falconrybirds.com

Mike Kuriga, Pennsylvania

Matthew Mullinex, Florida

Dear Dave,

Thought I'd give you a quick update along with Christmas and New Years good tidings...

Kestrel's doing just fine; catching game daily now via car-hawking and night-roost hawking. He's very hyperactive, which makes management somewhat troublesome, but his response to game is impressive.

He's taken 11 pigeons, 6 dove, a snipe, and 30 starlings, sparrows, and grackles. Here's a recent shot taken at a local warehouse while pigeon hawking. To tell the truth, he actually holds pigeons and doves better than my tiercel Coop did...

Hope all is well with you,

Take care -- Matthew

Dale Fairbrass, England

The 2nd season, after the moult and I obtained some new flying grounds. A large valley. I liked it here because I could fly her off the hill, then I could admire her on the wing, and see it all. What I didn't take into consideration was this was also a large pig farm, and this attracted large numbers of rooks. Anyhow we carried on, after the moult she was flying better , I was luring better and she got really fit. She occasionally had battles with the rooks, which I enjoyed, but I'd read all the books, lanners are no cowards but there is nothing in England that they are supposed to catch.

So you can imagine how surprised I was the first time I lost her. It took me 1 hour to track her down with the telemetry( the first time I used it in anger). By the time I found her she was in a tree. I lured her and as she flew half-heartedly, I could see she had a full crop. I couldn't believe it . I knew she'd killed something, but had no proof what(although the next day I had a big black pellet). As you said in your article they are intelligent.I had seen her chase after things, but never took it seriously because it always looked half-hearted. No stooping, just an all out chase.

Rarely did I see the kills, I had to track her but it always was under trees or bushes. She must have been hi-jacking them. The 3rd season and we had 10 rooks, 1 pigeon and 3 jackdaws.Not great numbers but season by season she's improving, again I did not see a lot of the kills. But the ones I did she took by surprise, out of trees or as they were taking off. The pigeon was a cracking flight. She chased it from one side of the valley to the other. Then took it as it landed. Two months into season 4 . Thirteen rooks already. Some taken with nice stoops. She seems to have learnt to knock them senseless before the one to one combat. Also her head grip is something else. She is now a true hunter. Every trip she is chasing. But she knows when she's beaten and returns looking for me. She is a cracking bird and I love her. Who would have said it . A lanner that takes rooks(other falconers are still laughing). But its all true.

Mike Thompson, South Africa

I am a South African falconer, our main indigenous large falcon being the lanner. After surfing the net for articles on the lanner I was delighted to find the reprint of the 1995 Hawk Chalk article dealing with the lanner. I have bred now well over 20 lanners in the past 10 years and have flown several captive bred birds. As acknowledged in the article the lanner can be a frustrating and disappointing bird to fly. Generally in S A only the passage bird is used and most falconers will not bother with the captive bred eyas. The passage lanner is highly prized and has won our local sky trials on a couple of occasions, competing with peregrines and a range of hybrids.

But as a breeder it seems a pity not to be able to do something worthwhile with the captive bred birds.It is well known that captive bred lanners make good demonstration birds. I mainly supply to the falconry centres for this purpose. But for me this is also unsatisfactory. One wants to be able to hunt with the falcon. I can confirm many of the observations in the article especially the problem of a lanner becoming wedded to a certain kind of quarry in a certain kind of situation. If a captive bred is trained for too long on a lure it will become lure bound; too long on bagged doves (as I discovered) it will take nothing else - not even pigeons.This problem has frustrated me most of all. An interesting thing we have found here is that lanners bred on pylons as opposed to cliffs tend to develop a pylon mentality: They soon learn that by sitting on a pole a flying down quarry flying beneath is the most energy effective way of staying alive. In a falconry situation they tend to recreate this scenario which is a depressing habit to break.

However we find here that lanners, especially captive breds, will become high flyers if they are trained to a kite or balloon from the outset i e as soon as they are coming 50 metres on the creance. My last lanneret if anything flew too high at all times of day ( never less than 800 feet) which was impractical for the quarry he was pitted against - low flying snipe. When he did connect (3 times out of 10) it was a spectacular kill as lanners tend to strike their quarry rather than bind. Because I was having great difficulty turning the bird on to wild doves I decided to put the lanneret out to hack. He stayed around for 2 months or so and seemed to be catching a variety of birds according to photos brought in by co -operative neighbours on adjacent small holdings. Then the inevitable happened and he disappeared. I am still working on techniques for turning the captive bred lanner into a more reliable hunting bird and am keen to read about anybody else's experience with these good natured raptors. As pointed out the peregrine is a far easier falcon with which to take quarry.

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