Hand Preference/ asst'd

[Calusa]

What hand do you hold the bird on?

At the rehab center, I handled residents on my right hand. Our philosophy was that the bird is YOUR MAIN CONCERN. You shouldn't be messing with other things.. unless it's a door or a cage lock.

At the ed center I went to second, residents were handled on the left hand (ouch. after building those right-hand muscles.. ) Because then you had a free hand to mess with other things.

Does it really honestly matter? From my previous work, I am a lot more comfortable with a bird on my right.. but I could get used to my left, if it's frowned upon.



Second, as far as Jesses/Anklets go, when I worked at the wildlife center, anklets remained on the bird. With the exception of the Turkey Vulture, who was a pain to jess up. two swivels used, attached to a dog leash.

At the ed center, birds keep anklets and JESSES on always. One swivel is used, and you have the 'standard' falconry leash, and use the falconry knot.

I am well versed in the knot now.. but I was curious as to the importance of leash choice- is it just fancier / tradition to use the knot? Or does it have a practical, safer purpose?


And another.. how do you dispose of your feathers? Do you keep them? I imagine that is not legal..

Who is legally allowed to handle the hawk, solely the falconer to which the permit is named? I don't mean for flying, I mean generally... as in pick up, weigh, put back.

How many times do you have to fly the hawk in a hunt.. If you don't fly, aren't you basically just keeping 'a cool pet?'

What happens if you keep a hawk too long, and decide it can't fend for itself in the wild, and can't release it.. and can't fly it for whatever reason? Put it down?

Sorry, that got quite a bit longer as I thought of more..

Thanks for your time!

[Ooby]

Ok ill try and answer these in the best way i can, although they should probably go in the apprentice questions thread, because they are pretty basic.

If you are right handed you hold the bird on your left hand. This way, your dominant and dexterous hand is free to manipulate leashes, jesses, hoods, and all the other stuff. Think of your non dominant hand (left hand for me) as a perch, thats all it is used for. Right hand should be free to do all the stuff that needs to be done when the bird is on the glove. If you are left handed, obviously wear a glove on your right hand, as your left hand will be dominant.

I guess it really DOESN"T matter, but i sure as hell want to be using my GOOD hand when trying to hood a bird, or manipulate jesses. Otherwise you will just be wasting time using your bad hand, while the bird sits its fat rump on your GOOD hand.

As for jesses and anklets, thats personal preference. My bird had jesses on all the time. Dog leashes are bad. That big clip will get in the way and do damage. Check out the leash thread on ths forum. It has some pictures of some variations of falconry leashes, including some i made myself, with a handy step by step on how to make em yourself.
As for the falconry knot, its only purpose is you can tie it with one hand, so you can tie a bird up with it still on your glove while you have a good grip on the jesses. And it is easy to untie with one hand. Just a quick jerk and the knot is undone.

Feathers... Keep em. They can only be used for imping. If you get caught with feathers for a bird that you don't have in your possesion, they will treat you like any other goon collecting raptor feathers. Its good to keep them through the molt anyways, so you can keep count of which still havn't dropped. But if you get rid of the bird, break the feathers and throw em in the trash, or burn em. No need to encourage people to use them in art, as long as people are still shooting raptors for thier feathers.

Any handling of the hawk has to be done by a liscenced falconer. When you were at that ed center, you were on thier permit as one able to handle the raptors. If you weren't, well they were breaking the law hehe. Its not a huge deal. I know plenty of people who let thier wives, parents or friends pick up thier hawk just for the thrill of it. But legally it has to be someone who is liscenced. Feeding is the same FYI. No one but a liscenced falconer can feed the birds. Lame i know

You fly the bird as often as you can. If you aren't in falconery to hunt the bird, then don't get into it. Falconry is hunting. Just flying the bird at lures and showing people and doing ed talks isn't falconry. If you don't fly, YES you are a pet keeper, probably one of the worst insults to a falconer. So if someone doesn't want to hunt, they should drop the whole falconry idea.

And lastly, i really don't know why you asked this question. Forgive me for saying but it shows your level of knowlege towards falconry very blatantly. Ill answer it though

If you keep a hawk "too long" and it can't fend for itself, YOU are doing something SERIOUSLY wrong. A falconer should NEVER take a bird that can hunt, and basically RUIN it to the point that it can't hunt anymore. That isn't a falconer IMO, its a f**kING AS*HOLE!! If someone is that retarded that not only do they not train the bird to hunt with a partner, but train it NOT to hunt, they should have thier liscence revoked permanently.

If however your bird gets injured in a hunt in a natural way, hits a fence, squirrel bite, golden eagle attack, whatever, and it is unable to hunt, well.... thats a situation that would require lots of thought. Depending on the bird, it might go to a breeder, or an education center, possibly a zoo. Most birds i know that have been injured that badly though, die.
If your life changes, and you cannot fly your bird (hey it happens) it is your responsibility to transfer the bird to someone who can.

