H is for Hawk (and Hunting)
December 13, 2015 3:30 PM Subscribe
"Want to introduce you guys to my new hunting partner for this season, and possibly longer if she does well. This is Natasha, a passage (meaning on her first migration) female red tailed hawk." From AR-15.com, a first-person account of training a hawk to the hunt, complete with glorious photographs.
Quick caveats: Site contains images of firearms; post has a few images of birds' kills.
Quick caveats: Site contains images of firearms; post has a few images of birds' kills.
Super interesting! I had the opportunity to spend a day at a falconry center in Scotland (which can sometimes be dodgy but this guy was the real deal--heavily involved in raptor rescue and raising birds for Saudi sheikhs) and it was an incredible experience. I got to fly several birds, but the highlight was the rescued bald eagle. One of those things landing on your hand is like a toddler falling out of the sky onto you.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:59 PM on December 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:59 PM on December 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
We only take first year birds from the wild, and they have a 90% mortality rate their first winter.
Citation needed. Seriously, hawks are under a lot of pressure from human activities. Taking them as youngsters with the excuse that they're probably going to die anyway is abject rationalization.
posted by sneebler at 6:27 PM on December 13, 2015
Citation needed. Seriously, hawks are under a lot of pressure from human activities. Taking them as youngsters with the excuse that they're probably going to die anyway is abject rationalization.
posted by sneebler at 6:27 PM on December 13, 2015
Citation:
"As a population, Red-Tailed Hawks are stable across their range. Like many raptors they suffer up to an 80% mortality rate in their first year. However after reaching adulthood they often live up to 10 years in age." Ok not 90 but close. (The Raptor Institute)
"Conservation status for red tailed hawk: least concern" (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
I'm more curious about how they interact with humans after this training. I'm imagining pointing at the pretty bird and saying, "Look! A red tailed haw.. awk! Ack! Gerroff!"
posted by evilmomlady at 7:58 PM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
"As a population, Red-Tailed Hawks are stable across their range. Like many raptors they suffer up to an 80% mortality rate in their first year. However after reaching adulthood they often live up to 10 years in age." Ok not 90 but close. (The Raptor Institute)
"Conservation status for red tailed hawk: least concern" (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
I'm more curious about how they interact with humans after this training. I'm imagining pointing at the pretty bird and saying, "Look! A red tailed haw.. awk! Ack! Gerroff!"
posted by evilmomlady at 7:58 PM on December 13, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'm not aware of any stories like that so it must be pretty rare if it happens at all.
posted by Mitheral at 8:49 PM on December 13, 2015
posted by Mitheral at 8:49 PM on December 13, 2015
Weird--never heard of this site till today, and now I've seen it linked twice (they are awful mad at mathowie).
posted by wintersweet at 8:55 PM on December 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by wintersweet at 8:55 PM on December 13, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yeah, if you're going to write a trigger warning for Arfcom, you might want to consider that it's considered extreme right-wing by other firearm forums.
posted by groda at 10:37 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by groda at 10:37 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
Two red-tailed hawks kept circling the area when I was in an open-air production of Macbeth a few years ago. They were so gorgeous, and it was almost like they wanted to be a part of the show. We called them Malcolm and Donalbain.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:55 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:55 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
I trapped her about 2 weeks ago, and she weighed in at 48 ounces. Her training is going pretty well so far. She was really fat when I trapped her, so things are just now picking up.
He gives only the vaguest hint of how this all works and why a wild hawk so quickly learns to return to the human that trapped it. A well-fed wild bird would just fly away. Those two weeks were spent starving the hawk so it would become dependent on him for food.
posted by ryanrs at 5:58 PM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
He gives only the vaguest hint of how this all works and why a wild hawk so quickly learns to return to the human that trapped it. A well-fed wild bird would just fly away. Those two weeks were spent starving the hawk so it would become dependent on him for food.
posted by ryanrs at 5:58 PM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you think that this boils down to "starving the hawk so it would become dependent on him for food," you have a lot of reading to do. Falconry seems to be the equivalent of two full-time jobs. Even building and maintaining a proper mews is ridiculous amounts of work.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:09 PM on December 15, 2015
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:09 PM on December 15, 2015
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We only take first year birds from the wild, and they have a 90% mortality rate their first winter. So she gets a pass on it, and a more forgiving environment to learn how to hunt. After a few seasons I'll set her free, if she hasn't decided to go on her own by then, and she will be free to live her life.
posted by 445supermag at 3:55 PM on December 13, 2015 [4 favorites]