For the birds

Atitude4x4, here is your bird thread. Bought my 4Runner to haul my birds around. For the last 9 years, used my 2013 Honda CRV to haul the birds, but, it was always bottoming out and now has 303,500 miles in it. It was also hard on the CRV to pull my 5x8 enclosed trailer for the birds. We go all over the country to hunt with these birds.

 

It’s cool the diversity of interests here, all tied to our choice of vehicle.

 

That is seriously cool!

 

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing

 

What a great sport, thanks for posting this. I look forward to seeing more pics.

 

Just wow. Your birds are absolutely beautiful.

 

Nice Harris hawk!! I worked with a falconer while at the Sacramento office of USFWS. He was telling me how he filmed Harris hawks hinting rabbits cooperatively at a meet. Never saw it though (I was transferred to Central WA)

 

I'm touched, beautiful raptors!

 

Cooper's hawk dining on the local fare (eurasian collared dove) earlier this year.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P-wgvKQAF8o

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UGx3nSzD-y0

 

BearBio, the bird in the pictures is my golden eagle and the last picture was my Finnish Goshawk. I do have a female Harris Hawk also. Here she is.

 

Way cool.

 

Im honestly not sure there is anything cooler than this!!! Thanks for the pics. Epic, regal, majestic…words fail. Awesome to see this kind of working relationship between a person and these powerful creatures.

I bet you dont ever get mice chewing up you wiring harnesses lol.

 

How many years have you been working with these amazing creatures? And how are you able to have them legally? Did you rescue them?

 

Or the stray cats!

 

He doesn't hunt

 

That is super cool and unique! Thanks for sharing

 

4runGirl88, been doing falconry for about 30 years. It is a legal way of hunting in all states. Contact your Fish and Game department or DNR in your state. It’s called falconry. They can tell you how the birds are legally acquired. For every bird you have, you have to have a permit. Some of the birds are sold by breeders just like other animals. Some are taken from the wild and then trained. Eagles are totally different than the smaller birds and much harder to get. There is probably less than 75 eagle falconers in the US. I have been flying eagles for over 20 years, so, I’ve been pretty lucky. In most cases, we do not use birds that have been “rescued”.
What state are you in?

 

I'm in Oregon. Honestly, until today, I had no idea this was a thing. Thank you so much for sharing!

 

4runGirl88, plenty of falconers in Oregon. Each state has a falconry club and if you Google Oregon Falconry Club, you can get info from them. Falconers love to take people out to watch the birds hunt. There is no danger to you when you are out there. We have some great women falconers , so, it’s not just a good ole boys thing. Most states you only have to be 12 years old to be involved with the birds. Each state has its own regulations. It’s not that difficult to do falconry, once you get into the sport.

 

4runGirl88 here is Lauren, probably the best known woman eagle falconer in the US. 60 minutes TV did a story on her a few years back. I usually run into her about once a year in my travels.

 

Few pictures of the eagle in flight. If you look close, you will see the transmitter in the middle of the eagles back. The last picture shows a close up of the transmitter. Just like everything else now a days, the IPhone has an app to track the eagle using GPS. Tells you exactly where the bird is at. The white in his tail indicated he is an immature eagle. After about 5 years, he will be an adult and there will be no white in the tail.

 

@Raptrlvr - i'm sure you've seen this! great story.

https://youtu.be/y4421JYCcMI

 

Those pics of them in flight are so cool and those claws are wicked.
When I still worked for a living, some of our jobs included pick up trash that got dumped in orange groves and crop growing fields.
It was always cool to see the wild one's hone in on their hot lunch, swoop down and grab them.
I remember catching mice and rats (while loading trash into our dump trucks) and then walking out into an open field to let them go
and watch the Hawks hit their marks. They are beautiful birds when I can see them as close as 20 feet away. And this was way before we had camera phones.

 

Thought it was a little large. Only seen 2-3 Harris hawks in the wild, though! The last pic I realized was a gos.

I had a tercel kestrel years ago. My mentor thought it was a passager but it turned out to a haggard, so we released it back where we snared it. Being around him and that short experience are my experience with falconry as a sport.

 

BearBio who was your sponsor or mentor?

 

Wow! Incredible birds! Thanks for sharing the amazing photos!

 

banjos-n-beer, yes, I know of her. The pictures I posted of Lauren holding the golden eagle is the US version of the huntress. Lauren lived in Mongolia with the eagle hunters and learned from them.

 

Bob, lived in So Cal all my life until retiring to NM in 2007. If your interested in falconry, contact the California Hawking Club. There are tons of falconers in Ca. You can also contact Game and Fish and they will send you a package about becoming a falconer. Ca has more falconers than any other state.

 

Malcolm Ridley. His was a Master Falconer named John ------. They were in Norwalk, SoCal.