A FALCONRY THREAD!!!

[Allears]

Great thread topic!

I haven't done falconry but I work with raptors, trainning rehabbed birds for education purposes. My avatar is a young barn owl who is coming along fantastically.

Well done on the rehab work with the Bran Owl. Their design is absolutely amazing and they are lethal hunters

We are required to obtain permits for any wildlife that we have in captivity, whether it be as "pets", to hunt with" or for rehab.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

Cool! Since we are on the topic of barn owls, I discovered this video a while back:

If you like barn owls you will most likely find yourself memorized by this!! I love this channel they do amazing work!

 

[TheBantyCoop]

I saw something terribly sad yesterday. I was driving back from visiting some family and I saw the tattered wing of a barn owl. I bet you anything he got run over by a car, a real problem for these birds.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

Here is a paragraph on how the roads effect barn owls, found it here:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380014000076
Abstract

Road mortality affects natural populations worldwide. Although the effects of road mortality are often documented, studies assessing the impact of road mortality on the viability of the affected populations are not so common. In fact, road mortality data are often limited to a small number of years from which it is difficult to build statistical models to assess the impact of road mortality on population trends, including the probability of extinction. In the last decades several studies have reported a considerable decline in barn owl (Tyto alba) populations attributed mainly to land use change and to the expansion of the road network to accommodate traffic growth. For instance, road monitoring programs show high road mortality rates ranging from 0.07 owls/km/year to 2.61 owls/km/year. We developed a stochastic, age-structured model to evaluate the impact of road-kills on barn owl populations and their risk of extinction. Using this model we identified the range of parameters that are most likely to apply to a population in southern Portugal and assessed how road mortality has affected this population. Three important results are: the number of individuals of the barn owl population exhibits high intra and inter-annual variability, even an annual road mortality rate of 5% reduces barn owl populations to half of their original size, and probability of extinction increases dramatically when annual road mortality exceeds 30% and it is largely independent of the original population size. Although simulations seem to show that road mortality is still below the values for which there is risk of extinction, we recommend authorities to closely monitor the owls’ numbers temporal trends and to take the necessary measures to reduce road mortality.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

Another fantastic eagle species!

















I just think that the are so beautifully expressive, and I love their bright pink pace and feet!
The face reminds me of a Caracara, but brighter pink.

I have yet to learn more about them, but I just thought I would share how gorgeous they are.

 

[TheBantyCoop]

I saw something Amazing today! I have some beautiful forest trails by my house and I walked one this evening and saw two GREAT HORNED OWLS courting each other. It was fantastic!!! I have heard these owls several times, but this was the first time I saw them.

I heard the calls while I was hiking near the end of the trail, then decided, for the first time, to seek out the source of the calls. It was also the first time that I heard two owls, it was very distinct. One bird was calling from a distance, while the other from the middle of the trail.

It was my sister who first spotted the bird after several minutes of searching in the area where the calls were being projected. I couldn't make out the bird at first, but it was not long before it launched itself into a tree where it was much more easily seen. For a while, in which it seemed like time had gone awry, the owl stared right into me and called deeply. It stayed there a while, then flew back to the denser tree to resume its original conversation with the distant owl.

It was not too long before the distant owl flew into the denser tree to join the first owl. This new owl seemed smaller, yet it had a higher call (it was funny to hear as typically the boys are smaller). They made several strange chuckling noises and stared at each other, the once distant owl bobbling its tail in a queer dance.

To finish this miraculous show the two owls flew deeper into the woods, one shorty after the other. The way they flew was memorizing. They were dead silent, like I had always heard they were. It was almost ghostly. The whole thing was some sort of phantasmagoria.

The last I heard of them, was when I exited the head of the trail. One of them called a last time, low and deep right after me. The base-like tone was carried straight to me by the wind, and it sent a cool chill up my spine.



This is a picture of the second owl, the first is a close-up of the same picture!

 

[TheBantyCoop]

I went to a raptor conference yesterday, hosted by Ventana Wildlife Society. They had a peregrine falcon, a juvenile red tailed hawk, a ferruginous hawk, and two golden eagles, and I won a trip to witness a condor release!! I can't wait!!!

 

[rides2far]

I used to do endurance rides on my horse. One of our winter rides was in the Mojave Desert. Part of the trail consisted of an old railway. As my horse & I are flying along at a fast trot we came right up on a burrowing owl defending his nest. He rattled his wings at my horse & made a God-awful sound. It scared my horse so bad, he jumped off the rail berm. Tiny little burrowing owl: 1. 1000lb horse: 0. BTW, I stayed on.
Those little owls are fierce!

 

[TheBantyCoop]

Thats pretty cool that you saw one! I am supposed to have them where I live, but I have never seen one. Owls are often discrete it seems.

 

[smalls]

I live in a big city but oddly enough I see Hawks quite often, usually around the college campus, and every once in a while there will be a falcon around.