BORCH'S FALCONRY - english
I have been busy catching up on paperwork and getting my cast of Harrises back into hunting condition. (For those of you who don't know I have a '95 female called Montana who flies at 34 oz and a '96 male called Nebraska who flies at 26 oz, both are parent reared birds, captive bred and neither of them saw a human being until they were at least five months old, when they were 'taken' from their parents.)
As some of you will remember these birds were flown in a cast last winter with great success at bunnies, my three weeks in the US saw both birds well fat and the female had done her usual and dropped her decks in mid january. Now the new feathers are grown in and hard penned I have started hunting them together again. In the UK rabbits are classified as vermin and we have no compunction about hunting them all year round - in fact I often get calls from Farmers to help rid them of their furry plague.
Well, just yesterday morning I picked up the birds, weighed them out and boxed up the ferret to go for a bit of bunny bashing, down to one of our favourite places, a nice sunny bank, full of holes and with two tall pine trees at the top. I put the birds up into the trees and shoved the ferret down a hole. Normally we bolt a bunny in no time at all, but we have hit this place a bit hard this winter and by the time the first rabbit ran out the female had her eye on other things and completely missed out on her partner's spectacular chase ending in a clean kill when the rabbit turned on the river bank and tried to head home. BIG mistake!!! Anyway I picked up the little man and put him back into the trees before climbing the bank to look for the female. I tend not to worry about her sloping off, she is never far away. I got to the top and looked across the field and there she was sitting in a hedge top about half a mile away. Nebraska was concentrating on the antics of the ferret so I threw out the lure, and over the old girl came. Bless her... Back to business I think to myself, and launch her up to join her mate. What she had seen I had no idea, but I just thought to get on and catch a few more bunnies. She had other ideas, and was off across the field whence she had just come. Curiouser and curiouser. What to do but pick up the ferret and put her back in her box and follow the more experienced Huntress with the little male following on.
As I approached Montana on her bush, Nebraska flew on ahead to join her and just as he landed next to her an enormous Brown Hare ran out of the hedge, obviously more disturbed by my approach than by the prescence of the Hawks, and headed at full speed down the open field. Now Montana has flown hares before but with limited success, but to watch the pair of them chase this hare was amazing. Every which way the hare turned and jinked there was a Harris Hawk to turn him back. They literally coursed him like a pair of longdogs. They chased him hard and fast for about half a mile when he ducked into a fencerow and got momentarily held up in the wire. Just long enough for Montana to grab his ass and Nebraska got a hold on his head from the other side of the wire! Well I was running hard and by the time I caught up with the three of them the poor old Hare was gasping his last, so in the best of traditions I reached in and necked him, and then split the carcass for my little stars to eat their fill. Well deserved in my opinion but I'll not be able to fly them for a day or two, a small price to pay under the circumstances. I picked up the birds and bagged the Hare and wandered home with an enormous smile on my face. The Hare weighed in, albeit minus a few bits and pieces, at 88 oz!Keep Hawkin
© 1996 Jeremy Masters All rights reserved
BORCH'S FALCONRY - english