Falconry Test

[Calusa]

Just took it- not tooooo pleased with the results. It has come to my attention that most of it is simply a vocab test... and a few questions, I feel, are somewhat not relavent. Who cares who wrote the book- test me on stuff FROM the book. And some of the questions are pertaining to species which I am years from, or will likely never have- not necessary knowledge.

So.. I've decided to do a bit of homework.

If anyone could please define or answer the following, I would be quite grateful.

Jack
Jerkin
Musket
'full-summed'
gorge
hack
rouse
rangle
brancher
malar stripe
supercilliary line
deck feathers
slice
lugger



-What is a three-piece hood? Rufter, Syrian, Dutch

-What is unrealistic of a Redtail Hawk- Pheasant or Squirrel? I know that squirrels spell trouble.. but a RT could feasably take one. Pheasants are considerably larger- is that the correct answer? (Yes, I read into tests a little too much)

-Which are more efficient at killing their prey once they have caught it? longwings, buteos, accipiters

-

-If a nest contains 4 chicks, how many are permitted to be taken by a falconer with the appropriate permits? 1, 2, 3, 4

-Bownet is unacceptable to capture which of the following- Eagles, Falcons, Buteos

-Why is it that in a GHO's nest, all eyeasses are unlikely to be of the same age?

-Adult raptors are likely to desert a nest.. prior to egg laying, during late incubation, or during hatching?

-Hawks in immature plumage appear to be.. smaller than when they become adults, larger than when they become adults, larger or smaller than adults, depending on how well they were fed as nestlings and on how successful as hunters they were after leaving the nest.

-If baby raptors are in the nest and one parent is lost.. the remaining parent takes over all parenting duties, regardless of sex, if only the female survives, she finds another male to hunt, or neither.

-Longwings are different from other members of the falconiformes in that they.. posess extra large feet, have a notched beak, are the most maneuverable.

-How do longwings subdue their prey?

-Which hawk is least likely to slice? Peregrine, Redtail, Golden Eagle

-Why can the Peregrine be called the most successful hawk? Occurs on most continents, lays more eggs per clutch, only competes with man.

-How does plumage, skin and scale areas differ on adult vs. juvenile Peregrines?

-What is the large dark peregrine located on the American Northwest? Anatum, Peales, Common

-The characteristic of dark triangular patches under each wing identifies.. Prairie Falcon, lugger, Peales Falcon.

-A young Prairie Falcon will leave its eyrie at.. 5-6 weeks, 8-9 weeks, 16-19 weeks.

-What is the hunting style of the Prarie Falcon?

-Longwing most likely to be found in a former Crow's nest.. Peregrine, Gyr, Merlin.

-Which birds lack highly distinguishable immature plumage in the first year? Goshawk, Redtail, Kestrel

-The hawk with a summer Buteonine hunting style for grashoppers and mice, and winter falconine style for small birds is.. Marsh Hawk, Kestrel, Merlin.

-Strongest foot for size.. Merlin, Kestrel, Lanner.

-How does one distinguish a passage from haggard Kestrel?

Thanks,

Kelly

[Yarak]

That is a lot of info! Questions questions always with the questions. and a Yankee to boot! Oh well here goes.
Jack= male merlin (I think)
Jerkin= male Gyr
Musket=male sharp shinned
Full summed=is just prior to being hard penned
gorge=full feeding
Hack= left unattented outdoors but providing food in the hack box.
Rouse=to shake the feathers vigorously to re-align them.
Rangle= undigestable material usually gravel fed to bird to increase weight loss.
Brancher= young bird just prior to fledging
Malar stripe= dark stripe below the eye on falcons.
supercilliary line=contrasting lineabove the eye
deck feathers= the two or three center tail feathers
slice= hawk feces
lugger= its a name for another falcon I just cannot remember which.
This is a disclaimer I am not responsible for any correct or incorrect info.
Yarak

[Tiercel78]

Lugger is a small medium sized falcon found in Europe/Asia. I looks much like a Lanner with out the redish nape.

[Weasel]

Getting a bit rusty Yarak ;D .....Full summed Means that a bird has finished the moult as opposed to hard penned which means theyhave grown in their feathers fully for the first time as a fledgling. I remember the difference by the word penned. I think of a baby pen and use that to associate hard penned with being a "baby".
Yes Yarak, you where right, the Jack is a male Merlin.

