Boise Falconry

Really great videos

2009-04-24T07:43:00.001-07:00

I never knew that you could hunt gyr's like they were Harris Hawks!

Funny as Hell

2009-03-19T09:54:00.001-07:00

So my Mother sent this to me today, I have no idea who the author is but it's great:

Pocket Tazer Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife. A guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Tazer for their anniversary submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse- sized tazer. The effects of the tazer were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety....??

WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button and pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs.

AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right?

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it.

She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately y on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and tazer in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water.

Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, 'no possible way!' What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.. .?

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, 'don't do it dipshit,' reasoning that a one second burst from
such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . .

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left ar m tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs? The cat was making meowing sounds had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to 'mug' yourself with a tazer, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.. A three second burst would be considered conservative?

IT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip
weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling. Apparently I pooped on myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair. I'm still looking for my nuts and I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return!

P.S... My wife, can't stop laughing about my experience, loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

If you think education is difficult, try being stupid!!

Got to love the Eagles

2009-01-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

Places I've been

2009-01-11T12:13:00.001-08:00

visited 10 states (20%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project

Rosie

2008-12-18T21:14:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me about my dog today so I thought I'd share one of my favorite photos of Rosie our German Shepard with everyone.

Moving On

2008-12-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Well I'm all moved in and now 5 weeks after my surgery I'm capable of putting on my shoes without assistance. My wonderful wife has taken care of me with patience and caring that reminds me every day how lucky I am. I am currently planning my new mews to be built on the property so that I can continue my apprenticeship.

One thing that I have not shared with this blog is the fact that I lost wolf. during the move I transferred him to the Giant Hood and set him in the kitchen. I checked on him at noon and he was dead. I had him hooded in the giant hood and from what I found he stuck his talon through the knot at the end of one of the long bracers and then panicked and broke his neck. I was really looking forward to flying this little guy and it is really disheartening considering the amount of bad luck I've had thus far.

I could no more give up this sport than I could take a different name so I will move on and take it as a lesson learned.

Fishing On the Boise River

2008-08-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

So a friend of mine and his son are coming with me to go hit the Boise river this evening. We are just going to be fishing with bait to see what we can hit. I'll be sure to let everyone know how we did.

My Red Tail Hawk (Wolf) is working through the molt well and should be ready to hunt very soon. More related to Wolf soon.

What's the Plan

2008-07-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

My dad showed me the following site last night:

The site was started in order to push the American people to campaign for an alternative to oil.

Fishing

2008-06-11T06:29:00.001-07:00

Well I went down to the Snake river again this last weekend. I only caught one fish, but the trip wasn't a total bust in that I got to see a lot of really great wildlife. while fishing there was a big horn sheep about 500 yards away that just would not stop starring at me. This was a real treat since I was recently watching the Alaska Experiment on Discovery where this sheep is a major food source for the participants on the show. Then about mid-morning a plane flew low over the canyon (illegal) and all the prairie falcons shot out of their nests to defend them. There must have been 10 in the sky right above me. Coming from AZ and only seeing 1 prairie falcon after driving far and wide of Phoenix this was a really awesome spectacle. Finally on the way home we saw a badger chasing a whistle pig into it's hole just off the highway.

On to Falconry, Wolf is doing really well he hasn't started the molt yet so I have a red light on in his enclosure to help speed things up. My back is totally destroyed which has really put a damper on my summer!

John and I went down...

2008-06-01T08:14:00.001-07:00

John and I went down and went fishing at Swan Falls dam this morning. I caught 8 Smallmouth bash. It was a really good time. Everyone should checkout that fishing spot. listen

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A great photo

2008-04-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

The following image was not taken by me, however it is a great photo so I thought I'd share.

Really Getting There

2008-03-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Wolf did really well today, came to the fist 3 times without being called. I think we can continue on this vein with free flights very soon

Progress

2008-03-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Weight: 719 grams (25.3619786)
Fed:35 grams quail

Well I've been slowly dropping Wolfs weight and today I saw the result. every day for the past 3-4 days I would take him out to the creance line and whistle at about 15 feet to which he would respond with and almost instant flight to the glove. Then I would work my way away from him the first time he hesitated or didn't come or acted distracted I would pick him up and walk him back to his mews. This seemed to finally have an effect today at his lowest weight. He came to the glove today without being called which was a nice first that I jackpotted him for with a quail leg. Tomorrow I predict that his weight will be a bit higher around 725 grams but that should be good. I will continue to use the same method of feeding him until he doesn't respond well and then putting him up for the day. In this way I am going to try to let him manage his weight.

On a side note, my dog ate my lure, and I have to buy choroplast for the mews, everything costs money!

Looking for a Pericing

2008-03-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

So Rachel keeps joking that Wolf is going to bite my nose off. This time she caught a photo of me getting a little too close. He is such a mellow bird!

