Gun Dog Forum

Please view an amazing video spot shot for Falcon Force LLC, our english pointers are a very big part of our bird abatement program.

http://youtu.be/uv_2u64R0eA

Longwing, Great video. Early in my career I worked on a nesting and feeding study of prairie falcons in the Snake River Birds of Prey Area in Idaho. (Since renamed the Morley Nelson Birds of Prey Area). Those birds never ceased to amaze me. They were the definition of speed and agility in the air.

Yes indeed, I handle them everyday and I'm still fascinated by their grace.

Really nice production quality, and beautiful birds and dogs.

Where do the pointers you use come from?

Nutmeg247 wrote:Really nice production quality, and beautiful birds and dogs.

Where do the pointers you use come from?

Thank you Nutmeg247, the footage was shot with a Red camera, very high end camera often used for full feature movies.

My pointers are bred by Steve Buffet in ID

Fantastic video! Thanks for posting it. I've only hunted with falcons a few times (with a friend up here in Manitoba who breeds Peregrines http://www.parklandmews.com/) but I was absolutely in awe of the birds. After seeing your video, I realize that I really need to do it more often

Thank you,
your friend has a classy breeding project. It is certainly a lifestyle for most of us.

I'm sure you've seen these videos, but I will post the links for others to check out.

Here is one about hunting with falcons and goshawks in Slovenia
http://vimeo.com/34433044

And here's one about falconry on the moors in the UK
http://youtu.be/WYoMtyTF1yg


P.S. Raptors have been migrating across the province over the last few weeks, lots of bald eagles around and yesterday we watched a wild peregrine hunting ducks over the potholes near our dog training grounds. And where was my camera? In the truck...of course

Thank you for sharing those links

Some great camera shots in those films. I particularly liked watching the peregrine stoop at the grouse in Britain. I have worked my HPR's for falconers here a few times and peregrines make my hair stand on end .....or they would if I had any hair left !

More than once when out doing grouse counts I have seen wild peregrines stoop at grouse and at passing racing pigeons. The pigeons were so terrified that some of them landed and hid among the heather. My dogs found them and my dogs are trained to flush on command. The pigeons were still so terrified of the peregrine that my dogs could have pegged them where they hid. I "rescued" the pigeons by sitting right beside them until the falcon had long departed.

Bill T.

It is an amazing sight watching a peregrine stoop its pray at 280+ miles an hour.
Glad you liked it!

One time there was a fellow who was going to do a demonstration for some kids on a youth hunt on the use of falcons. He had a prairie falcon and the plan was to use a few of the chukars that came from the local bird farm as demonstration birds. I planted a bird and he released the falcon to ring up over the field. He gave me the nod and I tried to make the bird fly - these were healthy, strong flying birds we had been using all morning with the kids and dogs. The bird would not get off the ground, even with the toe of my boot as I ran it around in the hay cover. So I pulled another bird from the bag and threw it upwards as far and hard as I could. The falcon stooped and the chukar flew itself straight into the ground. The chukar won the race, hitting the ground so hard that it literally bounced off the dirt as the falcon pulled out just short of striking the ground itself. Those were the only two birds I had left so he lured the falcon in.

What I found interesting about this was that these were "domesticated" chukar. They were generations of pen raised birds that had zero experience in their history of evading avian predators - experiences like this push me to think that nature is stronger than many of us would want to believe.

slistoe wrote:One time there was a fellow who was going to do a demonstration for some kids on a youth hunt on the use of falcons. He had a prairie falcon and the plan was to use a few of the chukars that came from the local bird farm as demonstration birds. I planted a bird and he released the falcon to ring up over the field. He gave me the nod and I tried to make the bird fly - these were healthy, strong flying birds we had been using all morning with the kids and dogs. The bird would not get off the ground, even with the toe of my boot as I ran it around in the hay cover. So I pulled another bird from the bag and threw it upwards as far and hard as I could. The falcon stooped and the chukar flew itself straight into the ground. The chukar won the race, hitting the ground so hard that it literally bounced off the dirt as the falcon pulled out just short of striking the ground itself. Those were the only two birds I had left so he lured the falcon in.

What I found interesting about this was that these were "domesticated" chukar. They were generations of pen raised birds that had zero experience in their history of evading avian predators - experiences like this push me to think that nature is stronger than many of us would want to believe.

I agree and it is why I can't go along with the theory of our dogs losing hunting instincts because people have bred them for show for a couple of generations. I have worked many dogs from show lines over the years and am yet to find one that doesn't hunt and point. Some do it slower than the dogs the trialers like but they do a good job for the hunter.

Ezzy