Now to answer a few questions.....It appears that many of these are from the study guide and you should have the answers so I will not answer all of the questions as I feel it's part of the right of passage for an apprentice to pass the test. At the same time, I do realise that there are too many questions on the test that are not neccisary for a new apprentice in my opinion.

1. Dutch is the traditional three piece design with two eye pannels and a main section sewn or glued together and formed over a block for shaping.

2. I beleive that that question had another answer besides squirrel or Pheasant....I can assure you that squirrel is NOT the answer to that one.

3. Buteos and accipiters use their feet to subdue and kill their quarry while longwings have small relativly weaker feet designed to hold quarry until they can sever the spine with what is called the tomial tooth. This is really a notch in the upper mandible used by the falcons to dispatch quarry. They are the most efficient as hawks can take several minutes to dispatch quarry.

4. Well, pending on your state law, the feds state that 1 chick must be left in the nest at all times, so if there was only two chicks, only one could be taken. Being that a master falconer can only take three birds on his permit total,(not positive if you can take three eyasses though) he would still have to leave one chick in the nest of four.

5. This one I cannot remember as I have seen(on video) all thee genuses being trapped with a bow net before so I would be lying if I answered.

6.Eyass GHO's lay their eggs in stages and incubate as they are layed while many other birds lay all the eggs and then incubate as a group so that they will hatch together.(this is what I was told anyway.)

7. Prior to egg laying.....

8. A hawks immature plumage has larger feathers than when they are adult. I have been told that the reason is so they have an advantage in flight for their first year....

9. I beleive the answer is both....The female will assume all responsibility unless she can locate another mate.(I think)

10. Doesn't seem to be worded correctly....

11. binding to or striking from a stoop then dispatching with the beak.

12.Red tails slice, Goldens slice, peregrines mute.

13. Occurs on most continents.

14. Immature plumage has vertical bars streaking the breast on an immature and the cere and feet will be a pale blue/grey color until they mature.

15. While I know little about longwings, I have not heardof a common peregrine yet. I say it is the Anatum. There are three species in north America. The peale's from the pacific north coast, the Anatum from the northern mid west and the Tundra from the northern Canadian tundra.

16. dark triangles = prairie falcon.

17.
18. Don't feel like trying to look these three up as I do not remember them off hand.
19.

20. Kestrel

21. Merlin.

22.strongest foot for the size....I beleive it is the Kes.

23. There is subtle differences in the plumage between immy and hag, I cannot remember the excact details, something about the bars on the tail etc..but another method is to look for stress bars on the train or sails. If the bars are on the same spot on each feather, then it is an immy as the feathers grow in at the same time when hard penned while the bars would be at varying distances along the feather during a moult as they grow in staggered.

May I suggest that you buy the California study guide as it contains almost eveyone of these questions and their answers. and will make the test much more understandable. This of course should be supplemented with other books such as "The Red Tailed hawk" by McGranahan(sp?)

[squirrelhawker32]

Weasel do we have the link to the online practice test in the links board? Calusa that is what I studied with and did very well on my test. On top of reading North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks from front to back. Take the online test every day until you can get your score to 100%. Take it as many times as you can. Crunch every day like you're taking the test tomorrow. When I was studying I would take the online test and if I missed 10 the first time I would pick one wrong answer and take the test over and over until I got that one question right. It helps you learn the answers to the other questions you got wrong. On top of that when you read from the book you see the answers to the questions on the online test. After a month of reading and taking the practice test I was confident enough to take the real test and surprized myself with my score. Good luck and read read read.

[Calusa]

Don't get me wrong, Weasel, I completely agree that it is a right of passage, which separates those who truly deserve the honor from those who don't.

On the second question that is asked.. regarding what a redtail can 'take,' I selected rabbit from the group. The test informed me that that was the wrong answer- so I ommitted it from the choices on this list.

3. I think my confusion is largely based on my lack of knowledge of the use of the term "longwings." what, EXACTLY is a longwing?

10. Again with the longwing confusion. I read somewhere that 'longwing' = falcon. But this question infers that not all falcons are longwings.

For my wildlife education internship, I worked a peregrine, so I feel stupid about some of these falcon-related questions- I knew them, but I didn't grasp the 'longwing' terminology. I still don't. HELP!


Squirrelhawker- These are from the online test.