Training Continues

2008-03-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

Weight: 740 grams (26.1027318)
Fed:30 grams beef heart

Wolf did really well today. I was surprised because he didn't do well yesterday and he was at a slightly higher weight today. We got eight good flights out of him and now I need to make the creance longer. Hopefully we'll be out to the football field on monday. After a week on the long creance we might be able to do a free flight but we'll wait and see.

It's been a bunch of false starts with this bird. One day he wants to work and the next he doesn't. I imagine that most of this is due to his weight and the weather.

Outdoor Creance

2008-03-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

Weight: 760 grams (26.8082111)
Fed:1 Mouse, 2 Quail wings

Well wolf was at a higher weight today and I didn't think that I'd get a good response from him at this weight outdoors given that it was his first time on the creance outside. I was mistaken however, he did splendidly and came quickly when called the 8 feet or so that I started with. It worked out well because the first call I didn't expect him to come so I had a mouse hidden in the glove. This meant that his surprisingly good response was jackpoted when he came to the glove to find a whole mouse! Because I didn't expect him to be so "on" at this higher weight I hadn't prepared any tidbits so I just used the quail wings for the next two calls, but you know what they say 3 great calls are better than 50 mediocre calls! I'm not actually sure what his weight will be tomorrow as I didn't expect to feed him the mouse, but that is a welcome surprise. I'll have tidbits and a long creance setup so we should be able to make a lot of progress if he's willing.

Note: I need to setup a weighted leash for the creance because right now his flights are mothy at best.

Progress

2008-02-29T15:53:00.000-08:00

Weight: 745 grams (26.2791017)
Fed:1 Quail Leg, 1 Quail Breast, 1 Mouse

I took a couple of days and got Wolf's weight down. He was very responsive and I was able to get 10-12 good 8 foot flights out of him in the garage. I may have fed him too much and I do expect that his weight will be higher tomorrow we'll see how he behaves and see if I'll work with him tomorrow.

Update

2008-02-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

Weight: 820 grams (28.9246488)
Fed:Skipped

Well I'm going to be skipping the daily updates for a while. He's makeing good progress and we would be further along except I got sick tuesday night and have been pretty much down for the count since then. He's at 820 with a casting right now so tomorrow I expect 780 - 790 which seems to be an ok weight, but he may need to be skipped an additional day after tommorrow to see the kind of results that we need.

P.S. He wont shut up when he's in the living room.

Day 11

2008-02-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Weight: 780 grams (27.5136903)
Fed:Skipped

Well his weight was high today and he didn't show a propensity to jump to the glove so I'm going to skip him today and see how he does tomorrow.

Day 10

2008-02-14T16:05:00.000-08:00

Weight: 780 grams (27.5136903)
Fed:1 mouse

He was higher today than I thought he'd be today I guess he's taking to the 60 degree air conditioned room a little too well. I'll have to open the window tonight and see if that will get him excited about flying to the glove.

Note: He started squawking yesterday. Today was funny as hell, he's making more noise than I've ever heard from a red tail.

Day 9

2008-02-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Weight: 780 grams (27.5136903)
Fed:2 Quail breasts

Got a few mini-hops out of him today. He'll hop to the glove when It's right in front of him but he wont jump or fly to it. I only fed him 2 quail breasts so he should be same weight or lower tomorrow if he is lower then I should start to see long jumps and short flights to the glove soon. I'm thinking about putting him in the weathering yard tonight so he'll drop weight faster.

I've been using the whistle as a bridge, hopefully I'll be able to figure out a good method to call the bird in, maybe I'll get a police whistle that sounds different.

Day 8

2008-02-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

Weight: 820 grams (28.9246488)
Fed:1 Quail leg

He was high today as expected since I gave him 2 large mice for his hops the other day. I only gave him a single quail leg so we'll see how he does over the next couple of days.

Fantastic Video

2008-02-11T12:12:00.000-08:00

Day 7

2008-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

Weight: 780 grams (27.5136903 oz)
Fed: 2 Large mice (aprx 80 grams)

I was able to get 3 small jumps out of Wolf today.

Day 6

2008-02-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

Weight: 785 grams (27.6900601 oz)
Fed:

(12:13 pm) Today I'm focusing on hoping to the glove. We'll See how it goes.

Day 5

2008-02-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

Weight: 820 grams (28.9246488 oz)
Fed: Skipped him

His weight didn't change from yesterday at all which was really surprising considering I gave him mostly casting. Then again I guess this is indicative of a change in his metabolism. I skipped him today because he wasn't focused enough on the mouse on my glove to hop to it. We'll see how he does tomorrow

Day 4

2008-02-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

Weight: 820 grams (28.9246488 oz)
Fed: 1 Quail leg, 1 Quail breast, 1 Quail wing, 1 Mouse Head (appx 50 grams food)

This meal was mostly casting. I thought for a second he might hop to the glove in the middle of the living room with my wife banging pots around him and the dog walking around but alas he did not. Based on this I gave him a meal that was mostly casting so he should feel full but today his weight should be lower and perhaps he'll feel more inclined to hop to the glove.