The basic rule is, if you are not going to fly the bird at game as often as you can, and that being no less than twice a week (and thats WEAK, twice a weak is sad, should be more) than you shouldn't have a bird.

Hope that helps.

P.S. If i wanted to insult you, i would have done it with a much shorter post. So take it to heart, and don't get offended.

[Weasel]

Well, Ooby answered all of the questions....beit in an Ooby way ;D....One thing I will add is that I have a friend that had a Harris "kidnapped" while he was out hunting. The police found it in a drug raid several months later. It had been kept in a small parrot cage and it was in BAD shape. First off it was almost starved to death(lossed almost 60% body mass), it had a shattered wing that had healed badly, it had a crushed orbital ridge and it's feathers where thrashed so bad it could not fly. When the owner got it back, he nursed it back to health and had the vet perform surgery to try to repair the damage, but it was too late. The damage was done. Rather that put his hunting companion of somewhere around 20 years, he keeps it on his permit and it roams his house quite happily staying fat and happy. He has gotten another bird since, but he just can't bring himself to put down this Harris.
I beleive I would likely do the same under similar circumstances.
Weasel

[Minca]

One little note on the falconers knot... it also gives the leash infinately variable length for every situation. If you have certain locales or certain perches that do better with certain leash lengths, you only need one leash for all of them!
It sounds like the second place you worked at, the Ed center, had a better grip on how things are done Falconry style.

[Ooby]

I would agree with weasel and the path taken by his falconer friend. But only after exhausting all other avenues for the bird. I don't even know if a bird COULD be a breeder with that kind of damage. But in any case, thats a rare instance, and not the falconers fault.

I took the question as, someone who is that bad a falconer gets the bird in that shape.

[Calusa]

Ooby said:

And lastly, i really don't know why you asked this question. Forgive me for saying but it shows your level of knowlege towards falconry very blatantly. Ill answer it though

If you keep a hawk "too long" and it can't fend for itself, YOU are doing something SERIOUSLY wrong. A falconer should NEVER take a bird that can hunt, and basically RUIN it to the point that it can't hunt anymore. That isn't a falconer IMO, its a f**kING AS*HOLE!! If someone is that retarded that not only do they not train the bird to hunt with a partner, but train it NOT to hunt, they should have thier liscence revoked permanently.

If however your bird gets injured in a hunt in a natural way, hits a fence, squirrel bite, golden eagle attack, whatever, and it is unable to hunt, well.... thats a situation that would require lots of thought. Depending on the bird, it might go to a breeder, or an education center, possibly a zoo. Most birds i know that have been injured that badly though, die.
If your life changes, and you cannot fly your bird (hey it happens) it is your responsibility to transfer the bird to someone who can.

The basic rule is, if you are not going to fly the bird at game as often as you can, and that being no less than twice a week (and thats WEAK, twice a weak is sad, should be more) than you shouldn't have a bird.

Hope that helps.

P.S. If i wanted to insult you, i would have done it with a much shorter post. So take it to heart, and don't get offended.

Thank you for answering my questions.. the only part I didn't see necessary was that which is quoted above.

The reason for asking what happens when a bird can no longer fly, was in regards to if the bird had been in captivity 20+ years, or had some freak accident and broke a wing or likewise, and could not hunt.

The reason I asked about how often a falconer should fly is because I was curious if lawfully there was some sort of clause that stated that a bird should be flown x times a season, otherwise the bird could be considered 'a cool pet' and not a weapon for hunting.

I see that you're not trying to offend.. MOST of the time. But you don't need to make statements such as:

"And lastly, i really don't know why you asked this question. Forgive me for saying but it shows your level of knowlege towards falconry very blatantly. Ill answer it though "

Have I not stated time and again that I'm new at this?! That statement was meant ONLY to offend. No knowledge gained, simply offense.

[Calusa]

Minca said:

It sounds like the second place you worked at, the Ed center, had a better grip on how things are done Falconry style.

Yeah, they're quite a bit more into the falconry idea.. but unfortunately, not at all into the 'husbandry' idea.

[Weasel]

I went to a rehab center recently in Lubbock Texas and it ranks as one of the nicest centers I have seen to date. The owner is a falconer so all the people in the facility are trained to handle raptors in a traditional falconry manner. They have about 50 volunteers at this facility if that tells you how big it is. The place is called South plains rehabilitation center
Here is a link www.leas.bizland.com/spwrc.htm

[Ooby]

Well, as i said in your last thread. Get used to being offended if what i said offended you. Because you'll run into people a hell of a lot more rude than me. And usually those really rude people can teach you a lot.

Glad the info i posted helped. Read my apprentice book thread. Get those books and you won't have to ask these questions. You will find them out for yourself.

In fact the only reason i responded was because the post was so long and it looked like you put a lot of effort into it. Put as much effort into reading apprentice books, and you'll make a good apprentice. As long as that effort keeps going.

*EDIT*
Also, you don't KEEP a bird for 20 years unless you plan on keeping it till it dies. What kind of idiot would do that?

[frootdog]

South Plains Wildlife rehab Center official site is www.spwrc.org