[Weasel]

OK, If there wasn't another answer, then it would be the Pheasant since it would be the least likely for an RT(even though I know several who have done it.) A longwing is all falcons in the order of Falconidae . This name is given for the shape of the falcons wing in flight where the first or second primary is the longest feather It makes the wing tips pointed. An accipiter, Goshawk, coopers hawk, sharp shinned hawk, is called a short wing as it has relatively short primaries with the third or fourth primary being the longest and the wings are broader than falcons. Then we have the Broad wings. These are the Redtails, Harris's and red shoulders to name a few. They have broad wings with the third or fourth primary being the longest which makes them idealy suited for soaring on the wind.
Now to be with the true sence of the word, a "Falcon" is only one bird. A female peregrine....nothing else. A male peregrine is simply a tiercel peregrine. The term falcon has come to be used to describe all genus of the Falconidae family. But if someone asks you what a true falcon is.....female peregrine is the only answer.

[Minca]

I just typed up a nice long response to this and my stupid computer lost it all before is could be posted, so, needless to say my blood is running a bit hot right now and I'm not feeling enough patience or tolerance to retype it all. I will summerize, though.
I took the online test once and didn't like it. Based on my past volunteer experience and the CHC Study Guide I passed the test with 97%. You just got to remember there is a base fed test but the states can make changes so the test is not the same in all states.
My guess on Prairie falcons leaving the eyrie was 6-8 weeks because the larger the bird the longer the time and they are sort of midsized.
There is no definitive ways to distinguish a passage from a hag kestrel. SOME have more white on the back of the head, SOME have more vertical barring on the breast, SOME have a thinner subterminal bar on the tail. Weasels suggestion is useful. Another way is that passagers will generally be "nicer" looking, with cleaner feathers, feet, legs, etc...no battle scars. The best ways are not in books.

I would suggest for you to get the Petersons "Hawks of North America" feild guide. It will illustrate the whole longwing questions for you as well as provide a priceless reference for the rest of your life.

[bobdale]

Calusa

www.americanfalconry.com/Glossary.html

[Ooby]

Calusa,

It seems that you are going on the presumption that your experience with raptors will be enough to allow you to pass the test and begin falconry.

It also seems you have learned that is not sufficient hehe. Falconry is a sport of symantects. We dont call them "the two middle feathers" they are "Deck Feathers," its not a "dive" its a "stoop."

Falconry is much more than just raptor husbandry and understanding thier behaviour. Plus the a raptors behaviour changes from night to day when you get them in a hunting environment.

Im not trying to be mean, just realistic. I recommend you purchase a few more books, even if you do pass the test this time. The questions you asked are common knowlege, and you WILL need to know the answers as an apprentice. Check out A Falconry Manual by Franke Beebe, the California Hawking Clubs study guide and Apprenticeship Manual, and if you can afford it North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks. All can be found at www.westernsporting.com

Remember, apprenticeship is more than just learning about red tails and kestrels. It is what prepairs you to move on to falcons (longwings) accipiters (shortwings) and all other manner of hawk. So you must begin learning about the birds you cannot fly yet. You still got a ways to go, but plenty of time, so don't rush it. Trapping season doesn't open for at least 6 months, and besides the permitting offices are swamped to hell and gone because everyone in the country just applied for thier renewall in the past few months. So take your time, and study up.

[Weasel]

Ooby, she only took the online test.....she is an admited novice.

[Ooby]

oh nuts, i thought it was the DFG test. LOL.

Well good then, you got plenty of time to study before you take the DFG test.

[Calusa]

Minca- Sometimes technology stinks!

Thanks, everyone for your help. It really helps me to learn from an outside source, and then go to a book to reinforce it. It's sort of like .. when you encounter the term again, it's reinforced a lot heavier.

Don't worry- I will be checking into those books.

[rt]

once you get past the vocab it isnt that hard.

[tejas]

Yeah, the online test was what I first took after trying to find Falconry books at the library. (naturally they were checked out, probably Weasel's fault LOL J/K) I definately agree about getting books. I have CHC Apprentice Study guide and love it. You can get it at

www.northwoodsfalconry.com
www.mikesfalconry.com
www.westernsporting.com

These the three sites that I use to order products at. But use the study guide and keep taking that Online test. I just took it for the fifth time and made an 80 so I need to keep studying before I take the Real one this summer. Good Luck!

Tejas