NOTE To Self: Remember to keep using the whistle as a bridge, if you don't use it now it'll take longer to teach it later.

Day 3

2008-02-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

Weight: 794 grams (28.0075258 oz)
Fed: 2 Quail leg, 1 Quail liver, 2 Quail Brests (appx 100 grams food)

Same weight today as yesterday which isn't too much of a surprise given how much I fed him yesterday. I've decided not to rush things at all with this bird, I want to get him out in the field asap but at the same time I don't want to go so fast that I do something wrong. Tomorrow we'll work on stepping up onto the glove. which I don't anticipate having any problems with. That and tidbit's on his perch, should have him ready to come out into the living room on Thursday or Friday. He's really a sweet bird, he doesn't bate at all and is really easy to work with. I remember the hours and days and weeks of frustration spent with Geronimo and Athena and then I look at this bird and I can't believe I got so lucky.

After talking with Jesse, I decided to feed Wolf more than I had planned and keep his weight constant. I let him spend an hour or so on the new screen perch I built in the living room. He only bated 3 times so all in all a success.

Day 2

2008-02-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

Weight: 794 grams (28.0075258 oz)
Fed: 1 Mouse, 1 Quail leg, 2 Quail Brest (aprx 100 grams food)

Despite eating a mouse, a quail leg and a quail liver yesterday Wolf dropped 18 grams. This is ok, but since he's progressing so quickly I'm going to feed him a bit more today to try to keep his metabolism going at it's wild weight a bit longer. I only worked with him 2 times today each was about a 10 minute session. He wasted no time eating the mouse I placed on the glove during our first session. I have been doing very mild quick bursts on the whistle to start it's association as a bridge. The second session went better than the last I used tidbits and placed them on the glove. Each time I would wait to place another tidbit until he tucked his wings away a bit further than he did the last time so he progressively started to sit with his wings tucked. I really hope this continues this is an awesome bird.

Note: I saw a feather mite crawling around today so I'll have to spray him tomorrow before I work with him, I should have done it when we trapped him.

Day 1 Update

2008-02-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Weight: 812 grams (28.6424571 oz)
Fed: 1 Mouse, 1 Quail leg, 1 Quail liver (aprx 70 grams food)

I have been working with him every hour for 15 minutes. I pick him up, hood him and then let him sit hooded for about 1-30 minutes. Then I un-hood him and try to get him to eat. During the third of these sessions today he ate off the glove. I was using a gutted mouse to entice him to eat and eat he did. It took him 4-7 tearing bites before he finished eating the mouse!! I really can't believe how fast he did this, it's only been a day and my last 2 birds took at least 1-2 weeks to eat off the glove.

I can't tell you how excited I am to get this bird out flying!

Trapped PMRT

2008-02-03T11:35:00.001-08:00

100_4025
Originally uploaded by snafu918

Yesterday I trapped my third Red Tail a nice little Passage Male that I named Wolf. He is a Dark morph bird and very fierce. His keel was solid muscle and he stood on the fist almost immediately.

His trap weight was 840 grams with equipment.

His weight this morning was 812 grams with equipment.

I'll try to keep everyone updated on our progress!

Getting Started

2008-01-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Well I didn't think I'd be getting a bird until fall of 08 but I just can't help myself. When I found out that trapping season ends in the middle of February up here I got so excited I almost lost it!

So there have been a few complications along the way, namely that I'm in a rental house and I can't build a mews. I am going to try and make due with a weathering yard and house the bird in my spare bedroom most of the time. I'm leery to tether another bird after all the problems that this caused with my last bird but I just can't pass up the opportunity to get another bird!

Also if I get a bird in the next month or so I should be ready to promote to General later this year! This is a thought that only recently entered my mind and I can tell you it's got me really excited.

Tattoos

2007-12-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

My wife and I have been thinking about getting tattoos a lot in the last 2 years and the fever has struck us once again. This time I think we may actually go through with it. I really like these images:

I actually want this image but a redtail instead of a harris hawk.

Then of course there's this image which rules:

Wingsuit

2007-11-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

I don't think there could be a more extreme sport:

Trapping

2007-11-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

So a buddy of mine from phoenix is flying up today to try and trap a Prairie Falcon this weekend. I'll keep everyone updated!

