I think the hawk would be the pick everytime. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Kudos Kenlguy, if only there were more like you. "Chickenhawks" indeed, as if such a creature even existed. I once had a Burmese python that ate pigeons. I guess that made him a "pigeonsnake". But then he ate a rabbit and after that he ate my ex's parrot. I got so confused I just left it at Burmese python.
 
one year turkey hunting had gobblers coming our way right at light. every thing was going good until a great horned landed in the tree right in front of us. then the crows showed up and started to make a racket no gobbler would come around. better than 50 crows make a lot of noise. they were swooping at the owl and making his life miserable. he spread his wings and left the branch to grab a crow out of the air and landed 20 yrds from us with the crow in his talons dead from impact. neat thing to see he left with out even thinking of eating it, he killed it for fun.
Sportingly
Cracker

theres more than one way to skin a cat, but only one way to skin a frog
 
Man, I love birds of prey. They never cease to amaze me. Someday, probably when I'm a rich, old retired public servant, like some of you fellers /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif ... I plan on getting into falconry. My father has a friend that has a couple of birds. Last time I checked, he had a mixed falcon (from a perrigrine cross-bred with a slightly bigger bird) and a Harris' Hawk. He usually takes them out to WY to hunt sage hens with pointing dogs. He enjoys it so much, he almost never hunts birds with a shotgun anymore.

One of my favorite things to do in late winter is to go out near the shore of the Great Salt Lake, where I know there are a lot of wintering bald eagles, and just watch these birds. I like to go near the spill ways, flowing from the fresher water ponds into other ponds and the lake itself. There's always a group of eagles, waiting for big carp, usually as they're dying of old age, to wash through the gates where they're easy prey. There's usually several ravens and gulls squawking and waiting in the wings (pun intended /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) for an opening to sneek off with a chunk of carp, or more often for the big birds to eat their fill and move on. I've seen more than one raven come close to losing his life, trying to move in on an eagle's kill. Kinda like the lions, hyenas, and jackals on the African savannah.
 
Cracker,
Great story. I would've loved to see that. If the truth be known, I think the GH Owl is the baddest of them all. They'll kill almost anything. Some call them Flying Tigers. A name most fitting in my book.

Last week, we had a wind storm right at sundown, blowing 30-50 mph. A great horned owl flew up the eave of our roof and hung on. Was so neat watching him hold on while the wind was tring to dislodge him. After a while he flew off, but not because the wind blew him off!
 
Mike
it was a great outing to see the owl smash the crow in mid air so close to us. didnt get my gobbler that hunt but watching the owl was better than having to clean a turk anyway.

theres more than one way to skin a cat but only one way to skin a frog
 
Cracker-

I had a similar thing happen to me this past turkey season. I had a gobbler coming in when a group of crows starting mobbing around. I thought that they were mobbing the gobbler as they were so close. As the rukus escelated, I saw that a Bald eagle was the one being mobbed. Needless to say, when the eagle got to flying around the next thing I heard was a loud "PUTT! PUTT! and you know the rest. I did not know at the time that there was an eagle nesting in the area. Just one to the ways I missed out on a turkey this year.
 
Scattergunner,
Would that bigger bird have been a gyrfalcon? I've seen peregrineXgyrfalcon crosses and I believe they're used a lot for falconry. I worked in rehabilitation with raptors and my director was adamantly opposed to falconry, so I have very little experience with that aspect of raptors.

Mike, Great horns were my bread and butter. For the four summers I worked with them, I maintained a group of 35-85 great horned owls ranging from nestling age to adults on any given day. From the standpoint of tenacity, I agree that they're the meanest sonofaguns in the woods. I've still got one otr two battle scars where I was "got" by a talon or two, right through gauntlets and leather welding gloves. They've got a tremendous amount of power in those feet. Although we focused primarily on foster parenting orphaned juvies, we did a lot of behavioral work on critical periods and social imprinting that has since been used to tweak programs like the peregrine recovery, ospreys, and golden eagles here in Kansas.

In my own neighborhood today, I've got an isolated pop'n of Mississippi Kites that are here for no other reason than the fact that we had about a dozen of them left over after a 3-way trade b/n us, MO, and TN for turkeys and barn owls, and with no place to release them, we hacked them just outside our facility fifteen years ago. Even though I live a hundred miles north of their historic range, they've increased in number over the past decade to the point that I know of ten nesting pairs right here in Abilene today. They imprinted on the locale and every time I see one gliding above the treetops looking for katydids and cicadas, I smile and think, "I did that." They're a long-term reminder of a short-lived career in wildlife for me.
 
Lance, what was your directors problem with falconry? What agency was he representing? This doesn't sound like a Govt. operation, maybe a civilian animal rescue/rehab program?
 
NASA, You're right. The facility was administered by the local Audubon Society and received some funding through the state wildlife authority's non-game wildlife management budget, mmorials, etc.. He wasn't a hunter and, although he never indicated his feelings about hunting one way or the other, I strongly suspect he was against it, but not to the extent that he would try to forbid others from doing it. I really never understood why he took the position he did, since the regs in our state and in neighboring states dictate that birds used must show documentation of captive origins and are not to be procured from wild sources. The very few falconers I know are, in my opinion, some of the most dedicatyed of all sportsmen when you consider the time and effort required to work up from apprentice falconer to master. To me, it's a very noble and interesting way to hunt birds.
 
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