Map Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area

2007-11-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area

2007-11-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

My wife and I took a drive down south to the SRBPNCA this last Sunday. It was awesome, I had no idea how huge the snake river is. On the drive we saw a light morph Harlen's Red Tail Hawk, a Rough Leg Hawk (Passage?), and a Prairie Falcon. I will remember to bring the camera next time I swear.

Indoor Birds

2007-11-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me the other day that I manage bird slices differently indoors than most people. Most people use newspaper or a tarp and while this works it necessitates a lot of work for clean up. I on the other hand use sheets of canvas that you can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot as painters drop cloths. One sheet will work great if you change them out daily, and clean up is easy, you just drop them in the washing machine and the poop washes right out, they also last forever and can double as a seat protector in your car if you have big dogs.

Note To Self

2007-11-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

This is a list of things not to forget when training.

Have an achievable goal for the session.

Decide on criteria that will help you realize that you need to end the session. If you work past the birds ability or desire then you will just end up training bad behavior.

Be consistent.
- How long are you waiting for the bird to come to you after you call it before dropping the glove?
- How long are you waiting between calls?
- Are you hooding the bird for a set amount of time before and after each session?
- Are you handling the tidbits carfully and consistantly?

In the beginning each session should be 100% positive. The bird should never be on the glove un-hooded if there isn't food present on the glove. If you want to man the bird tether it to a screen perch un-hooded where it can observe everyone in the room. As the bird becomes more calm you can start to man it on the glove, I usually start glove manning when the bird is ready for free flight. I also use the screen perch for a long time getting the bird manned, this works better than a bow perch due to it's height and safety(never leave a bird unattended on a screen perch). Later after the bird is calm you can work toward using the bow perch.

When you are first working to get the bird to hop to the fist, don't wait all day. A couple of quick opportunities to hop to the glove is all it takes. If the bird doesn't hop the bird doesn't eat. The longer you wait for the bird the worse the response will be in the field unless training is done to reverse these early bad habits.

Arco Falconry Meet

2007-11-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

The meet was awesome. I'll get pictures up ASAP. Arco is really beautiful country and I really enjoyed watching all the falcons fly. I was very fortunate in the raffle winning both a stanislavs hood and a merlin transmitter, it was awesome!

Passage RT

2007-11-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well 2 times in as many days I've seen a Passage RT in the vicinity of cloverdale and overland. Anyone still looking for a hawk for the season? It's a really good looking bird slightly dark in coloring and I'm pretty sure it's a passage but I've not got a good look at it's tail.

Photo Submission

2007-10-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Each year AP falconry forum puts together a calendar here is my submission:

Fun Weekend

2007-10-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

I went out hawking with a local falconer and her Harris Hawk. It was a really beautiful day and the wind was only around 6mph. Seven(Harris Hawk) having hunted this field often took a nice perch on top of a sage bush at the top of a small hill, and we worked the field toward him. We only hunted for about an hour and saw 6-8 Jackrabbit slips, and sadly Seven wasn't feeling up to riding a Jack on Saturday. The wind picked up and as a result we called it a day.

Later we all ventured over to Jesse Woody's place for a BBQ and some Hawk Talk. Jesse has some wonderful stories and I can't thank him enough for having my wife and I over it was a real treat. Jesse's Finish Gos is also in perfect feather and absolutely stunning, I'll try to remember the camera next time.

Stor Mor Mews

2007-10-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

So I after Seeing Jesse Woody's mews I am thinking I am going to go with a Stor-Mor shed for the base of my mews. Stor-Mor will relocate the mews when I move and that is my primary motivation for using that as the base.

Here is my first draft of the completed mews layout and dimensions, please leave your comments and let me know what you like or don't like about this layout:

Portable Mews

2007-09-27T10:33:00.001-07:00

Here are the designs for a portable mews that were sent to me by John Wagner, and I believe he got it out of an old Hawk Chalk.

Excellent British Falconry Clip

2007-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Trapping

2007-09-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yea! Going out trapping with a couple of local falconers this weekend. I've been trapping plenty in AZ but now matter how many times you do it it's always fun!

The Falconery Archives Astound Me

2007-09-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

So I've been up to the archives twice since I've been up here in Boise and on both occasions Dave and Kent have been extremely accommodating, letting me have the run of old journals, magazines and anything else they have up there including excellent falconry stories from both of these talented falconers.

If you live near Boise you need to set aside at least 6 hours to visit the archives, read some of the material, and get the tour so that you can really appreciate this astounding and a truly excellent resource. If anyone needs help getting access drop me a line and I'll try to set it up!

Don't miss your opportunity to take advantage of a resource that is easily available to use Idaho Falconers!

Visit to the Archives

2007-08-22T13:00:00.001-07:00

On Sunday evening I'll be meeting up with a couple local falconers over at the Archives of Falconry. I am really looking forward to it, they've got a lot of reading material that I'd like to go through.